CHAPTER XIX. 



ON THE PRICE OF BUILDING MATERIALS. 



I PURPOSE in the present chapter to comment on such 

 building materials as I have been able to collect from the 

 accounts which I have examined. They are far from being 

 as copious as they were in the earlier volumes, because em- 

 ployers now contract with masons and carpenters, not only 

 for labour, but for the whole undertaking. Still I am in hopes 

 that I shall be able to bring sufficient evidence before my 

 readers for the purpose of interpreting prices, and for the 

 several inferences which are indirectly as well as directly 

 derivable from the facts which have been recorded. I shall in 

 this chapter deal with stone, lime, timber, and with bricks, 

 tiles and slates. 



STONE. Stone is used for building and paving, especially 

 in those parts of England where it is abundant and is easily 

 quarried. Thus in Oxford, in the immediate vicinity of which 

 stone available for the body of the building is abundant, and 

 stone for ashlars and quoins is accessible, the general material 

 used for all kinds of architecture is stone, and brick is scantily 

 or infrequently employed l . In Cambridge, where the quarries 

 are distant and stone is comparatively dear, the common 

 material is brick ; as it is at Eton and Winchester. Hence all 

 comparisons between stone at Oxford, Cambridge or any other 

 place only indicate the cost at which purchasers were put to 



1 So important was the Oxford (Ileadington) stone to the valley of. the 

 Thames, that the supply of this material is alleged in the Act of ai Jac. I. cap. 32 

 as a motive for improving the Thames navigation 



