g6 History of Animal Plagues. 



A.D. 1333. 'The losses of stock sustained by the medieval 

 farmer/ savs Mr Rotrers/ 'were enormous. As has been said, all 

 deaths were grouped under the general name "murrain." But 

 at Mai don, the farmer, in 1333, reports the loss of more than 

 half his sheep and lambs ; at Letherhead the loss is little short of 

 the same rate ; at Farley it is more than twenty-five per cent ; 

 at Woolford and Basingstoke it is about thirty-four per cent ; at 

 Wolford a little less than fourteen ; and at Cuxham about 

 eleven.^ 



A.D. 1334. Inundations in England. 'This year were so 

 great waters, that they broke down walls in Temse (Thames?), 

 and other places overcovered the lands, and killed many beasts.^'' 



A.D. 1335. In England, 'after abundance of rain of this 

 year, came a murrain of cattle and dearth of corn. Wheat at 

 forty shillings a quarter.^ ^ ' So great a death in England that 

 scarce could the living bury the dead.' * 



In Ireland, ' there was such a great snow in the spring of 

 this year, that the most part of the small fowle of Erinn died.^ * 

 ' A great snow in the spring of this year, by which was destroyed 

 almost all the small birds of Ireland.'" Great swarms of locusts 

 in Italy. ^ 



A.D. 1336. A mortality among animals in Iceland. 'Then 

 in spring came a storm of water so great, that all kinds of cattle 

 were destroyed.' * 



In Ireland, ' a great plague of snow and of frost in this year, 

 from the first fortnight of winter until a part of the spring had 

 commenced. A great portion of the cattle of Erinn were lost in 

 it; and the grass and corn-fields of Ireland were destroyed the 

 same year.' ^ 



A.D. 1338. Heavy rain in Germany. In the previous year 

 locusts appeared in crowds in every part of Europe. In this 

 year in Germany there appears to have been a scarcity of salt. 

 ' Worms were bred in human bodies, so that many people died. 

 Out of the mouths of these the worms crept — a sight dreadful to 



^ Hist. Agricult., vol. i. p. 53. 



- Capgrave. Op. cit. 



3 Hmry de Ktiyghton. Op. cit. * How. ^ Annals of Clonmacnoise. 



" Annals of Connaught. ' Corio. Storia di Milano. 



'* Annal. Island. Langehck. Scrip, rer. Dan., iii. 134. ^ Annals of Ulster. 



