whight of herring £3. 3. 6, 2 cades of redd herring 203, 2 cades of spratts 3o 8a, 20 salt eels 26 8a, a barrel of salt salmon £4. 13. 4. Ex. ix. iid." Archæol. vol. xix. pp. 283, et seq. At this time there were few retail shopkeepers in the country, and it was usual for the nobility to buy almost every thing at the great Fairs, and few of these were so celebrated as that of Sturbridge near Cambridge. These would be for the ordinary apartments, and had not been superseded by Carpets or Mats, which were, however, in partial use, but probably confined to chambers and parlours. "A lode of rushes" cost 15s. in 1578.- Lord North's Household Book. * In 1583 the usual expense of Lord Burghley's housekeeping at Theobald's was £80 a week. £10 a week was allotted to setting the poor to work in his garden, and 30s. a week was distributed by the Vicar of Cheshunt as his almoner. (Nichols' Prog. of Eliz., vol ii. p. 404.) The sum dispensed in alms by the Earl of Derby was apparently small, but the poor received very large supplies in the shape of broken meat, and the Earl's munificence to the poor was the subject of popular admiration,—for "age and want sat smiling at his gate," so little reliance is to be placed on the value of old money payments. |