UTENSILS, ETC. IN THE OFFICES. 62,1 



hair in 1542 costs 6d. a pound, 8d. in 1543 ; in 1534 brush hair, 

 probably the same article, is at 6d. In 1502 a load of broom 

 for stuffing windows is bought at Windsor for 6d. 



Bran is occasionally used in the stable, and is commonly 

 bought at Sion. The average price is is. \\d. the quarter. It 

 may be here noted that in 1463 the wheat ground at Writtle 

 yielded two bushels of bran to the quarter, the bread at this house 

 being probably of the finest quality. Grains are once pur- 

 chased in large quantity at Sion (1499) at \\d. the quarter; and 

 perhaps the segisterium of King's College, Cambridge, 1458, 

 2,d., 1467, 6d. the quarter, is the same article. 



A 'bucking' cloth costs $d. in 1473. ^ n T 4^^ buckwheat is 

 bought at Cambridge, to feed the swans, at $d. the bushel. In 

 1505 a budget costs 9^.; in 1508, is. ld.\ in 1516, iod.-, in 1520, 

 jd. and Sd. The word is used in very different and distant 

 localities. In 1413 a cask costs Sd., a casket in 1457, is. 6d. 

 In 1546 a carriage, { vehiculum,' in the house of the Warden of 

 Merton (Reynolds, Warden 1545-59), is bought for 31^. 6d. 1 



There are two curious entries under 1527 and 1536 of the 

 purchase of capers. In the former year a barrel holding six 

 and a half pounds is bought for 3.$-. at Hunstanton ; in the 

 latter, three pounds are purchased at Birling at $d. the pound. 

 The price is practically identical, for the difference is about 

 the value of the cask, which, as my reader may note, is always 

 included in the charge, and sometimes specified, but never 

 given in. 



Books are frequently bound in deer-skins. These were some- 

 times tanned, the hair being taken off, sometimes dressed with 

 the hair on. They are in the first case generally dyed red, and 

 cost from $d. to ^d. With the hair on, and under the name of 

 cheverel, I have found them in 1526 at 6s., in 1532 at los. 

 the dozen. In 1452 and 1454 doe-skins cost is. and zs. each 

 at Fountains. 



1 This Reynolds contrived to keep the wardenship of Merton through the three 

 reigns. But he had to quit under Elizabeth, having accepted a bishopric from 

 Mary, 



