Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/545

 12 s. ii. DEC. so, i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

now with greater, now with slacker zeal. They show themselves compassionate towards brethren who have failed in life, and of a fatherly mind towards apprentices. As their corporate life develops they develop in due measure a taste for corporate magnificence ; and these honest men yielded nothing to the other London guilds in their liberality, especially as testators, towards their own body.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Cutlers' history is that of their relations to certain subsidiary crafts those of the Purbours, Hafters, Sheathers, Grinders, Bladesmiths, and one or two others. To the novice in these matters it will not for a time be eisy to realize what trade it was which constituted the cutler proper. His calling consisted first in the assembling of the productions of the bladesmith and sheather, and fitting the blade with its handle, and next in acting as responsible to the public for the workmanship and quality of the finished article. The hafters, who provided the handles, were among the most important members of the Mistery.

Whether a determination to keep up the standard of work in a craft arises from mere good policy or from a lofty disinterested ideal, it can achieve its end only by means of training soundly the oncoming members, and the Cutlers display the usual sagacity of mediaeval men in this respect. We may perhaps observe in the mediaeval system of apprenticeship some in- fluence from the general familiarity with the monastic system ; and still more reasonable is it to suppose that the great community life in the monasteries affected what we may call the orientation of the corporate life of the Misteries. Questions of origin or evolution are beside the mark ; our point is that it must have been, in the centuries we are dealing with, difficult for unlearned practical persons to dissociate the very conception of a community or corporation, for whatever purpose, from some implication of " religion." The Fraternity, which was the Mistery under its religious aspect, ensured that no member, however scantily provided with kith and kin, should go hence without funeral comfort, and without continued remembrance in masses and prayers, and we do not find the Cutlers in any way remiss as to this.

The history of the Company in the period dealt with in this volume may be said to fall into two divisions, that before and that after Dec. 4, 1416. On that date did the Cutlers receive their Charter of Incorporation from the hands of Henry V. It is unfortunate that the records at Cutlers' Hall do not furnish any information as to what led up to this grant. It had a considerable effect on the government of the. Mistery, which, until this time had been administered by four Rulers, apparently equal in authority and elected annually. Hence- forward, its officials have been a Master and two Wardens, to whom was added a Court of As- sistants. The Master and Wardens must them- selves be of the livery of the Mistery which now comes into prominence, and is distinct from the livery of the Fraternity but the right of electing them belonged to all the freemen of the Company. This last is perhaps rather a loose expression, considering that there were women (single as well as widows) who held the freedom, and some of the most interesting entries in these records relate to women cutlers. There is even a

mysterious Lady Agnes " le Cotiller," who was. assessed in Walbrook Ward at the then (early fourteenth century) considerable sum of 33s. 4d..

We may collect a few it will be understood they are a few out of many instances of pic- turesque or otherwise attractive details which we have noted.

The rules concerning each man's retail trade were, as is well known, numerous and strict, and no freeman might be engaged in more than one. But he might deal in whatever wholesale mer- chandise he pleased, and we find that brewing as a second trade was much affected by the cutlers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The value of their own goods might be illustrated by several quotations we take an example of 1361,. which is rather curious : one John Nasyng,. brewer, ordered in his will that all the knives attached to his girdle should be sold and the- proceeds given to the work of two City churches. Here and there we get some hint of the relation, between London cutlers and those of other towns as in the admission of Adam de Thakstede to the freedom of the City. Thaxted was an important centre for the cutlery trade, and Adam had so far- prospered as to be able to move into London. Still more interesting are the particulars of the share taken by the Cutlers' Company in various civic demonstrations or responsibilities : in the- reception of kings or queens, and maintaining" watch and ward, or, as in 1402, furnishing- delegates to attend an inquiry into the manage- ment of the City prisons, held in the Tower of London. In 1422 three hundred members of the divers Misteries, in white gowns and hoods, and bearing torches in their hands, attended the funeral procession of Henry V. The torches were the great expense in this, and the Cutlers' Company provided four. No doubt they appeared among their fellow-citizens as personable men, for their- ordinances required that an apprentice should be not only " of free birth and condition," but- likewise " formosus in statura habens membra recta & decencia." In chap, iv., which deals with the inner life of the Company in the latter half of" the fifteenth century, are to be found not only a good account of the Company's property in the- Cutlery and of how it was acquired, but also a number of pleasant particulars relating to Cutlers" Hall and its appurtenances.

As an appendix to the text of the volume Mr- Welch prints in detail the principal pieces of evidence upon which his work is grounded, giving: both the original Latin or French, and an English translation. This very greatly adds to the value of the book. Another admirable feature is the illustrations, especially Mr. Emery Walker's fine engraving of the Hall and the reproductions of the seals. By the way, the Company is now the only City Company which has a French motto :: Pcrvenir (I), so it should be a bonne foy.

Mr. Welch has thrown his material more or- less into the form of a running narrative, and renders it fairly easy for reference by means o, plentiful marginal indications. The writing is), perhaps, a little unequal ; and the following (p. 123f may serve as an example of its occasional laxity : " The task of preparing such a list, though easier now than in the days of this sixteenth-cent ury scribe, is practically impossible." But apart from one or two minor lapses of this sort the work has been as well carried out as it was planned and. accumulated.