LATHS. 487 



These materials may be conveniently arranged under three 

 heads. These are, the woodwork employed in building, by 

 which is meant in particular the price of laths ; the materials 

 employed for roofing; and the nails used in the construction 

 of the plastered walls, doors, floors, and the like. These 

 articles were bought by the person who hired the labour, that 

 is, by the bailiff or the corporation. There was no middle-man, 

 or contractor, or builder in those times; but a person who 

 wished to build house or church hired the labour which he 

 wanted, and furnished the materials himself. So, again, when 

 stone was needed, a quarry was rented, labourers were en- 

 gaged, and carriage was paid for the stone which was dug, 

 in case the carts and horses were not supplied from the farm 

 or manor-house. Sometimes, indeed, dressed stone of particular 

 goodness is bought by the cubic foot, but this is rare. Thus, at 

 the Teynton quarry, in the fifteenth century, hewn stone is 

 bought on the spot at about id. the cubic foot, the carriage, 

 as before, being made the object of a separate bargain. 



LATHS. There are various qualities of this material, and 

 very different prices, ranging from nineteen-pence the hun- 

 dred to a penny and some fraction. Stout oak laths, rent 

 from heart timber, were worth, it seems, from sevenpence to 

 a shilling ; beech laths were generally much less, but some- 

 times even more ; while sap laths, as might be expected, were 

 sold at the lowest price. Laths are cheapest at Farley, Lether- 

 head, and Southampton, as there were considerable woods in 

 the neighbourhood of all these places. Some of the entries 

 are sales of laths rent on the manor wood. Thus the sales 

 at Cheddington in the years 1313 and 1346 are of this cha- 

 racter, and a very large quantity (135,000) is disposed of at 

 Farley in the year 1370. 



On the other hand, large purchases are made at Sheppey in 

 the year 1365, when upwards of 50,000 are bought for the 

 repair of the castle. 



Some rise in the price takes place after the Plague, but it 

 is not proportionate to that which is found in other com- 



