334 ON THE PRICE OF STOCK AND MEAT. 



five entries, one, the highest, at Mounthall in 1631, 

 gives 835-. 6d. 



Twenty-four entries of 'steers' between 1583 and 1669 

 gives an average of 61 j. ^\d. The word is generally supposed 

 to mean a young ox, though occasional prices, as 113^. ^d. 

 in 1617, IQIS. in 1642, suggest that the animal was brought 

 to early maturity. Eight entries of 'runts' between 1617 

 and 1669 give an average of 73^. i\d. The word appears to 

 be local. Twelve entries of 'bullocks' give an average of 

 4 is. %\d., this being the lowest price of horned cattle. Eight 

 entries of ' kine ' supply an average of 62s. i\d., four of 

 'beasts' one of 76^. 3^. Twenty-one entries of 'heifers/ 

 sometimes described as in calf or out of calf, give an average 



of 54*7i<* 



BEEF. The important series of prices of beef at King's 

 College, Cambridge, of which the continuity is unbroken, 

 for the single year 1619, in which the mundum or particular 

 book is lost, supplies me with prices from the commons book 

 which is preserved, is a register of the most significant kind. 

 It will be seen that the price rises slowly from is. io\d. the 

 stone of fourteen pounds in the first decade, to <$s. 6d. in the 

 last, the progress being fluctuating over a small margin. Here 

 again it is noteworthy that the three dear years 1648-1650 

 are the dearest meat years in the century, and that the three 

 years 1690-1692 show lower prices than had now become 

 customary. It appears from certain entries that it was the 

 custom of the College to distribute the stone of beef into 

 three dishes, fercula^ when it was served upon the dinner 

 table. By an oversight, in one of the years (1688) the price 

 of beef was not copied from the King's College book, and is 

 absent from vol. vi, p. 301, col. ii ; but it has been since 

 obtained from the original. Another series, unfortunately 

 continuous only for the later period, is that derived from 

 Winchester College. This series begins with the year 1 644-5, 

 and with the omission of one year, 1665, when the College 

 was temporarily as it seems dispersed owing to the preva- 



