R3/1688

Correspondence from Farey, John, Woburn to Daniel Beaumont: Letter regarding money and fuller's earth.

3 July 1795

From: 1795 To: 1795

Reads- Acknowledges £1000. Sorry draft was not large enough to enable me to remit sum indebted, but the demands are now so immense, & I have only as it were a daily supply. The fuller's earth dug at Hogsty End, nr. Woburn, is of v. superior quality, a considerable quantity is sold to persons who fetch it from the pit; it goes to Witney in Oxon. & many other parts equally distant, but the land-carriage is so expensive it won't answer at the London market. By His Grace's directions I sent 3 ton to town last year as an experiment, & to make its superior quality known; the carriage cost 45s. per ton & when arrived in London it sold at 20s. per ton; probably Messrs. Smith, Mills, Birkett & Co. have some of it yet by them. Altho' it won't pay at present, I am in hopes of vending a consid. quantity in town when the Gd. Junction canal is completed, as the mine lies within 2½ m. of the line ... The bed is full 6' thick without any mixture whatever, and gter part free from dirty red crust usual.

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Farey, John,
Duke of Bedford,
Smith, Mills, Birkett & Co

WOBURN, money, fullers earth, MINERALS & MINING, Hogsty End, Witney, TRANSPORT, markets, London, Grand Junction Canal