means unworthy of the public trusts and functions which under royal charters they still exercise. [Illustration: PLATE LXI BREWER'S HALL: GREAT HALL] Almost all these Guilds can trace their origins far back in English history, although many important records concerning them were destroyed in the great fire of London. The name "guild" is derived from the Saxon _gilden_ meaning to pay, and the original guilds were formed to comply with the exactions of a Saxon law, called "frank-pledge," by which it was ordained that every freeman over fourteen years of age should give securities to keep the peace. To afford such securities, groups of ten families entered into association, and bound themselves to produce any of their members who had committed offence, or, in default of this, to make satisfaction to the injured party. To provide for the payment of fines each guild maintained a common purse. Meantime, in order to better identify the members, as well as, probably, to keep a closer watch upon them, each association assembled at stated periods at a common feast. It is in these associations that we see the germ of the present trade guilds; and to this day the common purse and the feast at stated intervals are invariable institutions among them. Even during the Anglo-Saxon period a change in organization came about, and instead of being banded together by families they combined, as a more natural form of association, by trades; and such trade associations not only fulfilled their original purpose, but added other features for mutual protection and commercial advantage. At the time of the advent of the Normans so firmly were these trade guilds established in London that they forced William the Conqueror to recognize their corporate existence by giving them the first royal charter which is extant; and this charter still remains in the city archives, beautifully written in Anglo-Saxon characters on a slip of parchment. It may be thus translated:-- "William, the king, friendly salutes William the bishop and Godfrey the portreeve, and all the burgesses within London, both English and French. And I declare that I grant you all to be worthy, as you were in the days of King Edward; and I grant that every child shall be his father's heir, after his father's days; and I will not suffer any person to do you wrong. God keep you." [Illustration: CARVED ARM-PIECE OF CHOIR STALL CATHEDRAL OF GENOA SIXTEENTH CENTURY]