Beside the passages quoted above there are many references to glass, including an interesting account of Murano, to be found in his _Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ_. Howell edited these early letters of his while confined (for debt, it would seem) in the prison of the Fleet, at the time of the Civil War. We may note among other things a reference to a ‘curious sea-chest of glass,’ and again we hear of a lady writing to Murano for ‘a complete cupboard of true crystall glass.’ Footnote 243: He got this comparison, doubtless, and a good many other stories that we find in his Venetian letters, from Garzoni’s _Piazza Universale_, or from Fioravanti’s _Specchio_, books most popular at that time, from which I have already quoted when speaking of the glass of Murano. Footnote 244: These are little cylindrical vessels for burning tallow. The name survives as an equivalent to a night-light. Footnote 245: I am not sure, however, that when at this time the word nitre is found we are always justified in understanding by it saltpetre or nitrate of potash. Footnote 246: _Greene-Morelli Correspondence_, Sloane MSS. Mr. Hartshorne has reproduced eight of these letters (_English Glasses_, Appendix xxix.), and has devoted three plates to the reproductions of Greene’s patterns. Footnote 247: The same may be said of the treatise on _The Art of Glass_ by Haudicquet de Blancourt, of which the English translation appeared in 1699. There is little or no advance on Merret in this book, and nothing is said of the application of lead-glass to hollow ware. An interesting plate showing the implements used by the glass-blower may, however, be found here. Footnote 248: The term originally corresponded to the _verre à pierres_ of the French. It was used in opposition to the ‘green glass’ or _verre de fougère_, in the preparation of which sand was used. Footnote 249: The confusion is increased by the fact that on the Continent the term ‘cristal’ was now transferred to the lead-glass. Footnote 250: This was the Ravenscroft who took out a patent in 1674, and together with an Altarist, a De Costa (the sole representative of that Ligurian town, says Mr. Hartshorne, that we meet with in English records), made glass from calcined flints, nitre, and borax. There is certainly no question of lead in this case. Footnote 251: Mr. Hartshorne, I should add, while acknowledging that there is no definite allusion to the use of lead in any document of the seventeenth century, traces an indirect reference to it in a patent taken out by one Tilson as early as 1663; in this document, however, I can find nothing pointing in that direction. Footnote 252: The new financial methods are well illustrated in the quotation from Houghton on p. 318. Footnote 253: