CHAP. XII.

ENTERTAINMENTS.

333

fat hog of two years old, 10s.; a fat wether sheepunshorn at 5s., if shorn, at 3s. 6d .; a fat goose;for 71 d .; a capon, 6d .; 24 eggs at 3d . 1

In the year 1336, every article of food fellto a very low price, a circumstance attributedby Knighton and by Fabian, two contemporarywriters, to the king , Edward III. ,having collectedtogether all the coin of the kingdom to carry onhis hostile operations against France and Scot­ land . He seized on all the money belonging tothe Lombards in England, and on all the pro-perty of the alien priories. He also borrowed,though not till the following years, all the goldand silver plate, even gold cups set with jewels,giving his written acknowledgment to pay forthe same as therein valued. These valuationsare a proof that a pound in money was a poundweight of twelve ounces of silver, no goldbeing then coined; for in the valuations, verylittle allowance is made for the fashion unlessfor the precious stones that were set in theplate. Some of these pieces being old and bat-tered, are said to be “ ponderis et pretii sexlibrarum ” of the weight and value of sixpounds 2 .

The low prices of 1336, according to theChronicon, were for wheat 6s. per quarter; an

1 Rymer’s Fcedera, vol. iv. p. 510.

2 Fcedera, vol. v. p. 39.