The play is now eagerly looked for; the tables are cleared away, the pageant is let down from the roof; the actors, nine in number, approach, and the entire audience is speedily engrossed in the history of Noah's flood. There remains but to pay for all the good things enjoyed-the members of the Company at a fixed rate for themselves, and at the Wardens' discretion for the guests they may have individually invited-to drink another cup of hippocras, and to depart. The annual solemnities are not, however, finished till the Sunday following, when, according to the ordinances (we transcribe from the Fishmongers'), the members "afore mete tyme" shall be all present in the same church in their livery aforesaid, there to hear a solemn mass or requiem for all the souls of the same fraternity, and for all Christian souls; and at which mass the priest of the same fraternity, openly in the pulpit shall rehearse and recommend to all good prayers, by name, all the brethren and sisters, quick and dead, of the foresaid fraternity, and all Christians;" after which there is another, but minor feast, and then the liveries are paid for.

Following the newly-elected officers into the details of the business that awaited them, we begin to have some conception of the true nature of a metropolitan company at the period referred to. And first, as to their chief duty-the domestic government of the craft. This comprised many parts; among which the ordinary matters of binding apprentices, admitting freemen, and so on, formed but the least important. If there were young men belonging to the craft who, giving themselves up to idleness and unlawful games, wandered about as vagabonds within the City, it was the duty of the Master and Wardens to desire and require them to work for reasonable wages, and to take them before the Mayor and Aldermen for punishment if they refused. If members of the Company were rebellious to its ordinances, as by taking unsold wares into the country, or by employing "forens," that is, persons not free of the craft, and persisting therein, or were found to have spoken with disrespect of its officers, the Master and Wardens again had to bring back the rebel and the slanderer to duc subjection and reverence, either by entreaties, or by the still more cogent influences of fine and imprisonment. A case in the Grocers' books may here be mentioned. One Simon Potkin, of the Key, at Aldgate, having been fined by the Chamberlain, said, with humorous audacity, that he had given money to the Masters of his Company that he might sell at his own will. He got into trouble with his Company in consequence, but was finally pardoned on paying 3s. 4d. for a swan to be eaten by the Masters, out of which he was allowed his own share. This took place under the mayoralty of Whittington, who was particularly watchful of the misdeeds of the retail publicans. Safe keeping of the trade secrets was a matter most carefully enjoined and provided for, not only in the oath taken by all freemen, but in specific ordinances, to disobey which subjected the offender to the heaviest displeasure of the Company, and of course to punishment. The names of craft and mystery, so often applied to the trades, are said to be from this source, though Madox derives them from the French, who, he remarks, use mestiere for a craft, art, or employment. The preventing or arranging disputes among the members formed another important branch of the duties of the officers. Among the ordinances of the Grocers was one to the effect, that no member of the craft should take the house of a neighbour who

also belonged to the fraternity against his wish, or do anything to enhance his rent, on penalty of a heavy fine. In cases of personal quarrel, where one party was evidently the offender, he was compelled to ask forgiveness; and in others, after an ineffectual attempt at mediation, parties were duly permitted to "go to the law." Apprentices, of course, were still more directly beneath the supervision and control of the Master and Wardens; and some curious records exist in connexion with the discipline on this subject in the books of the Companies, as noticed in Mr. Herbert's valuable work. Here is an example of the correction of an apprentice for a faux pas of a particular nature. The Wardens caused to be made two porters' frocks, like porters of crafts, and two hoods of the same canvas, made after vizor fashion, with a space for the mouth and the eyes left open only; wherein, the next court-day, within the parlour, two tall men, having the said frocks upon them, because they should not be known, (for otherwise the "bold prentices" would no doubt have effectually prevented any more such kind attentions from the same quarter,) "came in with twopennyworth of birchen rods, and there, in presence of the said Master and Wardens, withouten any words speaking, they pulled off the doublet and shirt of the said John Rolls, and there upon him (being naked) they spent all the said rods, for his said unthrifty demeanour." Sumptuary laws also occupied the attention of the heads of the fraternity, and more particularly with regard to the class just mentioned, the apprentices. Those in the Ironmongers' Company, for instance, were to dress "in such wise that it be no dishonesty to the Company, but that they be apparelled reasonable and honest, that is to say, for the holy days, hose, 'throwts,' shirts, doublets, coats, gowns or cloaks, with other necessaries, such as may be conveniently honest and clean;" and on the "working day such as may be honest and profitable to keep them from cold and wet;" and then it is emphatically added, "they shall not suffer their hair to grow long." Fishmongers' apprentices were directed by their Company to wear a gown in the fish-market, but not out of it. As to the more general application of sumptuary laws, we find some noticeable entries in the books of the Merchant Tailors; in 1574 a member was committed to prison "for that he came to this house in a cloak of pepadore, a pair of hose lined with taffety, and a shirt edged with silver, contrary to the ordinances." Another member, it appears, was warned that he had on "apparel not fit for his abilities to wear," and enjoined reformation. But the most amusing illustration of the interference of the Companies in this matter is that given by Malcolm, on the authority of the Ironmongers' books. Elizabeth, it is well known, was scarcely less anxious about the dress of her subjects than about her own, with the difference, however, that her anxiety was to restrain the love of splendour in the one case, and to encourage it in the other. So, fresh orders to her milliners, and fresh precepts to the Companies, flew thick and fast, and it was in consequence of one of the latter that the citizens were regaled one day with a rich bit of fun at Bishopsgate, where two members of the Ironmongers' and two of the Grocers' Companies were found stationed as early as seven o'clock to examine the habits of every one who passed through. Lastly, there remain to be noticed, among the regular duties of the officers of the Companies, the Trade Searches, when the Grocers' Wardens were bidden "to go and essayen weights, powders, confections, plaisters, ointments, and all other things belonging History of the Twelve great Livery Companies.'

