“he (Wm. Paston) had expended £6 5s. 5¾d. from the time he left his mother to Easter last, which this year fell on the 22nd March, from which time it was now two months, & of the expenses ‘since incurred’ he says ‘they be not great.’ We may therefore conclude the former account was from the Michaelmas preceding, and a moderate one; if so, we may fairly estimate his university education at £100 a-year of our present money. I mean that £12 10s. 11½d. would then procure as many necessaries and comforts as £100 will at this day.” What was the basis of Fenn’s calculation he does not say. In 1468, the estimates for the Duke of Clarence’s household expenses give these prices, among others: s. d. £ s. d. Wheat, a quarter 6 0 now, say 3 0 0 Ale, a gallon - 1½ „ - 1 0 Beves, less hide and tallow, each 10 0 „ 15 0  0[*] Muttons „ „ 1 4 „ 2 10  0[*] Velys „ „ 2 6 „ 4 0  0[*] Porkes „ „ 2 0 „ 5 0 0 Rice, a pound 3 „ 5 Sugar „ 6 „ 6 Holland, an ell (6d., 8d., 16d.) 10 „ 1 3 Diapre „ 4 6 „ 3 0 Towelles „ 1 8 „ 1 6 Napkyns, a dozen, 12s., £1, £2, 17 4 „ 2 0 0 ---------- ------------- £2 7 0½ £31 17 8 [*: Poor ones.] This sum would make the things named nearly 14 times as dear now as in 1468, and raise Fenn’s £100 to about £180; but no reliance can be placed on this estimate because we know nothing of the condition of the beves, muttons, veles, and porkys, then, as contrasted with ours. Possibly they were half the size and half the weight. Still, I have referred the question to Professor Thorold Rogers, author of the _History of Prices_ 1250-1400 A.D., and he says: “In the year to which you refer (1478) bread was very dear, 50 per cent. above the average. But on the whole, wheat prices in the 15th century were lower than in the 14th. Fenn’s calculation, a little below the mark for wheat, is still less below it in most of the second necessaries of life. The multiple of wheat is about 9, that of meat at least 24, those of butter and cheese nearly as much. But that of clothing is not more than 6, that of linen from 4 to 5. Taking however one thing with another, 12 is a safe general multiplier.” This would make the cost of young Paston’s university education £150 11s. 6d. a year.