FUEL. 421 



The information which I have been able to collect on this 

 part of medieval produce in England is very various, but, 

 except in some cases, is unfortunately of very difficult inter- 

 pretation. We can arrive with tolerable distinctness at the 

 value of charcoal and sea-coal, and can easily estimate the 

 significance of those few entries of turf which have been found. 

 But the rest of the entries are by no means capable of clear 

 definition. In the first place, there is a uniform measure 

 indeed, that is to say, the thousand or the hundred, as the case 

 may be. But there is a great variety of names, many of which 

 have escaped the industry of those who have busied themselves 

 with local glossaries. Thus, besides the familiar fagot and 

 the less-known fardel, we have spelden, tosards, kiddles, (this 

 word is enshrined in the Great Charter,) bavins, and tallwood. 

 It is clear, too, that the same word fagot was used for bundles 

 of very various magnitude. High as prices always are in 

 Kent, it is impossible to believe that fagots of the same size 

 could have been sold at Elham and at Maldon, since they cost 

 5*. the hundred in one locality, 3*. $d. in the other. 



In early times chimneys were used in castles and great 

 houses only. They are found, as we all know, in Rochester 

 Castle, which is a structure of the twelfth century. It is said 

 that in the manor-houses of the gentry, and still more in the 

 cottages of the poor, the fire was made against a hob of clay, 

 and that the smoke was suffered to escape by a hole in the 

 roof. It is not easy to determine the date at which chimneys 

 became general. Halls, I make no doubt, were in general 

 destitute of them, but I do not think that chambers were, 

 in any buildings of consequence. Where no chimney existed 

 charcoal was the most convenient kind of fuel, and was no 

 doubt used, as it was employed in most college halls till within 

 comparatively modern times, and is employed in some at 

 Cambridge by being laid in an iron frame in about the centre 

 of the hall, the fumes escaping through a lantern in the roof. 



Charcoal was, in all likelihood, manufactured very gene- 

 rally for home consumption. The information which I have 



