jackets, embroidered with ragged staves before and behind, and was
lodged in Warwicke lane; in whose house there was oftentimes six oxen
eaten at a breakfast, and every tavern was full of his meat; for he that
had any acquaintance in that house, might have there so much of sodden
and roast meat as he could prick and carry upon a long dagger.
Richard Redman, Bishop of Ely, 1500, the 17th of Henry VII.,[105]
besides his great family, housekeeping, alms dish, and relief to the
poor, wheresoever he was lodged. In his travelling, when at his coming
or going to or from any town, the bells being rung, all the poor would
come together, to whom he gave every one six pence at the least.
And now to note of our own time somewhat. Omitting in this place Thomas
Wolsey, Archbishop of Yorke, and cardinal, I refer the reader to my
_Annals_, where I have set down the order of his house and household,
passing all other subjects of his time. His servants, daily attending
in his house, were near about four hundred, omitting his servants’
servants, which were many.
Nicholas West, Bishop of Ely, in the year 1532, kept continually in his
house an hundred servants, giving to the one half of them 53_s._ 4_d._
the piece yearly; to the other half each 40_s._ the piece; to every one
for his winter gown four yards of broad cloth, and for his summer coat
three yards and a half: he daily gave at his gates, besides bread and
drink, warm meat to two hundred poor people.
The housekeeping of Edward, late Earl of Derby, is not to be forgotten,
who had two hundred and twenty men in check roll: his feeding aged
persons twice every day, sixty and odd, besides all comers, thrice a
week, appointed for his dealing days, and every Good Friday two thousand
seven hundred, with meat, drink, and money.
Thomas Audley, lord chancellor, his family of gentlemen before him, in
coats garded with velvet, and chains of gold; his yeomen after him in
the same livery, not garded.
William Powlet, lord great master, Marquis of Winchester, kept the like
number of gentlemen and yeomen in a livery[106] of Reading tawny, and
great relief at his gate.
Thomas Lord Cromwell, Earl of Essex, kept the like or greater number in
a livery of grey marble; the gentlemen garded with velvet, the yeomen
with the same cloth, yet their skirts large enough for their friends to
sit upon them.
Edward, Duke of Sommerset, was not inferior in keeping a number of tall
and comely gentlemen and yeomen, though his house was then in building,
and most of his men were lodged abroad.
The late Earl of Oxford, father to him that now liveth, hath been noted
within these forty years to have ridden into this city, and so to his
house by London stone, with eighty gentlemen in a livery of Reading
tawny, and chains of gold about their necks, before him, and one hundred
tall yeomen, in the like livery, to follow him without chains, but
all having his cognisance of the blue boar embroidered on their left
shoulder.
FOOTNOTES:
[92] Thus Lydgate, in his ballad of _London Lackpenny_:
“Then to the Chepe I began me drawne,
Where much people I saw for to stande:
One offered me velvet, sylke and lawne,
An other he taketh me by the hande,
‘Here is Pary’s thred the fynest in the lande,’” etc.
[93] The cooks in Lydgate’s time, as we learn from the same ballad,
resided chiefly in Eastcheap:
“Then I hyed me into East Chepe;
One cryes ribbs of befe, and many a pye:
Pewter pottes they clattered on a heape;
There was harpe, pype and mynstrelsye,” etc.
[94] “Pater noster beade-makers and text-writers are gone out of
Paternoster rowe into stationers of Paule’s churchyard.”--_1st edition_,
p. 63.
[95] Thomas Clifford.
[96] Liber Constitutionis. Liber Horne. Liber Clerkenwell.
[97] W. Patten.
[98] Liber S. Mariæ Eborum.
[99] Carts shod or bound with iron. _Carrectæ ferro ligatæ_ are
mentioned in the Liber Garderobæ, Edw. I.
[100] W. Fitzstephen.
[101] There are few documents calculated to throw greater light upon the
social and domestic life of our ancestors than their Household Books.
Stow has here set an example, which has of late years been followed to
a great extent. The Liber Garderobæ, Edw. I., published by the Society
of Antiquaries in 1787--_The Northumberland Household Book_--_The
Privy Purse Expences of Henry VIII._--_The Privy Purse Expences of the
Princess Mary_, etc.; and lastly, the handsome volume, printed for the
Roxburgh Club by Beriah Botfield, Esq., M.P., containing the _Household
Book of the Countess of Leicester, wife of Simon de Montford_, and
that of Sir John Howard, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, in the reign of
Richard III., afford views of ancient manners and illustrations of
olden customs, which would be sought for in vain in works of a graver
character.
