534 



timber of the estate and the labour of the village carpenter ; but 

 on one occasion (1336) a rack is bought in Cambridge for 4\d. 



IMPLEMENTS USED IN CULTIVATING THE SOIL. Of these the 

 most important is the plough and its various parts. 



Ploughs, at least in the earliest times, were rarely bought, 

 but were manufactured on the spot. Later in the period, entries 

 of the price of ploughs are more frequent. Less change, how- 

 ever, occurs in the value of the framework than in most other 

 articles. Of four entries before 1350 the average is jj. 3 of 

 twenty-six after that time the average is is. 4^. Ploughs are 

 dearest for the twenty years 1351-1370, the price being 

 generally is. 6d. But, in fact, we need not expect that any 

 very great change would ensue in the market value of these 

 articles, for the implement was made in every parish or manor, 

 was subject to no immediate demand, was on the whole com- 

 mon carpenter's work, and might occupy odd or spare time. 



I have been unable to discover, in such works on medieval 

 agriculture as still exist, any exact description of the parts 

 which composed the medieval plough; but it is clear, from 

 the entries which occur in the records, that no great change 

 had been made in the construction of this instrument of 

 agriculture between the time which is immediately before me 

 and the date of Gervase Markham's cc Complete Husbandman," 

 in 1614. This author, who lays great stress on the necessity 

 of intelligent and careful ploughing, and gives minute rules as 

 to the means by which the plough may be made most effective 

 and may be adapted to different soils, enumerates eleven parts 

 to his plough, which I quote in his words. 



cc j. The ploughbeam, a large and long piece of timber, 

 which forms an arch for the other parts of the plough. 



2. The skeath, a piece of wood two feet and a half long, 

 eight inches broad, and two inches thick, which is mortised 

 securely into the beam and sloping forwards below it. 



3. The plough's principal hale on the left hand, a long bent 

 piece of wood, somewhat strong in the midst, and so slender at 

 the upper end that a man may easily gripe it. 



