448 ON THE PRICE OF BUILDING MATERIALS, ETC. 



give by the hundred is. 8|^., seven in the subsequent period 

 an average of a little less than 4^. 6d. 



The most numerous entries however, under very various 

 names, are those of board. It will be necessary to distinguish 

 at least some of these varieties, which are specified as oak, elm, 

 ash, and poplar, as thack, planck, or plank, as quarter, clap, 

 rent, close, eves, ceiling, pentyn, &c. Again, quarters are 

 single of double, and plank is sometimes measured by its 

 thickness. 



Thack board is returned from York, where it is employed 

 for the minster. It varies in price from is. %\d. the hundred 

 to 6j-., the highest rate being found in the earliest entry (1415). 

 The average is nearly, from seventeen entries, 43. i\d. 



The commonest kinds of board are plank or planch and 

 quarter board. It appears that this board was ordinarily an inch 

 thick. Quarters are sold by the hundred, and later by the load. 

 Plank or planch is sold almost always by the hundred. Gener- 

 ally the price of these articles is almost identical, plank or 

 planch being slightly dearer. Assuming these terms to be the 

 same in value, I have constructed, though with some misgiv- 

 ings, a decennial table, which gives zs. <)\d. the hundred up to 

 1540, and 4s. $\d. afterwards. It should be observed that the 

 former average is considerably heightened by the entries in 

 1430 and 1435, from Takley and London, where the price for 

 quarters is 45. o\d. and 5.$-. To judge from the lateness of this 

 mode of measurement, its growth and its frequency at the end 

 of the period, I might infer that planch and quarter board are 

 terms of foreign origin, and perhaps that the timber was im- 

 ported. 



The purchase of quarters by the load commences, as far as 

 my accounts supply me with information, in 1533, when the 

 price varies from 9.$-. to 9^. 6d t the price by the hundred being 

 2s. In 1540 it rises from 9^. 6d. to us. In 1562 it is i6j-. ; 

 in 1567, i2j. ; in 1568 from 12.$-. to 13^. ^d. ; in 1573, i6s. 



In 1561 and onwards, considerable purchases of plank of 

 various thickness are made for the Queen's dockyards. Four- 



