ON THE COST OF CARRIAGE. 759 



or five in number, cut deeply through the ground between the 

 water and the high road, and all converging to a point on the river. 

 The depth to which these ruts were cut into the soil was clear 

 evidence of the great amount of traffic which must have been 

 carried on from this farthest point of Thames navigation to and 

 from Oxford and the district about, especially as there is good 

 reason to believe that the period between the extension of the 

 water-way from Henley to Burcot with the establishment of 

 a pier at the latter spot, and the subsequent extension from 

 Burcot to Oxford, was not longer than seventy or eighty 

 years. No doubt there was a great traffic in heavy goods, 

 wood and stone from the Oxfordshire forests and quarries, 

 the principal articles conveyed up stream being lighter and 

 more manageable. But the present appearance of these deeply 

 cut ways proves beyond question that, during the time that 

 the pier and cross-road were in use, no part of the river was 

 more busy than Burcot pier. 



The first entry in which this place, once so important, is 

 mentioned is in 1588, when Magdalen College has a hundred 

 of salt fish landed there. The next is in 1596, of a hundred 

 and a-half. In 1599 the same College has a considerable 

 quantity of wainscot conveyed from London thither. In 

 1602, 1604 and 1607, fish is conveyed to this pier; in 1604 

 timber also ; and in 1608 a very large quantity of timber comes 

 from Reading. It seems to me, from the price charged for 

 conveying the salt fish and wainscot, that the owner of the 

 pier exacted progressively heavy dues for the use of his wharf, 

 and that these dues, light at first, were considerably reduced 

 when the Government began to pass Acts for extending the 

 navigation. It is also possible that even when the new course 

 was opened, and there are extensive cuttings made in the river- 

 bed beyond Burcot, persons with light goods preferred to still 

 use Burcot pier, which is only eight and a-half miles from 

 Oxford, to the circuitous course by the Thames, which v. as 

 fifteen and a-half, with porterage or cartage from the wharf. 



I could not, when I examined this spot, but picture to 



