Prices of Provisions, &c.—­In 1174, wheat and barley sold at Warwick for 2-1/2d. per bushel, hogs at 1s. 6d. each, cows (salted down) at 2s. each, and salt at 1-4/5d. per bushel.  In 1205 wheat was worth 12 pence per bushel, which was cheap, as there had been some years of famine previous thereto.  In 1390 wheat was sold at 13d. per bushel, so high a price that historians say there was a “dearth of corn” at that period.  From accounts preserved of the sums expended at sundry public feasts at Coventry (Anno 1452 to 1464) we find that 2s. 3d. was paid for 18 gallons of ale, 2s. 6d. for 9 geese, 5d. for 2 lambs, 5d. for a calf, l0d. for 9 chickens, 3d. for a shoulder of mutton, 1s. 3d. for 46 pigeons, 8d. for a strike of wheat and grinding it, &c.  An Act of Parliament (24, Henry VIII.) was passed in 1513 that beef and pork should be sold at a half-penny per pound.  In 1603 it was ordered that one quart of best ale, or two of small, should be sold for one penny.  In 1682 the prices of provisions were, a fowl 1s., a chicken 5d., a rabbit 7d.; eggs three for 1d.; best fresh butter, 6d. per lb.; ditto salt butter, 3-1/2d.; mutton 1s. 4d. per stone of 8lb.; beef, 1s. 6d. per stone; lump sugar, 1s per lb.; candles, 3-1/2d. per lb.; coals, 6d. per sack of 4 bushels; ditto charcoal, 1s. 2d. best, 8d. the smallest.  Wheat averaged 50s. per quarter, but the greatest part of the population lived almost entirely on rye, barley, oats, and peas.  Cottages in the country were let at about 20s. per annum.  In 1694 a pair of shoes cost 3s. 6d.; a pair of stockings, 1s. 4d.; two shirts, 5s. 4d.; leather breeches, 2s.; coat, waistcoat, and breeches, 16s.; a coffin, 5s.; a shroud and a grave for a poor man, 3s. l0d.  In November, 1799, the quartern loaf was sold in London, at 1s. l0-1/2d. and in this town at 1s. 4d., the farmers coming here to market having to be protected by constables for months together.

Priory.—­History gives us very little information respecting the Hospital or Priory of St. Thomas the Apostle [See “Old Square”] and still less as the Church or Chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr.  The site of the Priory was most probably where the Old Square was laid out, though during the many alterations that have latterly been made not a single stone has been discovered to prove it so.  A few bones were found during the months of Aug. and Sept., 1884, and it is said that many years back a quantity of similar remains were discovered while cellars were being made under some of the houses in Ball Street, and one late writer speaks of cellars or crypts, which were hastily built up again.  From these few traces it is not unlikely that the Chapel existed somewhere between the Minories and Steelhouse Lane, monkish chants probably resounding where now the members of the Society of Friends sit in silent prayer.  Ancient records tell us that in 1285 three persons (William of Birmingham, Thomas of Maidenhacche, and Ranulph of Rugby) gave 23 acres of land at Aston and Saltley