he sing and hoppe;
He loved bet the taverne than the shoppe--
For when ther eny riding was in Chepe
Out of the shoppe thider wold he lepe,
And til that he had all the sight ysein,
And danced wel, he wold not come agen."
(The Coke's Tale.)

In the luxurious reign of Richard II. the guilds were again vigilant,
and set fire to a number of caps that had been oiled with rank grease,
and that had been frilled by the feet and not by the hand, "so being
false and made to deceive the commonalty." In this same reign (1393),
when the air was growing dark with coming mischief, an ordinance was
passed, prohibiting secret huckstering of stolen and bad goods by night
"in the common hostels," instead of the two appointed markets held every
feast-day, by daylight only, in Westchepe and Cornhill. The Westchepe
market was held by day between St. Lawrence Lane and a house called "the
Cage," between the first and second bell, and special provision was made
that at these markets no crowd should obstruct the shops adjacent to the
open-air market. To close the said markets the "bedel of the ward" was
to ring a bell (probably, says Mr. Riley, the bell on the Tun, at
Cornhill) twice--first, an hour before sunset, and another final one
half an hour later. Another civic edict relating to markets occurs in
1379 (Richard II.), when the stands for stalls at the High Cross of
Chepe were let by the mayor and chamberlain at 13s. 4d. each. At the
same time the stalls round the brokers' cross, at the north door of St.
Paul's (erected by the Earl of Gloucester in Henry III.'s reign) were
let at 10s. and 6s. 8d. each. The stationers, or vendors in small wares,
on the taking down of the Cross in 1390, probably retired to Paternoster
Row.

The punishment of the pillory (either in Cheapside or Cornhill, the
"Letter Book" does not say which) was freely used in the Middle Ages for
scandal-mongers, dishonest traders, and forgers; and very deterring the
shameful exposure must have been to even the most brazen offender. Thus,
in Richard II.'s reign, we find John le Strattone, for obtaining
thirteen marks by means of a forged letter, was led through Chepe with
trumpets and pipes to the pillory on "Cornhalle" for one hour, on two
successive days.

For the sake of classification we may here mention a few earlier
instances of the same ignominious punishment. In 1372 (Edward III.)
Nicholas Mollere, a smith's servant, for spreading a lying re