LIME. 515 



chaldron, the quantities being apparently and for the most 

 part identical, though there are some entries which are not a 

 little puzzling. At Oxford it is bought by the quarter and 

 the load, the load being occasionally stated to be four quarters 

 or thirty-two bushels, and the price by the load being generally 

 lower than it is by the quarter. But in 1614 at Oxford the 

 load is 3^ quarters. On one occasion (1658) the Winchester 

 load, which occurs late, is said to be forty-nine bushels, and 

 here the load is cheaper by quantity than the quarter. On 

 Cranfield's estate in 1614 the load is said to be five quarters. 

 It is sometimes sold by the sack of four bushels, and occasion- 

 ally, as at Chatham and London, by the hundred. From the 

 entry of a load at Chatham in 1600, where we are told that it 

 held thirty bushels, and another in 1620, where both the load 

 and the hundred are priced at the same place, it would seem 

 that the hundred was three-fifths of the load. At Gawthorp 

 it is bought by the horse-load, and on two occasions it is said 

 by Shuttleworth to be used for agricultural purposes. 



These variations make the averages doubtful, as it leaves 

 the actual quantity of the load somewhat uncertain. But at 

 Oxford and Eton, where the load is, I am convinced, not only 

 from actual statements, but from the analysis of composite 

 quantities, almost invariably four quarters, sufficient stability 

 is given to the averages, the most numerous entries coming 

 from these places. King's College generally buys by the 

 load, S. John's by the chaldron, and I have assumed that the 

 chaldron and load are identical, as for example in 1643 

 they certainly are. But sometimes, as in 1650 and again in 

 1667, the measures are not a little puzzling. 



We are told that lime was dearer in winter than in summer, 

 and it is possible that thrifty householders laid in their stocks 

 at a time when the produce was cheapest. And, on the other 

 hi ml, variations of price in the same locality may be due to 

 the anxiety of the lime-burner to get rid of his stock, when it 

 ied to lie on his hands, at a low price, or at an unre- 

 numerative one. Again, the cost may be complicated by 



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