And if she be the daughter of a freeman and not of the lord of the town (_dominus ville_) her merchet shall be one cow or six shillings and ‘rectum servientis’ 6_d._ Likewise the merchet [of the daughter] of a thane’s son or _ochethiern_ two cows or twelve shillings and ‘rectum servientis’ 12_d._ Likewise the merchet of the daughter of an earl (_comes_); and that of a queen; twelve cows and ‘rectum servientis’ two solidi. This clause regarding the ‘merchet’ is useful as giving a scale of values in cows and shillings. juvenca = 3 shillings. cow = 6 shillings. And the merchet scale: {_nobilis_ [?]} _Mulier_ {_serva_ } throughout Scotland ½ cow. {_mercenaria_ } Daughter of a _liber_ 1 ” ” of a thane’s son or ochethiern 2 cows. ” of an earl or of a queen 12 ” [Sidenote: Value the cow six Norman shillings: at 1:12 = stater.] The solidus of this document can hardly be any other than the Anglo-Norman silver shilling of 12 pence of 32 wheat-grains, _i.e._ 384 w.g. The cow equalled six of these shillings or 2304 w.g. At the Anglo-Norman ratio of 1:12 the value of the cow would thus be 192 wheat-grains: that is, exactly the normal ox-unit of two gold solidi of Imperial standard. This curious result is not only interesting as one more instance of the tenacity of custom in retaining the traditional gold value of the animal used as the unit of payments when made in cattle, but also useful for our present purpose as affording a valuable proof that the Scotch compiler of the ‘Regiam Majestatem’ in appending the important clauses relating to the customs of the Bretts and Scots which follow closely upon this merchet clause was adding to his work a quite independent document, probably of much earlier date. [Sidenote: Value of the cow in the next document three ores, or at 1:8 = stater.] In this added document while the payments are again stated in cows, the value of the cow is reckoned, not in shillings, but in _ores_, which the figures, when examined, show to be ores of 16 pence. This reckoning in ores of 16 pence suggests a Norse or Danish influence. For, although the Anglo-Norman reckoning in shillings of 12 pence ultimately conquered and became the prevalent reckoning in the Scotch statutes, there was no doubt a period when the reckoning in ores of 16 pence was in use in Danish England, probably including Northumbria. This is shown by a law, probably of Cnut’s,[204] which enacted as follows:-- Et ipsi qui portus custodiunt efficiant per overhirnessam meam ut omne pondus sit marcatum ad pondus quo pecunia mea recipitur, et eorum singulum signetur ita quod xv ore libram faciant.