398 ON THE PRICES OF FARM PRODUCE. 



allowances with the lord's bailiff was far better than anything 

 of which our modern experience informs us as to the condition 

 of the descendants of these farm servants in our own time. But, 

 as I have had occasion to observe many times before, the farm 

 labourer of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries possessed 

 land, had hopes, and was continually increasing the actual 

 benefits of his social position. 



Again, there were certain articles, repurchased in all likeli- 

 hood of the butcher, or even of the small proprietor, which were 

 needed for the ordinary business of the farm. These were the 

 different kinds of fat. Grease was needed for three purposes ; 

 for easing the axles of cart wheels, for dubbing leather, and for 

 mixing with tar in order to dress sheep. It is probable that 

 lard was also used for the latter purpose, though its less costly 

 congener, butter, was more frequently employed, and this 

 occasionally on a very large scale. The hard fats from ox and 

 sheep were used, it seems, not only for cart wheels, but for the 

 home manufacture of candles, and, as a rule, bear rather a 

 higher price than softer kinds, such as lard and butter. 



Among these kinds of produce I have included candles, 

 though the entries can be only those of the better kind. At 

 certain times of the year an article was needed superior to the 

 common rush, stripped on two sides and soaked in grease, 

 which was then, and perhaps is still, manufactured at home, as 

 I can remember it some years ago manufactured in Hampshire. 

 This need was special at the lambing season. Many, however, 

 among the entries of candles contained in the accounts are 

 derived from college and monastic records, and refer to con- 

 sumption for the ecclesiastical and domestic needs of these 

 establishments. The best candles were imported from Paris. 



Another article tabulated in the second volume is wax. As 

 I have said before, our ancestors do not seem to have been very 

 successful in the management of bees. Even now it is seldom 

 the case that cottagers, who might make so considerable an 

 addition to their scanty resources by keeping these insects, take 

 the trouble to do so. Of all kinds of stock, it is perhaps singular 



