44 



last fight." Use of this term still survives 

 ill a negative form among the breeders of 

 Cleveland Bays ; whose favourite boast of 

 their strain is that it contains *' neither 

 blood nor black." 



The actual value of the "piece" mentioned 

 is not quite certain. Mr. Warwick Wroth of 

 the British Museum (Department of Coins) to 

 whom I referred the point writes : " I think 

 that 'piece' must mean 'broad piece,' i.e., 

 the gold sovereign (20s.) of the time called 

 'Unite,' 'Broad' or ' Carolus ' (or if of 

 James I. the ' Laurel,' ' Jacobus,' &c.). The 

 only other coin that could be meant would 

 be the silver crown piece (5s.) of Charles I., 

 or possibly the 'piece of eight,' i.e., the 

 Spanish dollar current in England about 

 1643, ^c>r rather more than 4s." My in- 

 formant kindly sends me a quotation from 

 Rogers History of Agrictdture and Pieces, 

 which confirms his cautious opinion that 

 the "piece" was the gold piece, i.e., the 

 sovereign. The quotation referred to pos- 

 sesses an interest germane to the subject 

 under consideration apart from this special 

 point; it runs : — 



" There is very little change in the price of horses 

 . . . during the first thirty years of my period [1582- 

 1702]. Then the price begins to rise for the next thirty 



