LIQUORICE. DRUGS. FOREIGN FRUITS. 665 



The entries are of course of the inspissated juice, such as has 

 been manufactured for centuries in Italy and Spain. 



The 'treakill' of 1458, sold at is. i\d. the pound, and that 

 of 1531 at $d. the pot, are not of course the substance with 

 which we are now familiar, but theriacum, a medicine con- 

 taining a vast number of ingredients, and traditionally held to 

 have been an alexipharmic compounded by Mithradates the 

 Great. 



Here I may mention the single entry of senna in cods at 

 8^. the pound in 1530, an entry which seems to imply that 

 the seeds and not the beans of this leguminous plant were 

 imported on this occasion ; that of ambergris at is. the pound 

 in 1481 ; and that of isinglass at zs. in 1527. I include the 

 last because I can find no more convenient place, the 

 King's College account reckoning it among the spices of 

 the year. 



Twice, in 1421 and 1422, green ginger is bought by the jar 

 at York, the price being $s. 6d. and 35. yd. Once it is bought 

 by the 'pot,' in 1534, at io<^., and once in the same year by the 

 pound at the same price. I have also found ginger minced, 

 which is, I conceive, the dry confection, at is. 8*/. and <zs. %d* 

 the pound, in 1467 and 1488. Confections of ginger were 

 special luxuries in the middle ages. 



FOREIGN FRUITS. The principal foreign fruits are currants, 

 raisins, figs, dates, prunes, and almonds, prunes being found 

 far more frequently in the later than in the earlier part of the 

 period. I have again reckoned, in order to avoid inconvenient 

 fractions in my averages, these fruits by a factitious dozen. 

 There are, however, many other measures, the interpretation of 

 which gives me no little trouble. These are the ' copla ' of figs 

 and raisins, the sort of figs and raisins, the frail or piece of 

 figs or raisins, the toppet, topnet, or tope of figs, the caput of 

 figs (a measure peculiar to Pershore), the piece or frail of 

 raisins (a larger quantity apparently than that given above), the 

 tope of raisins, and the barrel of figs and of prunes. Almonds 

 are constantly sold by the hundredweight of 112 pounds, and 



