Merrie England in the Olden Time, Vol. 2Daniel, George
History
Merrie England in the Olden Time, Vol. 2
Daniel, George
England -- Social life and customs
* Held at the Hand and Shears, the corner of Middle Street
and King Street, Cloth Fair. The Pied Poudre was originally
instituted to determine disputes regarding debts and
contracts, when the churchyard of the ancient Priory
contained the booths and standings of the Drapers and
Clothiers. The beadle of Cloth Fair received the annual fee
of 3s. and 4d. for measuring the yard-sticks. The officers
of the Pied Poudre are two Serjeants at Maee for the Lord
Mayor, two for the Poultry, and two for Giltspur Street
Compters, and a constable appointed by the steward of Lord
Kensington, to attend the court in his behalf. There was
formerly an Associate, (the Common Serjeant, or one of the
attorneys of the Lord Mayor's Sheriffs' Court,) but this
officer has not attended for the last hundred and fifty
years.
Some minor cases having been disposed of, Counsellor Rumtum rose, put on
his green spectacles and “twelve children phisiognomy,” (a most imposing
gravity!) and opened his pleadings
“Gentlemen of the Jury, the plaintiff is Miss Andromache the Goddess
of Wisdom, commonly called Minerva; the defendant is Mr. Andrew
Macky, Merry Andrew and Bearward, who boasts the largest menagerie
of well-educated monkeys in the fair. The plaintiff seeks to recover
damages for an assault, perpetrated by the defendant's servant Jamboa,
a belligerent baboon with a blue face. The Goddess had been stationed,
like the Palladium of Troy, in a temple adjoining the defendant's
caravan. The watchful cock was perched on her helmet, a waving plume
descended to her heels, a magnificent breast-plate and royal robe
adorned her imperial person, and armed with a spear and a shield, she
presented all the fascinations which the ancients have attributed
to Pallas. It is not in evidence, whether Miss Andromache had been
transported by heroes like Diomedes and Ulysses; but it may be presumed
that curiosity induced her to descend from her own palace to take a
peep at Andrew Macky's menagerie. The Goddess was charmed with the
intelligent visage and tall stately figure of the wild man of the woods,
who sat quietly in a corner, leaning on his staff; and being desirous of
ascertaining his exact altitude, (Wisdom, Gentlemen of the Jury, is ever
on the lookout for new discoveries,) she roused him from his reverie, by
propelling the sharp point of her spear to Jamboa's dextral hip-joint,
to make him jump. Starting up furiously, he struck her immortal Ægis to
the ground, inflicted with his grinders terrible havoc on her gorgeous
trappings, smashed ferociously her invincible breast-plate; and
imprinted on her royal person evident proofs of the piquant condition
of his nails. For this assault and battery Andromache claims of Andrew
Macky ample and liberal compensation; which, Gentlemen of the Jury,
(here Counsellor Rumtum, tried the “soft sawder!”) with your wonted
gallantry, you will doubtless award her.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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