SLATES. 535 



at first I was under the impression, owing to the interpretation 

 of an entry under the year 1 596, that there were 800 to a load, 

 but such a price is wholly inconsistent with that of purchases 

 by the thousand at the time and place. The quantity intended 

 by the load rather suggests about 400 or 500. Now at Eton 

 and elsewhere the load of tiles is always 1000, and this leads 

 me to conclude that the Oxford tile of the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries must have been thicker and heavier than 

 that manufactured elsewhere, one, in short, whose solidity and 

 stoutness made it possible to use it with the heavy oolite slate 

 which has been for a long period the common roofing material 

 at Oxford. The following is the average price of Oxford tiles 

 by the load during the decades in which they appear : 



1583-1592 ... *js. 6d. 1623-1632 



1593-1602 ... *js. Sd. 1633-1642 ... i2s. 



1603-1612 ... *js. 6d. 1643-1652 ... 26s. 



1613-1622 ... los. lod. 



The following give prices by the thousand : 

 1603-1612 ... zos. 1633-1642 ... 20J-. 



1613-1622 ... i$s. id. 1673-1682 ... 5oj. 



1623-1632 ... 19^. lod. 



These averages, scanty as they are, seem to confirm my 

 inference as to the quantity contained in the load. 



SLATES. Slates are bought at Oxford and occasionally else- 

 where. At Oxford they are the fissile oolite, and are named 

 in one year (1660) as Stonesfield and Shipton. They are also 

 procured extensively from Guiting, in Gloucestershire. They 

 are bought by the load and the thousand, one entry stating 

 that 400 went to a load. At this rate, however, the rate by 

 the load is lower than that by the thousand, and I am con- 

 strained to infer, either that the load was a variable quantity, 

 or that, as a rule, slates purchased by tale are of a larger size 

 than those which were bought by the load. It is to be noted 

 that the old distinctions made in the earlier times (vol. iv. 

 p. 442) disappear. At that time, common large were at 200 

 to a load. But in comparing the two kind of prices, 400 



