434 



JOUKNAL OF HOBTICTJLTUBE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



[ June 24, lam. 



fore, were hitihly prized and protected. As ear'y as 1345, a 

 paterit was issued to one Beaucbaiup (Epid de Bello Campc), to 

 inquire thoroujiljly relative to tbe defioierjcy ol tbe Kiug's 

 Swans ; and in the same jear an inquiry was dirf cted to ascer- 

 tain by wliom tlie Bwane were taken frcm tbe n yal forest and 

 manor of Claringdon. Soon after a royal mandate forbade one 

 John de Molyns, evidently an old offender, from catching Swans 

 in any way. Then again and again tbe Thames was ordered 

 to be teaiched for Swans, for tbe use of the Prince of Wales; 

 and lastly, to insure an uni^ivided authority over these birds of 

 many slices, Thomas de Eustham was appointed supervisor 

 and guardian, and to bold pleas concerning all the King's 

 Swans throughout tbe kingdom. 



The consumption of poultry in London was then sufficient 

 to maintain dealers in such feathered-ware, for in a patent ad- 



dressed to the Mayor in the first year of Edward the 3rd'e 

 reign, among other crafts are enumerated " poulterers, fish- 

 mongerp, and butchers" {PuleUrii, PitceraTii, and Camijices). 

 In 1345 (19 Edw. 3), the city authorities finding that " folks 

 bringing poultry to the city have sold their poultry in lanes, 

 in the hostels of their hosts, and elsewhere in secret, to the 

 great loss and grievauce of the citizens," ordained that the 

 poultry should be brought " to the Leaden Hall, and there be 

 sold and nowhere else;" but the residents in tbe city must not 

 go there, but " sell their poultry at tbe stalls (in the Poultry), 

 as of old they were wont to do." "Also, that no cook or 

 regrator shall buy any manner of poultry at tbe Leaden Hall, 

 nor yet at the stalls, before Prime rung at tbe Church of St. 

 Paul, on pain of forfeiting the pouitiy bonglit, and going 

 bodily to prison." 





Twelve years subsequently, the poulterers, freemen of the 

 city, were forbidden staudiug " at the Carfakes of the Leden- 

 haUe with Rabbits, fowls, or other poultry;" but, if they 

 wished to carry them ont for sale, they must do so " along the 

 wall towards the west of tbe Church of St. Michael, on Corn- 

 huUe." The " Carfukes," like the Carfax at Oxford, was 

 probably a four-faced fountain, situated where Leadenhall and 

 Gracechurch Streets meet. 



For selling Pigeons " putrid and abominable to the human 

 race," in 1365, one " John Eusselle, of Abyndone, Poulterer," 

 was put in the pillory, "and the said Pigeons burnt beneath 

 the pillory." The jury who inspected the Pigeons was con- 

 stituted of two " pye-bakeres" and five oooks. 



Id 1416 (4 Hen. 5), it was ordained that Geese should not 

 be deprived of their giblets by poulterers, but be sold whole. 

 Monks of that era evinced either their fondness of poultry, or 

 their weariueee of a fitsh uiet, by maintaining that on fast days 



they might without sinning eat either, for tbe singular reason 



that God created both birds and fishes on the eame day, and 



out of the same material — the water. 



The Company of Poulterers were incorporated in the I'Jth 



of Henry the 7th's reign and their Charter renewed in the 

 30th year of Elizabeth. Their arms 

 argent on a chevron between three Storks 

 azure, and as many Sivans proper. 



The Company enjoyed its monopoly, 

 and took good care of its interests, or 

 rather the people were too ignorant to 

 see that they could take better care of 

 their own interests than can any livery 

 company. At length, however, monopo- 

 lies became distasteful, and in that 

 special era of macopalistB, James the 

 Ist's leign, tbe people began to mnrmar 



