TILES, ETC. 491 



average to threepence, or even more, the increase being 

 considerably over a hundred per cent. ; and in accordance 

 with the rule which we have seen prevail so often before, (as 

 cutting these pins must have been an inferior kind of labour, 

 performed most likely by women and boys,) the rise is greater 

 than that effected in skilled male labour. These pins are also 

 called c kenills/a name found in Southampton, Westshene, Isle- 

 worth, and London. 



Tile-pins are also sold by the bushel. This method of pur- 

 chase is not found very early, the first entry being given under 

 Gamlingay in the year 1359. At first the rate is very high, 

 that is, a shilling to eighteen-pence. In time, however, the 

 price falls to sixpence, at which rate it continued for a century 

 and a half after the period comprised in these volumes. 



To judge from the difference between the price of tiles 

 carried or sold on the spot and loaded in the purchaser's wagon 

 or cart, it would seem that they were generally bought at the 

 yard, and conveyed by the bailiff or other officer entrusted with 

 the duty of procuring them. Thus the high price of tiles in 

 Oxford, seen in the entry under the year 1398, is no doubt due 

 in great measure to the carriage; for though tiles were not 

 usually made near Oxford, there is abundant clay for the pur- 

 pose at a moderate distance from the city. Tiles are much 

 dearer in London than elsewhere, but here, I conceive, they 

 were bought from regular dealers. Thus in 1395 they are 

 bought in London at double the price which they fetch at Horn- 

 church, and there is nearly the same difference in 1399. 



Besides plain tiles, others were needed for ridges and gutters. 

 These are known under various names, as hupe-tiles, crests, 

 corner, gutter, and festeux. The price which these tiles bear 

 is very various. 



As a rule, crests cost as much by the hundred as plain tiles 

 do by the thousand ; as, for instance, in 1275, 1296, 1313, 1320, 

 1331, 1324, &c. Occasionally, however, they are much dearer, as 

 in 1398, 1347, 1358, and 1394. Sometimes they are cheaper. 

 Hupe-tiles as a rule are reckoned at the same price as crests. 



