WALTER OF HENLEY 35 



hen 115 eggs and 7 chicks, 3 of which ought to be made capons ; 

 and for 5 geese you must have one gander, and for 5 hens one 

 cock.' The laying qualities of the hen, in spite of the talk of 

 the 2OO-egg bird, were evidently as good then as to-day. In 

 those days of self-supporting farms it was the custom to put 

 together the farm implements at home, and the farmer is 

 advised that it will be well if he can have carters and plough- 

 men who should know how to work all their own wood, though 

 it should be necessary to pay them more. 1 The village smith, 

 however, seems, as we should expect, to have done most of the 

 iron work that was needed. 2 



These extracts have given the reader some insight into 

 thirteenth-century prices, prices which in the case of grain 

 altered very little for nearly 300 years : for instance, the 

 average price of wheat from 1259 to I 4 CO was 5 s - 1O I^- a 

 quarter, and from 1401 to 1540 5$-. uf<a?. ; of barley, 4s. $\d. 

 from 1259 to 1400, 35. 8f< from 1401 to 1540; of oats, 

 2s. 5!^. and is. "2\d, in the same two periods respectively ; of 

 rye, 4^. $d. and 4^. *]%d. ; and of beans, 4s. $\d. and 3^. <)\d? 



Wheat fluctuated considerably, being as we have seen 

 2s. a quarter at Hawsted in 1243 an d in 1290 14^. icdl, a 

 most exceptional price. Oxen, which were chiefly valued 

 as working animals, were about i$s. apiece 4 ; cows, qs. $d. 

 Farm horses were of two varieties : the ' affer ' or ' stott ', a 

 rough small animal, generally worth about i$s. $d., and the 

 cart-horse, probably the ancestor of our shire horses, whose 



1 Walter of Henley, p. 63. 



2 Crondall, Records, Hampshire Record Society, i. 65. 



* See Thorold Rogers, various tables in vol. i. of History of Agricul- 

 ture and Prices. Compare these with the prices on the Berkeley estates 

 from 1281 to 1307, omitting years of scarcity: wheat, zs. ^d. to 5-r. ; 

 oxen, los. to 12s. ; cows, 9-y. to los. ; bacon hogs, $ s - > ^ at sheep, is. 6d. 

 to is. ; and in the early part of Edward Ill's reign, wheat, $s. $d. to los. ; 

 oxen, 14*. to 24^. Other prices about the same. Smyth, Lives of the 

 Berkeley 's, i. 1 60. 



* If it is true, as generally stated, that the mediaeval ox was one-third 

 the size of his modern successor, it is apparent that he was a very dear 

 animal. Cattle at this date suffered from the ravages of wolves. 



D 1 



