CHAP, iv S Y L V A in 



If marked two, being round, to contain 1 6 inches ; 

 half-round 1 9 ; quarter-cleft 1 8 ; the length as in 

 the Statute of King Edward 6. 



28. Faggots to be every stick of three foot in 

 length, excepting only one stick of one foot long, to 

 harden and wedge the binding of it : This, to prevent 

 the abuse (too much practis'd) of filling the middle 

 part, and ends with trash and short sticks, which had 

 been omitted in the former Statute : Concerning this 

 and of the dimensions of wood in the stack, see Coppices 

 cap. i. book 3. to direct the less instructed purchaser : 

 And I have been the more particular upon this 

 occasion ; because, than our fuel bought in billet by 

 the notch (as they call it in London) there is nothing 

 more deceitful ; for by the vile iniquity of some 

 wretches, marking the billets as they come to the 

 wharf, gentlemen are egregiously cheated. I could 

 produce an instance of a friend of mine (and a member 

 of this Society) for which the wood-monger has little 

 cause to brag ; since he never durst come at him, or 

 challenge his money for the commodity he brought ; 

 because he durst not stand to the measure. 



At Hall near Foy, there is a faggot which consists 

 but of one piece of wood, naturally grown in that 

 form, with a band wrapped about it, and parted at 

 the ends into four sticks, one of which is subdivided 

 into two others : It was carefully preserved many 

 years by an Earl of Devonshire, and looked on as 

 portending the fate of his posterity, which is since 

 indeed come into the hands of four Cornish gentle- 

 men, one of whose estates is likewise divided 'twixt 

 two heirs. This we have out of Camden, and I here 

 note, for the extravagancy of the thing ; though as 

 to the verity of such portents from trees, &c. I do 



