last expelled seventeen of
the craft from their sheds in Chepe. In the third year of Edward II. it
was ordered and commanded on the king's behalf, that "no man or woman
should be so bold as henceforward to hold common market for merchandise
in Chepe, or any other highway within the City, except Cornhill, after
the hour of nones" (probably about two p.m.); and the same year it was
forbidden, under pain of imprisonment, to scour pots in the roadway of
Chepe, to the hindrance of folks who were passing; so that we may
conclude that in Edward II.'s London there was a good deal of that
out-door work that the traveller still sees in the back streets of
Continental towns.

Holocausts of spurious goods were not uncommon in Cheapside. In 1311
(Edward II.) we find that at the request of the hatters and
haberdashers, search had been made for traders selling "bad and cheating
hats," that is, of false and dishonest workmanship, made of a mixture of
wool and flocks. The result was the seizure of forty grey and white
hats, and fifteen black, which were publicly burnt in the street of
Chepe. What a burning such a search would lead to in our less scrupulous
days! Why, the pile would reach half way up St. Paul's. Illegal nets had
been burnt opposite Friday Street in the previous reign. After the hats
came a burning of fish panniers defective in measure; while in the reign
of Edward III. some false chopins (wine measures) were destroyed. This
was rough justice, but still the seizures seem to have been far fewer
than they would be in our boastful epoch.

There was a generous lavishness about the royalty of the Middle Ages,
however great a fool or scoundrel the monarch might be. Thus we read
that on the safe delivery of Queen Isabel (wife of Edward II.), in 1312,
of a son, afterwards Edward III., the Conduit in Chepe, for one day, ran
with nothing but wine, for all those who chose to drink there; and at
the cross, hard by the church of St. Michael in West Chepe, there was a
pavilion extended in the middle of the street, in which was set a tun of
wine, for all passers-by to drink of.

The mediaeval guilds, useful as they were in keeping traders honest
(Heaven knows, it needs supervision enough, now!), still gave rise to
jealousies and feuds. The sturdy craftsmen of those days, inured to
arms, flew to the sword as the quickest arbitrator, and preferred clubs
and bills to Chancery courts and Common Pleas. The stones of Chepe were
often crims