140 JOURNEFS AND MARKETS. 



in 613. i. The rate is tolerably fast. In the journey of 1332 

 the travellers take ten days to travel to Newcastle, but it 

 must be remembered that it was mid-winter. The return 

 journey through Lincolnshire takes nine days. There is no 

 reason to think that there was any hurry on either occasion, 

 or that the warden and fellows felt constrained to use any 

 great amount of expedition. 



The number of persons who travelled to the North in 1332 

 seems to have been at least seven the warden, two fellows, 

 and four servants and the charges in the first week to have 

 been ^i ijs. 7^., in the second ^i is. ^\d. The fellows 

 return by themselves, and the costs of their journey, each with 

 his servant, appear to have been 15^. o\d. in the week on 

 which they reached Oxford. 



The markets were held in the Middle Ages, as a rule, on the 

 same days as are devoted to such purposes in towns at present. 

 Thus we can trace the Wednesday and Saturday markets at 

 Oxford in the Holywell accounts, and similarly the Henley 

 market in those of Cuxham, the bailiff attending, as a rule, at 

 the nearest market town in order to buy and sell his produce, 

 and entering such personal charges as he was put to in satis- 

 faction of this duty under his schedule of credits. Whenever 

 there was opportunity for water-carriage, produce was freely, 

 and, as we shall see hereafter, cheaply transported. London, 

 for instance, is supplied through the whole course of the Thames 

 with corn and fueL from the country places which lay on its 

 banks. Nor is it likely that, all things considered, there was 

 scanty communication by land. For the reason so frequently 

 alluded to, the peculiar distribution of real property, there was 

 every motive to keep roads in good repair, and we shall find 

 that ordinarily the carriage of commodities over known dis- 

 tances was not so costly or so infrequent as might be supposed. 



Tolls were taken at these markets, the aggregate value of 

 which was often considerable. Thus eighteen pigs are sold at 

 Croydon, vol. ii. p. 6 1 2. i., and the payment of a farthing is 

 exacted on each transaction. So ibid., p. 610. ii., the market 