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to the same craft;" those of the Fishmongers' to examine fish, the Vintners' to taste wines, the Merchant Tailors' to examine cloth, and measure the measure used in its sale, for which purpose they had a silver yard, with their arms engraved upon it; and most of the other Companies had a like power. Where anything wrong was discovered, the process was very summary-seizure of the article, if worth seizing, destruction if it were not, with the addition of imprisonment in very bad cases. In 1571, certain makers of comfits being accused of mingling starch with the sugar in their delicacies, the stock-" a good quantity" -of one of the chief offenders was put into a tub of water, and so consumed and poured out. That this power was really beneficial, and therefore necessary to such of the Companies as had it not, is evident from the petition presented to the Court of Aldermen by the Wax-Chandlers' Company in the reign of Edward III., where they speak feelingly of their craft being "greatly slandered of all the good folk of the said craft and of the City, for that they have not Masters chosen and sworn of the said craft" before the Mayor and Aldermen, "as other crafts have, to oversee the defaults which be in their said crafts:" the power they desire was accordingly granted them, of naming four searchers, and their bye-laws were at the same time sanctioned, the first of which explains the rule by which the searchers would have to be guided: "That no wax-chandler of the said craft make any torches, tapers, prykettes, nor none other manner of chandlerie of wax mixed with rosin and code, but of good wax and wick;" and to facilitate discovery of the wrong-doers, every chandler was to have a mark, "and it set to torches, torchetts, and tapers which he maketh." We learn from these bye-laws that the members of the trade were accustomed to lend out wax tapers for hire; that the tapers were both round and square, and that it was customary for persons to bring wax to them to be made into tapers at a certain charge for the making, and more particularly for "torches, torchetts, prykettes, or perchers, chaundele or tapers for women ayenst Candelmas." A few words on the chief places where the Trade Searches had generally to be pursued, or in other words, on the localities of the different London trades, may not be unacceptable. Cloth Fair was, as its name implies, the chief mart of the Merchant Tailors' commodities, Foster Lane of the Goldsmiths, Ironmonger Lane of the Ironmongers, Old Fish Street and Fish Street Hill of the Fishmongers, the Mercery -a part of Cheapside between Bow Church and Friday Street-of the Mercers and Haberdashers, and who were previously on the other side, where the Mercers' Hall now stands. Silks and velvets appear to have formed the chief articles of trade with the Mercers, as they gradually resigned to the Haberdashers the sale of all the less important wares. The Haberdashers dealt in hats, millinery, small articles of jewellery, pins-a lucrative commodity-and a thousand other things, in addition to some of those which still belong to the trade. The Drapers did their chief business in Blackwell Hall, the site of the present Bankruptcy Court; the Grocers, or Pepperers, as they were once called, were mostly to be found in Soper Lane; the Butchers in Cheapside, Newgate Market, and at the Stocks, the site of the present Mansion House; whilst the Tanners favoured the localities" without Newgate" and "without Cripplegate."