[102] Record of Pontefract, as I could obtain of M. Cudnor.--_Stow._
[103] Northern russet, half a yard and half a quarter broad, I have
seen sold for four pence the yard, and was good cloth of a mingled
colour.--_Stow._
[104] Rob. Fabian, manuscript.
[105] Liber Ely.
OF CHARITABLE ALMS IN OLD TIMES GIVEN
These, as all other of their times, gave great relief to the poor. I
myself, in that declining time of charity, have oft seen at the Lord
Cromwell’s gate in London more than two hundred persons served twice
every day with bread, meat, and drink sufficient; for he observed that
ancient and charitable custom, as all prelates, noblemen, or men of
honour and worship, his predecessors, had done before him; whereof
somewhat to note for example, Venerable Bede writeth, that prelates of
his time having peradventure but wooden churches, had notwithstanding on
their board at their meals one alms dish, into the which was carved some
good portion of meat out of every other dish brought to their table; all
which was given to the poor, besides the fragments left, in so much as
in a hard time, a poor prelate wanting victuals, hath caused his alms
dish, being silver, to be divided among the poor, therewith to shift as
they could, till God should send them better store.
Such a prelate was Ethelwald, Bishop of Winchester, in the reign of King
Edgar, about the year of Christ 963: he in a great famine sold away
all the sacred vessels of his church for to relieve the almost starved
people, saying that there was no reason that the senseless temples of
God should abound in riches, and lively temples of the Holy Ghost to
lack it.
Walter de Suffilde, Bishop of Norwich, was of the like mind; about
the year 1245, in a time of great dearth, he sold all his plate, and
distributed it to the poor every pennyworth.
Robert Winchelsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, about the year 1293,
besides the daily fragments of his house, gave every Friday and Sunday,
unto every beggar that came to his gate, a loaf of bread sufficient
for that day, and there more usually, every such alms day, in time of
dearth, to the number of five thousand, and otherwise four thousand, at
the least; more, he used every great festival day to give one hundred
and fifty pence to so many poor people, to send daily meat, bread, and
drink, to such as by age or sickness were not able to fetch his alms,
and to send meat, money, and apparel to such as he thought needed it.
I read,[107] in 1171, that Henry II., after his return into England,
did penance for the slaughter of Thomas Becket, of whom (a sore dearth
increasing) ten thousand persons, from the first of April, till new corn
was inned, were daily fed and sustained.
More, I find recorded,[108] that in the year 1236, the 20th of Henry
III., William de Haverhull, the king’s treasurer, was commanded, that
upon the day of the Circumcision of our Lord, six thousand poor people
should be fed at Westminster, for the state of the king, queen, and
their children. The like commandment the said King Henry gave to Hugh
Gifford and William Browne, that upon Friday next after the Epiphany,
they should cause to be fed in the great hall at Windsore, at a good
fire, all the poor and needy children that could be found, and the
king’s children being weighed and measured, their weight and measure to
be distributed for their good estates. These few examples for charity of
kings may suffice.
I read, in the reign of Edward III., that Richard de Berie, Bishop of
Durham, did weekly bestow for the relief of the poor eight quarters of
wheat made into bread, besides his alms dish, fragments of his house,
and great sums of money given to the poor when he journeyed. And that
these alms dishes were as well used at the tables of noblemen as of the
prelates, one note may suffice in this place.
I read, in the year 1452, that Richard, Duke of York, then claiming
the crown, the Lord Rivers should have passed the sea about the king’s
business, but staying at Plimmoth till his money was spent, and then
sending for more, the Duke of Sommerset sent him the image of St. George
in silver and gold, to be sold, with the alms dish of the Duke of
Glocester, which was also of great price, for coin had they none.
