764 ON THE COST OF CARRIAGE. 



ancient hospital of S. Bartholomew, at the entrance of Covvley 

 Marsh, once inhabited it seems by the bedesmen, who, in 

 addition to the advantage of their tenement and curtilage with 

 its chapel, were maintained from the produce of the fee farm 

 rent of Oxford town. When Oriel College was founded, the 

 charity was annexed to the College as a country residence for 

 the foundation, and was so used by them in time of plague, 

 the College receiving the fee farm rent, and engaging to pay 

 the bedesmen's allowances from it. There is a record of a few 

 charges for journeys to this place, about two miles from Oriel 

 College and on a level road, though one I suspect which was 

 very heavy in the spring. The average cost of the first five of 

 these hirings, all in the earlier half, is is. id. ; in the second 

 of them it is 2s. 6%d., a proportion which does not much differ 

 from that of the other record. I have taken the wood 

 carriages only in these calculations. I may add that, in 1614, 

 Oriel College conveys six cart-loads of lead to S.Bartholomew's, 

 at is. 6d. a cart, in order to roof the chapel, which is now 

 turned into a barn, and that the cost of conveying timber is 

 higher than that of carrying firewood. Thus, for instance, in 

 1632 the College pays 2s. iod. a journey for firewood from 

 Stowford, 3.?. ^d. for timber. In 1637 Corpus Christi College 

 pays $s. 6d. for firewood, from another place, nearly as far 

 off, 4s. gd. for timber. The difference is most likely to be 

 accounted for by the greater labour required to load timber. 



Similar evidence is procurable from the hirings of other 

 Oxford corporations. Thus in the earlier period Magdalen 

 College hires carts to carry firewood from Shotover at is. i\d. 

 the load. At the end of the sixteenth century the forest of 

 Shotover was very extensive, and no doubt came down to the 

 foot of the hill, or even nearer to Oxford. If so, its distance 

 from Magdalen College was from i\ miles to 3 miles. 

 Corpus Christi College carried firewood from Horsepath, a 

 place nearly as distant as Stowford. In 1592 it gets the 

 service done at is. 6d. a load ; in 1637 and 1641 at 3^. 6d. ; in 

 1643 at 43. ; in 1644 at $s. But the military operations about 



