Antiquity of Gilds in England.
The more we study mediæval life in our own country, the more impossible it becomes to imagine any regular trade as existing apart from some official or semi-official organization, combining one or more of the following obligations: Control of the workers, education of novices, civil representation (generally through some influential patron or head), and nearly always carrying out the work of a burial and insurance society. That such a banding together of those, whether merchants or craftsmen, interested in any particular occupation, must have existed during the Saxon period with the object of promoting one or more of the objects mentioned, is hardly open to doubt. It would be specially in the towns, such as London, in which, as Sir Lawrence Gomme has pointed out, the Roman ideals of organization still persisted, even into Norman times, that Gild life or its analogue would be most definitely marked.
Gild, not Guild.
Such Societies, Unions, or Combinations for common interests, whether of Trade, Religion, or social needs, were called Gilds, the word being derived from the Anglo-Saxon Gildan or Gildare, to pay, an allusion to the contribution demanded from every member towards the common fund.
Antiquity of the Horner’s Craft.
It may be justly claimed that amongst the earliest trades or crafts of this country was that of the Horner, who was indispensable to the community, inasmuch as he was the purveyor of many articles absolutely necessary for domestic purposes. In the days, for instance, of Kings Ina and Alfred metals of any kind were rare and consequently costly. Articles required for eating and drinking, such as cups, plates, forks, etc., as well as vessels for the preservation of liquids and powders, were made from horn, that being the least expensive and the most easily attainable material for those who had risen above the use of wooden articles for similar purposes.
Laws of Ina.
That trades did exist throughout the Saxon period is clear, nor should it be doubted that among the more important of those trades was that of the Horner. Indeed, though little else of a commercial character is alluded to in the laws of King Ina (A.D. 688-726), those laws lay down the price at which horns are to be bought and sold, and thereby indicate the importance of the horner to the community. “Bovis cornu decem denariis valeat Vaccæ cornu duobus denariis valeat.”—No mean price, surely, at that early period.
Horn Tenure.
Not only are horns mentioned in the early Norse Runic inscriptions (see Deutsches Literatur Zeitung, April 2nd, 1910), but there have been, from the earliest days, many well-known instances of beautifully worked horns used as a method of conveyancing property. Ulphus’s Horn, a drinking horn now at York, is, perhaps, the best known example. It was presented by him to the Church in token of the conveyance of his lands to the Church Authorities. King Edgar granted privileges to Glastonbury Abbey by means of a horn. For a very long period the family of Pusey held the village of Pusey by virtue of a horn, given to William Picoli by King Canute. Edward the Confessor granted the Rangership of Bernwode Forest, Bucks, to be held by a horn, while Randal de Meschines, third Earl of Chester, conferred on Allan Silvestris the Bailywick of the Forest of Wirall by delivering to him a horn, which was ever after preserved at Hooton. Ingulphus, Abbot of Croyland, mentions the horn amongst those things whereby land was conveyed in the Conqueror’s reign. This recalls the lines of Wordsworth in the “Horn of Egremont Castle.”