Obs. exc. Hist. Also 5 talschide, -shed, 6–7 taleshide, 7 talshid. [f. OF. tail cutting, cut + SHIDE: cf. TALWOOD.] A shide or piece of wood of prescribed length, either round, or split in two or four, according to thickness, for cutting into billets for firewood.
Talshides were classed from No. 1 to No. 7 according to girth: No. 1 contained round timber of 16 in. girth, half-round of 19 in., quarter-cleft of 181/2: No. 2 contained round 23 in., half-round 27 in., quarter-cleft 26 in.; No. 3 round 28 in., half-round 33 in., quarter-cleft 32 in.; No. 4 round 33 in., half-round 39 in., quarter-cleft 38 in., and so on: see Act 43 Eliz. c, 14.
1444–5. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 391. In prostracione, fissura, et factura CCC di Talschides apud Langley. Ibid. (1447–8), 388. Pro prostracione, sicatione, fissura, et factura, xiiijm Talshides apud Snowdenhill.
1502. Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 98. Item euery taleshide of one be in gretnes in the middis xx. ynches of assise.
1526. in Househ. Ord. (1790), 162. A Duke or a Dutchess for their Bouche of Court … [was to have] one torch, one pricket, two sises, one pound of white lights, ten talshides, eight faggotts.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva, 99. Every Taleshide to be four root long, besides the carf; and if nam’d of one, marked one, to contain 16 inches circumference, within a foot of the middle.
