Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/287

 THE ALiKx PKioinrs IX Tin: isli: of wight. 235 of Henry of Oglancler, a member of a family which from the time of Ilcnry I. to the present day has without a break held a leading place in the Island ; Russell, of Yaverland, the ancestor of the noble house of Bedford ; Evercy of Standen, tooethcr with the humbler names of John the Forester, Adam the Carpenter, Adam the Tanner, &c. The form of the reply of the jurors is in every case the same. They first assert ignorance of the removal of any treasure in gold or silver, or of any debts due to the prior. They then proceed to state that on a certain day liichard of Afton and Gilbert of Ardcn entered the priory, expelled the prior and his brethren, and took possession of their goods and chattels, of which they proceed to furnish a priced inventory. We have a similar inventory in the earlier docu- ment, Afton's return containing a few additional particu- lars of some interest. For instance, we find that by the king's command the palfrey and sumpter-horse belonging respectively to the prior of Carisbrooke, and the proctor of the Abbey of Lire (employed to collect the tithes, rents, and dues belonging to that abbey in the Island), together with the prior's white horse, and the horse of the prior of St. Cross, were returned to their owners ; and that at Carisbrooke the military equipment with which each house was provided, " ad salvacionem terra)," was also restored. The first item in Afton's account is, in each case, the money received from the debts due to the houses, together with the tithes and the rents of their tenants. This is followed by the inventory of agricultural stock and produce, corn and other grain, horses, oxen, and cows, sheep and lambs, wool, cheese, geese, chickens, &c. This is succeeded by an account of the expenses of working the land, repairs of buildings, &c. ; and, lastly, by the articles of military furni- ture belonging to each prioiy. The second return corre- sponds in the main with the first ; but being simply a return of goods taken into the king's hands, there is no account of expenses. One leading point of interest in these documents lies in the evidence they afford of the state of agriculture and the stock of a farm, and of the prices of ordinary farm pro- duce, at the end of the thirteenth century. "We see that as Professor Thorold llogcrs ^ has remarked, the same kind of
 * History of Agricultural Prices, i. 32C.