370 ON THE PRICE OF FARM PRODUCE. 



over 4.$-. yd. the hundred delivered. Now in Cambridge about 

 this time faggots are worth by the hundred about 6s. &/. In 

 1512, at Eton in Norfolk, the cost is 4^. But faggots by the 

 hundred are universally far dearer in the fifteenth than they 

 were in the fourteenth century. The average is is. 8|^. from 

 1260 to 1400, Js. nd. from 1401 to 1540. Part of this exalta- 

 tion is undoubtedly due to the high prices which Cambridge 

 gives, and probably denotes that the faggot was large in this 

 district. 



Faggots are sold from Hornchurch at from 4^-. to 5.$-., and 

 even at lower prices ; in other places at 4^., 3.$-., and is. 8^/., 

 at which the Heveningland sales are made. Once, in 1473, 

 King's College buys at 35-. id. ; but this is an exception. They 

 are sold as low as is. id. at Walsham, in 1501. Faggots are 

 rarely bought at Oxford, charcoal being the fuel generally used. 

 After 1540 the price of faggots by the hundred rises consider- 

 ably, though not as much as other commodities do. 



In my first volume (p. 426) I reckoned, from information 

 which I had received, that underwood produces from 300 to 600 

 faggots by the acre. But the Norwich purchase of 1511 

 yielded 1700, and must have therefore been exceptionally 

 good. Still, as compared with the rates at which underwood 

 was ordinarily sold (such underwood yielding about 400 faggots 

 the acre in the fourteenth century), the price paid for the 

 Norfolk purchase is high, and indicates increasing dearness for 

 fuel. 



Faggots are also sold by the load. The load appears to have 

 contained, to judge from its price, about a quarter of a hundred. 

 This measure is not so common as that by tale. 



Other names are Bobbelyns (Cambridge, 1408) ; Shrof faggots 

 (Elham, 1414), one quarter the price of ordinary faggots from the 

 same place ; ascels 1 , or astells, kydes, or kedys (Heveningland), 

 tosards, bavins (a cheap article), and brushwood. 



Fuel, focalia, is also sold by the hundred, as are tall wood, 



1 Those in 1434 are said to be bought for burning tiles. The word is very widely 

 used. 



