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As he wrote his book, however, for a particular purpose, he does

not think proper to make this acknowledgment till after

transcribing this conversion price fifteen times. The price is

eight shillings the quarter of wheat. This sum in 1423, the year

at which he begins with it, contained the same quantity of silver

as sixteen shillings of our present money. But in 1562, the year

at which he ends with it, it contained no more than the same

nominal sum does at present.

Secondly, they have been misled by the slovenly manner in which

some ancient statutes of assize had been sometimes transcribed by

lazy copiers, and sometimes, perhaps, actually composed by the

legislature.