It is interesting to note in this connection that on August 16, 1762, was
"Pd." one "Barnard Shaw maintenance of Rioters and Evidence, 1-11-6."
A circumstance of considerable human interest, too, and one possibly little known, is the great aversion to the sight of bears held by the inhabitants of the Isle of Wight, at least in the year 1891. A copy of the "Bye-Laws" of the "Administrative County of the Isle of Wight," issued that year, contains, following articles relating to "Regulating the Sale of Coal" and "Spitting," this:
"As to Bears.
"1. No bear shall be taken along or allowed to be upon any highway, unless such bear shall be securely confined in a vehicle closed so as to completely hide such bear from view.
"2. Any person who shall offend against this Bye-law shall be liable to a fine not exceeding in any case five pounds."
"Atti del Municipale! Atti del Consiglio Comunale di Siena. Bollettino Degli atti Pubblicati Dalla Giunta Municipale di Roma." It is fitting that quartos of such titles as these, containing addresses beginning Signori Consiglieri and Onorevoli Signori, should look something like Italian opera, and be bound in vellum, title and date stamped in gold on bright red and purple labels, with sides of mottled purple boards, and imprints such as "Bologna. Regia Tipografia Fratelli Merlani," and of typography the best. And on genuine paper, far from the woodpulp of American municipal graft contracts.
Once, indeed, municipal documents were august pages. Some of the early Italian and German are on paper that will last as long as the law. And in these times the title pages of municipal documents were Piranesiesque: massive architectural scroll work framing stone tablets, hung with garlands of fruit and grain, and decorated with carved lions, human heads, and histrionic masks. And initial letters throughout to correspond.
Now who but France would bind her municipal documents in heavily tooled, full levant morocco, with grained silk inside covers?