42O ON THE PRICES OF FARM PRODUCE. 



Leicester, in the course of the journey which she took to 

 Dover just about the time in which Simon de Montfort her 

 husband fell in the battle of Evesham. 



FUEL. In attempting a money estimate of various utilities 

 it is of great interest to determine, as accurately as possible, 

 what is the proportionate price of fuel. Great part of England 

 in the Middle Ages was, no doubt, imperfectly settled and 

 scantily peopled, but no part was destitute of a legal owner, 

 and therefore open to the casual occupier. Among these 

 unpeopled parts were in particular the forests and chases ; pri- 

 vilege in which was guarded with so much care, trespass on 

 which was punished with so much ferocity. It was from these 

 woods that our forefathers drew most of their supplies of fuel, 

 and, as is clear, the sale of the produce of such property was 

 of no small significance to the owner. It is said that the 

 abandonment of the Sussex iron mines was due to the gradual 

 exhaustion of the Wealden forests, out of which in the Middle 

 Ages the best produce of this kind seems to have been blown. 

 Until, indeed, the use of mineral coal became general, and its 

 transit over land, to some extent at least, easy and cheap, all 

 inland places must have depended on the wood grown in the 

 neighbourhood for supplies of fuel, and in case turf-cutting was 

 possible, have used this expedient also. But long after sea- 

 borne coal was regularly conveyed to the metropolis the river 

 was the channel by which wood was carried to London for the 

 use of its inhabitants; and when the cessation of the bailiff 

 system and the adoption of leases on farmers' rents in sub- 

 stitution made a radical change in the occupation and cultiva- 

 tion of the soil, the owner generally retained his wood, and 

 disposed of its produce, according to its character, by annual or 

 periodical sales. At the present time we are informed that in 

 Saxony, where, as compared with other European countries, 

 agricultural science and social economy appear to have made 

 the least progress, the management of the woods is a matter of 

 the most anxious concern to the Governments, because the 

 regulation of fuel is of vital importance to the community. 



