a company which was incorporated in the reign of Edward IV. The feast
day was on June 6th, and the apprentices up to the year 1588 used to set
up a green tree “decked with garlands gay” before the hall, around which
there was great rejoicing, coquetting, vowing, dancing and other festive
proceedings. But in 1588 the custom ceased. The “green tree,” or
Maypole was not enough. A bon-fire was added, and a disturbance ensued
among the crowd. The Rev. Mr. Tomkies, a minister of St. Mary’s,
appeared among the excited company, but his persuasions to peace only
exasperated them. The Bailiffs were compelled to interfere, and
henceforth the practice was discontinued. In the time of Elizabeth six
hundred shearmen were employed here in dressing the wool on one side of a
coarse material called Welsh webs, which were brought, chiefly from
Montgomeryshire, to a market then held every week in the town. The
process having been found to weaken the texture of the cloths, the
occupation of the company was gone. From manufacturing purposes the hall
was turned into a theatre, then converted to a Wesleyan place of worship,
then secularized into an assembly room, then elevated into an assize
court, then utilized into a shop, and, lastly, transformed into an
auction mart. Proceeding up the street we presently see