To end of orders and customs in this city, also of great families kept
by honourable persons thither repairing, and of charitable alms of
old times given, I say, for conclusion, that all noble persons, and
other of honour and worship, in former times lodging in this city, or
liberties thereof, did without grudging bear their parts in charges with
the citizens, according to their estimated estates, as I have before
said, and could prove by examples; but let men call to mind Sir Thomas
Cromwel, then lord privy seal and vicar-general, lying in the city of
London; he bare his charges to the great muster there in A.D. 1539; he
sent his men in great number to the Miles end, and after them their
armour in cars, with their coats of white cloth, the arms of this city;
to wit, a red cross, and a sword, on the breast and back; which armour
and coats they ware amongst the citizens, without any difference, and
marched through the city to Westminster.
FOOTNOTES:
[106] Every livery coat had three yards of broad cloth.--_Stow._
[107] Pater de Ioham.
[108] Record of the Tower.
SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF OLD TIME USED IN THIS CITY
“Let us now,” saith Fitzstephen, “come to the sports and pastimes,
seeing it is fit that a city should not only be commodious and serious,
but also merry and sportful; whereupon in the seals of the popes, until
the time of Pope Leo, on the one side was St. Peter fishing, with a key
over him, reached as it were by the hand of God out of heaven, and about
it this verse:
‘Tu pro me navem liquisti, suscipe clavem.’
And on the other side was a city, and this inscription on it: ‘_Aurea
Roma_.’ Likewise to the praise of Augustus Cæsar and the city, in
respect of the shows and sports, was written:
‘Nocte pluit tota, redeunt spectacula mane,’ etc.
‘All night it raines, and shews at morrow tide returne again,
And Cæsar with almighty Jove hath matcht an equal raign.’
“But London, for the shows upon theatres, and comical pastimes, hath
holy plays, representations of miracles, which holy confessors have
wrought, or representations of torments wherein the constancy of martyrs
appeared. Every year also at Shrove Tuesday, that we may begin with
children’s sports, seeing we all have been children, the school-boys
do bring cocks of the game to their master, and all the forenoon they
delight themselves in cock-fighting: after dinner, all the youths go
into the fields to play at the ball.
“The scholars of every school have their ball, or baston, in their
hands; the ancient and wealthy men of the city come forth on horseback
to see the sport of the young men, and to take part of the pleasure in
beholding their agility. Every Friday in Lent a fresh company of young
men comes into the field on horseback, and the best horseman conducteth
the rest. Then march forth the citizens’ sons, and other young men,
with disarmed lances and shields, and there they practice feats of war.
Many courtiers likewise, when the king lieth near, and attendants of
noblemen, do repair to these exercises; and while the hope of victory
doth inflame their minds, do show good proof how serviceable they would
be in martial affairs.
“In Easter holidays they fight battles on the water; a shield is hung
upon a pole, fixed in the midst of the stream, a boat is prepared
without oars, to be carried by violence of the water, and in the fore
part thereof standeth a young man, ready to give charge upon the shield
with his lance; if so be he breaketh his lance against the shield, and
doth not fall, he is thought to have performed a worthy deed; if so be,
without breaking his lance, he runneth strongly against the shield,
down he falleth into the water, for the boat is violently forced with
the tide; but on each side of the shield ride two boats, furnished with
young men, which recover him that falleth as soon as they may. Upon the
bridge, wharfs, and houses, by the river’s side, stand great numbers to
see and laugh thereat.
“In the holidays all the summer the youths are exercised in leaping,
dancing, shooting, wrestling, casting the stone, and practising their
shields; the maidens trip in their timbrels, and dance as long as they
can well see. In winter, every holiday before dinner, the boars prepared
for brawn are set to fight, or else bulls and bears are baited.
“When the great fen, or moor, which watereth the walls of the city on
the north side, is frozen, many young men play upon the ice; some,
striding as wide as they may, do slide swiftly; others make themselves
seats of ice, as great as millstones; one sits down, many hand in hand
do draw him, and one slipping on a sudden, all fall together; some tie
bones to their feet and under their heels; and shoving themselves by a
little picked staff, do slide as swiftly as a bird flieth in the air,
or an arrow out of a cross-bow. Sometime two run together with poles,
and hitting one the other, either one or both do fall, not without
hurt; some break their arms, some their legs, but youth desirous of
glory in this sort exerciseth itself against the time of war. Many of
the citizens do delight themselves in hawks and hounds; for they have
liberty of hunting in Middlesex, Hartfordshire, all Chiltron, and in
Kent to the water of Cray.” Thus far Fitzstephen of sports.
