563. _a thombe of gold._ An explanation of this proverb is given on the authority of Mr. Constable, the Royal Academician, by Mr. Yarrell in his History of British Fishes, who, when speaking of the Bullhead or _Miller's Thumb_, explains that a miller's thumb acquires a peculiar shape by continually feeling samples of corn whilst it is being ground; and that such a thumb is called _golden_, with reference to the profit that is the reward of the experienced miller's skill. 'When millers toll not with a golden thumbe.' Gascoigne's Steel Glass, l. 1080. Ray's Proverbs give us--'An honest miller has a golden thumb'; ed. 1768, p. 136; taken satirically, this means that there are _no_ honest millers. Brand, in his Pop. Antiquities, ed. Ellis, iii. 387, quotes from an old play--'Oh the mooter dish, _the miller's Thumbe_!' The simplest explanation is to take the words just as they stand, i. e. 'he used to steal corn, and take his toll thrice; yet he had a golden thumb such as all honest millers are said to have.' 565. W. Thorpe, when examined by Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1407, complains of the pilgrims, saying--'they will ordain to have with them both men and women that can well sing wanton songs; and some other pilgrims will have with them _bagpipes_; so that every town that they come through, what with the noise of their singing, and with the sound of their piping, and with the jangling of their Canterbury bells, and with the barking out of dogs after them, they make more noise than if the king came there away, with all his clarions and many other minstrels.'--Arber's Eng. Garner, vi. 84; Wordsworth, Eccl. Biography, 4th ed. i. 312; Cutts, Scenes and Characters, p. 179. 566. 'And with its music he conducted us out of London.' [50] THE MAUNCIPLE. 567. _Maunciple_ or _manciple_, an officer who had the care of purchasing provisions for a college, an inn of court, &c. (Still in use.) See A. 3993. A _temple_ is here 'an inn of court'; besides the Inner and Middle Temple (in London), there was also an Outer Temple; see Timbs, Curiosities of London, p. 461; and the account of the Temple in Stow's Survey of London. 568. _which_, whom. _achatours_, purchasers; cf. F. _acheter_, to buy. 570. _took by taille_, took by tally, took on credit. Cf. Piers Plowman, ed. Wright, vol. i. p. 68, and ed. Skeat (Clarendon Press Series), B. iv. 58:-- 'And (he) bereth awey my whete, And taketh me but a _taille_ for ten quarters of otes.' The buyer who took by tally had the price scored on a pair of sticks; the seller gave him one of them, and retained the other himself. 'Lordis ... taken pore mennus goodis and paien not therfore but white stickis ... and sumtyme beten hem whanne thei axen here peye'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 233 (see note at p. 519). 571. _Algate_, in every way, always; cf. prov. E. _gate_, a street. _achat_, buying; see l. 568. 572. _ay biforn_, ever before (others).