[275] Davies’ York, 43, 77; Eng. Guilds, 141-3. The expenses that fell on a town at a royal visit were exceedingly heavy. (Davies’ York, 69.) For Canterbury, Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 140-151.
[276] In 1415 there were fifty-seven crafts in York, each of which had its special play. (Davies’ York, 233-236; English Guilds, 141-3; Hist. MSS. Com. i. 109.) Plays were given over to certain trades to act. Abraham and Isaac, for instance, was given to the slaters in Newcastle, the bowyers and fletchers in Beverley, the weavers in Dublin, the parchminers and bookbinders in York, the barbers and wax-chandlers in Chester. (Commonplace Book, ed. by Miss Toulmin Smith, 47-8.)
[277] The prices charged by players and minstrels seem to have risen considerably between 1400 and 1500. For a growing economy, see Hist. MSS. Com. iii. 345.
[278] Ibid. ix. 173.
[279] Ibid. ix. 274. For the Worcester rules of 1467, see English Guilds, 385, 407-8.
[280] Hist. MSS. Com. i. 103-104, no date.
[281] Ibid. x. 4, 426.
[282] The York hostellers contracted in 1483 to bring forth yearly for the next eight years a pageant of their own, The Coronation of Our Lady.
[283] A small fee was sometimes paid to the parson when the church was used as storehouse for grain or wool as in case of Southampton. Roger’s Agric. and Prices, ii. 611.
[284] Paston Letters, iii. 436.