HALL OF THE CLOTHWORKERS OR SHEARMEN,
a company which was incorporated in the reign of Edward IV. The feast day was on June 6th, and the apprentices up to the year 1588 used to set up a green tree “decked with garlands gay” before the hall, around which there was great rejoicing, coquetting, vowing, dancing and other festive proceedings. But in 1588 the custom ceased. The “green tree,” or Maypole was not enough. A bon-fire was added, and a disturbance ensued among the crowd. The Rev. Mr. Tomkies, a minister of St. Mary’s, appeared among the excited company, but his persuasions to peace only exasperated them. The Bailiffs were compelled to interfere, and henceforth the practice was discontinued. In the time of Elizabeth six hundred shearmen were employed here in dressing the wool on one side of a coarse material called Welsh webs, which were brought, chiefly from Montgomeryshire, to a market then held every week in the town. The process having been found to weaken the texture of the cloths, the occupation of the company was gone. From manufacturing purposes the hall was turned into a theatre, then converted to a Wesleyan place of worship, then secularized into an assembly room, then elevated into an assize court, then utilized into a shop, and, lastly, transformed into an auction mart. Proceeding up the street we presently see