the
richest men in Suffolk, bequeaths in 1493 fifty marks to each of his
daughters, we must not imagine that this was of greater value than four
or five hundred pounds at this day, but remark the family pride and want
of ready money which induced country gentlemen to leave their younger
children in poverty.[725] Or, if we read that the expense of a scholar
at the university in 1514 was but five pounds annually, we should err in
supposing that he had the liberal accommodation which the present age
deems indispensable, but consider how much could be afforded for about
sixty pounds, which will be not far from the proportion. And what would
a modern lawyer say to the following entry in the churchwarden's
accounts of St. Margaret, Westminster, for 1476: "Also paid to Roger
Fylpott, learned in the law, for his counsel giving, 3_s._ 8_d._, _with
four-pence for his dinner_"?[726] Though fifteen times the fee might
not seem altogether inadequate at present, five shillings would hardly
furnish the table of a barrister, even if the fastidiousness of our
manners would admit of his accepting such a dole. But this
fastidiousness, which considers certain kinds of remuneration degrading
to a man of liberal condition, did not prevail in those simple ages. It
would seem rather strange that a young lady should learn needlework and
good breeding in a family of superior rank, paying for her board; yet
such was the laudable custom of the fifteenth and even sixteenth
centuries, as we perceive by the Paston Letters, and even later
authorities.[727]

[Sidenote: Labourers better paid than at present.]

There is one very unpleasing remark which every one who attends to the
subject of prices will be induced to make, that the labouring classes,
especially those engaged in agriculture, were better provided with the
means of subsistence in the reign of Edward III. or of Henry VI. than
they are at present. In the fourteenth century Sir John Cullum observes
a harvest man had fourpence a day, which enabled him in a week to buy a
comb of wheat; but to buy a comb of wheat a man must now (1784) work ten
or twelve days.[728] So, under Henry VI., if meat was at a farthing and
a half the pound, which I suppose was about the truth, a labourer
earning threepence a day, or eighteen pence in the week, could buy a
bushel of wheat at six shillings the quarter, and twenty-four pounds of
meat for his family. A labourer at present, earning twelve shillings a
week,