These, or the like exercises, have been continued till our time,
namely, in stage plays, whereof ye may read in anno 1391, a play by
the parish clerks of London at the Skinner’s well besides Smithfield,
which continued three days together, the king, queen, and nobles of the
realm being present. And of another, in the year 1409, which lasted
eight days, and was of matter from the creation of the world, whereat
was present most part of the nobility and gentry of England. Of late
time, in place of those stage plays, hath been used comedies, tragedies,
interludes, and histories, both true and feigned; for the acting whereof
certain public places[109] have been erected. Also cocks of the game are
yet cherished by divers men for their pleasures, much money being laid
on their heads, when they fight in pits, whereof some be costly made
for that purpose. The ball is used by noblemen and gentlemen in tennis
courts, and by people of meaner sort in the open fields and streets.
The marching forth of citizens’ sons, and other young men on horseback,
with disarmed lances and shields, there to practise feats of war, man
against man, hath long since been left off, but in their stead they
have used on horseback to run at a dead mark, called a quinten; for
note whereof I read,[110] that in the year of Christ 1253, the 38th of
Henry III., the youthful citizens, for an exercise of their activity,
set forth a game to run at the quinten; and whoever did best should
have a peacock, which they had prepared as a prize. Certain of the
king’s servants, because the court lay then at Westminster came, as it
were, in spite of the citizens, to that game, and giving reproachful
names to the Londoners, which for the dignity of the city, and ancient
privilege which they ought to have enjoyed, were called barons, the
said Londoners, not able to bear so to be misused, fell upon the king’s
servants, and beat them shrewdly, so that upon complaint to the king he
fined the citizens to pay a thousand marks. This exercise of running at
the quinten was practised by the youthful citizens as well in summer as
in winter, namely, in the feast of Christmas, I have seen a quinten set
upon Cornehill, by the Leaden hall, where the attendants on the lords of
merry disports have run, and made great pastime; for he that hit not
the broad end of the quinten was of all men laughed to scorn, and he
that hit it full, if he rid not the faster, had a sound blow in his neck
with a bag full of sand hung on the other end. I have also in the summer
season seen some upon the river of Thames rowed in wherries, with staves
in their hands, flat at the fore end, running one against another, and
for the most part, one or both overthrown, and well ducked.
On the holy days in summer the youths of this city have in the field
exercised themselves in leaping, dancing, shooting, wrestling, casting
of the stone or ball, etc.
And for defence and use of the weapon, there is a special profession of
men that teach it. Ye may read in mine _Annals_ how that in the year
1222 the citizens kept games of defence, and wrestlings, near unto the
hospital of St. Giles in the field, where they challenged, and had the
mastery of the men in the suburbs, and other commoners, etc. Also, in
the year 1453, of a tumult made against the mayor at the wrestling
besides Clearke’s well, etc. Which is sufficient to prove that of old
time the exercising of wrestling, and such like, hath been much more
used than of later years. The youths of this city also have used on holy
days after evening prayer, at their masters’ doors, to exercise their
wasters and bucklers; and the maidens, one of them playing on a timbrel,
in sight of their masters and dames, to dance for garlands hung athwart
the streets; which open pastimes in my youth being now suppressed,
worse practices within doors are to be feared. As for the baiting of
bulls and bears, they are to this day much frequented, namely, in Bear
gardens,[111] on the Bank’s side, wherein be prepared scaffolds for
beholders to stand upon. Sliding upon the ice is now but children’s
play; but in hawking and hunting many grave citizens at this present
have great delight, and do rather want leisure than goodwill to follow
it.
