510 ON THE PRICE OF LABOUR. 



higher rate than his fellows. The name of one of these, Jacklyn, 

 the master carpenter, is preserved, and four of these principal 

 artisans sign every page of the account book, as I have already 

 observed. The work is hurried, the men working extra hours, 

 often by night as well as by day, and on holidays and Sundays. 

 The number of extra hours is registered, and paid at id. for 

 the artisans and \d. for the labourers. In the accounts the 

 Sundays and higher holidays are marked by a cipher, the 

 day's work by a cross, and frequently, when extra work is done, 

 the cross is doubled, or when it is done on holidays the cross is 

 written over the cipher. The work goes on simultaneously on 

 all the royal manors for which Needham's services, as controller, 

 were required. The wages vary, but correspond pretty closely 

 to the rates paid in London, and all sorts of workmen are em- 

 ployed. There are carpenters, tilers, sawyers, masons, joiners, 

 bricklayers, plumbers, plasterers, smiths, daubers, matlayers, 

 slaters, wire-drawers, gardeners, milners or millwrights, lock- 

 smiths, hard-hewers (paid by the week), glaziers, organ-builders, 

 carvers, palers, inbowers, miners, butt-makers, and gong-fermers, 

 the last being employed in keeping the latrines clean. The 

 joiners are almost invariably foreigners. These people receive 

 daily wages from 8d. to 6d., common labour being paid some- 

 times at $d., more frequently at ^d. The hard-hewers get 

 from 4s. to 3.$-. ^d. the week l . 



Some kind of work is done by the piece, that of the sawyer 

 frequently, as elsewhere, by the hundred (<:). But tiles are 

 pinned at z^d. the thousand, paving at id. the yard, smith's 

 work on iron at id. the pound, painting at id. and 2d. the 

 yard, setting lattice at z\d. the foot, casting and laying lead at 

 4d. the hundred (<:), casting only at zd., wiring windows at ^d. 

 the foot, making bricks the dimensions of which are, 9 \ inches 

 long, 4! inches broad, and 2 inches thick at 2s. Sd. the thou- 

 sand (the king finding fuel), making laths at zd. the hun- 

 dred (<;), sometimes 3^., working up old iron at \d. the pound, 



1 Work on holidays (Vol. Ill, p. 652) was paid at higher rates than that of ordinary 

 work. 



