MILLS AND MILLSTONES. 505 



separate item, as at Rye in 1383 and 1287. The cost incurred 

 on this head is illustrated very exactly by an account given in 

 the bailiff's roll of Cuxham for the year 1330-1, as well as 

 the method by which a village in Oxfordshire procured a supply 

 of this character. The purchase of millstones on this occasion 

 is the largest which has come before my observation, and it 

 may be worth while to transcribe the details. 



Five stones of foreign origin, c e partibus transmarinis,' are 

 bought in London at 3/. 3*. 4^. each. Argentum dei, i. e. the 

 luck or bargain penny, id. ; five gallons of wine bought for the 

 same, c pro beveria/ zs. id. loading in a ship at London, 5^. ; 

 wharfage, >jkd. ; murage, lod. ; carriage, London to Henley, 

 us. id.; murage at Mayden-church, lod. ; journey of bailiff, 

 servant, and horse, to and from London, 3^. o^., the journey 

 taking three days. Expenses on another occasion for four days 

 in seeing to the carriage of the stones, 4^. Expenses of three 

 men for three days at Henley boring the stones, and the ex- 

 penses of two carters carrying two stones to Cuxham, y. yd. 

 Iron bought, 2^.; steel bought for c biles c ' to bore the stones, 

 9*/.; smith for making the biles and sharpening them again 

 and again, 2s. Two hoops bought for carrying two stones to 

 Oxford, 6d. 



The bailiff' seems to have not only paid the luck-penny, but 

 to have provided the beverage, during the consumption of 

 which the bargain was negotiated and completed. The pur- 

 chase and the further business of treating for the carriage 

 involved two separate journeys; and the transit is marked by 

 the claim of a toll from the city of London and the town of 

 Maidenhead. At Henley, labourers are hired to bore the 

 stones: as usual, iron and steel are bought and served out to 

 the smith, and with the latter article, biles, (that is, plainly, 

 boring tools,) are framed on the spot, the smith being retained 



c ' Bile ' does not occur in the Glossaries. But Dr. Bosworth (Anglo-Saxon Dictionary) 

 interprets 'bil* as steel, or any steel implement, such as a pick. He states, however, 

 that it occurs in poetry only. The Cuxham bailiff uses it in his account without putting 

 the word into a Latin form. 



