41 6 ON THE PRICES OF FARM PRODUCE. 



dozen pounds, no account being taken of the cost of manu- 

 facture. A similar calculation, if the stone be taken at 14 Ibs., 

 would make the Bicester candles worth about is. the dozen. 

 When, therefore, the price of English fats rose considerably, 

 it is quite easy to explain how it occurred that a foreign 

 manufacture, or perhaps in some cases a town manufacture, 

 might supply the article more easily and more cheaply than it 

 could be obtained under the circumstances of domestic manipu- 

 lation. I am, of course, speaking of candles in the proper sense. 

 It is probable that rushes soaked in grease were manufactured at 

 home and used to a very great extent from the very earliest 

 times, and that they were continually employed for commoner 

 purposes, as indeed they have been within the limits of our 

 own experience. 



WAX. Though it rarely formed, as far as we can judge from 

 the general absence of entries in the farm accounts, part of the 

 bailiff's produce, wax was in considerable use, and may be 

 more conveniently adverted to in connexion with fats and 

 candles than under any other head. The information which 

 I have been able to collect as to the price of this article has 

 chiefly been derived from the records of private, conventual, 

 and collegiate expenditure. A few entries are taken from the 

 Wardrobe Accounts. In almost all these cases the wax was 

 bought and manufactured for the use of the church, the candles 

 being used either as an offering to the shrine of a saint, or for 

 the customary lights which were kept burning, at least on such 

 occasions as divine service was being performed ; though it is 

 clear that on some occasions lights were continually consumed 

 as a necessary part of those offices which constituted a part 

 of the theory of religious duty in the Middle Ages. 



I can hardly imagine that the wax used by our forefathers 

 was of foreign origin. Were it so, it would be dearer in the 

 midland than in the maritime counties. This is not, however, 

 the case. But, as I have stated, it is seldom a produce of the 

 lord's farm. I am therefore disposed to conclude that bee- 

 keeping must have formed part of the occupations of the 



