7] Thorold Rogers, _Agriculture and Prices_, i. 397; _Archaeologia_,
xviii. 281.

[88] Walter of Henley, pp. 69, 75. In Lancashire, at the end of the
thirteenth century, mowing 60-1/2 acres cost 17s. 7-1/2d. _Victoria
County History, Lancashire, Agriculture_, and _Two Compoti of the
Lancashire and Cheshire Manors of Henry de Lacy_ (Cheetham Society).

[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 ma