Within this Hall, neither rich nor yet poor Would do for me ought, although I should die: Which seeing, I gat me out of the door, Where Flemings began on me for to cry: "Master, what will you _copen or buy_? [chap or exchange] Fine felt hats, or spectacles to read? Lay down your silver, and here you may speed." Spectacles to read before printing was invented must have had a rather limited market; but we must bear in mind where they were sold. In Westminster Hall there were lawyers and rich suitors congregated,--worshipful men, who had a written law to study and expound, and learned treatises diligently to peruse, and titles to hunt after through the labyrinths of fine and recovery. The dealer in spectacles was a dealer in hats, as we see; and the articles were no doubt both of foreign manufacture. But lawyers and suitors had also to feed, as well as to read with spectacles; and on the Thames side, instead of the coffee-houses of modern date, were tables in the open air, where men every day ate of "_bread, ribs of beef, both fat and full fine_," and drank jollily of "_ale and wine_," as they do now at a horse-race:-- Then to Westminster Gate I presently went, When the sun was at high prime: Cooks to me, they took good intent, And proffered me bread, with ale and wine, Ribs of beef, both fat and full fine; A fair cloth they gan for to spread, But, wanting money, I might not there speed. Passing from the City of Westminster, through the village of Charing and along Strand-side, to the City of London, the cries of food and feeding were first especially addressed to those who preferred a vegetable diet, with dessert and "_spice, pepper, and saffron_" to follow. "_Hot peascod one began to cry_," Peascod being the shell of peas; the _cod_ what we now call the _pod_:-- "Were women as little as they are good, A peascod would make them a gown and hood." "_Strawberry ripe, and cherries in the rise._" Rise--branch, twig, either a natural branch, or tied on sticks as we still see them. Then unto London I did me hie, Of all the land it beareth the prize; Hot peascods! one began to cry; Strawberry ripe, and Cherries in the rise! One bade me come near and buy some spice; Pepper and saffron they gan me _bede_; [offer to me] But, for lack of money, I might not speed.