THE ANTIQUARIAN. 151 



fession/* says Pennant, "first suggested the project 

 of terminating this infamous traffic." 



I have said that the brotherhood are not without 

 a champion of their renown in war : — Sir John 

 Hawkwood, usually called Johannes Acutus, from 

 the sharpness of his sword or his needle, may justly 

 claim this distinction ; old Fuller says, with his 

 usual quaintness, that " he turned his needle into a 

 sword and his thimble into a shield." Hawkwood 

 was a tailor's apprentice in London, and being 

 pressed for a soldier, rose, by his spirit, to the high- 

 est commands in foreign parts. From a Scarce book 

 entitled "The honour of the tailors, or a history of 

 several brave acts performed by them," we gather 

 that this child of fortune, the son of a tanner at 

 Headingbam Sybil, in Essex, was born tern, Edward 

 III. ; I find the following notice of him by Granger, 

 inserted in the notes to Petit Andrew's history and 

 general chronology ; after describing the mercenary 

 bands with which southern Europe then swarmed, 

 ^ and that were known and dreaded as the Companies^ 

 he says, "Sir John Hawkwood, another among 

 those daring profligates, deserves particular mention : 

 conducted by native valour and ambition, from the 

 humble station of a tailor, to the pomp and power of 

 a leader of armies, the aid of his experienced intre- 

 pidity was sought by the rival states of Italy. 

 Bernardo Galiazzo of Milan bestowed on him in 

 marriage his natural daughter Domitia ; yet Hawk- 

 wood quitted him, and even bore arms against 

 Milan. His obsequies performed in 1384 at Flor- 

 ence, where his tomb is yet existing, exceeded in 

 splendour those of Petrarch and Dante. 



And here perhaps some envious shoe-maker, ex- 

 ulting that " to morrow is St. Crispin," exclaims, 

 why quote a solitary instance of the spirit of man- 

 hood in this chicken-hearted set? It is not a soli- 

 tary instance ; " Sir Ralph Blackwall, writes Stow 

 in his Survey of Londouy was said to be Hawk- 

 wood's fellow apprentice, and to have been knighted 



