OF FOREST-TREES. 



255 



they term the mark) to be ten inches about ; of two east, fourteen inches, CHAP. 

 and to be marked (unless for the private use of the owner) within six ^^""^ 

 inches of the middle ; of one cast, within four inches of the end, &;c. 



Every bound faggot should be three feet long ; the band twenty-four 

 inches in circumference, besides the knot. 



In the 43d Eliz. the same statute (which before only concerned London 

 and its suburbs) was made more universal, and that of Edw. VI. explained 

 with this addition : for such taleshides as were of necessity to be made of 

 cleft- wood, if of one mark, and half-round, to be nineteen inches about ; 

 if quarter-cleft, eighteen inches and a half : marked two, being round, 

 it shall be twenty-three inches compass ; half-round, twenty-seven ; quar- 

 ter-cleft, twenty-six : marked three, round, twenty-eight ; half-round, 

 thirty-three ; quarter-cleft, thirty-two : marked four, being round, thirty- 

 three inches about ; half-round, thirty-nine ; quarter-cleft, thirty-eight : 

 marked five, round, thirty-eight inches about ; half-round, forty -four ; 

 quarter-cleft, forty-three. The measure to be taken within half a foot of 

 the middle of the length mentioned in the former statute. 



. Then for the billet, every one named a single, being round, to have 

 seven inches and a half circumference ; but no single to be made of cleft- 

 wood : if marked one, and round, to contain eleven inches compass ; if 

 half-round, thirteen ; quarter-cleft, twelve and a half. 



If marked two, being round, to contain sixteen inches ; half-round, 

 nineteen; quarter-cleft, eighteen and a half; the length as in the 

 statute of king Edward VI. 



Faggots to be every stick of three feet 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 practised, of filling the middle part and ends 

 with trash and short sticks, which had been omitted in the former statute. 

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

 chap. i. book iii. to direct the less-instructed purchaser : and I have been 

 the more particular upon this occasion, because nothing is more deceitful 

 than our fuel brought in billet by the notch, as they call it in London ; 

 for by the vile iniquity of some wretches marking the billets as they 

 come to the wharf, gentlemen are egregiously cheated. I could produce, 



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