4 8 9 



being probably from two to three inches, is occasionally found in 

 the accounts. I have not, however, very often noted this article 

 in my extracts, for it seemed for the purposes of the enquiry to 

 have been of comparatively slight importance. The better kinds 

 were called estrich and wainscot. The reader will find a quota- 

 tion (^.569. ii.) of the price of the former, at i 6s. the hundred 

 square feet, under the year 1309, the purchase being made for 

 the chambers in Clare Castle. I have no idea what this word 

 means, but I cannot think that Mr. HalliwelFs interpretation 

 is correct. Wainscot, again, is purchased for Castle Rising in 

 1371, at i8s. the hundred. These kinds of wood must have 

 been of special value. We can hardly imagine that ordinary 

 oak plank was worth so much. 



The information which has been collected as to the price 

 of fuel will indicate with sufficient exactness what must have 

 been the price of timber. We have seen that fagots were, 

 in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, about one-eighth 

 the price at which they are sold in modern times. Nor 

 is there any reason to doubt that timber follows the same 

 proportion. 



TILES, &c. Straw roofs were no doubt generally found in 

 cottages. But manor-houses, collegiate and conventual build- 

 ings, castles and churches, were roofed with tiles, slates, or 

 shingles. Abundant information is found as to the price of 

 these articles, but it is occasionally very perplexing, and diffi- 

 cult of exhibition in a tabular form, owing to the various sizes 

 and qualities of the articles purchased. 



The clearest evidence is that given of the price of plain 

 tiles. These are sometimes used in districts where slate for 

 roofing could be procured and was generally used, but they 

 are more frequently employed in places where no fissile stone 

 was to be had, as, for instance, in Surrey and the eastern 

 counties. 



I have no doubt that the decennial averages indicate with 

 some distinctness what was the price at which tiles were ordi- 

 narily bought, and that as the information is considerable, and 