Of triumphant shows made by the citizens of London, ye may read,[112] in
the year 1236, the 20th of Henry III., Andrew Bockwell then being mayor,
how Helianor, daughter to Reymond, Earl of Provance, riding through the
city towards Westminster, there to be crowned queen of England, the city
was adorned with silks, and in the night with lamps, cressets, and other
lights without number, besides many pageants and strange devices there
presented; the citizens also rode to meet the king and queen, clothed in
long garments embroidered about with gold, and silks of divers colours,
their horses gallantly trapped to the number of three hundred and sixty,
every man bearing a cup of gold or silver in his hand, and the king’s
trumpeters sounding before them. These citizens did minister wine, as
bottelers, which is their service, at their coronation. More, in the
year 1293, for victory obtained by Edward I. against the Scots, every
citizen, according to their several trade, made their several show, but
especially the fishmongers, which in a solemn procession passed through
the city, having, amongst other pageants and shows, four sturgeons gilt,
carried on four horses; then four salmons of silver on four horses; and
after them six and forty armed knights riding on horses, made like luces
of the sea; and then one representing St. Magnus, because it was upon
St. Magnus’ day, with a thousand horsemen, etc.
One other show, in the year 1377, made by the citizens for disport of
the young prince, Richard, son to the Black Prince, in the feast of
Christmas, in this manner:--On the Sunday before Candlemas, in the
night, one hundred and thirty citizens, disguised, and well horsed,
in a mummery, with sound of trumpets, sackbuts, cornets, shalmes,
and other minstrels, and innumerable torch lights of wax, rode from
Newgate, through Cheape, over the bridge, through Southwarke, and so to
Kennington beside Lambhith, where the young prince remained with his
mother and the Duke of Lancaster his uncle, the Earls of Cambridge,
Hertford, Warwicke, and Suffolke, with divers other lords. In the first
rank did ride forty-eight in the likeness and habit of esquires, two
and two together, clothed in red coats and gowns of say or sandal, with
comely visors on their faces; after them came riding forty-eight knights
in the same livery of colour and stuff; then followed one richly arrayed
like an emperor; and after him some distance, one stately attired like
a pope, whom followed twenty-four cardinals, and after them eight or
ten with black visors, not amiable, as if they had been legates from
some foreign princes. These maskers, after they had entered Kennington,
alighted from their horses, and entered the hall on foot; which done,
the prince, his mother, and the lords, came out of the chamber into the
hall, whom the said mummers did salute, showing by a pair of dice upon
the table their desire to play with the prince, which they so handled
that the prince did always win when he cast them. Then the mummers set
to the prince three jewels, one after another, which were a bowl of
gold, a cup of gold, and a ring of gold, which the prince won at three
casts. Then they set to the prince’s mother, the duke, the earls, and
other lords, to every one a ring of gold, which they did also win. After
which they were feasted, and the music sounded, the prince and lords
danced on the one part with the mummers, which did also dance; which
jollity being ended, they were again made to drink, and then departed in
order as they came.
The like was in Henry IV., in the 2nd of his reign, he then keeping his
Christmas at Eltham, twelve aldermen of London and their sons rode in a
mumming, and had great thanks.
Thus much for sportful shows in triumphs may suffice. Now for sports and
pastimes yearly used.
First, in the feast of Christmas, there was in the king’s house,
wheresoever he was lodged, a lord of misrule, or master of merry
disports,[113] and the like had ye in the house of every nobleman of
honour or good worship, were he spiritual or temporal. Amongst the which
the mayor of London, and either of the sheriffs, had their several lords
of misrule, ever contending, without quarrel or offence, who should make
the rarest pastimes to delight the beholders. These lords beginning
their rule on Alhollon eve, continued the same till the morrow after the
Feast of the Purification, commonly called Candlemas day. In all which
space there were fine and subtle disguisings, masks, and mummeries, with
playing at cards for counters, nails, and points, in every house, more
for pastime than for gain.
Against the feast of Christmas every man’s house, as also the parish
churches, were decked with holm, ivy, bays, and whatsoever the season
of the year afforded to be green. The conduits and standards in the
streets were likewise garnished; amongst the which I read, in the year
1444, that by tempest of thunder and lightning, on the 1st of February,
at night, Powle’s steeple was fired, but with great labour quenched; and
towards the morning of Candlemas day, at the Leaden hall in Cornhill,
a standard of tree being set up in midst of the pavement, fast in the
ground, nailed full of holm and ivy, for disport of Christmas to the
people, was torn up, and cast down by the malignant spirit (as was
thought), and the stones of the pavement all about were cast in the
streets, and into divers houses, so that the people were sore aghast of
the great tempests.
In the week before Easter had ye great shows made for the fetching in
of a twisted tree, or with, as they termed it, out of the woods into the
king’s house; and the like into every man’s house of honour or worship.