“The great cattle-market, of course, was Smithfield (Smooth field), which is mentioned as a ‘_campus_,’ a plain, or open space; and ordinances are met with, of an early date, for keeping it clean. Among other animals sold at Smithfield, lean swine are mentioned, probably for fattening in town or in its close vicinity. From the frequent mention of pigs, it would seem probable that pork was more extensively consumed than any other kind of butchers’ meat. _Temp._ Edward III., lambs are mentioned as being brought by boat to St. Botolph’s Wharf, near the Tower. The great meat-markets were held at the Flesh-Shambles of St. Nicholas, near Newgate, and at the stalls under the covered place or market-house (_domus_) known as ‘Le Stokkes,’ afterwards Stocks Market. At some periods, if not constantly, the meat-markets were open on Sundays. _Temp._ Richard II., a regulation was made that all butchers, keeping shops, should close them at dark, and not sell their meat by candle-light; a rule which seems, at times, to have applied to all other trades as well. On the same occasion, too, it was ordered that no one should go out of the City for the purchase of lambs, and that no lambs should be sold at a higher price than six pence. In the reign of Edward III., orders were issued that the offals of St. Nicholas Flesh-Shambles should be buried in spots appointed for the purpose; and at a later period, in the same reign, we find proclamation made that the butchers of St. Nicholas shall no longer carry the offals and filth of the market down to the Thames; a mandate also being issued that large cattle shall in future be slaughtered without the City. In the early part of the reign of Edward I., it was ordered that strange or foreign butchers should sell till _none_ (our noon) by retail, and, after that, by wholesale, until Vespers rung at St. Paul’s; at which time they must have finished the sale of their meat, without carrying anything away to salt or store, under penalty of forfeiting the same. In the reign of Edward III., the time for the foreign butchers closing market had been prolonged to Curfew at St Martin’s le Grand. Foreign butchers were also strictly forbidden to bring any carcase to market without the hide or woolfel belonging thereto. Among other ordinances, which seem to have applied equally to free butchers and foreign, it was provided that they should not sell hides or woolfels till after prime, or six in the morning; that they should not sell a woolfel while the animal was alive; and an injunction is to be met with more than once, that butchers, neither themselves nor by their wives, should sell suet, tallow, or lard, for the purpose of being taken beyond sea. Candles were made in these days of tallow or wax, as now.” * * * * *