[58] It is scarcely possible to keep within bounds one's enthusiasm for the magnificent edition of _Piers Plowman_, which Professor Skeat has placed in our hands. I feel, having watched the work from its inception in 1866, when 'Parallel Extracts from 29 Manuscripts' was published, that if the Early English Text Society had published nothing else it would have worthily justified its existence. The labour bestowed on the work by its editor is immense, and the result is that we have for the first time a perfect text of one of the most influential works in English literature, with all the illustrative notes necessary to exhibit its vast effect upon English history. [59] Hoccleve's Works, vol. i. Minor Poems, ed. by F. J. Furnivall (Early English Text Society, Extra Series), p. 61, 1891. The editor has gathered much fresh material for the biography of Hoccleve. [60] _Gower's Complete Works_, ed. G. C. Macaulay, Oxford, 1899, vol. i. [61] Of these especial honour is due to Dr. Furnivall, who has for years sought ceaselessly and with the greatest success for documentary evidence of the facts of Chaucer's life. [62] Chaucer at Aldgate, _Home Counties Magazine_, Oct. 1900, p. 259. [63] Chaucer at Aldgate (_Folia Litteraria_, 1893, p. 87). [64] _Folia Litteraria_, pp. 88, 89. [65] _Folia Litteraria_, p. 100. [66] _Scrope and Grosvenor Roll_, vol. i. p. 178 (translated from French). [67] _See_ letter of Prof. J. W. Hales, _Athenæum_, Aug. 9, 1902, p. 190. [68] The Tabard was one among many inns from which travellers started on their journeys along the road to Canterbury and to the seaports of the South. The whole of the buildings which Chaucer knew were burnt in the great Southwark fire of 1676. [69] Commune, p. 246. Further consideration is given to the condition of trade in London in the Middle Ages in chapter x. [70] _Liber Custumarum_, ed. H. T. Riley, 1860, p. xxxvi. [71] _Liber Custumarum_, p. cix. [72] Inquis. 1 _Henr. V._, quoted by Riley, p. cix. [73] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 306. [74] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 376. [75] _Riley's Memorials_, p. 648. [76] _Ibid._, p. 215. [77] _Ibid._, p. 219. [78] _Ibid._, p. 220. [79] Cal. Letter Book A, p. 187. [80] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 509. [81] _Chronicle of Mayors and Sheriffs_, pp. 146, 147, quoted in Cal. Letter Book C, p. 61 (note). [82] Cal. Letter Book C, p. 133. [83] _Ibid._, p. 95. [84] Cal. Letter Book B, p. 219. [85] Cal. Letter Book A, pp. 178, 179. [86] Stow's _Chronicle_, p. 681. [87] W. B. Rye's _England as seen by Foreigners_, 1865, pp. 9, 192. [88] _Liber Custumarum_, ed. Riley, 1860, p. ciii. [89] Round's _Geoffrey de Mandeville_, 1892, pp. 328-346. [90] _Mediæval Military Architecture_, 1884, vol. ii. p. 204. [91] _Mediæval Military Architecture_, 1884, vol. ii. p. 205. [92] _Mediæval Military Architecture_, 1884, vol. ii. p. 253. [93] _Mediæval Military Architecture_, vol. ii. p. 271.