HAUNTS OF THE SHEARWATER 217 



periods, and, considering the number of disturbing 

 elements which have to be taken into account, few 

 calculations when made are more apt to be misleading. 



It happens, though, to be on record that about the 

 time that Ranulph de White obtained his lease the 

 year before the victory of Crecy the Earl of Arundel 

 was drawing daily pay of 6s. 8d. the amount of the 

 money alternative to the 300 ' Poffins ' rent as Com- 

 mander of the Southampton Fleet. 



The pay of an admiral commanding the Channel 

 Squadron, including table allowance, is now, according 

 as his rank may be ' Rear ' or ' Vice,' 6 or 7 a day. 

 Judged by this standard taking, that is, the worth of 

 a fat Shearwater to be -^ of the daily pay of an 

 admiral on active service the present wholesale price 

 of the bird, if we still appreciated full flavours as highly 

 as did our ancestors, and could gratify our palates on 

 the same terms, would be from 5s. to 6s. a dozen. 

 Pigeons, which, according to Mr. Rogers's tables, fetched 

 in inland places much the same prices as ' Poffins ' in 

 Cornwall, were to be had in the fourteenth century 

 commonly at four a penny, and chickens, excepting at 

 Oxford, where tradesmen had already learnt the art of 

 running up prices, for Id. or l|d. each. 



It is worth noting in passing, as an interesting 

 instance of the manner in which useful commodities 

 maintain their proportionate values, that the cost of a 

 chicken, a cow, and of an admiral competent to command 

 a fleet in action, are relatively almost exactly the same 

 now as in the reign of Edward in. What little differ- 



