No wine was permitted to be sold till it had been submitted to a scrutiny, and been duly gauged. In the reign of Edward III. four vintners were chosen yearly to assess the prices of wine. King's Prisage, or Custom, was taken according to a certain scale on all imported wines. The wine taverns were furnished with a pole projecting from the gable of the house, and supporting a sign, or a bunch of leaves at the end (the bush of the proverb, 'Good wine needs no bush'). In one ordinance it is stated that the poles of the taverns of Cheapside and elsewhere were of such a length as to be in the way of persons on horseback, and so heavy as to cause the risk of greatly damaging the houses; in consequence of this it was enacted that from thenceforth no sign-pole should be more than seven feet in length.[337] No ale or wine tavern was allowed to remain open after curfew. The clothing trades are well represented among the city companies. The Mercers head the list of the 'Twelve,' and the freemen were originally 'chapmen in small or mixed wares,' that is, those articles which were sold retail by the little balance or small scale, in contradistinction to those things sold by the beam, or in gross, and they did business in the Mercery, Cheapside. Wadmal, a coarse woollen stuff, lake or fine linen, fustian, felt, etc., were among these smallwares. Gradually the mercers of Cheap extended their dealings, became vendors of silks and velvets (_temp._ Henry VI.), and formed a mixed body of merchants and shopkeepers, leaving the smallwares, or mercery proper, to the haberdashers. Sir William Stone held the position of mercer to Queen Elizabeth, and supplied her with her wardrobe. The Haberdashers imported a cloth at first styled _halberject_, and in the fourteenth century _hapertas_, from which, as Mr. Riley suggests, the term 'haberdasher' probably originated. Subsequently the Hurers and the Hatters joined them. The Merchant Taylors and Linen Armourers are in some documents styled 'Mercatores Scissores,' 'Scissors of London,' 'Scissors and Fraternity of St. John Baptist,'--titles alike pointing to their being anciently both tailors and cutters, and also making the padding and interior lining of armour, as well as manufacturing garments. Tailors made dresses for both sexes, their prices, as usual, being regulated by public enactment. By ordinance of the reign of Edward III. it is declared that 'Tailors shall henceforth take for a robe, garnished with silk, 18d.; for a man's robe, garnished with thread and buckram, 14d.; also a coat and hood, 10d.; also for a lady's long dress, garnished with silk and cendale, 2s. 6d.; also for a pair of sleeves for changing, 4d.'[338]