41 8 ON THE PRICES OF FARM PRODUCE. 



collected. The value of this produce varies very greatly, at 

 least if we can take the tun to be, as it ordinarily is, 252 

 gallons. 1 should have expected in the general rarity of 

 saccharine matters, that honey would have borne a higher 

 relative price. It is possible, however, that it was not much 

 in use among the wealthier classes. Three entries are given 

 of honey by the tun, these quotations being remote from each 

 other. The average derived is very nearly % 145-. 3^., that is, 

 if the tun be of the size given above, a little less than 3^. a 

 gallon. It is quoted also by the barrel, at about 205-. But, on 

 the other hand, the gallon is valued at very different rates, the 

 price being very much higher in the later than in the earlier 

 period. Thus, up to 1347 the average of nineteen entries is 

 >jd. ; between 1372 and 1399 the average of nine entries is 

 nearly is. id. It is, I think, hardly credible that the tun of 

 honey could have contained the customary amount of the tun, 

 when so great a discrepancy exists between the price of single 

 gallons and of the gallon by the tun. 



On two occasions honey is sold by the ruscha, i.e. the swarm 

 or hive, and in one of these cases it is described as wild. It is 

 very rare, I believe, in the present day that honey is found 

 wild, though of course there are numerous instances of swarms 

 from domesticated bees taking up their abode in singular 

 situations. 



Again, on two occasions hives of bees are sold with their 

 honey. Both entries (vol. ii. pp. 567. i., 570. iii.) are derived 

 from Oldinton (now Aldinton) in Kent. 



There can be no doubt that honey was used, in the domestic 

 economy of our forefathers, for the manufacture of mead, or 

 metheglin, but I have never seen any quotation of the market 

 value assigned to this beverage. But beer was the general 

 drink of our forefathers, and in early times Gascony wine, as 

 we shall find, was very cheap. 



CIDER AND FRUIT. As may be expected, the record of 

 these kinds of farm produce is interrupted. The accounts 

 frequently state that no fruit was gathered, generally, we may 



