NAILS. 495 



entry under the year 1328 from Sweynston, a place which 

 I have been unable to identify. In all these places, with the 

 exception of Alton Barnes (1397), the price is low. 



After the Plague there are only two entries of Southampton 

 purchases, those namely in 1389. The average taken 

 from these two is is. n<, a rise which corresponds to 

 that discerned in the increased value of Stonesfield or oolitic 

 slates. 



The price of slate-pins does not vary materially from that 

 of tile-pins. The entries, however, are few. 



NAILS. There is a great variety of nails in the authorities 

 from which prices are compiled for these volumes, and in the 

 large majority of cases it is exceedingly difficult to arrange the 

 evidence for the purpose of drawing any inference. 



The most frequent entry, however, under the head of nails 

 is capable of being exhibited in a very distinct tabular form. 

 Houses, as has been often stated, were made in very many 

 cases of a wooden frame-work, with lath-and-plaster sides. 

 The nails employed to fasten these laths to the timbers, called 

 also brods in the eastern counties, are quoted in such abundance 

 as to leave few years without an entry, and are highly sugges- 

 tive of the rise and fall in prices. 



Lath-nails were kept for sale in every town, and were 

 manufactured in every village of any magnitude. The demand 

 was constant, and no doubt, when the smith was disengaged 

 from his occasional labour in shoeing horses or manufacturing 

 the iron which was served out to him by his employers, he 

 occupied his time in making nails of all kinds. Sometimes he 

 is hired to make nails out of iron which has been bought by 

 his customers. Thus (vol. ii. p. 580. iv.) the smith at Elham 

 is paid 8^. for the labour of making 100 cart-nails from the 

 bailiff's iron. 



Nor is there any reason to doubt that the form and the 

 average weight of such nails have remained unchanged- up to 

 the present time. The style of building so prevalent in the 

 Middle Ages is still, unfortunately, common in places where 



