FREEHOLDERS AND OCCUPIERS. 741 



acres is, in 1540, let at is. ^d. an acre, another of six acres at 

 3^. 4^., and a third of eleven acres at 4^. A vineyard empaled 

 with elms and well stored with conies the vines must have 

 been trained on high rails to be out of the way of the rabbits 

 five acres in extent, and sixteen acres of grange meadow ' are 

 let at 4s. an acre. These payments for the use of meadow land 

 in 1540 may be compared with those quoted on p. 298, and cer- 

 tainly indicate that no rise had been effected at this later date. 



When the rise in prices occurred generally, as is shown in 

 the foregoing chapter, about 1547 the farmer had to reckon on 

 the following basis. As far as regarded tools and implements, 

 and materials which must be purchased for the proper working 

 of his land, he had to meet fully double prices for them ; for it 

 is not to be supposed that he could purchase his small parcels 

 of iron or steel, and similar goods, at the same rate as those 

 who made large purchases. His cart, which he could have pro- 

 cured at 52.?. $d. a generation before, now costs 128.$-., and such 

 tools as he had to buy would have risen in the same proportion. 

 From this side of his expenditure he could not save sufficiently 

 for any notable increase of rent ; for if the cost of production 

 from land proceeded pari passu with the price of that produced, 

 rent would be in equilibria ; and if it were only a little less on 

 the whole, but liable to fluctuation from year to year, the in- 

 creased value of the holding would probably be not discovered, 

 and would certainly be disputed. 



But he could and did gain on the relatively diminished wages 

 of labour. Here however we must take into account the 

 amount of employment offered. Coke's testimony is to the 

 effect (p. 513, note), that in the latter part of Edward VJ's 

 reign there was a very serious diminution in .the number of 

 hands employed in husbandry, owing to the laying down of 

 land in grass, and the growing practice of sheep and cattle 

 breeding as contrasted with arable husbandry. It is possible 



attaint of perjury, his houses and buildings shall be razed and thrown down, his woods 

 felled, and his meadow grounds ploughed.' Fortescue, ck Laudibus legum Angliae, 

 cap. 26, 



