n times have
shown much activity, and have enrolled many distinguished men in their
rank of Freemen. The Upholder is really an upholster, or upholsterer,
who now supplies furniture, beds, and such-like goods. His company was
founded in 1460, and received a grant of arms from Edward IV. Cornhill
was the original home of the upholder, or fripperer, as he was sometimes
called, and he used to deal in old clothes, old beds, old armour, old
combs, and his shop must have been a combination of old curiosity shop
and a store-dealer's warehouse. Later on, he concentrated his attention
on furniture; his status improved, and his guild became an important
association, though never very wealthy or remarkable.

The Wax Chandlers lived in palmy days, when they furnished the great
halls of the nobles with the produce of their skill, and innumerable
lights burned before every altar in our churches. Their guild existed
in 1371, and was qualified to make "torches, cierges, prikits, great
candles, or any other manner of wax chandlery." They still possess a
hall in Gresham Street and Gutter Lane. The Weavers claim to possess the
oldest company of all the city guilds. It certainly existed in the time
of Henry I., and they have a charter of Henry II. which is signed by St.
Thomas of Canterbury, and no less than eleven others. In the palmy days
of the cloth industry they were very prosperous, but unfortunately few
records of their former greatness remain. The Wheelwrights' Company
suggests the fascinating study of the introduction of coaches and cars,
upon which we cannot now embark, nor listen to the wails of the Thames
watermen, who complained against new-fangled ways. This guild received a
charter from Charles II., and did good service in protecting the lives
of his Majesty's subjects from "the falling of carts and coaches through
the ignorance and ill-work" of foreign craftsmen. Last, but not least,
on the list stands the Woolmen's Company, founded in 1300, when the
trade in wool was at its zenith. It has borne several names, and was
identical with the guild of the wool-packers or wool-winders.
Wool-combers were also licensed by the company. A noted member of this
ancient fraternity was Sir John Crosby, the founder of Crosby Hall,
"Grocer and Woolman," alderman of the city in the reign of Edward IV.,
whose noble house London has at length declined to spare.

THE VICISSITUDES OF THE COMPANIES

From this brief record of the City Companies