n 
more plentiful than money, and we find the rent often paid in 
kind : thus, in 1519, is an entry, received “ A goes, a pygge, a 
crane, iiij couyes, and a loyn of veile of g}'st,” or in lieu of rent. 
Amongst the birds sent in, the crane is mentioned five times, 
and, from the price attached to it, I am inclined to think, it Avas 
not so much esteemed for the table, (at least at Hunstanton,) as 
has boon generally supposed. The first entry in Avhich a price 
occurs is as folloAvs : — 
Itm j^d. for a crane and vj plovs • . . . . xx** 
Six plovers, in a subsequent entry, are valued at 1/2, which 
loaves Gd. for the crane ; in another ]ilace it is charged 4d., and in 
a third Gd. The curlew, a common biril now, and, probably, more 
common .still at that time, is valued at precisely the same amounts, 
4d., 5d., and Gd. To show that the value attached to the curlew 
was not excessive, I may mention, that in the Duke of 
P.uckinghara’s Household Hook, (a.d. 1507,) it is put down at 4d. 
and 5d. ; and in Lord Horth’s Household Book, (1577,) at G/8 per 
dozen, or rather more than G|d. each ; as neither of these books 
gives the price of the crane, I am unable to comjiare it, but the 
agreement of the three records fixes the price of the curlew at 
exactly that assigned in the L’Estrange Household Book to the 
crane. I am unable to compare the price of the crane with that of 
the heron, as, although the latter is mentioned ten times, in no 
instance is the price given. In the Duke of Buckingham’s book, 
however, it is charged 8d., and in Lord North’s, (so far as I can 
make out,) 3/4 per dozen, or a little over 3Jd. each. In the 
present day, I suppose we shoidd not hesitate to choose the curlew 
for our table in preference to the crane, although, from the latter 
being to a great extent a vegetable feeder, I see no reason why it 
shoidd not be exceUent eating— certainly as good as a curlew fresh 
from the sea-shore— but in the time of which we are speaking, it 
was generally included in the »biU of fare,” on festive occasions, 
made for the same, were 400 swans, 400 herons, 204 cranes, the same number 
of bitterns, 1000 “egrittes,” 104 oxen, 6 “.wylde bulles,” 1000 “muttons” 
2000 “pygges,” 2000 geese, 2000 chickens, 4000 pigeons, 4000 conyes, 1500 
hot pasties of venison, 4000 cold ditto, “stagges, buck and roes, 500 and 
mo, 12 “ porposes ” and seals, and a profusion of game, fish, and sweets. 
Broderip ZooL, Bee., p. 159. 
C 
