LABOUR AND WAGES. 651 



is no reason to conclude that the Oriel College faggot in early 

 times differed from the later product, especially as some other 

 colleges give the same price for the same labour. Now before 

 1607 the average Oriel College price is is. 6d. ; after this 

 date, it is for several consecutive years at 2s. 6d. But there 

 is no evidence that wages were making any notable start at 

 this time, and one is driven to the conclusion that either cus- 

 tomary wages ruled in this calling and that the custom broke 

 down, or, which is more probable, that in the earlier time the 

 woodman had certain allowances in lieu of labour, and that 

 subsequently he or his employer elected to pay or be paid in 

 money. Making faggots is paid at is. a day in 1641, and 

 making bavins by the load at lid. in 1660. 



In page 413 I commented on the bark which Eton College 

 stripped from its oak timber and sold. For several years, 

 beginning with 1659, the College notes the price which it 

 paid for peeling and stacking this article by the load. It is I 

 believe peeled with a strong iron instrument, the object of the 

 workman being to take off as large a strip as possible. I 

 have noted thirteen entries of the price paid for this labour, 

 which is always i8s. gd. a load, except in the two years 

 1663-4, when the College gets the work done for iSs. In 

 1633 the Fraternity of the Holy Ghost at Basingstoke get 

 their bark peeled at Js. the load, their load being 60 yards, 

 that of Eton 55. In 1636 and 1637 Eton got the work done 

 at ^d. a yard, which at the above reckoning is iSs. +d. a load. 

 There was therefore but little change in the price of this 

 service. The load I conclude was, according to custom, 

 reckoned at a ton *. In 1646 the work was paid for in North- 

 amptonshire at &/. and is. the day. In 1647 shaping timber 

 is paid at is. a ton. 



The pump of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was a 

 wooden pipe, generally of elm, which the workman had hol- 

 lowed. It was a work of some nicety, for the cylinder had to 



1 At 56 Ibs. to the bushel, the load of wheat (5 quarters) is exactly a ton. Now 

 56 Ibs. was thought the proper weight of a bushel of wheat. 



