DEALS. 525 



Norway and spruce deals in an earlier period. This was in 

 1574. This kind of timber becomes more common in the 

 period before me, and at last supersedes, in part at least, other 

 kinds. Deals are bought by the piece and by the hundred, 

 and are called spruce, yellow, and * Christiany' deals, by 

 which I presume is meant Christiania. Deal timber is 

 occasionally bought, and once I find fir wainscot. 



Deals were probably used for the dockyards at a time 

 anterior to such accounts as I have found, though only I 

 believe for internal fittings, the hull and coat of the vessel 

 being it seems always of oak, or in part elm, the latter being 

 used to line the hold. As far as my information goes, deals 

 are first seen at Cambridge in 1594, when they are bought at 

 is. %d. each, and in 1596, when under the name of free deal 

 boards they are at the high price of 6s. %d. In 1599, the 

 Woolwich dockyard buys Denmark deals at 145^. the hundred 

 of 120; and in 1600, the same article at 133^. ^d. In 1602, 

 Corpus Christi College in Oxford buys three loads of Danske 

 timber, each containing 50 pieces, at 82^. $d. the load ; but this 

 I believe was oak, for ornamental work. In 1607, Cambridge 

 again buys deal boards at i6$s. the hundred. These entries 

 are significant, for timber is dear at Cambridge, and the sea 

 was very accessible, and would be open to foreign material. 

 In 1619 begins a series of twelve years, in all which entries of 

 this kind of timber are found at Chatham dockyard, deals 

 being found at Eton for the first time in the same year. 



Ordinary deals are constantly found at Chatham, and 

 generally spruce. In the first year deals are at an average of 

 94^. the hundred, in the second at 92^. 4^. In this year 

 spruce first occurs, and we are told that the spars were 28 

 feet long and two inches thick. They are at 40 ics. and 

 35 6*. 8</. the hundred. In the next year ordinary deals are 

 at IOOT., spruce at Js. each, i. e. 42, the hundred. In the next, 

 ordinary at loos. $d., spruce at 40 5^.; in the next, ordinary 

 at 95^., spruce at 40 6s. ; in the next, 92*. 4^. and 42. In 

 1625, the price varying frequently, ordinary is at an average 



