The plays were given annually and in one day at the feast of Corpus Christi. Contrary to the custom of the northern towns, there were only some ten or twelve pageants, each covering a fairly wide range of incident (cf. p. 423). Nor can the performances be shown to have been repeated at more than three or four stations. ‘Gosford Street,’ ‘Mikel’ or ‘Much Park Street end’ and ‘Newgate’ are recorded, and in one of these may have been the house of Richard Wodes, where Queen Margaret lay. The Drapers only provided three ‘worlds’ for their pageant, and probably one was burnt at each station. According to the _Annals_, part of the charges of the plays was met by the enclosure of a piece of common land (possibly to build pageant houses upon). Otherwise they fell wholly upon the crafts, to some one of which every artisan in the town was bound to become contributory for the purpose. The principal crafts were appointed by the Leet to produce the pageants, and with each were grouped minor bodies liable only for fixed sums, varying from 3_s._ 4_d._ to 16_s._ 8_d._ In 1501 an outside craft, the Tilemakers of Stoke, is found contributing 5_s._ to a pageant. These combinations of crafts varied considerably from time to time. Within the craft the necessary funds were raised, in part at least, by special levies. Strangers taking out their freedom were sometimes called upon for a contribution. Every member of the craft paid his ‘pagent pencys.’ In several crafts the levy was 1_s._ Amongst the Smiths it must have been less, as they only got from 2_s._ 2_d._ to 3_s._ 4_d._ in this way, whereas the Cappers in 1562 collected 22_s._ 4_d._ In 1517 William Pisford left a scarlet and a crimson gown to the Tanners for their play, together with 3_s._ 4_d._ to each craft that found a pageant. The total cost of the Smiths’ play in 1490 was £3 7_s._ 5½_d._ In 1453 we find the Smiths contracting with one Thomas Colclow to have ‘the rewle of the pajaunt’ for twelve years, and to produce the play for a payment of 46_s._ 8_d._ A similar contract was made in 1481. But as a rule, the crafts undertook the management themselves, and the account-books studied by Sharp afford more detailed information as to the mode of production than happens to be available for any other of the great cycles.