684 SUNDRIES. 



pound in 1604, at 6d. in 1634, and at $d. in 1687, the last pur- 

 chase being made in London. Red lead is i\d. the pound in 

 1604, 4d. in 1634, and $d. in 1687. Flurry is priced at 4^. the 

 pound in 1604, and Umber at 6d. in 1634. Vermilion is the 

 most expensive of colours. It is bought at 6d. the ounce in 

 London in 1634. Spanish brown is i6s. the hundredweight 

 in 1684. Stone blue, at $s. the pound in 1698, is also bought 

 in London. These paints, as now, are mixed with linseed oil, 

 which I find at 4^. a gallon in 1634, at 35. in 1684, and at 

 2s. 4d. in 1687, at the same place. With these paints may be 

 associated books of gold-leaf, purchased by Lord Spencer in 

 1602 at 2s. each, by Westminster Abbey at 3^. and 5^. in 

 1700, and still more extensively in the same year by the 

 hundred at I2s., and called thick. 



THE HALL. This, with the kitchen, its appendage, was the 

 most necessary and invariable part of the house, whether 

 it were that of a private family or of a corporate body. It 

 was not only the place in which the whole society or house- 

 hold took their meals together, but to which they resorted at 

 all intervals of occupation. Generally in the centre of the 

 hall was the circular hooped grate, heaped with burning char- 

 coal, the fumes of which escaped through the roof. At the 

 further end of the hall, that is at the remotest part from the 

 doors, was the dais or raised floor on which the high table was 

 placed, at which the fellows in Colleges and the master with 

 his wife and children in private families took their meals. In 

 the body of the hall and ranged by the walls were the several 

 tables with their forms or stools at which the inferior members 

 of the college or the dependants of private families, all ranged 

 exactly according to their degree, were seated. Sometimes 

 there was something higher than the high table, where the 

 head of the society dined with the principal officials, or those 

 officials had a table to themselves, distinguished by better 

 appointments, finer linen, more abundant condiments, and 

 plate. At one end of the high table and on its own stand 

 was placed a basin and ewer, apparently without soap, but 



