SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



laid up, 45 laid up, 7J broken up — 224! acres at 41. per acre, ^^44 iSs. 

 Folding, j(^io 2s. ; 28 loads 3 bushels seed wheat at 12s. 6d., £iy lys. ; 

 ploughing and sowing 52 J acres, jTi i. Then came a few implements, &c. : 

 5 'murrian' [muUen^"*] halters at zs., los. ; 4 pair hames and 4 pair 

 chains and cart saddle, £2 10s. ; a horse, ^5 5/. ; another horse, 

 £2 ijs. bd. 



In the year 1607 Bedfordshire suffered exceptionally from floods and 

 storms, which were experienced more or less all over the country. An old 

 tract, entitled Floods in England, 1 607, says that the floods were so extensive 

 at Bedford that men had to leave their beds, and some women were drowned. 

 There was a great loss of beast, sixty elms were blown down, and ' a warren 

 clean destroyed.' At one place, near the roadside, the flood tore out a pit 

 40 ft. deep ; ' 25 loads of faggots and 20 loads of horse-dung did not 

 fill it.' ^"^ 



Exceptionally unseasonable weather was still able to cause great distress 

 locally, though the improvement in transport, and the increasing centraliza- 

 tion of authority, enabled such needs to be met more easily than in the 

 Middle Ages. Bedfordshire does not seem to have suffered much in this 

 way. In a return for part of the county made in February, 1587, it is said 

 that there was sufficient corn to supply the local markets ; barley stood at 

 2J. 8</. the bushel, but the farmers had orders to supply the poor labourers at 

 2od., or at most 2j., the bushel, until August ; wheat was 5J. 6d., oats i6d., 

 and pease 22^^. the bushel.^^* In April 1631 also the markets were reported 

 as well supplied ; wheat being then 8j-. the bushel, barley ^s. 6d., pease 

 4^. bd., and oats 3J. Owing to the high price of barley malting had been 

 put a stop to, and numerous alehouses suppressed ; the poor had been pro- 

 vided with work, the younger members being put out as apprentices.^"* 

 Three years later, in October 1634, a return for the hundred of Manshead 

 shows 49 apprentices placed during the year, 26 alehouses suppressed, and 

 the keepers of 9 others fined ' for suffering drunckards to sitt tiplinge in 

 their bowses,' 7 unlicensed sellers of ale fined, and 7 drunkards and 103 

 vagrants punished.^" Offences in connexion with the selling of ale were 

 still punished by the local manorial courts, as they had been for centuries, 

 and almost every court roll shows some presentment in this connexion. 

 Thus at Ampthill ^^^ in 1 640 nine persons were fined as ' common tipplers ' 

 (i.e. innkeepers ^"), selling beer and ale by illegal measures, and one case 

 occurred of selling ale without licence. But if the jurors were determined to 

 control the thirst of others they were equally careful of their own hunger, 

 and in 1673 John Yardley, miller, of Biggleswade, was fined 20J. 'for refusing 

 to provide cakes for the juryes according to ancient custom.'"^ The Biggles- 

 wade jurors were not unmindful of more important matters, and in 1661 they 

 presented Helen, wife of Laurence Hale, ' for a eavesdropper and for making 

 dissention amongst her neighbors.' "' But the manorial court was dwindling 



151a < Mullen ' is a local word still in use for the headgear and bridle of a cart-horse. It is given in 

 Wright, Diet, of ProvinclaRsms. 



^^ Beds. N. and Q.\, 351- 



"' S.P. Dom. Eliz. cc, 10. "* Ibid. Chas. I, cbcxxix, 27. 



»" Ibid, cclxxvi, 53. '" Ct. R. bdle. 153, no. 3. 



'" At Northill in 1 460 the term ' communis Gannek cervisie' occurs; ibid. no. 34. 'Gannoker' is 

 given by Halliwell as ' a tavern or inn keeper.' 



'^ Ct. R. bdle. 153, no. II. "'Ibid. e 



95 



