506 ON THE PRICE OF BUILDING MATERIALS. 



to continually sharpen the tools. The manor wagon takes 

 home three of the stones, and two are forwarded to Oxford, 

 for use at the Holywell or King's Mill. 



Robert Oldman, the Cuxham bailiff was, like his father, 

 who had held the office for many years, a serf of the manor. 

 He must have journeyed on that road to London which passes 

 through Worth, Wycombe, and Uxbridge. The lower route, 

 through Dorchester, Nettlebed, and Henley, had not been 

 made, or if made was not frequented, if we may argue from 

 a map of England now preserved in the Bodleian Library, and 

 certainly drawn at about the middle of the fourteenth century, 

 which gives roads and distances. This upper route, lying for a 

 considerable portion of its course on high land, the north slope 

 of which is the Vale of Aylesbury, is one of the most pic- 

 turesque highways in the southern part of England. At dawn 

 in the midsummer of 1331, (for the charges incurred are written 

 at the foot of the roll,) bailiff, servant, and horse start on their 

 expedition, and achieve the distance, more than forty miles, in 

 the course of the day, through the beech- woods of Buckingham- 

 shire and the rich pastures of Middlesex. Arrived in London, 

 they take up their lodging at one of the numerous hostels in the 

 city, and, according to the fashion of the time, cater for the 

 needs of themselves and their horse. Early next day Oldman 

 sets about the serious business on which he had come, and 

 finds the merchant at the wharf which lay below the southern 

 city wall. Having chosen the stones which suit the two 

 mills, his own and that at Oxford, he adjourns to his inn, or 

 to some tavern near, in order to discuss the terms of his bar- 

 gain. We may be certain that the chaffering was long and 

 anxious, and that, in Oldman 5 s opinion at least, the time and 

 money were not idly spent, when he aids his bargaining by the 

 liberal order of five gallons of Gascony. It is not every day 

 that the merchant finds a customer whose demands are so 

 large, or who has set his heart on the best articles which can 

 be found in his selda, or warehouse. These deep potations are 

 at last ended by the merchant abating something of his morning 



