422 ON THE PRICES OF FARM PRODUCE. 



been able to collect is, generally speaking, that of purchase, 

 though some, as at Ibstone, is the sale of the article pro- 

 duced from the beech-woods in the neighbourhood. The 

 trade of the charcoal-burner is very ancient. Purkiss, the 

 rustic who found the dead body of Rufus in the New Forest 

 and carried it in his cart to Winchester, followed this occupa- 

 tion, as, according to the common story, his descendants did 

 for many generations. 



Charcoal is sold by the quarter. There is no great variation 

 in its value. It was not affected to any notable extent, if 

 indeed at all, by the Plague and the consequent scarcity of 

 labour. In fact, the causes which varied the price of wages 

 would depress the price of any commodity the raw material 

 Of which is produced without labour. The rise in the de- 

 cennial average for the years 1361-1400 is more apparent 

 than real, the information supplied being generally derived 

 in these later times from purchases made in Oxford, where the 

 price would be increased considerably by the cost of carriage 

 from the locality in which it was manufactured. 



Sea-coal (carbones marim) is found at an early date. I have 

 no means of learning when its use commenced, but its appear- 

 ance at so distant a place as Dover in 1279, tne ear ^ est entry 

 which has come before my observation, suggests that the 

 coasting traffic in this article must have been familiar. It was 

 purchased for the use of the castle, and must, of course, have 

 been burnt in a fireplace with chimney. Again, it is used in 

 Waleton and Weston, two places in Suffolk and Herts, which 

 formed part of the estate of Bigod, It is found at Southampton 

 in 1298. It is quoted in the accounts of Clare Castle and of 

 Clarette, two of the possessions of the Earl of Gloucester, or 

 rather of his widow and young son. Later on it is purchased at 

 Boxley in Kent. Still later it is found at Hoton in Essex, 

 then part of the estate of Battle Abbey. It even reaches 

 Westbury in Wilts, and is quoted at London as well as at 

 Southampton in the year 1378. At these two places it is sold by 

 the chaldron, and it is singular that the price at the latter place 



