[146] John Philpot, it may be noted, was at this very time one of the Collectors of Customs under Chaucer’s Comptrollership.
[147] “C. T.,” E., 995.
[148] The violent scenes of the years 1381-1391 are summarized in Wheatley’s “London” (Medieval Towns), pp. 236-9. Among the victims of an unsuccessful cause were even Sir William Walworth and Sir John Philpot.
[149] Walsingham, an. 1392; “Eulog. Hist.,” iii., 368.
[150] Ed. Luce, vol. i., pp. 224, 243, 249.
[151] Cf. Mrs. Green, loc. cit., ii., 31. “In 1499 a glover from Leighton Buzzard travelled with his wares to Aylesbury for the market before Christmas Day. It happened that an Aylesbury miller, Richard Boose, finding that his mill needed repairs, sent a couple of servants to dig clay ‘called Ramming clay’ for him on the highway, and was in no way dismayed because the digging of this clay made a great pit in the middle of the road ten feet wide, eight feet broad, and eight feet deep, which was quickly filled with water by the winter rains. But the unhappy glover, making his way from the town in the dusk, with his horse laden with panniers full of gloves, straightway fell into the pit, and man and horse were drowned. The miller was charged with his death, but was acquitted by the court on the ground that he had had no malicious intent, and had only dug the pit to repair his mill, and because he really did not know of any other place to get the kind of clay he wanted save the highroad.”
[152] Etienne de Bourbon, p. 411.
[153] T. Wright, “Homes of other Days,” pp. 345 ff., whence I borrow the accompanying illustration from a MS. of the 15th century, representing the outside and inside of an inn. Incidentally, it illustrates also the common medieval phrase “naked in bed.” Mrs. Green (“Town Life,” ii., 33) quotes the grateful entry of a citizen in his public accounts “Paid for our bed there (and it was well worth it, witness, a featherbed) 1d.”
[154] There were seventy places of pilgrimage in Norfolk alone (Cutts, “Middle Ages,” p. 162). For churches as trysting-places for lovers or gossips we have evidence on many sides, e.g. the lovers of the “Decameron” (Prologue and Epilogue), and the custom of “Paul’s Walk” which lasted long after the Reformation.
[155] Berthold v. Regensburg, “Predigten,” ed. Pfeiffer, i., 448, 459, 493; Et. de Bourbon, p. 167; “Piers Plowman,” B., v., 527, C., v., 123; Wharton, “Anglia Sacra,” i., 49, 50.