414 AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS AND TOOLS. 



1423. I find a corn-fork for 6d. in the same year, a stable- 

 rake in 1473 f r 5^-> a kiln-fork in 1440 for 3^., a hay-rake in 

 1536 for 6d., a hay- rack in 1433 for io%d., and 200 rackstaves 

 for id. the hundred. 



There are fourteen entries of wheelbarrows, at prices ranging 

 from 2J. to >]d. The general price is about is. $d. 1 



CHARGES INCURRED FOR SHEEP. The practice of folding 

 sheep was general, and the purchase of hurdles was a regular 

 charge in the shepherd's account. In my earlier volumes I was 

 able to supply an almost unbroken price of these articles, but 

 in the present enquiry I find them for 93 years only, entries 

 being fairly abundant in the fifteenth century. Towards the 

 latter part of the period, hurdles are generally employed for 

 scaffolding, being lashed to the poles, in order to give stand- 

 ing-room for the builders. They were also employed, as in 

 earlier periods, to enlarge the space of carts and waggons in 

 harvest-time. 



I am enabled to give decennial averages of hurdles for all 

 these periods except 152130 and 1570-82. Up to 1540 

 these prices fairly represent the average value of hurdles, and 

 do not differ notably from the averages drawn for the last 

 fifty years of the fourteenth century. But the average of 1541- 

 50 is exceptionally low, and cannot be taken as a fair criterion 

 of prices. The few entries of a later period represent a great 

 exaltation of price, and probably point to a better article than 

 that ordinarily used for sheep-folds ; being really hurdles used 

 in scaffolding. But the general average of the last thirty years 

 is one which closely resembles the rise effected in other articles, 

 viz. from two to five. The hurdles in these accounts were 

 doubtlessly made from hazel or willow rods split and twisted 

 across a frame. 



Four times the hurdles are sold 'cum saulis/ i.e. with the 



1 Perhaps the sever rotalis of which three entries occur in 1430, 1436, 1442, at is. 8d. t 

 2s. id., and is. n|<?., and the semivectoria rotata, of which there are also three entries 

 in 1437, 1467 and 1520, at is. 7<f., is. i$d. t and is. 4**., are also wheelbarrows; a 

 sever manualis is bought in 1440 for id. 



