258 Miscellaneous, 



rental of estates, must have been very common. A market also was 

 found for capons and geese. Ducks were comparatively rare ; and 

 pigeon-houses, kept on most manorial estates, were, no doubt, a 

 nuisance and a wrong, similar if not equal to the dove-cots of France 

 during the monarchy" (p. 327). 



" It will be found, on investigating the table given in the second 

 volume, that the price of cows was considerably less than that of 

 oxen. Bulls, too, were cheap, though the entries are not numerous. 

 These facts seem to prove that no attempt was made to improve the 

 breed " (p. 327). " There seems to be no great variety of breeds ; at 

 least there is no notable difference of price between north and south 

 country cattle. In all likelihood the breed was the small ox now 

 found in Scotland and other mountainous regions. I have already 

 adverted to the fact that unless cattle had deteriorated in the six- 

 teenth century — a circumstance by no means probable — the carcase 

 was light ; for the oxen bought for victualling the navy were not 

 more than 4 cwt. in weight on the average. Taking the hide, a very 

 valuable part of the animal in the middle ages, at an average o{2s.6d. 

 (it was sometimes much dearer), the flesh of the average ox would 

 be worth lOs. Gd." (p. 329). 



"The horses used in mediaeval husbandry are distinguished as qfri ; 

 called also stotts and cart-horses. The former may perhaps be still 

 discovered in the coarsely shaped small horses still found in country 

 districts, and employed in the commonest drudgery, whose value 

 chiefly lies in the fact that they are able to subsist on very poor and 

 scanty fare, and can do a great deal of work at a very small cost. 

 These animals are a little, but not much, dearer than oxen, their 

 price being lowest in dear years — probably because when oxen were 

 costlier their use in draught increased, and the value of the small 

 horse declined. Occasionally, however, they sold at considerable 

 prices. Cart-horses are much more valuable than qfri, and are 

 sometimes, speaking relatively, very dear. Saddle-horses were oc- 

 casionally very costly, but often sold at no higher prices than those 

 obtained for others employed in agricultural work only" (p. 330). 



" Sheep are distinguished as muttons, i. e. wethers, as ewes, hog- 

 gasts, hoggasters, hoggerels, or bidentes; hurtards or rams, and 

 lambs. Of these, lambs are, of course, the cheapest, though some- 

 times their price is so high that I have treated them as hoggasters. 

 Occasionally young ewes are quoted under the name ofjercion. Ewes 

 are very low-priced. Hurtards or rams are not mentioned very often, 

 and are generally dear" (p. 332). "Sheep were liable to several 

 diseases, and among them the rot and the scab " (p. 334). 



"Towards the close of the thirteenth century sheep were for the first 

 time afi^ected by a new disease, which has been handed down to our 

 own time under the name of scab. In the few last years of the same 

 century tar dressing was adopted, and has been, I believe, uninter- 

 ruptedly employed from that to the present time. 



*' While the sheep was valuable to the richer persons in mediaeval 

 society, the most important animal in mediaeval economy was the 

 pig. It is not easy, however, since no weights are given, to arrive with 



