280 VALE CHUKCH AND PRIORY. 



of this sum from the fact that 360 quarters of wheat are 

 set down in the accounts as being worth 144 livres, i.e., 8 sols 

 per quarter. Upon this basis we find that 706 livres was the 

 equivalent of 1,765 quarters of wheat, which at the present 

 time (1903) would be valued at £1,103 2s. 6d. sterling. In 

 the accounts of the Prior y (1307-1320) Mr. Lee noted the 

 following payments : Paid for the Archdeacon's visitation, 

 £2 (tournois) ; to Robert le Gray for a robe for the Abbot, 

 £5 ; to William de la Hogue, going to the Mount, £2 ; 

 to Oliver the Monk, going to England, £5 ; for two Mill- 

 stones, £32 10s. ; the Sub-Prior and R. de St. Martin going 

 to the Mount, £5 ; Colin Le Sueur for a boat, 14s. ; the 

 same for repairing the Manoir, £8 ; the Lord Abbot's ex- 

 penses, £38 ; for boats to carry the Lord Abbot, £16 (this 

 Lord Abbot was apparently John de la Porte, whose election 

 to the Abbacy must have caused a great sensation in 

 Guernsey) ; to the Bailiff, £100 ; a boat to carry corn to 

 Genet (a little port near Mont St. Michel), £7 ; for repairs 

 to the Castel and Vale Churches, £7 ; one quarter of wheat 

 for the aumone of the Lord Abbot, £6 ; the Aumonier, £25 ; 

 the Sub-Prior, £5 ; Chaplain of St, Mary, £2 (Mr. Lee 

 thinks this was the Chaplain of Notre-Dame de Pulias or 

 de l'Epine) ; the Cantor, £12; the great Prior, £20; ex- 

 penses of the King's household, £20 (this probably refers 

 to the yearly dinners and other dues to the King's officers) ; 

 Daniel, for a gown, £3. 



In 1347 the Lieutenant-Governor, Ralph de Hermes- 

 thorpe, writes that he hears that the Prior of Lihou receives 

 only 15 livres per annum as a stipend, lequel mest avis que est 

 trop petit an temps qui est et a estey. If corn was still sold 

 at the same price as it had been a few years earlier, this sum 

 would have bought 37^ quarters of corn, which would be 

 worth £23 8s. 9d. of our money. 



As to the architecture of the Church, Mr. Lee considers 

 the nave, chancel and the lower part of the tower to belong 

 to the second half of the 12th century. The masonry 

 outside the Church shews none of the wide joints of early 

 Norman times, nor is there any herring-bone work, appareil 

 en arete de poisson. The clochetons at the base of the spire are 

 so atrociously mutilated that it is difficult to judge whether 

 they are part of the original tower. Of these clochetons 

 M. de Caumont says : " On peut affirmer qu'ils ont ete fort 

 rares avant la deuxieme moitie du 12e siecle." The windows 

 of the tower are simple late Norman. The chancel of the 

 Church, with its rude pillars and curious stone seats, is very 



