And wrote alway the names, as he stood,
Of alle folk that gave them any good.
It is in a yet larger sense of this same word our early translators introduced the phrase ‘tables of stone,’ found in the Mosaic record—not, however, that the smaller ‘tablet’ was unknown. Apart from such a registration as ‘Bartholomew le Tabler,’ found in the London Rolls (1320), we have mentioned as living in Cambridge in 1322 one ‘Richard le Tableter.’[[412]] We can readily understand how useful would be his occupation to the students, who were thus provided with a writing material capable of erasure, at a time when paper was infinitely too expensive to be simply scribbled upon.[[413]] The pointel, or pencil, mentioned above, seems to have required also a separate manufacture, as we find the surnames ‘Roger Poyntel’ and ‘John Poyntel’ occurring in 1315 and 1319, the latter the same date within a year as the ‘Tabler’ just referred to. These tablets, I need not say, were, whether the framework were ivory, or box, or cyprus, overlaid with smeared wax, the pointel being, as its name more literally implies, the stile with which the characters were impressed. The pointel was a common ornament and hung pendent from the neck.
Two surnames far from being uninteresting must be mentioned here. They are those of ‘Walter Orlogyr’[[414]] and ‘Thomas Clokmaker,’ the one being found in the ‘Guild of St. George, Norwich’ (1385), the other in the ‘Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council.’[[415]] It is just possible also that ‘Clerkwright,’ set down in the former record, may be but a misspelling or misreading for ‘Clockwright.’ The two first-mentioned names remind us that if not of clocks, as now understood, yet the manufacture of dials did make a transient mark upon our English nomenclature. I say transient, for I find no trace of either being handed down even to the second generation by those who took these sobriquets. The ‘horologe’ seems to have become a pretty familiar term in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, for we find Wicklyffe translating 2 Kings xx. 11, ‘Isaye the profete clepide ynwardly the Lord, and browgte agen bacward by x degrees the schadewe bi lynes, bi whiche it hadde gone down thanne in the orologie of Achaz.’ The transition from clocks to bells is not a great one, as both have to do with the marking of time. I will here therefore refer to the old bellfounder, and then pass on. The ‘Promptorium Parvulorum’ gives us ‘Bellezeter’ as the then usual term for the trade, and from the occurrence of such entries as ‘Robert le Belzetere’ or ‘William le Belzetere’ we cannot doubt but that it was so. Of course a corruption of so awkward a word was inevitable, and Stow, by informing us that ‘Billiter Lane’ was formerly nothing more nor less than ‘Belzetars Lane,’ has prevented dispute from arising regarding the origin of our ‘Billiters.’[[416]] If, however, further proof were necessary, we could bring forward ‘Esmon Belleyeter’ from the Privy Council Ordinances.[[417]] Stripped of its uncouth orthography, we are here shown the process by which the changed pronunciation gradually came into use.
We must say a word or two about former coinage, and weights and measures, for all are more or less carefully memorialized in our directories of to-day. The two chief names, however, by which the early scale was represented, ‘le Aunserer’ and ‘le Balancer,’ are, I am sorry to say, either wholly, or all but wholly, extinct. Such entries as ‘Rauf le Balancer’[[418]] or ‘John Balauncer’ or ‘Thomas le Aunseremaker’ were perfectly familiar with our forefathers. The ‘balance’ was of the simplest character, a scale poised by the hand. The manufacture of such is mentioned by the author of ‘Cocke Lorelle’s Bote,’ when he includes—
Arowe-heders, maltemen, and cornemongers,
Balancers, tynne-casters, and skryveners.
By its repeated occurrence in our present Authorized Version this word is sure of preservation from obsoletism. The ‘auncel’ or ‘auncer’ was strictly the vessel in which the provisions were weighed. Piers Plowman says—
And the pound that she paied by
Peised a quatron moore