A severe dearth began in May, 1315, and proceeded to the utmost extremity,
until after the harvest of 1316. In July, 1316, the quarter of wheat rose
to 30_s_., (equal to 22_l_. 10_s_.;) and in August reached to the enormous
price of 40_s_. or 30_l_. the quarter. A loaf of coarse bread, which was
scarcely able to support a man for a single day, sold for 4_d_., equal in
value to 5_s_. now. Wheat rose in Scotland at one time to the enormous sum
of 100_s_. the quarter, equal to 75_l_. of the present currency. This
dearth continued, but with mitigated severity, until after the harvest of
1317; but great abundance returned in 1318. This famine occasioned a
prodigious mortality among the people, owing to the want of proper food,
and employment of unwholesome substitutes. The rains set in so early in
1315, and continued so violently, that most of the seed of that year
perished in the ground; the meadows were so inundated, that the hay crop
of that year was utterly destroyed.