LEAD. 487 



hundredweights. I have little doubt that the average of the 

 last two decades is lowered by the very large purchases made 

 by Eton, effected probably in London, and conveyed to the 

 College by river carriage. Still I am convinced that, on the 

 whole, the ordinary purchaser in Oxford, Cambridge, Win- 

 chester, and Eton would have given on an average of the 

 whole period 16 iSs. ^d. the ton for rolled or sheet lead. 



It is well known that pure lead is much more affected by 

 atmospheric influences than a metal which is much less care- 

 fully refined. Now our ancestors certainly got most of the 

 native silver from the galena which is found so abundantly in 

 England. But the process by which they extracted it, viz. 

 roasting the lead till it was thoroughly oxidised and search- 

 ing for the residual silver after removing the oxide, was by no 

 means so complete a separation as the art of the modern 

 smelter has made the process to be. Hence the lead of two 

 centuries and more ago was more capable of resisting the 

 weather than the modern product is, and some of the old lead 

 is exceedingly enduring. I do not know whether the leaden 

 pipes of the Bodleian quadrangle (stamped with the founder's 

 cypher) have ever been renewed, or the roof of Radcliffe's 

 Library has been more than mended, though the latter is a 

 good deal worn by visitors. If neither has been restored, the 

 lead has served its purpose in the Bodleian for more than two 

 centuries and a half, on the RadclifTe for more than a century 

 and a half. Modern lead would not last for a third of the 

 shorter time. 



During the twenty years 1663-1682 the price of lead is very 

 high. All metals except iron are dear during this period, as 

 we shall see in dealing with them. The entries too are com- 

 paratively few, and the price is probably heightened by the 

 purchase, as in 1665, of a small quantity of bullets at a high 

 price. Still Winchester gives a high price for over five hun- 

 dredweight in 1666, and Cambridge a very full price for 

 nearly the same quantity in 1667. So again in 1668 and 1669. 

 These entries convince me that there was, owing to some cause, 



