390 A. D. 1238. 



of, race of invaders, more irrefiflible and more fanguinary than the 

 Saracens of the eighth century, who had already conquered Ruflia 

 (which remained fubjed to them till the year i486), and fpread defo- 

 lation through Poland and Hungary. It is a curious circumftance, that 

 we are indebted to this inundation of barbarians from the Eall for fome 

 important information concerning the herring fifhery. It appears, that 

 the herrings, which are very capricious in their migrations, had defert- 

 ed the Baltic fea for fome time, which obliged the Frifelanders, who 

 formerly ufed to go to the Baltic for herrings, and even the people of 

 Gothland in Sweden, who ufed to have the herring fifhery at their own 

 doors, to come to Yarmouth for cargoes of thofe fifh. But fo great and 

 general was the conflernation wherewith even the remotefl: nations of 

 Europe were ftruck by the approach of the Tatars, that thofe people 

 did not come to Yarmouth this year : and, in confequence of the dif- 

 appointment of their lales, the Yarmouth fifliermen were obliged to 

 give their herrings at fuch low prices, that they were fold exceedingly 

 cheap even in the inland parts of the country *. [M. Paris, p. 471. — 

 Playfair^s Chro?2ology, p. 121.] Thus have we undoubted information 

 of the exportation of cargoes of herrings from Yarmouth previous to 

 this time ; and thofe who aflert, that the art of curing herrings with 

 fait was not yet difcovered, may, if they pleafe, fuppofe that herrings 

 were carried frefli from Yarmouth to Sweden. 



The Saracens, who faw themfelves expofed to the firft fury of the 

 Tatars, endeavoured to conciliate the favour of the kings of France and 

 England, in order to engage them in a confederacy againft the com- 

 mon enemy : and Frederic, the German emperor, wrote to the Chrift- 

 ian princes to perfuade them to combine their forces in order to ward 

 off the impending deftrudion. But the pope, having a quarrel with the 

 emperor, found means to fruflrate the only rational union of the Eu- 

 ropean powers that ever was projeded ; and the tide of devaflation was 

 rolled back to the Eafl by the valour of Germany alone. [Af. Paris, 

 /'A 47^557. 560.] 



In the emperor's letter to the king of England he thus charaderizes 

 tlie weflern kingdoms : Germany, raging and ardent for battle ; France, 

 the mother and nurfe of brave armies ; bold and warlike Spain ; the 



the fubjed of his work, in Vita "Joannis BafiUdls, -were fold for one ptr.ny (' uiio nrgento'). I fup- 



•■•nd a few other earlv European writers. Sec alfo pofe tour or live hundred was the number j'nteud- 



Eion's Survey of the Turkifjj empire, f>f>. IDI, 304. cd by the author ; tor, even in the picftnt day. 



But moll of the writers of tlic middle nges, de- the twentieth part of an ounce of lilvcr (tlie wciglic 



lighted wilh the identity of I'artar and Tartar-us, of a penny) would not be thought a bad price tor 



the hell of the antient fabulous mythology, have tifty herrings in fome parts of the country. By 



cmcuntd to tlbblini this vitiated name. See in the liatute of herrings iu the year 1357 the high- 



j<:irticular M. Puns, pp. 55S, 957. ell price they could be fold for was 40/ per lad, at 



* Mathew Paris fays, herrings were to be had which highell rate there were 25 for one penny ; 



lh''a year almyll for nothing, and even in the in- and in 1357 the penny did not contain near fo 



land parts of the country/or/y or fifty good hsrr'mp much filver as it did at this time. 



