LEAD. SOLDER. 489 



fastened together in the building. Entries for the city churches 

 are found between 1671 and 1694, those for Westminster 

 Abbey from 1697 to 1702. The price is generally declining, 

 for in 1671 the average is 17^.4^.; in 1694, i^s. ; and in the 

 Abbey purchases there is a slight rise, for the price in the 

 first year is 14^., in the last i$s. 6d. The average in the first 

 series, eighteen years being represented, is i6s. <)\d. the cwt., 

 or to be more exact 16 i6s. i\d. a ton. Mason's lead is on 

 an average 14 I2s. 6d. a ton. The average of the West- 

 minster Abbey purchases is a fraction over i$s. a cwt., while 

 mason's lead is uniformly 13^., while the average of the two 

 purchases is 15 iSs. 



SOLDER. This article is sometimes explicitly called tin or 

 stanmim, sometimes f err a WCH turn. Solder is chiefly used it ap- 

 pears to strengthen thejoints of lead, to mend holes in its surface, 

 and to fasten the ends of casement fittings. It may have been 

 also employed to solidify iron fittings, but its high price seems 

 to suggest that it is more probable that iron rails were fixed 

 in stone by lead run into the hole in which the rail or bar 

 was set. 



Solder as a rule rises steadily in price up to the end of the 

 ninth decade. All evidence for the tenth is wanting. During 

 the last twenty years the price falls. In the later period, it 

 is not bought by any means so extensively by the corporations 

 as it was at an earlier date, for, as I have said before, they hire 

 the plumber, and let him debit them with the solder which he 

 consumed out of his own stock. 



Magdalen College generally calls solder stannum, and in- 

 deed so do one or two other Oxford Colleges. But I do not 

 think that tin can be identified with solder. For example, 

 King's College, Cambridge, buys solder in 1605 at 46^. 8d. the 

 cwt. Hut tin, of which thesame corporation buys 16 cwt., costs 

 J2s. the cwt. In 1611, at Cambridge, tin costs iO2s. 8d. the 

 cwt., solder 56 s. The tin was bought to make organ-pipes, 

 and in 1645 Cambridge sells these pipes at H2j. the cwt., 

 a at ids. 8</. In 1646, 1647, 1648, 1649, 1650, the new 



