510 ON THE PRICE OF BUILDING MATERIALS. 



cc who shall be appointed as justices, shall by no means be ex- 

 " cused on any pretence whatsoever, and that search be made 

 cc into the king's records, to see what methods have been 

 " formerly taken for civilizing and well governing the people 

 " of Ireland." 



To return to the price of millstones. These foreign stones 

 were not perhaps invariably derived from the neighbourhood 

 of Paris, and it is possible that the Rhine f may have been 

 the channel by which some were imported into England the 

 best and dearest being of French origin. As my evidence on 

 the subject is far more full in the early than it is in the later 

 period, it will be seen that the chief ports into which they are 

 introduced lie on the eastern side of England, as Colchester, 

 Yarmouth, Norwich, Blakeney, and Lynn. But they are also 

 found at London, Chichester, and Southampton, and are car- 

 ried from the last-named port to distances so considerable as 

 Odiham, and even Marlborough. Inland places also imported 

 them on the chance of sale ; as, for instance, Cambridge and 

 Bedford. 



A second kind of millstones is found in the Buckingham- 

 shire conglomerate of the neighbourhood of Winslow. Entries 

 of these stones occur as early as 1312, and are found at least 

 twenty times till nearly the end of the fourteenth century. 

 Five of these before the Plague give an average of nearly ns.Sd.j 

 fifteen after it are bought at an average of 14*. iod. The fact 

 that so many stones of this character are found in the later 

 part of the fourteenth century is due to the number of estates 

 situate in Buckinghamshire or in its vicinity, and forming part 

 of the endowment of New College. This society, as I have 



f My friend Professor Phillips informs me that millstones have been imported into 

 England as far back as the Roman occupation, from a quarry of volcanic formation at 

 Andernach. If, as is quite possible, this produce was continually introduced, we should 

 look for it in the eastern markets, especially those of Norfolk. The formation may be 

 detected by the existence of a certain mineral called 'hayune,' crystals of which are inter- 

 spersed in the lava from which the millstones are quarried, and which, though found 

 apparently in Vesuvian and other Italian eruptive rocks, is, when discovered in millstones 

 used in England, positive evidence of the Andernach formation. 



