ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. 387 Indentures mention is made of " j. barell ferrat' pro armaturis Regis mun- daiidis, j. grate do acere pro armaturis Regis nunulandis." Tiie MarcscalUa or Marshalsea occurs next to the Hall, and its contents were limited to gyves and otiier appliances of a prison, one of the proper functions of the Alarshal having been the punishment of offenders. The Marshalsea Tower, or Peverells Tower, still exists. We here find a pair of " boefs," or, as written in another indenture, " de beoves ad prisonas mancipandos." The word occurs also as "boves, "in the French docu- ments " heofs — hoefs.'" This was doubtless a coUistrir/ium, a yoke for the neck, a kind of pillory. Its name nmst be derived from its resemblance to the yoke for oxen, sometimes called an oxe-bow. Plautus uses the word Boice, signifying fetters for the neck of a prisoner ; it occurs likewise frequently in mediaeval writers, and in old French Bides has the same meaning. In regard to the " paria fergiarum," or, as in another inden- ture, " fugearum," it appears by the French documents that they were gyves, fetters for the legs, but the term has not been found elsewhere. The limits of our present purpose will not admit of the endeavour fully to explain the numerous archaisms and technical terms occurring in these documents. In the inventory of the Forge, especially, there are some terms of the craft which we must leave to those who may be conversant with such details. It is singular to observe that no stores are mentioned indicating that any provision of food was made for the inmates of the castle, with the exception only of honey, of which a considerable quantity appears amongst the contents of the Great Tower, in every indenture which has been examined. It was probabl}' used for making mead. There was a windmill, and hand-mills, but we lind no store of any grain or other provisions. The most curious portion of the indentures under consideration is that occurring under the head of the " Domus Armorura," — the old Arsenal, in which even in the times of Elizabeth her chaplain DaroU saw arms so ancient that they had been commonly regarded as Roman. Amongst the munitions enumerated in the foregoing documents we are struck by the variety of crossbows and missiles appertaining to the more simple mode of warfare practised in earlier times. It may safely be assumed that gun- powder was used in the campaign of Edward III. in 1346, as has been shown by the Rev. Joseph Hunter in a valuable memoir communicated to the Society of Antiquaries. The earliest of these documents, however, which I have had the opportunity of examining, in which any allusion occurs to this important change in mediaeval warfare, is found in the indenture between William Latimer and Andrew Guldefurd, late constable of Dover Castle, dated April 1, 46 Edw. III. (1372.) We here find amongst the munitions of the fortress — *'cc. garbas sagittarura. vj. gonnes." Amongst numerous items in the Arsenal deserving of consideration, there are two to which I must briefly advert. One of these is the mention of a kind of head-piece, as far as I am aware hitherto unnoticed, — " xij.
- " Boia, quasi jugura bovis." Isidorus. Bodia, &c.; and his Dissertation xx. on
Palsgrave gives the term " Oxe bowe that Joiuville, where he shows that ihe old gothe about his necke, Collier de beuf." French liutes were identical with Boice. Eclaireissement de la langue Fi'ancoyse. Villaneus terms them Bore. ^ See Ducange, under Boia, Boga, " Archteologia, vol. xxxii. p. 379. VOL. XI. 3 E
