HAY AND STRAW. 295 



similar interests were not created, they had to be acquainted 

 with their liabilities as well as with their rights, to demand 

 proof of the former, and to defend the latter. Much of a 

 fellow's time was taken up with the secular business of his 

 College, and he constantly went on progress, to inspect the 

 estates and report thereon. 



An opulent College therefore kept a considerable stud. We 

 shall find hereafter, when we come to deal with stock, that, by 

 far the largest amount of information derived as to the value 

 of saddle or riding horses comes from the record of purchases 

 by Colleges for the bursars' journey. The two fellows who 

 generally travelled in attendance on the head of their College, 

 when the latter went on the great audit, were sent to report 

 on, and certify to the receipt of moneys from the College 

 tenants. The head of the College was naturally provided with 

 a better stud, more handsome and costly saddles and other 

 harness, often indeed being further set off by trappings. The 

 Provost of King's College, Cambridge, had a house in Black- 

 friars, near what is now the approach to the bridge, and 

 constantly resided in London on the business of the College 

 or for his pleasure, as became the great head of an opulent 

 College. 



During the fifteenth century, when the land hunger was 

 keen, much common pasture was enclosed and appropriated 

 to several owners. Hence the importance of the hay crop, 

 and a notable change in the production and sale of hay. In 

 my former volumes, though I had considerable information as 

 to the expenditure of corporations and wealthy persons, I 

 found and could record only a few examples of the, purchase 

 and sale of hay. But in these volumes the record is copious ; 

 still more full, copious, and regular as the time goes on. The 

 price indeed is very fluctuating, purchases being made at very 

 various rates in the same year and by the same persons, as 

 might be expected in so bulky an article, especially as we may 

 anticipate that a dry spring would greatly exalt the price, and 

 put the buyer at the mercy of the seller. 



