Is it really Guy Fawkes's gunpowder

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'This is the best evidence there has ever been,' for the treacherous plot, a library spokesman said. 'There seems no doubt that it is 17th-century gunpowder, which would make it the only surviving sample.'

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Q.� Where did it come from

A.� It was part of a collection from 17th-century diarist John Evelyn and his family, which was acquired by the library in 1995.

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Q.� Why has it taken so long to reveal

A.� Because the box has only just been opened by curators. In it was a note on blue paper in Evelyn's handwriting - and including his initials - saying: 'Gunpowder. 1605. Powder with which that villain Faux would have blow'd up the parliament.' It is accompanied by a black-edged mourning envelope from the 19th or 20th century with a handwritten message saying: 'Gunpowder. Large package is supposed to be Guy Fawkes's gunpowder.'

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Q.� Seems like the real thing, then

A.� There's a small catch. The envelope also carries another sentence, dated 1952: 'But there was none left!' making it unclear whether the British Library's gunpowder really was owned by Fawkes.

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Fawkes was one of a number of Catholics plotting to kill King James I. They rented a cellar that extended under Parliament and Fawkes planted at least 20 barrels of gunpowder there. The plot was discovered and Fawkes was arrested on 4 November, 1605.

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Under torture, he admitted planning to kill King James I because of his intolerance towards Catholicism. Fawkes and his co-conspirators were convicted of treason and hanged, drawn and quartered. But historians never knew what happened to the barrels of gunpowder.

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Q.� Guy Fawkes and John Evelyn ... what's the connection

A.� Evelyn came from a wealthy landowning family in Surrey whose fortunes were based on gunpowder manufacture. The box contained various samples of gunpowder, mostly dating from the 19th Century but some thought to be older.

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The British Library said: 'We know our collections hold some explosive material, but until this discovery we never realised that we were sitting on a powder keg.' A special licence is needed to keep gunpowder, so the sample is being handed over to the Royal Armouries' artillery collection in Hampshire.

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Q.� And what will happen to it now

A.� It will be studied in detail. Nicholas Hall, keeper of the collection, said: 'I am not aware of such old gunpowder surviving in original condition in this country or anywhere else. The fact that we appear to have cannon grade gunpowder, still in granular form and capable of analysis, could transform our understanding.'

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Q.� But what about the plot itself

A.� That's another story altogether. Click here for an Answerbank feature upon it.

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Steve Cunningham