io8 History of Animal Plagues. 



In the bailiffs of Standon's accounts there is the entry for this 

 year : 'Defectus propter pestileiitiam hoc anno ; ' and forWellovv^ 

 * High price of tar and fat, due to pestilence, defecius servieniium 

 et magna mortalitas garcionum in patria.' ^ 



Through the courtesy of Henry Harrod, Esq., F.S.A., I am 

 enabled to refer to a paper read by him before the Society of 

 Antiquaries, and entitled 'Details of a Murrain of the Fourteenth 

 Century, from the Court Rolls of a Norfolk Manor,' ^ which 

 will give the student of English epizootics some idea of the losses 

 incidental to an estate at this period, from what were, in those 

 days, when the nature of animal diseases was scarcely known, 

 termed 'murrains/ The details extend over a period of 6^ 

 years; and it is evident that many and various maladies must 

 have been grouped under the vague but terrible denomination. 

 It is but right to mention here that there is no proof whatever 

 that the disease affecting the cattle was ^Ae Cattle Plague. On the 

 contrary, there is every probability that it was not that malady, 

 from the fact that during this long period almost every kind of 

 domestic animal was affected, and the loss in cattle was never suffi- 

 ciently great in'any one year; while sheep appear to have been the 

 principal sufferers. And there was not one murrain during this 

 long period, but very many ; and no doubt the majority of the 

 deaths were due to enzootic, and, in part, to sporadic affections. 

 However, the account is sufficiently interesting to find a place here, 

 as it may in some degree furnish us with assistance in obtaining 

 a key to the ravages of murrains and their nature in the early 

 centuries of British agriculture, when oxen were so poor and 

 badly fed that six of them were required to draw the rude iron 

 plough-share, and scarcely half an acre could be turned up in a 

 long day's work. 



Mr Harrod relates as follows : ' In looking over some Court 

 Rolls of the Manor of Heacham, in the county of Norfolk, I 

 met with some particulars of the murrain during the reigns of 

 Edward III., Richard II., and Henry IV., which I have ex- 



^ Rogers. Op. cit. 



- The Archseologia, vol. xli. 1866. A large portion of this interesting commu- 

 nication I am reluctantly compelled to omit ; but the comparative pathologist will 

 find himself well rewarded by a perusal of the Appendix A and E. 



