298 HA Y AND STRAW. 



as caused by dry summers or severe winters. Unfortunately 

 the records which have supplied me with evidence rarely 

 comment on the seasons. A great frost prevailed in the 

 winter of 1516, and a drought in the summer of 1517, but 

 I have no entry of hay during the year 1516-17, and the only 

 other occasion on which drought, is named is 1414, when the 

 dryness led to a great consumption of iron. But in this year 

 hay was at a moderate price. 



In the years 1407 and 1408, the bailiff of Hornchurch, on 

 which manor New College was still carrying on agriculture 

 with the College capital, records the sale of two tasses of 

 hay to the king's provisors. If this hay was bought at a fair 

 market price, the tass of hay probably contained about eight 

 loads. The same word is used at Drayton in 1424, a rather 

 dear year, and probably contained a similar quantity, and in 

 1530 at Bardney, where it is sold at ^6s. 8d. The arconius 

 of the former place (1421) must have been a larger rick. The 

 mullon at Christchurch (1418) is perhaps the same as a load, 

 for 1418 is one of those dear years to which I have referred 

 above. The porcio of Hoxon in 1414 must have been a large 

 rick, as it is stated to have contained thirty cart-loads. The 

 truss is rarely used as a measure of hay, though it is found, 

 e.g. 1414 at Oxford. But the trossus of Didesham cannot 

 mean a truss. 



Several pastures were rented at high rates. For twenty 

 years the meadows at Stert are rented at from 7^. to 5^-. the 

 acre, for ten more at from 6s. 6d. to 5^-., one acre being 

 let at the highest rate, five others at from 6s. to 5.5-. 6d., 

 and ten at 5^. These are the highest prices which I have 

 found for meadow land. Six acres of grass are let at 

 Worcester at 2s. 2\d. in 1450, ten acres at Stonor in 1524 

 at 3^. 4^., and four at 2s. 6d.> and ten acres at Peshull in 

 1526 at 3J-. 4^., four at zs. 6d., and five at 4^. This gives an 

 average of a little more than 3^-. yd. the acre over the whole. 

 This is a much lower average than that derived (Vol. i, p. 249) 

 for the Cherwell meadows in the fourteenth century. In 1568, 



