[89] Walter of Henley, p. 63.

[90] Crondall, Records, Hampshire Record Society, i. 65.

[91] See Thorold Rogers, various tables in vol. i. of History of Agriculture and Prices.  Compare these with the prices on the Berkeley estates from 1281 to 1307, omitting years of scarcity:  wheat, 2s. 4d. to 5s.; oxen, 10s. to 12s.; cows, 9s. to 10s.; bacon hogs, 5s.; fat sheep, 1s. 6d. to 2s.; and in the early part of Edward III’s reign, wheat, 5s. 4d. to 10s.; oxen, 14s. to 24s.  Other prices about the same.—­Smyth, Lives of the Berkeleys, i. 160.

[92] If it is true, as generally stated, that the mediaeval ox was one-third the size of his modern successor, it is apparent that he was a very dear animal.  Cattle at this date suffered from the ravages of wolves.

[93] Crondall, Records, Hampshire Record Society, i. 64.

[94] History of Agriculture and Prices, i. 528.

[95] Seebohm, Transactions of Royal Historical Society, New Series, xvii. 288, says that rent in the fourteenth century was commonly 4d.; the usual average is stated at 6d. an acre.

[96] Domesday of S. Paul, Camden Society, p. li.

[97] History of Agriculture and Prices, i. 26.

[98] Pioneers of Agriculture, p. 13.

[99] Ed. Lamond, Royal Historical Society, p. 19.

[100] Denton, England in the Fifteenth Century, p. 93.

CHAPTER III

THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.—­DECLINE OF AGRICULTURE.—­THE BLACK DEATH.—­ STATUTE OF LABOURERS

After the death of Edward I in 1307 the progress of English agriculture came to a standstill, and little advance was made till after the battle of Bosworth in 1485.  The weak government of Edward II, the long French War commenced by Edward III and lasting over a hundred years, and the Wars of the Roses, all combined to impoverish the country.  England, too, was repeatedly afflicted during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by pestilences, sometimes caused by famines, sometimes coming with no apparent cause; all probably aggravated, if not caused, by the insanitary habits of the people.  The mention of plagues, indeed, at this time is so frequent that we may call them chronic.

At this period corn and wool were the two main products of the farmer; corn to feed his household and labourers, and wool to put money in his pocket, a somewhat rare thing.

English wool, which came to be called ’the flower and strength and revenue and blood of England’, was famous in very early times, and was exported long before the Conquest.  In Edgar’s reign the price was fixed by law, to prevent it getting into the hands of the foreigner too cheaply; a wey, or weigh, was to be sold for 120d.[101] Patriotic Englishmen asserted it was the best in the world, and Henry II, Edward III, and Edward IV are said to have improved