ON THE PRICE OF BUILDING MATERIALS, ETC. 449 



inch plank is i*2s. the hundred, three-inch ios., two-inch 

 8s., ij-inch js. to 5^., one-inch 5^. These are London 

 prices. Those in country places, as in Kent and Hants, are 

 rather lower. At the same time tree-nails are bought at 

 various prices and sizes from 36-inch at 3^-. to 14-inch at 

 is. zd. the hundred, the price progressing by a penny the 

 hundred inches. The expert will be able to interpret these 

 and similar terms with an accuracy to which I cannot pretend. 



Poplar and elm timber are occasionally used, the latter more 

 frequently than the former. Poplar seems to be principally 

 used for constructing the flood-gates of mills, and the power of 

 elm timber to resist wet is plainly recognised. Elms are used 

 for the keels of vessels. I have noted fir spars in the earlier 

 part (1414), and Norway deals (1574) in the later. 



There are numerous entries of rafters, scaffold-poles, joists, 

 rods, clove-boards, pentyn boards, and similar appliances of 

 medieval and later architecture. Sand is purchased for mortar 

 at ^d. the load in the earlier, and 6d. in the later period. Hair, 

 also used to mix with mortar, is very cheap, about 4d. the bushel, 

 and being a bye product undergoes little or no change in price. 

 It is sometimes (e.g. 1524) sold by the stone. 



STONE. Very various kinds of stone are designated in the 

 accounts, both rough and hewn. The former is generally called 

 rag, and was procured plentifully and cheaply from the Head- 

 ington quarries near Oxford. At Cambridge its place was 

 taken by the hard chalk called clunch or cluristone. Ragstone 

 varies from i\d. to is. id. the load according to locality. 

 Headington stone is worth about y\d. the load at Oxford. 

 Clunstone is worth from 6d. to 8d. 



The dearest ornamental stone is that from Purbeck. In 

 1410, 1500 feet of this stone was bought by New College, for 

 the purpose of completing the ornamentation of the chapel, at 

 33^. 7^. the hundred. The stone employed for ashlars and 

 dressings is generally described as freestone. That used in 

 Oxford ordinarily came from Taynton, and is bought by the 

 foot, at from i\d. to ^d. But it is also bought at Naylesey in 



VOL. iv. G g 



