656 02V THE COST OF CARRIAGE. 



divided into many streams on the west of Oxford, and these 

 were not bridged. Nor were they always fordable; for in 

 many places the river is not only deep, but flows over a clay 

 bed. When the Empress Matilda* escaped from the castle of 

 Oxford, she was favoured by the fact that a severe frost had 

 rendered the rivers passable ; rivers which, the author of the 

 c Gesta Stephani ' informs us, were only fordable by swimming 

 when the siege was commenced. But for this frost she must 

 have surrendered; though had she been able to escape south 

 or westwards, the passage of a few of these streams would have 

 made all pursuit unavailing. So, again, the great north road, 

 though one route to the west lay through Woodstock, did not 

 as now pass through Kidlington, but commenced it seems on 

 the eastern side of Oxford, and went on the Roman road 

 through Stow Wood and Islip. I mention these facts, known 

 from local acquaintance, because I am aware that much diffi- 

 culty arises, especially when one of the boundaries of a journey 

 is a considerable town, in interpreting the real length of an 

 ancient journey. 



If therefore we take the real distance between any two 

 places in a direct line, and add one-fourth to the product as 

 denoting the deviations of the road, (some of these deviations 

 still existing, others having been remedied by modern improve- 

 ments,) we shall, I think, arrive at a fair estimate of the space 

 traversed in most of these medieval journeys. Thus in a 

 direct line Oxford is about 6\ miles from Bladon; but if we 

 make the distance about 8 miles by road, we shall probably 

 determine with sufficient precision the mileage covered by the 

 journey in 1 263, when eighteen quarters of wheat were carried 

 thence to Oxford at the rate of id. the quarter. I have already 

 given (p. 457 supra) an estimate of the weight of the eighteen 

 quarters, and of the price by the ton at which the corn was 

 taken. 



In 1329 we find that thirty-seven quarters of wheat were 



a Gesta Stephani (Eng. Hist. Soc.), p. 90. See for a description of the natural strength of 

 Oxford, according to the estimate of the military engineers of the twelfth century, ib. p. 88. 



