HR. C. 13. PLOWRIGHT ON WOAD AS A BLUE DYE. 
141 
Pliny* refers to it as having been used to stain chalk blue for the 
adulteration of indigo, which was then a pigment of great rarity, 
as it had to be imported by the “overland route” from India. 
Besides the Norwich Indenture given in Mr. Corder’s paper there 
exists a still earlier Norfolk record of Wood in the “Composicio 
Lennae,”t which was an agreement between William de Raleigh, 
Bishop of Norwich, and the Earl of Arundel, made in the year 1243. 
The original of this document is not in existence, but there is 
a copy of it in the archives of King’s Lynn. This roll was 
made probably in the reign of Edward III., and shows the 
“ custumies de la Tolboth de Lenn.” 
A list of the tolls payable includes Woad under the name Wad, 
viz. — 
WAD. 
Of ev’y tonne wt. Wad 
iiijd 
Of ev’y frayel Wad 
iiijd 
Of di : frayel . . 
ijd 
Of j quart’ 
id 
Of di quart’ 
ob 
Benethe rizt not 
nl 
These are practically the same dues, fourpence per cask (doleo), 
and the like sum per basket (fraillo) as were payable in Norwich. 
The survival of the word frail in East Anglia is also interesting, it 
being still applied to a basket made of bulrushes ( Scirpus lacustri t). 
In Customs Roll of Lynn, 1302 — 3, reference is made to the 
import of eleven casks of “ Wayd ” from Amiens j 
Mr. Walter Rye draws my attention to the fact that in John the 
Libester's rebellion in 1381 the rebels stole from the house of 
Henry Lomyner a “ pokett of wad” valued at 100s. (Powell’s 
‘Rising in East Anglia,’ p. 30). He also points out that no less 
than five people of the name of Lister were implicated in the 
rebellion, that Lister means cloth dyer (‘Prompt. ParvuL’ p. 307), 
and suggests that one of the predisposing causes of the riot may 
have been the introduction of a new dyeing process by the Flemish, 
who seem to have been the special object of the fury of the mob. 
The first printed reference to Woad as a blue dye occurs in Euellius,§ 
* Pliny. Nat. Hist. vol. xxxv. 6. 
t Howlett R. ‘ Norfolk Antiquarian Miscellany,’ vol. iii., 1887, p. 603. 
J Howlett R. ‘ Norfolk Antiquarian Miscellany,” vol. ii. p. 527. 
§ Ruellius J. ‘ De Natura Stirpium,’ lib. ii.; folio, Paris, 1536, p. 574. 
» »> j, Basle, 1537, p. 434. 
