HERRINGS. 609 



thousands). They are sometimes purchased in very large quan- 

 tities : as, for instance, at Winchester in 1259, on behalf f the 

 bishop ; at Rochester, for the purpose of victualling the castle 

 against the well-known siege of 1 263 ; at Sandwich, for another 

 stock ; and especially at Acle, where Roger Bigod appears to 

 have had a castle. In the later part of my enquiry, the chief 

 purchases are derived from monastic accounts, and in particular 

 from quantities bought at Wolrichston against harvest-time; 

 it having been a custom with the proprietors of that manor to 

 deal out a certain number of herrings to their servants in 

 harvest-time. 



It has been observed that the greater part of the earlier 

 entries are derived from the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. 

 As the places for which they were bought are in close proximity 

 to the great centre of the herring trade, the prices are much 

 lower than in other parts of the country. It cannot be doubted 

 that the cost of carriage formed a very important item in the 

 price of these articles when they are bought in Oxford or War- 

 wickshire, and that therefore fluctuations in the money value 

 may sometimes be wholly due to the facts that the evidence is 

 scanty, and that all the information given is derived from 

 places in the interior of the country. In some manors, as for 

 instance at Ospring in Kent, the price is very uniform. Six- 

 teen entries from this liberty, between 1277 and 1295, are 

 always quoted at Ss. ^d. the thousand. The lowest price found 

 is always at Waleton, a port on the eastern coast. 



This abundance of evidence from the eastern side of Eng- 

 land will explain the fact that the price is continually rising 

 in the decennial averages. It is, as usual, dearest in the period 

 1311-1320; but with this exception, and the occurrence of a 

 slight fall in the years 13611370, the value of these articles 

 continually rises ; and during the last fifty years of the enquiry 

 herrings were sold at about the rate of seven a penny, and at 

 about fourteen a penny on the average of the previous ninety 

 years. 



Besides the more frequent entry of herrings by tale, they are 



R I* 



