390 ON CANDLES, TALLOW, AND FUEL. 



The Cambridge accounts do not inform us how many 

 bushels or sacks a load of charcoal held, but if we can trust 

 the prices by the same year of this article by the load with 

 prices by the bushel and sack, it would seem that the load 

 (which I conclude was, as is nearly always the case, a ton in 

 weight) contained about sixty bushels, or twenty sacks of three 

 bushels each, this being the commonest account given of the 

 charcoal sack. It was always I conclude delivered in sacks of 

 coarse hempen stuff, to prevent breakage and waste. The rise 

 in the price begins as usual with the seventh decade, and we 

 shall hereafter see how this agrees with the facts in relation 

 to the wages of labour at the same period. 



Not only are the Oxford accounts more broken in every 

 College than those of Cambridge are, but they are more 

 scanty in detail. Besides, they use three measures in a most 

 puzzling way, and none of them regularly these being the 

 load, the quarter, and the sack. 



In the early part of the period, the load is used interruptedly, 

 the quarter constantly, and the sack never. Later on, the load 

 and the sack are used regularly, the quarter not at all. From 

 the middle of the period the load is rarely seen, the quarter 

 occasionally, the sack always. In the tables which follow this 

 chapter, the entries of quarters with an asterisk are from Win- 

 chester. 



The load I conclude as before to be a ton, and as it was 

 in earlier times. I find that Oxford was much more near 

 woodland than Cambridge was, and here it is likely that the 

 calling of the collier was far more general. Of course the 

 quarter is an intelligible quantity. But the sack is a puzzle. 

 Sometimes, as in 1610, it is half a quarter, sometimes three 

 bushels go to the sack. In 1610, fifteen quarters at Oxford 

 make a load. In 1648, at New College, three sacks go to a 

 quarter. 



The price of charcoal at Eton is more marked than else- 

 where. It is always bought by the load, and I conclude is 

 supplied by contract. At first it is at i6s. In 1586, it is at 



