Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/396

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vn. OCT. 23, 1920.

the craft and its individual members were carefully safeguarded. Skins of sheep and lambs were not to be purchased before -removal from the beast and dressing, nor were kid skins, calves' skins or any skins used in the trade to be bought before exposure in the Market Place, or within fifty feet of the same in the open street, nor were they to be laid out for sale before 10 o'clock in the forenoon. Horse-hides and skins of swine and dogs were not to be sold to tanners, and butchers had to bring the skins of sheep and lambs with the flesh 'to market. The glovers' standing-place on market-days was at the old, quaint Market Cross, the name then given not merely to the stone stump of the ancient cross but to 'the timber edifice over it, resting on wooden pillars and surmounted by a turret with a clock. Here on Thursdays the Poet's father met his customers. Rules were strict with -regard to apprentices. Any boy taken into employment and instructed in the business must serve for seven years, after signing his indenture in the presence of the Bailiff and Steward of the Borough. The engagement was a binding one on both apprentice and master, with right of complaint by either to the Bailiff.

Incidentally, John Shakespeare had to do with wool and meat, whence arose the legends that he was a woolstapler and a butcher. He was a yeoman as well as a glover, and farmed land at Snitterfield with his father, later at Ingon with his brother Henry. Many of the Stratford tradesmen were yeomen. In April, 1552, John Shake- speare was living in Henley Street, for on the 29th of that month he was fined with "Humfrey Reynolds and Adrian Quyny for keeping a sterquinarium (colloquially, a muck-hill) in the roadway. There was v already an authorized refuse-heap in Henley Street before the house of the wheelwright, William Chambers, who lived next door to Thomas Patrick, at the country-end of the street, but these men wanted it on a more convenient spot. John Shakespeare was in not bad company. Reynolds was a respected Stratfordian, and Quyny Adrian Quyny the Second was one of the rising men of the Borough, a mercer in Henley Street, near John Shakespeare, one of the Tasters this year, and on the jury of Frank- pledge. Another bond than that of neigh- bourhood and common interest in the sterquinarium connected them. They were Protestants, and of an advanced type. Henley Street became, if it was not already,

stronghold of Protestantism. John Wheeler and William Smith, haberdasher, also lived there. John Shakespeare's house, no doubt, was the eastern one of the two le subsequently owned and occupied. There s no evidence whatever, save a very late tradition, of his occupation of the western iiouse, commonly called the Birthplace, 3efore his purchase of it in 1575.

EDQAB I. FBIPP.

(To be continued.)

NOTES ON DOROTHY OSBORNE'S LETTERS.

(See ante, p. 304.;

1653.

Jan. 27, Thursday. I came to London to answer my Vncle's bill in Chancery, to see if Mr. Holforde would receiuo S r W. Briar's 1300 11 to stop the proclamation against my father by Mr [tfytch ?].

Jan". 29, Saterday. I went to Doctor Sc : and spoke of Wilde.

Jan. 30, Sunday. I dined with my Lady Gargraue who told how she and my Lady Carre were fallen out shee told mee of the offer of my Ld. Winsor for Thorold and Ch ny for L. C. then spoke to mee of Ch ny for my sister.

Feb. 3, Thursday. My C. T. Osborn came to my chamber and I gaue him. notice that on tuesday next I would execute the Commission afc Chicksands.

Mr. Bainton spoke to me of my Lady A. Went- worth.

Feb. 4, Friday. I went to Judge Puliston with B. Squire to take the Engagement.

Feb. 5, Saterday. I came downe to Chick- sands.

Feb. 11, Friday. I went vp to London.

Feb. 12, Saterday. My sister came to London with my Lady Diana Rich and lay at My Aunt Gargraues by Charing Crosse and I lay at Palins.

Feb. 22. Tuesday. Wee came to Chicksands in a coach of Jack Peters at 35 shillings and 6 horses.

Mar. 2, Wednesday. My Cousin Thorold came to Chicksands.

Mar. 4, Friday. Shee went away, and I went with her the first night to Stilton.

Mar. 6, Sunday. I had a letter from my brother John to send him horses thursday next to Hat- feilde to bringe him to Chicksands.

Mar. 10, Thursday. My brother John came to Chicksands, where he had his ague.

Mar. 8. -I think tuesday my father and I and R. Compton sealed the bond to S r W. Briars for 1300"

Mar. 18, Friday. R. Squire carried Jane to London, to goe for Guarnsey.

Mar. 28, Monday. R. Compton told me Wheeler had brought him worde that now Sir W, Briars was content that my father should haue