"Thanks to my loving host and hostess, _Pease_, There at mine inne each night I took mine ease; And there I got a cantle of _Hull Chesse_." The poet, in a foot-note, says:--"Hull cheese is much like a loaf out of the brewer's basket; it is composed of two samples, mault and water in one compound, and is cousin german to the mightiest ale in England." Ray quotes the proverb, "You have eaten some Hull cheese," as equivalent to an accusation of drunkenness. Rebel Heads on City Gates. The barbarous custom of spiking heads on city gates, and on other prominent places, may be traced back to the days of Edward I. His wise laws won for him the title of "the English Justinian," but he does not appear to have tempered justice with mercy. In his age little value was set upon human life. His scheme of conquest included the subjugation and annexation of Scotland and Wales. David, the brother of Llewellyn the Welsh Prince, had been on the side of the English, and at the hands of Edward had experienced kindness, but in return he showed little gratitude. In 1282 he made an unprovoked attack on Hawarden Castle. Subsequently his brother Llewellyn joined in the rising, and undertook the conduct of the war in South Wales, while David attempted to defend the North of the country. In a skirmish on the Wye, Llewellyn was slain by a single knight. David soon fell into the hands of the English, and was sent in chains to Shrewsbury. Here he was tried by Parliament, consisting of "the first national convention in which the Common had any share by legal authority, and the earliest lawful trace of a mixed assembly of Lords and Commons." Guilty of being a traitor was the verdict returned, and David was condemned to a new and cruel mode of execution, viz., "to be dragged at a horse's tail through the streets of Shrewsbury, and to be afterwards hung and cut down while alive, his heart and bowels burnt before his face, his body quartered and his head sent to London." The head of Llewellyn was also to be sent to London, to be spiked on the Tower encircled with a crown of ivy. On the gates of old London Bridge have been spiked the heads of many famous men--not a few whose brave deeds add glory to the annals of England and Scotland. The heroic deeds of Sir William Wallace have done much to increase the dignity of the history of North Britain. After rendering gallant service to his native land, he was betrayed into the hands of the English by his friend and countryman, Sir John Menteith, at Glasgow. He was conveyed to London, was tried and condemned as a rebel, and on August 23rd, 1305, suffered a horrible death, similar to the fate of David, Prince of Wales. His body was divided and sent into four parts of Scotland, and his head set up on a pole on London Bridge. Edward I. degraded himself by this cruel revenge on a patriotic man. In the following year the head of another Scotch rebel, Simon Frazer, was spiked beside that of Wallace.