At Louth, Lincolnshire, a market cross was erected by the parish in 1521-22. That this structure was in the form of a roofed shelter, with a lofty shaft rising from the midst, is evident from the circumstances of the rebellion in 1536. The malcontents, it is recorded, had seized a number of the official books, and were about to burn them unread, when they came face to face with a certain priest, named William Morland. Upon his remonstrating with them, they dragged him under the High Cross and compelled him to examine the said books before consigning them to the flames. Meanwhile, others of the crowd brought the registrar, "and caused him, by a ladder, to climb up to the altitude, or highest part, of the cross," who, in abject terror for his life, sought to appease the mob by consenting to the destruction of the books in his charge. A portion of this cross, being, perhaps, so much of it as was adjudged to be superstitious, was taken down in 1573. Three stones were purchased for mending the cross in 1632, and further repairs, including tiling, were carried out in 1639. The "cross pales," presumably the railings or posts about the cross, were removed in October 1753; but a proposal for enclosing the structure, "to keep it clean and decent," was carried by the parish in November 1769. Another cross was situated at a spot in Louth, known as Julian Bower. This cross, according to the churchwardens' accounts, was renewed in stone in 1544. At Peterborough the old market cross, long since swept away, was a covered cross, as is evident from the town accounts, which note, in 1649, a sum of money "received under the market cross by several fellows for the use of the poor"; and, again, a further sum in 1652 "from the standers under the cross." In parts of Wales it was formerly the custom for labourers offering themselves for hire to congregate at the village cross, bargains made at such a spot being regarded as of more binding nature than those made elsewhere. It was indeed considered peculiarly dishonourable and impious to break a contract made at the cross. The village cross of Rhuddlan, in Flintshire, was so much frequented for hiring purposes, that the amount of the wages prevailing there became the standard for the time being for the whole district. There was also this distinction, viz., that labourers, hired at Rhuddlan, were hired for a week, during which term the rate agreed upon could not be altered; as distinguished from the crosses of other places where the custom was for the labourer to be hired by the day only--the scale of his pay being liable to fluctuate accordingly from day to day.