evens accustomed; in commendation whereof, namely, in times of peace to be used, he hath words to this effect: “The artificers of sundry sorts were thereby well set a-work, none but rich men charged, poor men helped, old soldiers, trumpeters, drummers, fifes, and ensign-bearers, with such like men, meet for princes’ service, kept in ure, wherein the safety and defence of every common weal consisteth. Armour and weapon being yearly occupied in this wise, the citizens had of their own readily prepared for any need; whereas by intermission hereof, armourers are out of work, soldiers out of pay, weapons overgrown with foulness, few or none good being provided,” etc. In the month of August, about the feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, before the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs of London, placed in a large tent near unto Clarkenwell, of old time, were divers days spent in the pastime of wrestling, where the officers of the city, namely, the sheriffs, sergeants, and yeomen, the porters of the king’s beam or weigh-house, now no such men, and other of the city, were challengers of all men in the suburbs, to wrestle for games appointed, and on other days, before the said mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs, in Fensburie field, to shoot the standard, broad arrow, and flight, for games; but now of late years the wrestling is only practised on Bartholomew’s day in the afternoon, and the shooting some three or four days after, in one afternoon, and no more. What should I speak of the ancient daily exercises in the long bow by citizens of this city, now almost clean left off and forsaken?--I overpass it; for by the mean of closing in the common grounds, our archers, for want of room to shoot abroad, creep into bowling alleys, and ordinary dicing houses, nearer home, where they have room enough to hazard their money at unlawful games; and there I leave them to take their pleasures. FOOTNOTES: [115] A paper by Mr. Saunders, in Knight’s _London_, i. 169, entitled, “The Old Spring Time in London,” forms a very agreeable commentary on this section of our author’s work. [116] Rich thieves most worthy to be hanged. The judgment of fire and water, called _ordalii_, was condemned by Pope Innocent III. 1203. Decretal. lib. 5.--_Stow._ [117] More than two hundred and forty constables in London, the one half of them each night went in the marching watch, the other half kept their standing watch in every street and lane.--_Stow._ [118] A large coat or cloak, from the French “journade.”--See Roquefort’s _Glossaire_, s. v. [119] John Mountgomery. HONOUR OF CITIZENS, AND WORTHINESS OF MEN IN THE SAME