CART-LOADS. WATER CARRIAGE. 695 



when the distance is short, and the cart could make two or 

 three journeys a day, as from Headington Quarry to All Souls' 

 College, Oxford, less than three miles, the payment of cartage 

 is proportionate. 



WATER CARRIAGE. The principal evidence which I am 

 able to offer as to the cost of this method of conveyance, is 

 that supplied in the payments made for carriage on navigable 

 rivers. As a rule English rivers have a very tortuous course, 

 and a direct measurement of the distance on the ordnance map, 

 the plan which I adopted in my earlier volumes, and have also 

 in this, would require a considerable addition, generally as much 

 again, if one is to arrive at a fair account of the distance 

 actually traversed. Thus, in 1401, forty loads of stone, after 

 being carried by land from Thoredale to Tadcaster, are con- 

 veyed on the Wharfe and the Ouse to York. The Wharfe, 

 between Tadcaster and Wharfemouth, is a very winding 

 stream, the Ouse has a straighter course. But I do not think 

 that the distance of the journey by water could have been 

 less than from 29 to 30 miles. The charge is 4^. the load, and 

 in this case I imagine that the load must have been con- 

 siderably in excess of a ton 1 . 



Again, in 1404, twelve fothers of lead are carried on the 

 Ouse from Boroughbridge to York at gd. the fother. In a 

 straight line Boroughbridge appears to be 15 miles from York, 

 and the stream does not wind very much. The rate is very 

 low, less than a halfpenny a ton per mile, if we take the 

 distance to have been 20 miles in all. It should be noted that 

 the lead is only brought to the pier. In 1418 rather over five 

 fothers are carried from the same place at about io\d. In 

 1442 a fother and three hundredweights are conveyed at a 

 higher rate, but it may be reasonably concluded that small 

 parcels of goods, either by land or water, would be carried at 

 an increased price. 



Far cheaper than any of these is the carriage from Doncaster 



1 The ton and the load by water carriage may be indicated by the distinction drawn 

 under the year 1566, that of eight to thirteen. 



