In further illustration of the payments made in that age for writing, etc., Sir John Fenn gives the following extracts from an original quarto MS. then in his possession, containing—

The various expences of Sir John Howard, Knight, of Stoke by Neyland, in Suffolk (afterwards Duke of Norfolk), page 136.

Item, the vijth yere of Kynge Edward theiiijth, and the xxviij. day of July (1467). My master rekenedwith Thomas Lympnour of Bury, and my master peid hym—

For viij. hole vynets . . .prise the vynett, xiid.,

viijs.  

Item, for xxj. demi vynets . . .prise the demi vynett, iiijd.

vijs.  

Item, for Psalmes lettres xvc. and di’ . . . the prise of C. iiijd.

vs. ijd.

Item, for p’ms letters lxiijc. . . . prise of a C., jd.

v iijd.

Item, for wrytynge of a quare and demi . . . prise the quayr, xxd.

ijs. vjd.

Item, for wrytenge of a calender,

xijd.

Item, for iij. quayres of velym, prise the quayr,xxd.

vs.  

Item, for notynge of v. quayres and ij. leves, prise of thequayr, viij[d.]

iijs. vijd.

Item, for capital drawynge iijc. and di’, theprise,

iijd.

Item, for floryshynge of capytalls, vc.

vd.

Item, for byndynge of the boke,

xijs.  
cs. ijd.

The wyche parcellis my master paid hym this day, and he is content.

This is an account of a limner or illuminator of manuscripts, who resided at Bury.

[1.1] [From Fenn, ii. 10.] By the date of one item in the account subjoined to this letter it must have been written after the year 1468, probably in the year following.

[1.2] This ‘great book’ has been identified, on evidence which at first sight seems conclusive, with MS. 285 in the Lansdowne library in the British Museum. But probably this latter is only another transcript by Ebesham of a very similar volume. See Account of this MS. in ‘Sailing Directions for the Circumnavigation of England,’ published by the Hakluyt Society in 1889.

[1.3] Sir Thomas Lewis, a priest.

[2.1] Here (according to Fenn) follows the account as stated more at large in the subjoined Bill.

[2.2] Fenn’s modern transcript reads Lewis. Is ‘Leevys’ in the other a misprint for ‘Lewys’?