66 



bushel preserved in the museum of that city, which is 21 

 gallons i quart and % a pint. 



A wash is a quarter of the above quantity, that is, about 

 5^ gallons, and is the measure by which the flatsmen sell 

 their catches to the Company. The price per wash was 

 recently reduced from ys. to 5s. owing to the abundance of 

 oysters caught on the flats, but it has again been raised to ys. 



A peck = ^ a wash. 



A nipperkin = T V of a tub. 



A bucket = ^ of a wash or X V of a tub. 



A prickle, the measure indicated on the seal and trade- 

 mark of the company, is roughly about 10 gallons or half a 

 tub. This basket measure is made of cane. 



Professor Rogers states that " Fellows of Winchester " 

 consumed large quantities of oysters by the pottle, a 

 measure containing two quarts still used in the sale of 

 vegetables and fruit in some parts of England. These 

 Fellows were members of St. Mary's College, founded at 

 Winchester by William of Wykeham in 1387, and now one 

 of the chief public schools of England. 



A tierce, known in the wine trade, contains 42 gallons, 

 and a tub seems to contain what the half of that si/e of 

 barrel would hold. The Winchester bushel is not the only 

 measure of those early days which is still utilised by special 

 trades, for, I am told, that wholesale chemists supply doctors 

 with some drugs in bottles, that hold about two quarts and 

 ^th of a pint, which they call a Winchester quart. This 

 Winchester quart bears the same relation to the ordinary 

 quart, as the Winchester bushel does to the ordinary bushel 

 of eight gallons instituted in 1826. 



