The cloth was cleaned and thickened by the walkers, who trampled it in a trough of water and stretched it upon tenters to dry. Then came the rower who beat it with teazles to find out all the loose fibres and the shearman stood by with shears to cut off the knots and ends when they appeared. Before it was sold, the drawer must mend any holes or bad places in it: The drawer last that many faults doth hide, (Whom merchant nor the weaver can abide) Yet is he one in most clothes, stops more holes Than there be stairs to the top of S. Paul's. [Illustration: A CHRISTIAN OF CONSTANTINOPLE BORROWING MONEY FROM A JEW AND PLEDGING HIS CRUCIFIX] [Illustration: MIÉLOT IN HIS STUDY] [Illustration: A PRINTING PRESS] They worked as a rule from five in the morning till seven at night in summer and from dawn till dusk in winter, with half an hour for breakfast, and an hour and a half for dinner and a sleep on hot days. There was a holiday for every festival of the Church. Of Jack of Newbury's workshop we read, Within one room being large and long There stood two hundred looms full strong; Two hundred men, the truth is so, Wrought in these looms all in a row. By every one a pretty boy Sate making quils with mickle joy, And in another place hard by An hundred women merrily Were carding hard, with joyful cheer, Who singing sate with voices clear. And in a chamber close beside Two hundred maidens did abide, In petticoats of stammel red, And milk-white kerchers on their head. Those who worked in one trade bound themselves together into a gild, and often lived in one quarter of the city to protect one another; those who desired to become members must serve seven years' apprenticeship. To guard their honour, the masters made a strict rule that no work should be sent to market until it had been inspected and found well done. If a man fell ill, he received help from the gild. When the feast days came round and all made holiday, the elders of the gild provided a banquet and pastimes, and sometimes they welcomed the players who acted stories from the Bible and old legends. There was dancing and feasting and much merriment. So the citizens became more important than great barons and soldiers, for they brought trade to the country and riches to the King's Exchequer. A new world, too, was opening to the people, the world of books. With care the monks had copied down the old stories and histories, but there were few who could procure them to read.