214 THE ANTIQUARIAN. 



vagant attire bad, we find, a correspondent influence 

 in the condition of the fashioners, who, as has been 

 remarked above, dwelt principally in Cornhijl and 

 its neighbourhood, when they began to be distin- 

 guished as a separate class from the f ripper s, who 

 sold ready-made and second-hand apparel, as also 

 old household stuff, in Birchin Lane. The repute 

 and wealth of the city tailors went on increasing in 

 such degree, that 21. Edward IV., (1480) they were 

 enrolled, and heraldric bearings assigned them by 

 Sir Thomas Holmes, knight, Clarencieux, king at 

 arms, under the style and title of the merchant 

 tailors and linen-armourers of the city of London ; 

 by letters patent from the crown, bearing date 18. 

 Henry VII., they became incorporated as " The art 

 and mystery of merchant tay lours of the fraternity 

 of St. John the Baptist.'' 



Coryatt, in his " Crudities," preserves an anecdote 

 of Henry the seventh's time, to the effect that — 



** Sir Philip Calthorpe sent to a tailor in Norwich 

 cloth enough to make him a gown : the pattern so 

 struck the fancy of one Drakes, a shoe-maker, that, 

 having bought a similar piece for himself, he bade 

 the tailor make it up in the same fashion as the 

 knight's. Sir- Phihp, being informed of this, di- 

 rected his tradesman to cut the gown as full of holes 

 as his shears could make ; which so purged Drakes 

 of his conceit, that he never aspired to wear a gown 

 of the gentlemen's fashion afterwards." 



Early in the reign of James I., the worshipful 

 company of merchant tailors gave a sumptuous 

 entertainment to that monarch and his son prince 

 Charles, at their hall in Threadneedle Street. At 

 the breaking out of the civil war, it was computed 

 that the number of tailors dwelling between Temple 

 Bar and Charing Cross, they had moved gradually 

 westward, amounted to little short of eight thousand ; 

 and the remembrance of Charles' condescension at 

 their civic board might have influenced their loyalty 

 in recruiting the regiment of cavalry, known as 



