A. D. 1066, 291 



With fucli flender refources as the foreign trade of England appears 

 to have furniflied, it may be afked, how the country could raife fuch 

 fums as were repeatedly paid to procure the forbearance, or to allure 

 the invafioiis, of the Danes ; to fay nothing of the permanent taxes of 

 Dane-geld and Peter-pence, the later of which, with the innumerable 

 pilgrimages, made a perpetual drain of money to Rome. As we can 

 fee no reafon to fuppofe that the little trade then carried on produced 

 any regular or lafting balance in cafh, we mufl believe, that thofe heavy 

 demands were fupplied, either from mines of the pretious metals, though 

 unnoticed by any hiftorian fince the beginning of the Roman dominion 

 in the ifland, except Bede, \_HiJl. ecclef. L. i, c. i] or from the remainder 

 of the vaft treafure, which the fertile fields, the copious mines of tin 

 and lead, and the other valuable productions of Britain, long continued 

 to draw from Rome and the provinces of the empire in former ages. 

 That all thofe heavy drains did not exhauft the flock of the pretious me- 

 tals in England, is abundantly evident from many fads to be found in 

 antient writers, which fliow, that the kings, the clergy, and the nobles, 

 were ftill very rich. King Cnut expended vaft fums in his pilgrimage 

 to Rome, as already obferved. Edward the ConfelTor built Weftminf- 

 ter and other churches at an uncommon expenfe. The great quantity 

 of money, found in Harold's treafury, enabled William to be incredibly 

 liberal to the church of Rome, as his biographer exprefles it *. Egel- 

 noth, archbifliop of Canterbury, being on his return from Rome, made 

 a purchafe at Pavia of an arm of S^ Auguftine (or of fome other body) 

 for one hundred talents of filver and one talent of gold f ; an excellent 

 bargain — for the knavifli feller. \}V. Malmjb. f. 42 a.] But, what was 

 at leaft equally aftonifhing, we are told, that Elfsig, abbat of Peterburgh, 

 in the year 1013, in the very midft of the convuUions, gave five thou- 

 fand pounds of filver for a headlefs carcafe. \Chron. Sax. ad a/i.'\ Of 

 the opulence of the nobles I fliall fele6l only one example, which, after 

 making a large dedudtion for the exaggeration of tradition, Ihows that 

 they were very rich, and the court very venal. Earl Godwin appeafed 

 the wrath of King Hardacnut by a prefent of a galley with golden (or 

 gilded) roftra, carrying eighty foldiers, each of whom had two bracelets 

 on each hand containing fixteen ounces of gold, being in all 320 brace- 

 lets, and 5,120 ounces of gold; a fum equal in real eftedive value to at 

 leaft two hundred thoufand pounds of our modern money. We are fur- 



* ' Peciiniam in auro atque argento, ampliorem ftood to be mere monkiiTi rant. \^JV. Malmjb, ap, 



' quam didu credibile fit.' \_Gul. Pidav. ap. Du Gfl/°, />. 3 1 o. 3 

 Chefne, p. 206.] •[- As the writers of the middle ages often affedl- 



In^ king of the Weft Saxons is faid to have ed claflical words, when veiy improper for their 



ffiven near three thoufand pounds of filver, and fiibjeft, it is probable that this impoitant purchafe 



about three hundred pounds of gold, to adorn a was tranfatled in more modern money. Surely 



chapel at Glaftonbury. But this mult be under- 100 pounds of filver and one pound of gold was noti 



too fmall a price for a rotten arm. 



Oo 2 



