304 ON THE PRICES OF HAY AND STRAW. 



the Cambridge account informs us that twenty cwt. went to 

 the load. In 1687, we are told that thirty-six trusses went to 

 the load. Sometimes we are told that the price includes the 

 carriage, sometimes the cost of the carriage is quoted sepa- 

 rately. In any case, the article, owing to its bulk, could not 

 have been brought from any great distance. Hence the origin 

 of the supply is very rarely stated, though I have noted 

 one such case among the King's College purchases of 1639. 



Old and new hay are occasionally distinguished, and usually 

 the former is the highest priced. In one locality, Votes Court, 

 marsh is distinguished from ordinary hay, and appears to 

 be rather cheaper. 



The reason which I gave in my fourth volume, p. 295, for 

 the comparatively frequent entries of hay, as compared with 

 the scanty information given in earlier times, was increasingly 

 dominant in the seventeenth century: I mean the inclosure 

 of common lands and pastures. It was therefore the case that 

 the owners or occupiers of these several estates made the hay 

 crop a subject of considerable care, and when the needs of 

 their own stock were satisfied or at least anticipated, they could 

 bring the surplus to market. Besides, during the seventeenth 

 century the beneficiaries of corporate property had to keep 

 a keen look out after their property, to visit it regularly, and to 

 enforce as far as possible the punctual payment of rents. The 

 maintenance of a considerable stud was therefore a necessary 

 charge on the establishment. It was the custom to turn the 

 horses out in the early summer, and the charges for a horse- 

 grass, at from zs. to $s. a week, are common in the accounts. 

 I imagine that the head and bursars of the Colleges travelled 

 slowly on their progresses. 



Hay varies considerably in price from year to year, and 

 within the same year. In illustration of the latter statement, 

 in the year 1583 two Colleges in Oxford buy at los. and zos. 

 In 1590, the same purchaser gives 13^.4^. at one time of the 

 year, but 2$s. ^d. in the winter. At King's College, in 1630, 

 it is bought at 14^. to 30^. In 1648, Corpus Christi College, 



