of Hawsted. Blomefield's Norfolk is in
this respect among the most valuable of our local histories. Sir
Frederic Eden, in the first part of his excellent work on the poor, has
collected several interesting facts.

[702] 1. ii. c. 8.

[703] Cullum, p. 100, 220. Eden's State of Poor, &c. p. 48. Whitaker's
Craven, p. 45, 336.

[704] I infer this from a number of passages in Blomefield, Cullum, and
other writers. Hearne says, that an acre was often called Solidata
terrae; because the yearly rent of one _on the best land_ was a shilling.
Lib. Nig. Scacc. p. 31.

[705] Rot. Parl. vol. v. p. 275.

[706] A passage in Bishop Latimer's sermons, too often quoted to require
repetition, shows that land was much underlet about the end of the
fifteenth century. His father, he says, kept half a dozen husbandmen,
and milked thirty cows, on a farm of three or four pounds a year. It is
not surprising that he lived as plentifully as his son describes.

[707] Rymer, t. xii. p. 204.

[708] Velly and Villaret scarcely mention this subject; and Le Grand
merely tells us that it was entirely neglected; but the details of such
an art, even in its state of neglect, might be interesting.

[709] Muratori, Dissert. 21.

[710] Denina, 1. xi. c. 7.

[711] Denina, 1. vi.

[712] t. iii. p. 145; t. xxxi. p. 258.

[713] De la Mare, Traite de la Police, t. iii. p. 380.

[714] Eden's State of Poor, vol. i. p. 51.

[715] Sir F. Eden, whose table of prices, though capable of some
improvement, is perhaps the best that has appeared, would, I think, have
acted better, by omitting all references to mere historians, and relying
entirely on regular documents. I do not however include local histories,
such as the Annals of Dunstaple, when they record the market-prices of
their neighbourhood, in respect of which the book last mentioned is
almost in the nature of a register. Dr. Whitaker remarks the inexactness
of Stowe, who says that wheat sold in London, A.D. 1514, at 20_s._ a
quarter: whereas it appears to have been at 9_s._ in Lancashire, where
it was always dearer than in the metropolis. Hist. of Whalley, p. 97. It
is an odd mistake, into which Sir F. Eden has fallen, when he asserts
and argues on the supposition, that the price of wheat fluctuated in the
thirteenth century, from 1_s._ to 6_l._ 8_s._ a quarter, vol. i. p. 18.
Certainly, if any chronicler had mentioned such a price as the latter,
equivalent to 150_l._ at present, we should either