ON CANDLES, TALLOW, AND FUEL. 385 



part of the scarcity at the end of the seventeenth century, the 

 cost of the article points to extensive disease among cattle. 

 Apart from demands for shipbuilding and repairing, the 

 obvious use of tallow was a regular demand for candle-making, 

 and it is, naturally, in such materials that one most easily 

 detects short and abundant supply and poor prices. The average 

 price for Houghton's twelve years is 375. q\d., that of the first 

 five decades in which evidence is forthcoming is 33^. %\d. 



FUEL. Information as to the price of fuel during the years 

 comprised in these volumes is copious and instructive. It is 

 so characteristic too, that in the tables subjoined to this 

 volume I have broken up the evidence into certain localities. 

 But the facts are of a different character from those which 

 appear in previous volumes. In these, wood, faggots, fire- 

 wood of different kinds and charcoal, form the bulk of the 

 entries. In the present volumes sea-coal or pit-coal, and 

 charcoal, are the most frequent, the practice of using the 

 former of these two kinds of fuel having been adopted at 

 different times. On the other hand, the consumption of some 

 kinds of fuel, as for instance sedge, suddenly ceases at 

 Cambridge, where in earlier times its use was universal and 

 continuous. It will be convenient to deal with these different 

 kinds of fuel separately. 



SEA-COAL. Entries of sea-coal at King's College Cam- 

 bridge, are unbroken during the whole period. It is always 

 bought by the chaldron of 36 bushels, and in considerable 

 quantities. It is I conclude as a rule Newcastle coal, though 

 it is once described as Scotch. It was no doubt carried by 

 sea to King's Lynn or Blakeney, and thence transferred to 

 barges, and conveyed up the Ouse and Cam to the wharf, 

 which it appears was close to Magdalene College, Cambridge. 

 Besides those from the registers of King's College, there are 

 some other entries from the Eastern Counties, which do not 

 in the years during which they occur differ materially from 

 those in the King's College accounts. 



The price of sea-coal is greatly enhanced by any hindrance 



voi c c 



