[507] Built 1812 (Poole, Coventry, 345).
[508] Poole, 345.
[509] "Daily hurt" comes from having goats at large (Leet Book, 361). In London only the swine of S. Antony's hospital were allowed to be at large in the streets, and "chiens gentilz," i.e. dogs belonging to the gentry (Riley, Liber Albus, xlii.).
[510] Leet Book, 306.
[511] In London the length of inn-signs was limited to seven feet (Liber Albus, lxv.). Signs were also affixed to shops to attract the eye; of this custom the barber's pole is a relic. Merchandise was usually kept in cellars partly underground beneath the solar or front dwelling-room. In great thoroughfares goods were displayed in covered sheds projecting in front of the dwelling-place (Turner, Dom. Arch. i. 96; iv. 34). Shops were usually open rooms on the ground floor, with wide windows closed with shutters (Liber Albus, xxxviii.).
[512] Leet Book, 272, 100.
[513] We hear of the "daybell" rung probably at dawn, and the curfew rung by the clerks of S. Michael's and Trinity churches (Ib., 338). A "larum bell" was rung on the occasion of the quarrel between Somerset's servants and the watch (Paston Letters, i. 408). Probably there was a recognised "change" in the ringing for each of the various summonses. The ringing of changes is said to have been peculiar to this country. Bells, before they were hung up, were baptized and anointed with holy oil, blessed and exorcised. Their uses were expressed in the Latin lines:
"Laudo Deum verum—plebem voco—congrego clerum
Defunctos ploro—pestum fugo—festa decoro."
(Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, 291, 292.)
[514] Leet Book, 234.