Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 3 '^7 



m'-kett or els bere it home again And that tlie poorer sort of the Towne and 

 County shall first be suffcryd to buy before badgers and other strangers And 

 that no Badger shall house any corn in the Town of Warm" or in eny other 

 m'kett towne on the m'kett day within the coiinty And tliat the Justices of peace 

 within eny division or the Township of eny Mrkett Towne do appoint ij to vewe 

 whether the prmisses be observyd on the mkett day yea or no." 



In later years the enormities of regrating butter and cheese, and 

 of buying corn in the fields were visited with appropriate penalties. 



That the clerk of the peace regarded the licensing of badgers as 

 no mere matter of form is clear from the memoranda which he 

 entered for his own information and instruction. 



He writes in October, 1576 : — 



" Md. that I take order of the Badgers that they do name the places where the 

 Badgers do use to badge before they resieve their lycens." 



And again at the same date : — 



" Md. to make pees [process] against all the Badgers that doe badge without 

 licence." 



Such faithful compliance with current legislation may not have 

 been wholly disinterested : the Act gave the clerk of the peace a 

 fee of one shilling for each licence, eightpeuce for each recognizance, 

 and fourpence for registering. 



IV. — TIPPLING-HOUSES AND TaVERNS. 



This praiseworthy vigilance concerning the more substantial 

 articles of a Wiltshireman's diet was accompanied by an equal care- 

 fulness in the control and regulation, under the licensing law of the 

 day, of breweries, malt-houses, ale-houses, and victualling-houses. 

 A few extracts will best illustrate this branch of magisterial action. 



Epiphany, 18th Elizabeth :— 



" Md qd ad banc Sess pacis concess : et concordat : fuit p' p'fatos Justiciar 

 adtunc et ibm existentes modo sequente videlt That where the said Justices did 

 well alio we that Anne Maple of Downton in the said County widowe shoulde 

 contynewe her kepeing of her Inne in Downton aforesaid for that the said Court 

 was enformed that shee was meete therfore in respect of her well useing thereof 

 And therfore it was comanded to all the rest that toke upon them to kepe eny 

 Inne in Downton aforesaid That they and ev'y of them shoulde leve of and 

 receave no more horses nor horsemen nor other persons thereafter uppon payne 

 to be grevouslye amerced if they did contrary to this order And that none do 

 reseive eny to lodge unles they be assigned by the Offycers of the Towne." 



