According to Worlidge (1704), “about 75 pounds” of raisins. Possibly not a unit.
1
Schedule of murage chargeable on divers goods.
…
for a frail of figs and raisins 1d.;
Reginald R. Sharpe, editor.
Calendar of Letter-Books Preserved among the Archives of the City of London at the Guildhall.
Letter-Book H. Circa A.D. 1375-1399.
London: Printed by John Edward Francis, 1907.
Page 297.
Probably written 1386.
2
FRAYLE of figs. A basket in which figs are brought from Spain and other parts. Minshew derives the word from Lat. fragilis; Skinner from the Italian fragli, the knots and folding of the flags with which it is made. No doubt the name is owing to the language of that place from whence they are brought; Et in uno frayle ficuum iii. sol. iv. den.*
White Kennett.
Parochial Antiquities Attempted in the History of Ambrosden, Burcester, and
other adjacent Parts of the Counties of Oxford and Bucks. vol. 2.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1818. (First published in
1695.)
Unpaged glossary.
*a quote from an account book covering the year 1425-1416, reproduced on page 255 of vol. 2 of Kennett.
3
Fraile, frayel, s. (A.-N. frayel.) A basket, made of rushes, or matting, used for fruit, as figs and raisins.
“You have pickt a raison out of a fraile of figges." Lilly’s Mother Bombie, 1632.
“1636, pd. mending frayles, 2d." MS. Account Book Linc. Cathed.
70 lb are given as the weight of a frail of raisins, or figs.
Three frails of sprats carried from mart to mart,
Are as much meat as these, to more use travell’d.
B[eaumont]. & Fl[etcher]., Queen of Corinth, ii, 4.
Great guns fourteen, three hundred pipes of wine,
Two hundred frailes of figs and raisons fine.
Mirror for Mag, p. 482.
Thomas Wright.
A Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English.
London: Henry G. Bohn, 1857.
Page 478.
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