736 SUNDRIES. 



strove to meet the crisis. It is plain that he undertook to 

 raise fifty horsemen. He bought several horses in this year, 

 but probably most of his recruits were able to mount them- 

 selves. He had numerous saddles, and indeed bought these 

 conveniences constantly. He buys a suit of black armour at 

 12QS. for himself or his deputy, twenty-seven suits of demi- 

 launce armour, fifty lances, fifty horsemen's coats and twenty- 

 eight other coats, ten petronels, and ten halberts. His own 

 armoury supplied him with what else was needed. He also 

 buys two cwt. of gunpowder at 5 ; and I cannot but think 

 that the fifteen new hogsheads were laid in with the object of 

 extra brewing. The extraordinary expense to which he was 

 put on this occasion will be found to amount to ^183 is. &/., 

 and if, as we may reasonably infer, hundreds of private indi- 

 viduals did the same, the volunteering must have been very 

 general. If Parma's troops had landed, the soldiers would 

 have been a poor match for Spanish veterans, but the country 

 was undoubtedly in arms. 



Shuttleworth contents himself with buying four hundred 

 small steel plates to sow on or quilt into his coat. They must 

 have been small, for the whole cost only Ss. The Norwich 

 corporation buys a petronel at 2,6s., and thirteen cwt. of 

 gunpowder, the highest price being given for Hamburg powder. 

 They probably had a fairly furnished armoury. The cost to 

 the corporation was 76 Ss. 8d. Oriel College bought halberts, 

 partisans and black bills, at a cost of i I is. %d. ; Corpus 

 Christi College bought calivers and dags at a cost of 

 5 1 Js. ^d. ; and Oriel and Corpus Christi were then poor 

 colleges. The danger passed away, and the armour was 

 hung up in the hall, to be furbished perhaps anew in the 

 Civil War which was to break out more than half a century 

 afterwards 1 . In 1596, when there were rumours of other 



1 There is a proclamation of Elizabeth, dated Dec. 2, 1594, forbidding the 

 wearing of secret armour, and the carrying of pocket dags, especially by aitisans, 

 on the ground that robberies and frays have been increased by the practice. 

 Bodley, Arch. E. 



