23.
In Shakspeare, the hostess tells Falstaff, that the shirts she bought him were Holland at eight shillings a yard; a high price at this day, even supposing, what is not probable, that the best Holland at that time was equal in goodness to the best that can now be purchased.

In like manner, a yard of velvet, about the middle of Elizabeth's reign, was valued at two and twenty shillings.

It appears from Dr.Birch's life of Prince Henry,[*] that that prince, by contract with his butcher, paid near a groat a pound throughout the year for all the beef and mutton used in his family.

Besides, we must consider, that the general turn of that age, which no laws could prevent, was the converting of arable land into pasture; a certain proof that the latter was found more profitable, and consequently that all butcher's meat, as well as bread, was rather higher than at present.

We have a regulation of the market with regard to poultry, and some other articles, very early in Charles I.'s reign; [**] and the prices are high.