INTRODUCTION. 



JLHE entries printed in the second part of this volume 

 are of a different character from those contained in the 

 first. The first table is a collection of miscellaneous prices 

 that could not properly be included under any other 

 head, and of scraps of information found among the papers 

 at Brandsby Hall and Castle Howard. Some of the 

 entries are remarkable. The very modest prices paid 

 for the keep of the racehorse, and for the services of 

 the jockey, form a startling contrast to the fee paid 

 for teaching Mr. Mitford the not very difficult art of 

 shaving. Nor can the school fees at Douay be con- 

 sidered high ; fencing and dancing seem the only sub- 

 jects taught, and a considerable proportion of the total 

 is spent on amusements. The year 1782 was one of 

 agricultural depression, and it is the only occasion on 

 which, so far as I have been able to tell, the rents were 

 reduced or abated. Although the books at Brandsby 

 Hall do not show how much was paid per acre, it is 

 evident that the rents had been very much raised in 

 the previous twenty years. 



The next four tables were collected by my father, 

 two from the records of All Souls, and two from the 

 newspapers in the Burney Collection. The contrast of 

 prices illustrates the scarcity caused by the great frost ; 



