Fwd: "three pairs of Baulkes costing 12, 16 and 18 guineas each"

[Dave Hause]

When you look at the prices, if these are beams, they are remarkably
expensive, assuming something wooden, since inflation would suggest these
beams were in the range of 1000-1700 current British pounds each.  One would
also think wooden beams might be locally available in Lisbon more cheaply
than having them shipped from England.  Of course, this means I have no clue
what this word means.
Dave Hause, dwhause at jobe.net
Waynesville, MO
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>


>>Does anyone know what might be meant by
>>"baulkes" in this text [see Subject] from 1785?
>>They'd been bought by Thomas Robinson, Lord Grantham, on behalf of his
>>friend Carlos José Gutiérrez de los Ríos y
>>Rohan-Chabot, sixth count of Fernán
>>Núñez, and were being shipped to Lisbon, where the count was Spanish
>>ambassador. I know of "balks" as beams but am surprised that they should
>>be
>>sold by the pair.  By the way, in the same letter Robinson mentions that
>>he'd
>>bought "several pairs costing 25 guineas each" for Louis de Visme.

MW3: "balk" [noun]: sense 9: <<one of the
stringers placed from boat to boat on which the
flooring is placed in a floating bridge>>.

A type of beam, of course.

It would be conventional to use matched pairs
(one balk supporting each side of each segment of
a bridge). A bigger bridge could use three or
more balks per segment, again usually necessarily
matched in length and probably preferably matched in cross-section.

I don't know whether this is what is meant, or not.

-- Doug Wilson

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org