L _s._ _d._ 1 Cowl 1 0 0 1 Monk's Frock 5 10 0 1 Pellice[215] 3 0 0 1 Winter coat 4 10 0 1 Summer ditto 4 5 0 1 Shirt (?) 2 5 0 1 Pair of linen drawers 3 0 0 2 Pair boots[216] 2 5 0 1 Pair Gaiters and Slippers 1 5 0 1 "Wilkok"[217] 10 0 1 Counterpane 4 10 0 1 Coverlet 2 0 0 1 Blanket[218] 12 6 [Footnote 214: We find the monks complaining that the L300 a year (equivalent to L9,000 now), to which the Abbey income sank in the twelfth century would barely support forty monks. The best working standard by which to ascertain how much money is worth in any given age is the current day-wage of a labourer. In the fourteenth century this was 1_d._; it is now 2_s._ 6_d._ Therefore money went thirty times as far then as now.] [Footnote 215: This was a cassock lined with wool. The word _surplice_ is derived from it, being an alb roomy enough to wear over a pellice.] [Footnote 216: The boots were of soft leather rising nearly to the knee.] [Footnote 217: This was probably the head-covering which the monks of Ely wore, by special licence from the Pope, "on account of the windy situation of their church." The name may survive in our modern "billy-cock."] [Footnote 218: The blanket was 3-1/2 yards long, as blankets are still.] This was in the year 1334,[219] and is a fair average specimen of the cost, which varied very little from year to year. Readers of Chaucer will remember how comfortably, and even luxuriously, he represents his monk in the Canterbury Tales as being dressed. The old garments of the monks were, at the end of the year, returned to the Camerarius for distribution amongst the poor. [Footnote 219: It is given by Bishop Stubbs, in his _Historical Memorials of Ely_.] Each monk had to enter the convent provided with a pair of blankets, garments of all kinds, bedding, towels, a bag for clothes for the wash, a furred tunic, day and night boots, a silver spoon, and many other articles. The novices had tablets hung round their necks on which to write in pencil each breach of the rule as it was committed lest it should be forgotten in the public confession of such formal transgressions which every brother had to make at the daily Chapter. These youths had also each to carry, in a pouch provided for the purpose, a knife, a comb, a needle, and some thread.