Page:Englishhistorica36londuoft.djvu/226

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218 THE ETYMOLOGY OF 'BAY-SALT' April the sixteenth-century customs records as the equivalent of 1 British ' or ' Breton ' salt. The Port Books of Chester mention a cargo of ' Baye or Britishe salt brought in 1570 to Liverpool from Pulgayne in Brittany, 1 and other examples of this use of the term British salt maybe found in the Liverpool municipal records. 2 In course of time, as was natural, the original meaning of the name ' La Baye ' salt was gradually forgotten in England, and it is not surprising that it came to be applied to coarse grey sea- salt in general, quite irrespectively of the place which produced or exported it. Thus in 1566 a bill was introduced and passed through parliament ' for making of Bay Salt and White Salt within the realm ', 3 and, a century and a half later, it even became possible to speak of ' Bay Salt of Guernsey 4 J. A. Twemlow. The Escheatries, 1J2J-41 The two escheatries citra and ultra Trentam were in existence by 1258 and remained unaltered until 1323. The later system of making the escheatries coincident with the shrievalties was established in 1341. The eighteen years between these dates formed the period of experiment. Professor Tout has sum- marized the changes of 1323, 5 but the various alterations in the escheatries between 1327 and 1341 and the relation of these changes to the politics of the period do not seem to have attracted attention. The policy of two great escheatries north and south of Trent was sanctioned by the ordinances of 1311, and was regarded as satisfactory to the baronial party. 6 Hence we need not wonder that the policy of Edward II, after his victory of 1322, included 1 Public Record Office, Port Books (Chester), 1323/12. I owe this reference to the kindness of Mr. F. J. Routledge. Pulgayne is Le Pouliguen, on the northern shore of the estuary of the Loire. 2 Liverpool Town Books, i (1918), p. 129, n. 2, p. 313, &c. 3 Commons' Journals, i. 80, 81 ; Lords' Journals, i. 663, 664 ; D'Ewes, Compleat Journal, 2nd ed. (1693), pp. 113, 133, 134. As mentioned in Liverpool Town Books, i, p. 129, n. 2, ' bay-salt ' occurs frequently in sixteenth- century municipal records, often in contrast with ' white salt '. To the examples there given from the Records of Oxford may be added a Portsmouth record of a ship called the ' Anne of seint Pole de lion in brytayn ' (Saint Pol-de-Leon, dep. Finistere), with a cargo of bay-salt of ' burwang mesure ', which it had taken on board at Burwang in brytayn aforesaid ' (Extracts from Records of Portsmouth, new ed., by Robert East, 1891, p. 130, an. 1551). ' Bur- wang ' may be Guerande, dep. Loire-Inferieure, a short distance inland from the northern shore of the mouth of the Loire. It occurs in the rolls, e.g. Col. of Patent Rolls, 1377-81, pp. 322, 323. 4 Stat. 2 & 3 Anne, c. 16, § 17 {Stat, of tike Realm, ad. loc). Cf. the London Gazette of 1708 : ' Her Lading, consisting of French Bay Salt' (cit. N. E. D., s. v. ' Bay-salt '). 5 Place of the Reign of Edward II in English History, p. 360. 6 Ibid.