330 COST or 



CHAP. XII. 



nine-pence ; for 900 hens, eleven pounds five 

 shillings ; for 1900 hens, and for bringing them 

 to London, twenty-five pounds ten shillings ; 

 and for 100 plates and 300 cups, three pounds 

 eighteen shillings *. It does not appear for how 

 many persons these preparations were made, nor 

 can these be supposed to be the only articles 

 provided, though there being no less than 4800 

 hens prepared, we must suppose the company 

 amounted to some thousand persons. 



There is in the Chronicon Preciosum of Fleet- 

 wood an account of the expenses of the installa- 

 tion feast of the Prior of St. Austin in Canter- 

 bury, in the year 1309. That year was one of 

 peculiar scarcity, and almost every description 

 of provisions was higher by very far than in the 

 previous or subsequent years of the same period. 

 The cost of the various articles was as follows : 

 Wheat, 21*. 6d. per quarter; malt, 18*. per 

 quarter ; oats, 1 C 2s. per quarter ; wine, 4/. per 

 pipe ; oxen, 54*. each ; hogs, 9*. 6d. each ; 

 sheep, 9*. each ; geese, ll^d. each ; pullet, 

 10d.; and rabbits 6d. each. The number of 

 guests was six thousand, and the whole cost of 

 the entertainment, including music, cooks and 

 attendants, and also 3300 dishes and 1400 wooden 

 cans or jugs, amounted to eight hundred and 



1 Madox Hist. Exchequer, c. 10. p. 253. 



