Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/288

 236 THE ALIEN PKIORIES IX THE ISLE OF WIGHT. stock Avliicli is now kc])t on an Engli.sh farm Yas kci't five or six liunJrO'l years ago. Oxen and cow<!, liorses, pigs, sheep, and poultry, wore reared on these Isle of Wight farms in the days of Edward I. just as they are now. The first thing that strikes us in examining the returns is the small number of horses that were kept on these farms. Excluding the riding an<l pack horses, we find only ten used for agricultural labour. Of these, six were '"afTri" or " stotts," i.e., coarsely shaped small horses, able to subsist on the poorest fare, and do the connnonest drudgery, still common in country districts. Tiie average price of "affri " in 1-2G0, as given in Professor Rogers's elaborate and painstaking work, quotetl above, was 6s. 9(L One at St. Xeots, in 1275, is set down at the un- precedented price of IDs. D^d. A common price was 10.?. The three "affii" belonging to St. Helens are valued a little below this — at 5.v. each ; while the three at Appuldurcombe are not priced at more than 20^/. each — soriy drudges we may conclude the^'- were. The cart-horses, " equi,'' at Appul- durcombe and St. Cross stand at 20.s The prior of Caris- brooke was a grander gentleman than any of his Island brethren, and boasted of a riding-horse, " palfi-idus," of his own, valued at Al. 13.9., and a pack-horse, " equus summarius," for his luLiirage, valued at 1/. He also had a white liorse, worth lU^'. The i)roctor of the Abbey of Lire, who made his home in the same priory, was similarly equipped, his horses being valued at 2/, Gs. S'/. and 1 .'ls 8r/. respectively.^ Only three bulls appear in these returns ; at Carisbrooke, Apjailduicombe, an«l St. Cross, and, as usual, they are cheap; the first valued at 105,, the other two at 5s. This nearly agrees with I'rofc.ssor Rogers's average for this year, viz., (s. 9d. Cows ajtpear in a tolerably largo ninnber 52. Of these twenty-six are noted as unsouml, " debiles,' and therefore pnced lower, viz., is. ahead; the others are valued at Gs. at Carisbi'ookc, where the stock generally was evidently of a superior kin»«! piicoN, I inn}' rm-n- in l:i(J.'{, whan a li.ick wnHiciuclini«Ml JVovcmt of Qiiolmi'm, to carry him to Avig- a )i!a<;ic horno for 3/. 1<'3*. id., ami a |i:il- non on tiiu IjUNinoHH of Iuh Ooliogo, ono frey for 5/. fl». 8H bonfjlit for tho iiho of Fdwanl II., war-d. to V/.