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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
Of the great Murrains of the Middle Ages, we know little or nothing; the statements of the chroniclers about them are so meagre and vague, that we get but few facts except the dates of the years in which they occurred, and even in that particular the Chronicles are not always correct. Under such circumstances, I felt it my duty, when some original information relative to a Murrain in the Fourteenth Century came under my notice, to take some little trouble in selecting, and arranging the materials in order to place them before the Society. The additional knowledge of these visitations, thus obtained, may not be considerable, but a number of small facts may be of some service, in elucidating the character and effect of them.
page 1 note a Holinshed, 323.
page 3 note a I have treated the animals described “stots” as horses—not because I believe them to be so in every case where the word is used, but because the Stock Accounts of this Manor clearly designate the horses so.
page 3 note b These extracts include the whole of the entries of murrain for the 21st and 39th Years of Edward III., the 11th and 22nd of Richard II., and the 8th and 9th of Henry IV. It is as well, however, that I should state that every presentment on the Rolls relating to murrain was extracted, and remains in my possession, so that the figures of the general statement can be tested at any time.
page 4 note a The Rolls for this year and the 29th are not complete; and, since the above was written, a small fragment of one of this year, with the remains of a murrain entry on it, has been found, but too much decayed to make out anything but the marginal note.
page 4 note b Where the loss has arisen from other causes, and has been accidentally included in the murrain account, the cause of the loss is inserted. In the 42nd Edward III. “Item octo hyves apum,” is immediately followed by “per tempestatem yemis.”
