136 JOURNEFS AND MARKETS. 



occupies exactly a month. The route taken is traceable with 

 tolerable exactness, but appears to deviate in some part of its 

 course from the nearest way. Two days are spent in Paris, 

 one at Nivers, and one at Lyons. The traveller does not 

 journey on Sundays. The currency is changed thrice on the 

 road, and the payments at the curia are made in gold*. 



Arrived at Avignon, the traveller seems to have remained 

 for a week at some common inn in the town, the charges 

 of which are very high, and subsequently to have taken up 

 his abode at an English college, or hostel, frequented by his 

 countrymen, if this be the meaning of c domus nostra,' the 

 inmates of which he calls c socii.' Here he pays weekly for 

 his commons and that of his servant, during the time in 

 which his business is transacted. The delays of the court 

 must have been exceedingly onerous, for Middleton has to 

 remain twenty-one weeks and four days in this establish- 

 ment. He keeps his horse eight days at the inn, c herbigerya' 

 (auberge), and five weeks afterwards in the stable of the 

 college, when he sells it. The return journey to Whitsand 

 occupied no more than a fortnight, and was not interrupted 

 by any casualties except a storm, and the detention of the 

 traveller's c literae' at some bridge, where he had to pay a 

 sum in order to redeem them. The charge is, perhaps, levied 

 for the inspection of Middleton's passport. 



A similar account is to be found in the long roll of Queen's 

 for the year 1363, in which a statement is made of the ex- 

 penses incurred for a similar process in securing the appro- 

 priation of the' rectory of Sparsholt, by Henry de Whitfield, 

 provost. Whitfield, who is also accompanied by a servant, 

 begins his journey by exchanging his c viaticum,' ^23, at the 

 London 'cambium,' into florins, at the rate of 3^. \\d. a 

 proportion slightly less than the rate, 3^. 4^., at which the 



The stages in France, the names being, as far as I can detect them, modernized, 

 are Calais, Boulogne, Crecy, Poix, Les Thilliers, Paris, Esson (Sens ?), Ammose (Armance?), 

 Mala Taverne, Cosne, Nivers, Chescorteys ( Forges ?),Thizy ) Lyons, Vienne, Champagne (?), 

 La Voulte, Bourg S. Audere, Avignon nineteen in all. 



