Note 175 — The play of the wether

The earliest reference to a dearth of corn in the reign of Henry VIII. which I can find in Holinshed is sub anno 1523, when he states that the price in London was 20 s. a quarter, but without assigning any cause. The reference here is, I think, clearly to the great rains of the autumn of 1527 and April and May, 1528, of which Holinshed writes that they "caused great floods and did much harme namelie in corne, so that the next yeare [1528?] it failed within the realme and great dearth ensued."