214 ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 



dearth more serious than had occurred for over fifty years and prices 

 higher than in any record should have been unnoticed by historians, 

 whose interest appears to be chiefly occupied in dealing with the con- 

 duct of Charles towards his mistress Barbara Palmer and his wife 

 Catherine of Braganza. The returns for this year should be examined 

 carefully. They are from the usual sources, Cambridge, Eton, Oxford, 

 and Winchester, the return of purchases at Eton being unusually copious, 

 and consisting of fifteen entries, the dates unfortunately not being 

 given. Now the S. John's rents give an average of 76.?. 6f d. on the 

 year from Michaelmas to Lammas. The bakehouse purchases, made 

 between October and April, are at 72^. n</., so that the S. John's 

 record amounts to an average of 74.?. 8f</. There are ten entries on 

 the King's College account for the year. Now it had become the 

 practice of this College to enter these payments only under date, which 

 were made to time, i.e. which were not in arrear; and not only is it clear 

 that this College had a different authority from that of S. John's for 

 its maximum, but it is open to doubt whether it did not occasionally 

 charge its farmers with the rate of the year following that by which its 

 audit is dated. I drew this inference from the Tanner entries, which 

 are plainly Cambridge, and generally are identical with the King's 

 College rents, if taken a year later for the Michaelmas rental only. 

 But on the other hand, the later entries for King's College has rent- 

 days on S. Bartholomew's day (August 24) and S. Matthew's (September 

 21) indicate, as purchases in the later part of the year do, what was 

 the market at such a time. Now the general average of the King's 

 College rents is 66s. ojt/. But if the first two entries are taken from 

 this year, and the first two entries of 1660 (from the same source) 

 be substituted, the average of the King's College rents will be 70^. 4^., 

 and the general average from Cambridge will be 73^. 4^. And this 

 I believe was the case during this year at Cambridge, the dearest rates 

 being about Lady Day, when the extent of the deficiency would become 

 known and the prospects of the coming harvest would be uncertain. 

 The case at Eton is clear enough. Five rent days are recorded, 

 between Michaelmas and Midsummer. Here the highest prices are 

 towards the last two of these dates, and show that the prospect was 

 not lightened by the latter end of June. But the purchases supply 

 the same inference as those of King's College do. The highest entry 

 is the eleventh, at 92.5-. But then the price begins to fall rapidly, till 

 by the end of the agricultural year Eton buys at little more than half 

 what it gave three or four months previously, for it sinks to 48^. The 

 average of the rents is 88s., of the purchases 74^. >j\d. The Oxford 



