Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/289

 THE ALIEN riflOKlES IX THE ISLE OF WIGHT. :^•57 considerably below Professor Rogers's average, viz., S.y. I0]^d. The young oxen, or bugles, " boviculi," used for draught, number twenty-four, and run from U. 6d. to 3.9. a head ; the calves, twent3'-six, running from 3^. id. to Is. The number of pigs kept is in accordance with the importance of the animal in medircval economy, M^hcn salted meat was necessarily the almost exclusive fare during half the year. The readiness ^^•ith which pork takes salt, and the nutritive power it preserves after curing, marked it out as the most suitable flesh meat for storing for the supply of the table during the winter. ^Vc find as many as 110 pigs, " porci," and G8 sucking or young pigs, "porcelli;" besides four designated as " hogs," and six as " sows." The largest number, viz., 82, was, as we should expect, kept at Appuldurcombe, where the woods, in which they could pick up mast and acorns, were the most extensive. The price of pigs is either 2^. or 1^. 6d. ; below the average of the year, viz., 2s. 6ld.; and of the "porcelli," Qd. The Isle of Wight has been, at all times, famous as a sheep country. The mildness of its climate renders it a very favourable district for early lambs, the flocks being almost entirel}' free from the casualties they are exposed to in more northern and severer parts. The whole number re- turned in the accounts before us, including 206 wethers, muttons, " multones ;" 323 ewes, " oves matrices ; " 166 lambs ; and 4 rams, " hurtardi," amounts to 699. The downs of Appuldurcombe, then as now, fed the larger proportion, 403. Whether by oversight or not, only lambs, 106 in number, appear in the Carisbrooke i-eturn. The prices run from Sd. to I."?. The Island wool has been long celebrated for its fineness. " Not Lemstei-s self can show a finer fleece," writes Drayton. At the period of tliis return, 1204-6, the price of wool was, from some unexplained cause, suffering from a depres- sion unparalleled till the year that followed the Black Death of 1348. The wool at Carisbrooke is noted as " debilis,"and is valued at only 40.*. a sack, /. c, Is. od. a petra, or stone. At Appuldurcombe it was slightly higher =l5. C)d. a stone. Some of the prices given b}' Professor Rogers, tliis same 3'ear, are : — Farley, l.s-. If/, and 1^. 2d. ; Gamlinga}', 2s. and 1^. 9}/l. The quantity is but small — 3 sacks at Carisbrooke and 4 pisrc 5 petra?, /. e., about 2^ sacks at Appuldurcombe.