446 ON THE PRICE OF FOREIGN PRODUCE. 



at $s. Sd. ; in 1615, at 6s. ; in 1663, at $s. 4d. ; in 1698 and 

 1699, at 8s. There is also a small purchase of a very high- 

 priced wine at Winchester under the name of Marcesday in 

 1691 at I4s. Sd. the gallon, the costliest recorded. Tent is 

 also bought by the gallon in 1683 and 1684 at i2j., and in 

 1696 at ioj. Red and white port are also bought by the 

 gallon at 6s. and $s. 6d. in 1698. 



Wine is also bought by the bottle and the dozen bottles. 

 The first entry of this kind which I have found is in 1607, 

 when a bottle of sack is bought at is. $d., and two other 

 bottles of 'wine' at is. lod. In 1608 another bottle of sack 

 costs zs. ; in 1609 two more are bought at 2s. ; in 1616 and 

 1618 two more at is. 4d., all these purchases being made by 

 the Archers of Theydon Gernon. I find no similar entries till 

 1649, when Master of Yotes Court buys two bottles of Rhenish 

 at is. 6d. I expect that all the Theydon entries are of sack, 

 and that the prices include the bottles which I find from a 

 subsequent entry are debited at $s. 8d. the dozen. 



From this date purchases by the dozen bottles or a less 

 quantity are frequent. In 1650 Bering buys three at is. 4d. 

 each, and Eton purchases its wine for the election feast in this 

 form : eight bottles of claret at is. 6d., fifty-eight quart bottles 

 of sack at is. icd., and eighteen of lesser size at nd., these, as 

 the price indicates, being pints. Next year it buys its claret 

 at i6s., its sack at 24 s. the dozen, purchasing 109 bottles of 

 wine in all. In 1655 Eton buys 104 bottles of claret and 

 sack, and in 1657 102, bottles of canary and claret, the former 

 at 24 s., the latter at los. the dozen. The owner of Yotes 

 Court often buys Rhenish, white, and sack by the bottle, and 

 tells us in 1656 what the bottles and corks cost him. Claret 

 is generally at I2J., sack at 24 s. the dozen, and the price, 

 deducting bottles is so near that of claret and sack on 

 draught at four bottles to the gallon, that I have considered 

 myself at liberty to give that interpretation to them in the 

 tables. 



In 1691 King's College, Cambridge, buys eight dozen of 



