WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 169 



times. It will be found that fodder and charms are used 

 indifferently in the accounts. The pes, or fotmael, is one- 

 tenth of a cubic foot of lead, for the cubic foot weighs 

 about 707 Ibs., and three such cubic feet nearly equal the 

 ancient fother d . 



The ancient hundred, employed for the purchase and sale 

 of " wax, sugar, pepper, cumin, almonds, and aloign, con- 

 tained 13^ petras, each of 8 Ibs." The London hundred, 

 which has now superseded the ancient weight, contained 

 14 petrse of 8 Ibs. It is probable that this was originally a 

 tare difference. It is also probable that the same cause led to 

 1 08 Ibs. hundred. 



Of all ancient weights the most ambiguous and puzzling is 

 the petra. Beginning from the petra of glass which weighed 

 5 Ibs., we find among wool weights stones of 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 

 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 pounds. As, however, these 

 anomalous weights are relative to wool only, the discussion of 

 their significance may be postponed. 



Other weights are the pondus, pisa, or wey, used for wool, 

 and also for butter and cheese, especially the latter. The last 

 of wool is twelve sacks. The sum, corrupted in later English 

 to seam, was, and still is, used for weighing glass, and con- 

 tains 120 Ibs. The sum is also used as a weight for iron, 

 though it does not appear to have contained the same quantity. 

 (Vol. ii. p. 463. i.) There was a great and a small libra, the 

 former being equal to the clove. These weights are all avoir- 

 dupois, the pound containing 7000 grains. By a statute 

 9 Hen. VI. it was ordained that the wey of cheese should 

 contain 32 cloves of 7 Ibs. each, i. e. 224 Ibs., or 2 cwts. We 

 shall find that a pisa of 2 cwts. was used in the fourteenth 

 century. 



The nail is the English form of clavus or clove. It is used 

 at Basingstoke only. 



<l According to the Tractatus de Ponderibus et Mensuris, the Derbyshire charrus, if 

 this be " Carrus de Peek," was much less. See also a quotation in the preface to Mr. 

 Halliwell's Dictionary, p. xxv. 