In this grant of powers to the Wax Chandlers, we see one example of the jurisdiction of the Mayor and Aldermen over the Companies; a jurisdiction so complete, from time immemorial, that the Brewers in 1435, addressing the former,

style him "their right worshipful and gracious lord and sovereign, the Mayor of London;" and precisely the same idea is conveyed, in different words, a century and a half later, when he is spoken of as "the Warden of all the Companies." The duties arising from the connection between the Companies and the Civic Corporation, therefore, form the second division of the duties of the officers of the former, and a great many unpleasant matters they involved. Some of them are interesting as illustrative of the working of the system. Thus, for instance, as to the monopoly enjoyed by the Companies, we may see that we should greatly err if we looked upon the constitution of the Companies as framed for that especial object, using the word monopoly in its present sense, though there is no doubt it had a great tendency to establish the evils that, under a different state of things, have made the very idea hateful to us. But this tendency the more enlightened governors of the City made it their business to repress, and in a manner that must then have been tolerably effectual. The Brewers' records furnish a case in point, and Whittington is again one of the principal actors. In 1422 he laid an information before his successor in the Mayoralty, Robert Chichele, in consequence of which the latter "sent for the Masters and twelve of the most worthy of our Company to appear at the Guildhall; to whom John Fray, the Recorder, objected a breach of government, for which 207. should be forfeited, for selling dear ale. After much dispute about the price and quality of malt, wherein

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Whittington, the late Mayor, declared that the brewers had ridden into the country and forestalled the malt to raise its price,' they were convicted in the penalty of 201.; which objecting to, the Masters were ordered to be kept in prison in the Chamberlain's custody until they should pay it, or find security for the payment thereof." Another feature of the connection, arising no doubt from the one just referred to, though we should hope not materially influencing it, is the system of making presents to the Mayor, of which we find many examples; among them, "for two pipes of red wine, to Richard Whittington's butler,” a boar, price 20s., and an ox, price 17s." to William Walderne, Mayor in 1422-3, who "behaved well to the Company until two or three weeks before his retirement from office," when he began to annoy them, and they thus "assuaged his displeasure." When these presents took a more circuitous route, the object was openly acknowledged, as in an entry in 1423, in the Brewers' books, of “money given to divers Serjeants of the Mayor, for to be good friends to our craft." After all there is nothing here to fix any stain of corruption on the eminent civic governors of the period; though some of them, thinking very rightly that the mere acceptance of such gifts not only looked like bribery, but might really have that tendency at times, eschewed them altogether. Under the date 1423 we read, that "William Crowmere, Mayor this year, was a good man, and well pleased all the citizens, especially the Brewers; when the Masters offered gifts to him, he thanked them, but would not receive any." The general domestic government of London, of course, afforded many points of intimate connection between the officers of the Companies and of the City; when there was an Exchange to be erected, or a city ditch to be cleansed, precepts came from the Mayor to the different Masters and Wardens, to collect the sum of money to which their respective fraternities had been assessed, as their fair share of the expenses. Setting the poor to work, a still more weighty undertaking, was accomplished in the same way. But the most important labours which the Companies and the city undertook in matters relating to the domestic economy of London, was the supply of corn and coal in times of scarcity, to the poorer citizens, at a moderate price. The commencement of the custom, as to corn, may be dated from the early part of the fourteenth century, when, with that princely liberality that distinguished so many of the citizens of London in early times, Sir Simon Eyre built a public granary at Leadenhall, and Sir Stephen Brown sent out ships to Dantzic, "causing [rye] corn to be brought from thence, whereby he brought down the price of wheat from 3s. the bushel to less than half the money, for corn was then so scarce in England that poor people were enforced to make their bread of fearne' roots." At first the cost of the supplies of corn to the granary (made, of course, always when the corn was cheapest), was defrayed by loans and contributions from the Mayor and Aldermen, and sometimes the citizens, but in 1521 the Companies were called on to assist, and from that time precepts of a similar nature followed with a most unsatisfactory frequency, until at last the Mayor and Aldermen had some difficulty in obtaining the sums required. The truth is, no doubt, that there was a continual loss on the business, and consequently that though funds were generally obtained, under the name of loans, they were in effect, gifts. The Companies were therefore desirous of leaving the matter entirely in the hands of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, who were equally * Stow's Survey, ed. 1633, p. 89.