53 8 AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS, TOOLS, ETC. 



since the first few sheets of this work have been sent to the 

 press, I have found what I make no doubt is the true interpre- 

 tation of the word in Markham's plough-foot, that is to say, 

 a piece of iron driven through the extremity of the beam, and 

 held in its place by wedges, the purpose of this addition to the 

 plough being that of raising or depressing the share. This 

 shoe, or foot, was curved, and the iron was thickest at the 

 centre of the curve. 



It is possible that the forshakel of Cheddington (1304) and 

 the -lustlegg of Trillek and Troy (1308, 1338) are local equiva- 

 lents of the plough-shoe. 



Information as to price of plough-shoes is very abundant, and 

 from the time that they make their appearance in the accounts 

 is almost uninterrupted, till the last twenty years of the four- 

 teenth century. I have seldom, however, found their use in 

 Norfolk or Suffolk, and when they do occur in these counties, 

 they are plainly very light. In other places they appear generally 

 of the same character and weight, though some entries indicate 

 so considerable a variation from the customary size that I 

 have been obliged to omit them from my average calculations. 

 Thus an entry in the first year for which information is sup- 

 plied, from Framlingham, is omitted, since the price of the shoe 

 is great beyond parallel. It is true that the original states it 

 to have been a summer shoe. Again, the return from Lether- 

 head in 1278 and 1279 1S excessive; perhaps too both of the 

 quotations given under the year 1277, from Thorney and Stock- 

 ton, should have been ignored, the price being exceptionally 

 large. Both these localities are in Sussex. Again, the price 

 is too high at Basingstoke in 1281. On the other hand, the 

 rate at Staverton is too low for an average, and it has con- 

 sequently not been recognized. 



No doubt the bigness of the shoe varied, as that of the share 

 did, with the lightness or tenacity of the soil, but inversely, as 

 the slightest shoe would suit the strongest, the heaviest would 

 be needed for the lightest soil. The average weight of the 

 shoe was, it would seem, about two pounds and a half, taking 



