"being the form of a ewer," the company taking the ancient
allowance for sizing. This was a very important public trust, which the
Founders continue to discharge.

The Framework Knitters' Company owes its existence to an ingenious
curate, one William Lee, of Calverton, who invented the stocking-loom in
1589. We should like, if space permitted, to dwell on his romantic
story, but in this brief sketch it is impossible. The company of
Framework Knitters sprang into being in the time of Charles II., and was
then extremely prosperous, indulging in expensive pomp and pageantries.
A gilded barge, a large band of musicians, a master's carriage,
attendants resplendent in gold-lace liveries, and banners emblazoned
with their arms, were some of the luxuries in which they indulged. But
their glory waned and their trade passed from London to the Midlands,
and little of their ancient state remains.

The Fruiterers have an active little company incorporated by James I.,
and still do useful work in promoting the cultivation of home-grown
fruit by cottagers and small holders of land. The Girdlers' Company is
an ancient fraternity, once styled the "Zonars," and formerly had the
regulation of the manufacture of girdles of silk or wool, or linen and
garters. Though the use of girdles has died out more than two centuries,
the company remains, and has a charming hall and some valuable property.
It owed its origin to a lay brotherhood of the Order of St. Laurence,
the members of which maintained themselves by the making of girdles, and
the guild was in existence in the days of Edward III., who addressed
them as "Les ceincturiers de notre Citee de Loundres."

The Glass-sellers have a charter granted by Charles II. to his
"well-beloved subjects the glass-sellers and looking-glass makers, which
authorised them to search in all places where glasses, looking-glasses,
hour-glasses and stone pots, or bottles, shall be made, showed, or put
to sale." The ordinances are very severe on apprentices, who, if guilty
of haunting taverns, alehouses, bowling alleys, or other misdemeanour,
were brought to the hall and stripped and whipped by persons appointed
for that purpose. Another company connected with the same substance, the
Glaziers, has little history, and we pass on to the Glovers, who existed
in 1349, and have had an honourable career. Gloves have played such a
notable part in our national life, that it would be a pleasant task to
record their hist