502 ON THE PRICE OF BUILDING MATERIALS. 



foot of which in the year 1399 could have been bought at less 

 than the price of a bushel of wheat ; and we may be sure that 

 if they were indifferent to the convenience, the real reason is to 

 be found in the general rudeness or simplicity of manners. 



The entry given in vol. ii. p. 534, in which we read of the 

 six windows set up in Langley Church, in the name of some 

 of Edward's children and relations, is singular. They were 

 not memorial windows in our sense of the word, for Thomas 

 of Woodstock was alive for nearly thirty years after the date 

 of the entry. Windows, however, in memory of deceased 

 persons were not unknown. Those in the ante-chapel of New 

 College, Oxford, invite, according to the custom of the time, 

 all spectators to pray for the soul of William of Wykeham 

 and were therefore probably set up after his death. 



MILLS AND MILLSTONES. Mills were important and valuable 

 franchises in medieval times. On most manors the sole right 

 of grinding corn, sometimes of making malt, was vested in 

 the lord, and the tolls derived from the privilege formed an 

 important item in his annual receipts. It must not however 

 be imagined that the toll taken was arbitrary, or that extortion 

 was unchecked. The misconduct of the miller, even though he 

 were a servant of the lord, was punishable with the tumbrel or 

 the pillory, or by fine on presentment by the jury at the view 

 of frankpledge. The reader may find the cost of making and 

 raising a pillory on Bosham manor in the year 1290, (vol. ii, 



P- 577- ") 



Besides, the cost of making a mill was considerable. The 

 carpenter's work at Keleshall and Holesle, two water-mills, 

 cost ^3 13^. Afd. and ^4 os. ^.d. respectively, in the years 1293 

 and 1294. That of Haneworth, a wind-mill, cost ^3 is. $d. in 

 1295. These charges on certain occasions seem, though 

 incurred by the lord, to be agreed to by the homage. (Vol. ii. 

 p. 614. ii.) But the cost of the building and machinery of the 

 mill, including grinding-stones, must generally have been too 

 considerable for the capital possessed by the freeholders of the 

 manor, if the lord were disposed to lease his privilege to any 



