They keep the wind out of their windows with glass: for it is there much used; and some were also with fine linen dipped in oil or amber: and that for two commodities: for by this means more light cometh in, and the wind is better kept out. EVIL MAY DAY (1517). Riots were by no means infrequent in the City in the Middle Ages, and here is an account of a typical disturbance, in which, of course, the young and hot-headed apprentices took their share. Just at this time there was intense animosity against the foreign merchants and artisans; the citizens thought that the presence of the foreigners, pursuing their occupations within the walls, was not only harmful to their own interests, but a violation of their charters which had given them the privilege of exclusive trade. At last the common indignation broke out in the great riot of May Day, 1517, which was long remembered as Evil May Day. It had been for centuries a practice of the citizens to collect in bands on May Day to hold high holiday, and they would sally forth, headed by mock officers, into the neighbouring fields to indulge in various sports; on this particular occasion the holiday spirit was not turned to such innocent and harmless purposes. =Source.=—Hall's _Chronicle_. The young and evil disposed people said, they would be revenged on the merchant strangers, as well as on the artificers strangers. On Monday the morrow after, the King removed to his manor of Richmond. Upon this rumour the 28th day of April, divers young men of the City assaulted the Aliens as they passed by the streets, and some were stricken and some buffeted, and some thrown in the canal. Wherefore the Mayor sent divers persons to ward, as Stephen Studley skinner, and Bettes and Stephenson and divers other, some to one counter, and some to another and some to Newgate. Then suddenly was a common secret rumour, and no man could tell how it began, that on May day next, the City would rebel and slay all aliens, insomuch as divers strangers fled out of the City....