Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Monday 10 July 2017

Tally sticks


The BBC News online website has an article about medieval tally sticks and similar means of recording money transfers which is of interest to those with a sense of the past, both in terms of the course of the Exchequer and the fate of the old Palace of Westminster. It can be read at

What tally sticks tell us about how money works
Medieval tally sticks illustrate what money really is: a kind of debt that can be traded freely.

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