Bavin (wood) was a traditional unit of firewood, a large log.

Description and use

A bavin in the 16thC was a piece of wood standardised as three foot long and two feet round.[1] In Hampshire in the early19thC, its cost was between 6 and 15 shillings per hundred bavins.[2]

Charles Vancouver in 1813 wrote of "Bavins for heating the oven and making a sudden but transient fire".[3] Bavins were used especially by bakers.[4]

Literary associations

Jane Austen in 1814 complained to her sister that “My Mother’s Wood is brought in-but by some mistake, no Bavins. She must therefore buy some”.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ R Fortey, The Wood for the Trees (2016) p. 154
  2. ^ D Le Faye ed., Jane Austen’s Letters (OUP 1995) p. 432
  3. ^ D Le Faye ed., Jane Austen’s Letters (OUP 1995) p. 432
  4. ^ R Fortey, The Wood for the Trees (2016) p. 207
  5. ^ D Le Faye ed., Jane Austen’s Letters (OUP 1995) p. 264

External links

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