776 ON THE COST OF CARRIAGE. 



water to Oxford. The cost, assuming the load and the ton 

 to be identical, as it seems they are from the same quantity 

 being denoted in both land and water carriage, is greatly 

 raised since a similar arrangement was made fifty-two years 

 before, for it now costs nearly ^d. per ton per mile to carry it. 



In 1665, two small casks of wine, containing together 5 

 gallons, are sent from London to Eton. They must have 

 weighed at least four cwt. The porterage in London to the 

 boat is 2s. 6d., the cost by the boat for the two is 4^. 4<af., and 

 there is a further expenditure of is. 6d. for carting them from 

 the College, no doubt by the wharf at Windsor bridge, which 

 seems to have been called Stone's wharf, if indeed this was not 

 one among several. The charge is high. 



In contrast to the payment made to bargemen for carrying 

 wine, the next year gives the cost of conveying coals by the 

 chaldron from London to Eton. The chaldron of 36 bushels 

 could hardly have weighed less than two tons, and the rate 

 per chaldron is 4s. 6d., or, on this estimate, a great deal under 

 a penny per ton per mile. 



The last entry which I have found of distinct water carriage 

 is in 16.21, when Eton had a hogshead of wine (claret) sent to 

 the College by water from London. The price charged was 

 Js. By tradition the hogshead of claret is 46 gallons, and 

 with the cask, the weight would I conceive be very little or at 

 all under 4 cwt. The rate at which it is carried by water is 

 nearly lod. per ton per mile. 



The cost at which coarse goods such as coals were carried 

 by water fully explains the anxiety expressed in the two Acts 

 of James I (3 Jac. I. cap. 20, and 21 Jac. I. cap. 32) for the 

 improvement of the Thames waterway; and I believe that 

 the regular appearance of sea-coal at Oxford illustrates with 

 considerable accuracy the period at which the work com- 

 pleted by the Acts was completed and the land route from 

 Burcot pier was discontinued, or at least that the traffic was 

 diminished. 



It is clear that a great difference existed between the cost 



