[APPENDIX VI]
THE SHOP
The following textures were sold in London, the coarse woollen goods manufactured in the City:—Mercery; “wad mal,” a woollen stuff; “lake” or fine linen; canvas, woven linen, frestian, felt, “lymere” or “lormerie,” the material used for making saddles and trappings for horses, pile, kersey, haberdashery, i.e. all kinds of “hapertas,” a thick woollen cloth, raw texture of Limoges, “Parmentrye” qualloorn, cloth of silk and cloth of Rheims. Striped cloth called “ray” was brought from Brabant and Flanders. Foreign weavers came to the country in great numbers. To prevent collision, the weavers of Flanders who worked to be hired were ordered to repair to the churchyard of St. Laurence Pomeroy, and those of Brabant to the churchyard of St. Mary Mounthaw.
The following inventory of a haberdasher’s shop in the year 1378 shows that it contained a most various assortment of goods. The haberdasher of the fourteenth century was a stationer, a mercer, a draper, a hatter, a boot and shoe maker, a dealer in leather, and fifty other trades. He sold, in a word, all small articles.
“2 dozens of laces of red leather, value 8d.; one gross of poynts of red leather, 18d.; one dozen of cradilbowes, made of wool and flax, 18d.; 3 cradilbowes, made of wool and flax, 3d.; one dozen of caps, one half of which are of red colour, and the other half green, 2s. 8d.; one dozen of white caps, called ‘nightcappes,’ 2s. 3d.; 2 dozens of woollen caps of divers colours, 16s.; 6 caps of black wool, 4s.; 5 caps of blue colour, and one cap of russet, 2s. 6d.; 5 children’s caps, red and blue, 2s. 1d.; one dozen of black hures, 4s.; one black hure, 4d.; two hair camises, 12d.; one red cap, 7d.; one other cap of russet, 7d.; one hat of russet, 6d.; one white hat, 3d.; 2 papers covered with red leather, 12d.; two other papers, one of them covered with black leather, and the other with red, 8d.; one purse, called ‘hamondeys,’ of sea-green colour, 6d.; 4 pairs of spurs, 2s.; one double chain of iron, 10d.; and one other iron chain, 6d.; 2 permis, 2s.; one cloth painted with Him Crucified, and other figures, 2s. 4d.; 8 white chains of iron for ferrettes, 8d.; one flekage of wood, 3d.; one set of beads of geet, 6d.; one other set of beads of black alabaster, 4d.; three sets of beads of wood, 3d.; two pairs of pencases, with horns, 8d.; one pair of children’s boots of white woollen cloth, 2d.; one osculatory, called a pax-bread, 3d.; 2 sets of wooden beads, called ‘knottes,’ 4d.; 4 articles, called ‘kombes,’ of box-wood, 4d.; 2 wooden boxes, 3d.; 2 wooden piper quernes, 3d.; 2 pounds of linen thread, green and blue, 2s.; 2 wooden cosynis, 2d.; 6 purses of red leather, 4d.; 4 eyeglasses, 2d.; 18 horns, called ‘inkehornes,’ 18d.; 2 pencases, 6d.; one black girdle of woollen thread, 2d.; 13 quires of paper, 6s. 8d.; other paper, damaged, 6d.; one hat of russet, 6d.; 2 wooden coffins, 8d.; 2 gaming-tables, with the men, 16d.; one wooden block for shaping caps, 2d.; 6 skins of parchment, called soylepeles, 6d.; one wooden whistle, 2d.; 7 leaves of paper, 1d.; and 3 pieces of whippecorde, 3d.” (Riley’s Memorials, p. 422.)
The following is a list of goods stolen from a goldsmith’s shop in the year 1382:—
“Two silver girdles, with red corses in silk, value 46s.; one silver girdle with a blue corse, 30s.; one other small silver girdle, with a green corse, 16s.; one chain of silver gilt, 40s.; one other small silver chain, 5s.; one girdle of red silk, with a bokele, and studded with silver gilt, 16s.; one silver chalice, with paten, 38s.; 2 sets of phials of silver, their swages gilt, 20s.; one osculatory of silver gilt, 20s.; two mazer cups, bound with silver gilt, 33s. 4d.; 6 silver spoons, 14s.; 2 gold rings, with two dyamaundes, £15; one gold ring with a baleys, 26s. 8d.; 3 strings of pearls, 70s.; 6 gold necklaces, 100s.; and other goods and chattels, such as fermails and rings of silver gilt, broken silver girdles set with silver, buckles and pendants for girdles, and paternosters, of silver and pearls, to the value of £40.” (Riley’s Memorials, p. 470.)
[APPENDIX VII]
THE ASSIZE OF BUILDING
The following is an abridgment of the ordinances, said to have been issued in 1189 and ascribed by John Carpenter to Henry Fitz Aylwin, first Mayor “for the allaying of the contentions that from time to time arise touching boundaries, etc.”