l66 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 



15 to 1 6, and was certainly the pound of account in money, 

 and perhaps also in weights. 



The gallon was 8 pounds, the bushel 8 gallons, the quarter 

 8 bushels. The standard gallon and bushel, however, measured 

 in Guildhall, were found in 1688 to contain 224 and 1792 cubic 

 inches respectively, that is, the gallon contained 4^ dwts., the 

 bushel 1 1 02,., less than the typical quantity a . 



According to Fleta, a libra mercatoria, a pound containing 

 15 oz,., was used for some articles. Such a pound would be 

 equal to 7000 grains troy, taking the troy pennyweight as 

 the unit, viz. 24 grains. But when the same author goes on 

 to say that 12^ librae mercatoriae made i petra, that 28 such 

 petra* made a sack of wool, and that a sack of wool was equal 

 in weight to a quarter of wheat, the reduction of this weight 

 will suit neither Saxon, Troy, or Avoirdupois Ib. If, however, 

 14 Ibs. be taken to the petra, the proportion is close ; the differ- 

 ence between the sack of wool by avoirdupois and the quarter 

 of wheat by Saxon weight amounting to 3 Ibs. 10 02,. 9 dwts. 

 Saxon only in favour of the latter. 



It appears that during the fourteenth century purchases for 

 the crown were made in a bushel of 2145 cubic inches, con- 

 taining that is, if the estimate of the bushel given above be 

 correct, nine gallons instead of eight. The common use of 

 this measure, called a fatt b , was prohibited by statute 

 1 1 Hen. VI. Notices, however, of its customary employment 

 by purveyors are to be found in the accounts, and some con- 

 firmation of the custom is gathered from the entries in the 

 Wardrobe Accounts, where the comptroller was debited in a 

 quarter of wheat out of every twenty purchased for the king's 

 use, as excess of measure. When Henry the Seventh reformed 

 the measures, in his eleventh year, he states in the preamble to 

 his statute that he has followed the old standard, and appoints 

 forty-three places in which this standard should be kept; the 



a Norris, Philosophical Transactions, A. D. 1775. 



b It seems from the statute to have been used in London only; but the Liber 

 Custumarum, i. 382, asserts that on an inquisition the City measures were found to be 

 fairer than the king's. Perhaps the statute warintended to guard against private fraud. 



