COLOURS. GUNPOWDER. 631 



all. The whites, blacks, and browns are about is. the dozen 

 pounds. White in 1571 is lod. the dozen, and once, in 1577, 

 3^. the hundredweight. Red ochre is from is. 8d. to 4^. the 

 hundredweight. The average is 2s. 8d. Yellow is Ss. 6\d. the 

 hundredweight. 



' General,' which occurs in 1524 with other pigments, is ^d. 

 the pound. 



MILITARY AND NAVAL STORES. My notes supply me with 

 several entries of gunpowder purchased for royal and private 

 uses. It is bought by the barrel, the pound, and the last. It 

 undergoes slight fluctuations in price, but in the last year before 

 us, it is only a little dearer by the pound, though purchased for 

 private use, than it was in the first entry (1462) of powder by 

 the pound, when it was bought at Stoke. 



In 1441 it is bought for the use of the navy at J2S. and 

 68 s. $d. the barrel. In 1548 it is also bought by the barrel at 

 Newcastle, the rate being 26s. 8d. I have no means of de- 

 termining what the weight of these barrels was, or even 

 whether they were of the same dimensions after an interval of 

 over a century. 



I find it purchased by the pound between 1462 and 1482, 

 and in 1570 by the last, when the value of the same parcel is 

 also reckoned by the pound. It appears that the last was 

 2400 Ibs. 



Gunpowder appears to have been of three qualities at least, 

 serpentine, common, and fine, and to judge from the entries, 

 the price of these qualities rose by a penny a pound on each. 

 I fancy that the fine powder was used for priming, as the 

 quantities purchased are comparatively small. Perhaps it is 

 the same as the touch-powder bought in 1559 in a small 

 quantity for soldiers' equipments, each soldier having a flask 

 for the ordinary powder and a touch-box. In these equipments, 

 each soldier is also furnished with a pound of powder and 

 a quarter of a pound of finest powder. The entries of 1572 

 are all small quantities purchased by a private person, and by 

 the Oxford .Corporation, as is also the entry of 1573. But the 



