604 ON THE PRICE OF METALS. 



the pound for the labour of fashioning it into some domestic 

 implement. Again, the proportionate solidity of the various 

 brazen vessels of the household is fairly denoted by the Gam- 

 lingay purchases in 1363. The four-gallon pot is bought at 

 the rate of is. d. the gallon; the posnet, holding one gallon, 

 costs is. &/.'; while the patella*, that is brass dishes, two of 

 which, holding respectively three gallons and one gallon, are 

 bought, the former at 6d. y the latter at 4^. In 1348 the Cam- 

 bridge bailiff buys a four-gallon pot for 45-. 6d. y which, as he 

 states, weighs 23 Ibs., that is, 4! Ibs. to the gallon. 



But little information is found for the later period. This 

 circumstance is due to the fact, that towards the close of the 

 fourteenth century the purchaser generally buys his implement 

 or utensil ready made from the whitesmith, a set-off on the 

 price of the new article being taken on the price of the old 

 metal. But unluckily the purchaser very rarely states what 

 was the weight or dimension of the new or of the old and 

 thus, for the purpose before us, the entry has no value. 



