98 . THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH 



twenty bushels, and that barley sometimes rose to thirty-two 

 bushels, and oats and beans to forty bushels. The improvement of 

 pastures is shown in the increased size and weight of live-stock. 

 The average dead weight of sheep and cattle in 1500 probably did 

 not exceed 28 Ibs. and 320 Ibs. respectively. At the beginning of 

 the seventeenth century the dead weight of the oxen and sheep 

 supplied to the Prince of Wales's household was no doubt excep- 

 tional ; but the difference is considerable. " An ox should weigh 

 600 Ibs. the four quarters ... a mutton should weigh 46 Ibs. or 44 

 Ibs." A new incentive to improvement in arable farming and stock- 

 rearing was supplied by the lower price of wool, consequent partly 

 on over-production, partly on deterioration in quality. This 

 deterioration was in some cases the result of enclosures. The wool 

 was sacrificed to the mutton, and the demand for butcher's meat 

 was not yet sufficient to make the sacrifice profitable. When 

 English wool first came into the Flemish market, it was distinguished 

 for its fineness, and sold at a higher rate than its Spanish rival. It 

 was indispensable for the foreign weaver. The best fleeces were 

 those of the Ryeland or Herefordshire sheep, for which Leominster 

 was the principal market. In the days of Skelton, Elynour Rum- 

 mynge, ale-wife of Leatherhead, had no enviable reputation ; but 

 when her customers made a payment in kind, she was a shrewd 

 judge of its value : 



" Some fill their pot full 

 Of good Lemster wool." 



Drayton's Dowsabel had a " skin as soft as Lemster wool." Rabe- 

 lais makes Panurge cheapen the flock of Ding-dong ; and when the 

 latter descants upon the fineness of their wool, the English translator 

 (Motteux, 1717) compares them to the quality of " Lemynster 

 wool." From the preamble to a statute of the reign of James I. 

 (4 Jac. I. c. 2.) it would seem that Ryeland flocks were cotted all 

 the year. The second price was fetched by Cotswold wool. The 

 sheep that are kept on downs, heaths and commons produce the 

 finest, though not the heaviest, fleeces. It was the experience of 

 Virgil : 



" Si tibi lanicium curae, . . . fuge pabula laeta." 



In the same sense wrote Dyer : 



" On spacious airy downs, and gentle hills, 

 With grass and thyme o'erspread, and clover wild, 

 The fairest flocks rejoice ! " 



