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Noy. 3. 1849. ] 
the knight of Charlcote, nearly all the cooks’- 
shops and ordinaries of London were supplied 
with stolen venison. The following letter 
from the lord mayor (which I copy from the 
original) of that day, Thomas Pullyson, to | 
secretary Walsingham, speaks for itself, and | 
shows that the matter had been deemed of | 
so much importance as to call for the inter- 
position of the Privy Council : the city autho- 
rities were required to take instant and arbi- 
trary measures for putting an end to the con- 
sumption of venison and to the practice of 
deer-stealing, by means of which houses, &c. 
of public resort in London were furnished 
with that favourite viand. ‘The letter of the 
lord mayor was a speedy reply to a communi- 
cation from the queen’s ministers on the 
subject : — 
“ Right honorable, where yesterday I receaved 
letters from her Ma*** most honorable privie 
councill, advertisinge me that her highnes was 
enformed that Venison ys as ordinarilie sould by 
the Cookes of London as other flesh, to the greate 
distructionof thegame. Commaundinge me therby 
to take severall bondes of xl" the peece of all the 
Cookes in London not to buye or sell any venison 
hereafter, uppon payne of forfayture of the same 
bondes; neyther to receave any venison to bake 
without keepinge a note of theire names that shall 
deliver the same unto them.- Whereuppon pre- 
sentlie I called the Wardens of the Cookes before 
me, advertisinge them hereof, requiringe them to 
cause theire whole company to appeare before me, 
to thende I might take bondes accordinge to a 
condition hereinclosed sent to your Ho.; whoe 
answered that touchinge the first clause therof 
they were well pleased therewith, but for the latter 
clause they thought yt a greate inconvenience 
to theire companie, and therefore required they 
might be permitted to make theire answeres, and 
alledge theire reasons therof before theire honors. 
Affirmed alsoe, that the Tablinge howses and Ta- 
vernes are greater receyvors and destroyers of 
stollen venison than all the rest of the Cittie: 
wherefore they craved that eyther they maye be 
likewise bounden, or els authoritie maye be geven 
to the Cookes to searche for the same hereafter. 
I have therefore taken bondes of the wardens for 
theire speedy appearance before theire honors to 
answere the same; and I am bolde to pray your 
Ho. to imparte the same unto theire Ho., and that 
I maye with speede receyve theire further direction 
herein. And soe I humbly take my leave. London, 
the xj of June, 1585. 
“ Your honors to commaunde, 
* Tomas Puntyson, maior.” 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
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5 
I dare say that the registers of the Privy 
Council contain some record of what was done 
on the occasion, and would enable us to de- 
cide whether the very reasonable request of 
the Cooks of London had been complied with. 
Whether this be or be not so, the above 
document establishes beyond question that in 
the summer of 1585 cooks’-shops, tabling- 
houses (#. e. ordinaries), and taverns were 
abundantly supplied with stolen venison, and 
that the offence of stealing it must have been 
very common. 
J. PAYNE COLLIER. 
Kensington, Oct. 26. 1849. 
«“ PRAY REMEMBER THE GROTTO!” ON 
ST. JAMES’S DAY. 
WueEn the great popularity which the legends 
of the Saints formerly enjoyed is considered, 
it becomes matter of surprise that they should 
not have been more frequently consulted for 
illustrations of our folk-lore and popular ob- 
servances. ‘The Edinburgh Reviewer of Mrs. 
Jameson’s Sacred and Legendary Art, has, 
with great judgment, extracted from that work 
a legend, in which, as he shows very clearly *, 
we have the real, although hitherto unnoticed, 
origin of the Three Balls which still form the 
recognised sign of a Pawnbroker. ‘The pas- 
sage is so curious, that it should be trans- 
ferred entire to the “ NoTEs AND QUERIES.” 
“« None of the many diligent investigators of 
our popular antiquities have yet traced heme the 
three golden balls of our _pawnbrokers to the em- 
blem of St. Nicholas. They have been properly 
enough referred to the Lombard merchants, who 
were the first to open loan-shops in England for 
the relief of temporary distress. But the Lom- 
bards had merely assumed an emblem which had 
been appropriated to St. Nicholas, as their cha- 
ritable predecessor in that very line of business. 
The following is the legend; and it is too prettily 
told to be omitted : — 
“ ¢ Now in that city (Panthera) there dwelt a 
certain nobleman, who had three daughters, and, 
from being rich, he became poor; so poor that 
there remained no means of obtaining food for his 
daughters but by sacrificing them to an infamous 
life; and oftentimes it came into his mind to tell 
them so, but shame and sorrow held him dumb. 
Meantime the maidens wept continually, not know- 
ing what to do, and not having bread to eat; and 
* Edinburgh Review, vol. Ixxxix. p. 400. 
