in generous measure. Horsemen were often equipped at the guild's expense to bring in the supplies. After the feast was done there came the settlement for such items as washing the napery, rushes for the floor of the dining hall, coal and charcoal for the kitchen, the cooks' and other servants' wages. At times the feast was enlivened by professional minstrelsy. Thirty pence was paid to minstrels from Warwick in 1424, and a single performer was often engaged at a fee of fivepence."
The fee for admission to the guild was from four shillings eightpence to four pounds, and the souls of the dead could be admitted upon payment of the entrance fee. Often those who were unable to pay, worked out their dues: some by cooking the annual dinner, others by labour bestowed upon the carpenter work and masonry; still others gave materials instead of money.
The grammar school of Stratford, which Shakespeare attended, was built in 1427. Attendance was free, and the schoolmaster was forbidden to take anything from his pupils.
The last notable pre-Shakespearean benefactor of Stratford was Sir Hugh Clopton. About 1480 he came from a neighbouring village to make his home in Stratford. In 1483 he erected a large house of brick and timber at the corner of Chapel
