WATER CARRIAGE. 



is. 8d. from Tewkesbury to Pershore, but 3^-. 4^. from Bristol 

 to that monastery. Now the Pershore pipe is two butts, which 

 by 22 Edward IV, cap. 2, contained 84 gallons. The pipe was 

 therefore 168 gallons, and could not have weighed much less 

 than i6Jcwts., and the two must have thus weighed consider- 

 ably more than a ton and a half. In a straight line Bristol is 

 thirty miles south-west of Tewkesbury, and Pershore is nine 

 miles in a similar line south-east from the latter. The distance 

 from Evesham to Pershore is not much more than half that 

 from Tewkesbury, but the Avon winds remarkably. In 1445 

 four pipes of salmon are carried from Tewkesbury to Pershore 

 at is. id. each. Again, in 1462, the freight of a barrel of oil 

 from Evesham to Pershore is is. jd., of two pipes of salmon 

 from Bristol to Tewkesbury is. 6d., and from Tewkesbury to 

 Pershore is. 8d. The barrel of oil probably contained, to judge 

 from the price paid for it, about 63 gallons. Hence the car- 

 riage of a far smaller weight, and for a far shorter distance, is 

 higher than that paid for the large quantity of salted salmon. 

 I must again conclude that the difference is to be explained 

 by some special bargain, or else the Evesham freight was ex- 

 ceptionally high. The closeness of the price paid in 1464 

 for the carriage of similar quantities of salmon from Bristol, 

 suggests that the usual cost was about is. 8d. the two pipes. 

 The cost for goods of this character is exceedingly low, and 

 points to easy and regular communications. 



In 1454 a tun of wine is carried from Hull to York by 

 water. The distance in a straight line is apparently thirty- 

 five miles, but the water-road up the Humber to the Ouse, 

 and thence to York, must be double that distance. It is 

 carried at the same rate as that at which the two pipes of 

 salmon are conveyed from Bristol to Tewkesbury. 



The accounts supply certain statements as to the cost of 

 carrying other articles, the bulk of which is not so obviously 

 determinable, by water. Thus, in 1425, a hundred wainscots 

 are carried to Henley for 4^-., a further charge of is. id. being 

 made for portage. In 1520 thirty are carried for 3^. ^d. In 



