If any of the brotherhood of the Bricklayers, being at work with any man, do, in the time of his work, resort unto the alehouse or do play at dice, cards, or any other unthrifty game, he shall forfeit and pay for every time so doing viijd.
So also, in the rules of the Shipwrights, a very heavy penalty was imposed upon the workman who for mere caprice threw down his tools and left his work unfinished:—
If any person shall be lawfully retained in work by the day, and shall unjustly and unlawfully leave or depart from the same until such time as the same work shall be fully finished, he shall forfeit and pay to the master warden for every such offence forty shillings of lawful money of england.
The protection of the public was equally well looked after. No person might set up or keep an Inn, unless he could make and furnish four comely and decent guest beds; and every Innholder was obliged to have in his house, ready-made, four bottles of hay, to be shown to the searchers at all times when they came to make search. Thus the comfort of both man and beast was ensured to travellers.
All manufactured goods were to be open to inspection by the searchers of the particular Gild, and any scamped or fraudulent goods were ‘seized and forfeited.’ Thus a rule of the Shoemakers’ Gild stated that—
The searchers shall well and diligently search and try all boots, shoes, buskins, slippers and pantoufles,[[43]] whether they be made of leather well and truly tanned and curried, and well and substantially sewed with good thread, well twisted and made and sufficiently waxed with wax well rosined, and the stitches hard drawn with hand leathers.
Boots and shoes made under these regulations were intended to last in wear for a substantially long time, and brown paper inner soles and wooden heels would stand a poor chance of passing the inspection of the searchers. On the shelves of the Hull Museum may be seen some pairs of boots made and worn two hundred and fifty years ago, and still almost ‘as good as new.’
A rule of the Brotherhood of Cobblers reads quaintly. But, doubtless, it proved a very useful rule:—
If any cobbler shall keep any work brought to him longer than two days, without consent of the owner, he shall forfeit for every offence the sum of two shillings and sixpence.
One is bound to imagine that there was in those days a brisk trade in ‘Boots Mended While You Wait.’