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RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS.
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ANCIENT BLACK BOOKS, &c.
(_For the Mirror._)
The Black Book of the Exchequer is said to have been composed in the
year 1175, by Gervase of Tilbury, nephew of King Henry the Second. It
contains a description of the court of England, as it then stood, its
officers, their ranks, privileges, wages, perquisites, powers, and
jurisdictions; and the revenues of the crown, both in money, grain, and
cattle. Here we find, that for one shilling, as much bread might be
bought as would serve a hundred men a whole day; and the price for a fat
bullock was only twelve shillings, and a sheep four, &c. At the end of
this book are the Annals of William of Worcester, which contain notes on
the affairs of his own times.
The Black Book of the English Monasteries was a detail of the scandalous
enormities practised in religious houses: compiled by order of the
visiters, under King Henry the Eighth, to blacken them, and thus hasten
their dissolution.
Books which relate to necromancy are called Black Books.
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