While the merchant guild looked after the interests of the trades, the town itself was governed by a mayor and aldermen, who were responsible for the good behaviour of the inhabitants. They also fixed the prices at which food and other necessaries of life were to be sold, and had the control of all markets and fairs. Commonhall Street takes its name from the old Common Hall in which the mayor and aldermen of the city met for their deliberations. The old hall has long since disappeared. The mayor and the magistrates administered justice in the Penthouse or Pentice, which used to stand close to S. Peter's Church in the centre of the city. During the two great fairs of the city of Chester a large white glove was suspended from the tower of S. Peter's as the symbol of welcome to all strangers to bring their wares into the city for sale. In the church of S. John's is an ancient grave-slab with glove and scissors carved upon it. The slab once covered the remains of a glover; glove-making has always been one of the chief industries of Chester. Another slab shows by the hammer and horseshoe engraved upon it that it belonged to the tomb of a smith. [Illustration: TOMBSTONE OF A GLOVER, S. JOHN'S CHURCH, CHESTER] One of the privileges of the Shoemakers' Guild was that of providing the ball for the annual game of football played on the Roodee on Easter Monday. The mayor and all the city guilds came to watch the game, which unfortunately did not always end happily, for we read that 'great strife did arise', and many of the players were haled away to be dealt with by the Mayor at the Pentice court. The saddlers provided a silver bell as a prize for the winner of a horse-race on the Roodee. But the greatest event of the year in mediaeval Chester was the performance of scenes from the Scriptures--mystery plays, as they were called--at the Festival of Whitsuntide. The city guilds bore the whole of the expense and chose the players to perform them, each guild being responsible for one scene. Thus the painters and glaziers performed the Shepherds' Watch and the Angels' Hymn; the vintners acted the part of the Wise Men of the East; the butchers the Story of the Temptation; the glovers the Raising of Lazarus. Scenes from the Old Testament were included, the linen drapers performing the story of Balaam and the Ass, and the watermen of the Dee, appropriately enough, the story of the Flood. The plays were put into English verse by Randal Hignet, a monk of S. Werburgh's, and no doubt were originally performed by the monks as a means of instructing the people in the outlines of the Christian faith. As the abbey church was found to be unsuitable they were performed publicly in the streets, in order 'to exhort', as a clerk of the Pentice said, 'the minds of the common people to good devotion as well as for the common weal and prosperity of the city.'