762 ON THE COST OF CARRIAGE. 



which the society supplied itself with firing. The College 

 hired its own woodmen and faggot-makers, and these persons 

 probably helped the carter in piling the fire-wood on the 

 waggon. When the waggon reached the College yard, other 

 persons were hired to unload and stack it for use. No intima- 

 tion is given as to the time at which this service was generally 

 performed, but we may conclude that the trees and coppices 

 were generally cut in the winter, and that the carriage of the 

 faggots and lop was effected in the spring, when the demand 

 for the services of man and horse was least urgent. 



Now my notes on the cost of carriage supply me with a 

 record of the cost incurred for carrying a load of firewood and 

 occasionally of timber from Stowford to Oriel College, in 

 thirty-seven 1 years between 1583, the first year of the present 

 period, and 1644, after which year the treasurer of Oriel College 

 ceases to make entries of this charge. It should be said that 

 on the last occasion Oxford was invested by the Parliamentary 

 forces, and as we know that the particular road on which the 

 wood could be carried was blockaded, and no entrance into 

 the city could have been effected except with the consent of 

 the besieging forces, the price paid for the service is pro- 

 bably anomalous, and cannot be fairly contrasted with earlier 

 charges. 



The road which led to Stowford was over the Cherwell by 

 Magdalen College, not by the present bridge, which was built 

 at a far later period than that before me, but by another 

 bridge, a hundred yards further down the river, and at a place 

 where, in dealing with the stream a few years ago, the stone 

 foundations of the old bridge were discovered and exposed. 

 Then the carter had a choice of roads. He would either go 

 through Cowley, up to Bullingdon, and across the common by 

 the quarries to Stowford, or by the old road to Shotover hill, 

 turning to the left at the foot of the hill to the same point, for 

 that portion of the road which is at present the highway was 



1 I have only taken the years which have been printed, but the reader will see 

 in vol. vi. p. 6=5 that the rate was uniform for several years. 



