680 SUNDRIES. 



but purchased themselves for their own use, and at their own 

 discretion. 



The poles used for erecting a scaffold are included in the 

 various building materials, but two essentials to building are 

 contained in the Sundries. The temporary floor of the scaffold 

 was constantly constructed of hurdles, and the stages are 

 reached by ladders. Hurdles are of various prices ; the highest 

 is at ics. the dozen, the lowest at $s. 1 In course of time it 

 seems that the stages of a scaffold were constructed of planks. 



There is an extraordinary variety in the price of ladders, as 

 indeed might have been expected, for the straight poles 

 required for the sides of a long ladder were by no means of 

 common growth. The highest price which I have found is in 

 1644, when S. John's College, Cambridge gave 8zs. for * a large 

 long ladder.' In 1696 the same society gives 50^. for ' a long 

 ladder.' None of my other entries come near these in price, 

 for of the remaining sixteen, one is as low as u., and the 

 highest is 26s. But even those of comparatively low price 

 are of considerable dimensions. In 1606 New College pays 

 us. 6d. a-piece for two ladders, each 46 feet long. In 1609 

 S. John's gives only 5^. for what it calls a long ladder. In 

 1639 Eton pays 135. 6d. for 'a long ladder'; and in 1640, $s. 

 for a twenty-feet ladder. In 1658 the length of the ladder for 

 which New College gives z6s. is not stated. In 1675 a ladder, 

 said to be 'folding,' costs 14^. I therefore conclude that the 

 ladder of 1644 must have been of peculiarly strong con- 

 struction. As regards that of 1696, the College was then 

 engaged in building the third quadrangle, the foundations of 

 which were laid in the river. 



In order to secure the foundations of this quadrangle on the 

 river side, the College bought a large quantity (forty bushels) 

 of hydraulic lime, then and long afterwards called tarris or 

 tarras. The composition of this lime was described by 

 Vitruvius, the basis of it being the puzzolano of Italy. I have 

 seen the same material referred to in the Papers of Pepys in 



1 Some of these hurdles were certainly bought for sheep. 



