cheapness of those ages, and to bewail the
distressing dearness of the present. Nothing however can be more
absurd than the whining complaints founded upon such facts; for since
the cheapness of living depends not so much upon the price given for
every article of prime necessity, as upon the means by which, to use
a common expression, the purchase may be afforded, we must, if we
wish to form a proper judgment on the subject, rightly compare these
means as they existed in different ages, otherwise our conclusions
will be not only idle, but sometimes mischievous.

"It is very certain that money is a commodity, no less than the
articles it is employed to purchase, and like them, its absolute
value is depreciated or lowered by abundance. Since the discovery of
America, the quantity of gold and silver brought into general
circulation, and of late, the general and extensive use of paper
money which represents real specie, produces the same effect as would
arise from a still greater encrease of it. From this natural
depreciation alone of the value of coin, it follows that were all
other circumstances to have continued the same, the relative value of
money would have decreased, or a greater number of pieces of the same
denomination would be now required to produce the same effect as
formerly, and therefore that it will be necessary to multiply any sum
of money of the present age, into some certain number, in order to
learn the effect of the same sum in an assigned preceding age."

From this multiplication it is demonstrated that the price of the dozen
of Ale, for which the Trinity Guild paid 20d. is equivalent to something
more than 6d. a quart;--the fat sheep at 2s. 4d. to 1l. 11s. 4d.--the
seven lambs at 7s. to 16s. each;--the thirty chickens at 23d. to rather
more than 2s. 6d. the couple;--the two gallons of cream at 8d. to 2s. 8d.
a quart;--the half quarter of malt at 2s. to 3l. 4s. the quarter;--the
fourteen geese at 4s. 3d. to nearly 5s. each.

In the reign of the Norman kings, articles, but especially corn, were
dearer than at present. In Henry the sevenths reign meat was cheaper,
but other articles dearer than at present. We now return to the church
of St. Mary.

In the year 1783, the spire which had several times been injured by
lightening, was so much shattered by a fresh stroke as to require to be
taken down to the battlem