ON CANDLES, TALLOW, AND FUEL. 395 



sea route along the Eastern and Southern coasts of England. 

 In one year Edinburgh prices are given, which I refer to, 

 partly because Scotch coal is bought at Cambridge, partly 

 because the entry indicates a cheap and near supply. 



Naturally the largest fluctuations in the several years occur 

 in the London market, where the use of Newcastle coal had 

 now become habitual. Indeed, fifty years before the time at 

 which Houghton's prices commence, it was conceived to be so 

 important to London that, on the outbreak of the Civil War, 

 the forces of the Parliament were ordered to anticipate those of 

 the King in the occupation of Newcastle, in order to obviate a 

 fuel famine in London. How high the price might rise 

 in the City is indicated by the returns of 1694, for a short 

 period in 1696, and in minor degree for a short time in 1702. 

 In these cases I conclude that the temporary scarcity was due 

 to adverse winds or losses by shipwreck. 



Those places which were not only distant, but dependent 

 on the facilities of inland water-carriage at a considerable 

 distance from the mouth of the Thames, generally exhibit 

 high prices. I refer to places near London, and still more 

 to those at some distance up the stream, as Reading, Walling- 

 ford, and Oxford. At Cambridge the price in Houghton's 

 list will be found to closely correspond with the prices paid by 

 King's College, especially in the two years 1701 and 1702. 



The Somersetshire coal-field which supplied North Wilts 

 as well as Bristol and its neighbourhood appears to have been 

 occasionally difficult of access. At least in 1702, Devizes 

 suffers from a scarcity which begins in October 1702, and ends 

 in September 1 703, which is so severe that the price is nearly 

 double the general average. The fact that the price is so 

 high in Falmouth and Plymouth, cheap at Pembroke and 

 along the Bristol Channel, seems to me to indicate that the 

 South-western ports were not generally visited by vessels 

 which could reach them by weathering the Land's End. I do 

 not doubt, in short, that the difference between the price at 

 Newcastle, and that of the Eastern, Southern and South- 



