THE PRICE OF LIVE STOCK. 33! 



runcina d is purchased at Burton for ^5 los. in 1362. There 

 is a long list of horses purchased for the use of Merton College 

 in 1279, fr m w hi cri we m ay see that the animal presented the 

 same variety of colours as is found at the present time. A 

 stallion is purchased for j2 iy. 4^. at Cockermouth in 1282, 

 and an iron-grey palfrey in 1283, at London, for 6 ly. 4^. 

 Ear^ Clare purchases a black horse in 1284 for $ 135-. 4^., and 

 a palfrey for ^5 6s. 8<t. Four horses are purchased at a place 

 called the Park in 1285 at ^5 6s. %d. apiece, and two others 

 at 1 i6s. 8d. ; and in the year following a stallion is bought 

 at the same place for ^20. These, however, were the costly 

 chargers and hacks of great people. So with the bay palfrey 

 at 5 purchased at Malmesbury, the chesnut palfrey for 

 6 6s. 8d. at Wynchcombe, and the three horses at Aylesbury 

 for ^4 13*. 4</., ji 6s. 8</., and ^4 6s. 8J., the last being 

 expressly called a colt, all in the year 1299. Another horse 

 is bought at Aylesbury in 1303, for the Warden of Merton's 

 use, the College paying 6 for it. Similar purchases, but at 

 inferior prices, are found in 1305, and it is worthy of note that 

 many of the horses purchased for the College are bought from 

 the north of England. A list of purchases made for the king 

 (Edward II.) in the first year of his reign is found under the 

 year 1307. The prices range from .^7 6s. 8d. to 1. In 1312 

 a palfrey is bought at Finchale for ^5 6s. 8d. In 1323 a horse 

 is bought for the seneschal at Oldinton for ^2 4*. 6d. Several 

 purchases are made for Merton College in 1330, and were used, 

 no doubt, for that journey to Northumberland in the spring 

 of 1331, the details of which are printed in the second volume. 

 A horse for the Warden of Merton is bought at a cost of 

 ^3 IQS. at Stillington in 1361, and another for 4 in the 

 following year at Oxford. The Provost of Queen's College is 

 furnished with a horse for 1 los. in 1363; the hack, that is to 

 say, which carried him to Avignon on the business of his 



rt Runcina, according to Ducange, is the rows or roux of the Romance language. In its 

 Spanish form, rocin, it is said to signify a poor or worthless animal. The reader will discover 

 the term IP \he name which Don Quixote gives his steed. 



