702 ON THE COST OF CARRIAGE. 



carried five quarters and made two journeys to the port, from 

 which the malt was to be shipped to Flanders. Ormesby is 

 about five miles north-west of Yarmouth, and the malt is 

 carried at 4^. the five quarters, i. e. less than a penny the ton. 

 In 1464 two treyes of lime are carried from Yarmouth to 

 Ormesby. A treye of lime is a double quarter, and five 

 quarters of lime can hardly be less than a ton. Here the price 

 is over id. the ton. In 1467 and 1471 the rate by load from 

 Ash to Sandwich is a little over id. a mile. 



In 1468 three carts carry each forty-two cubic feet of timber 

 from Dorking to Kingston, a distance in a straight line of 

 over twelve miles, at nearly is. id. the journey. The ton of 

 timber is forty cubic feet (p. 447), and the rate is a good deal 

 under id. a mile, if we allow anything for the winding of the 

 road, which is, however, fairly straight from Dorking to 

 Kingston. Surrey is naturally a very barren county, and 

 abundance of straight roads are always found in such counties. 

 In one like Oxfordshire they were few, and in the neighbour- 

 hood of the rivers tortuous. 



In 1477 Oriel College hired two carts to bring two loads 

 (bigates) of poles or planks from their estate at Wadley, near 

 Faringdon, at is. a journey. The time was June loth, and 

 the distance from Oxford about 15 miles. The rate is rather 

 more than \\d. per mile by road. But the road to Wadley 

 from Oxford has been greatly shortened in modern times, and 

 I think it probable that in the fifteenth century it was more 

 nearly twenty miles off, and that here again we have a carriage 

 of a little over a penny a mile. 



In 1478 twenty loads of stone are carried from Henfield to 

 Bramber at lod. In a straight line these places are four miles 

 apart. In the next year eighteen loads of timber are carried 

 from Wykeham to Shoreham, places similarly 5^ miles apart, 

 at is. But Bramber and Shoreham are on a tidal river, with 

 numerous creeks or streams, and here I think that the straight 

 distance is misleading. The cost of the journey is probably 

 about i\d. a mile. 



