[453] Rot. Parl., iii. 437.
[454] Literæ Cantuarienses (Rolls Series, 85), iii. 81.
[455] See above, p. 202.
[456] Leet Book, 657.
[457] i.e. the Trinity guild.
[458] The elephant, i.e. the city seal, which bears the device of an elephant and castle.
[459] This system did not by any means insure good workmanship. It was noted in the middle of the century that when the make of cloth deteriorated, the clothmaking towns still set the seal upon the material, "and so abased the credit of their predecessors to their singuler luker" (Lamond, Common Weal, 77).
[460] Rot. Parl., v. 569. There is a petition concerning the hindrance of the navigation of the river Severn; Coventry, among other towns, is spoken of as being injured thereby.
[461] The mercers' and drapers' apprentices were compelled to pay the admission fines on the sealing of their indentures, whereas in other fraternities these were not demanded until the period of apprenticeship was past (Leet Book, 655).
[462] Warw. Antiq. Mag., pt. vi. 110.