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6o Glimpses of Our Ancestors. |
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weighed 134-lbs. Since that wheat has fallen to 8s. a bushel." And then he adds: " Query, what returned from the miller? 121-lbs. So the toll paid was 13-lbs., which was reasonable for double toll, which Sturt saith might have been i6d. the bushel."
"Bringing grist to the mill" is still a Sussex proverb; but the days of taking toll in this way for grinding small parcels of wheat are well-nigh gone ; and the old jokes at the expense of " honest millers " are obsolete.
Mr. Burrell records the receipt, in 1698, of "the three first Flying Posts," the newspaper of that day, which was thus recommended to purchasers:—"If any gentleman has a mind to oblige his country friend or correspondent with his account of public affairs he may have it (that is, the ' Flying Post') for 2d., of G. Salisbury, at the 'Rising Sun,' Cornhill, on a sheet of fine paper, half of which being blank he may write his own private business or the material news of the day." This offer of a choice between the news of the newspaper and that of the purchaser betokens, at least, modesty in the journalist of the age!
On one occasion, in 1699, Mr. Timothy Burrell, after visiting at the Comb or Highden, the residences of his relations, the Bridgers and the Gorings, records that he paid the following sums in "vails:"—"Mr. Johnson, 10s. 9d. (half-a-guinea); chambermayd, 10s.; cook, 10s.; coachman, 5s.; butler, 5s.; chief gardener, 5s.; under-cook, 2s. 6d.; boy, 2S. 6d.; under-gardener, 2s. 6d.; nurse, 2s. 6d. Total, £$. os. 9d." Rather a heavy price—the "vails" of those days—for the pleasure of visiting one's friends or relations!
In one respect the journal of Mr.- Timothy Burrell surpasses those of his Sussex fellow-chroniclers. It is an illustrated one. Mr. Burrell evidently had a talent for pen-and-ink sketches, and there is scarcely an object named or subject referred to by him but it finds a " counterfeit presentment " in the margin of his journal. Pipes, spoons, fiddles, spades, rakes, hats, honey bees, horns, bottles, jugs of all |
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