Page:Notes and Queries - Series 1 - Volume 1.djvu/15

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 interposition of the Privy Council: the city authorities were required to take instant and arbitrary measures for putting an end to the consumption 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 communication from the queen's ministers on the subject:—

"Right honorable, where yesterday I receaved letters from her Ma^tes 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 distruction of the game. Commaundinge me therby to take severall bondes of xl^li the peece of all the Cookes in London not to buye or sell any venison hereafter, uppon payne of forfay ture 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 presentlie 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 tfce Tablinge howses and Tavernes 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^th of June, 1585.

"Your honors to commaunde,⁠
"THOMAS PULLYSON, maior."

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 decide 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 (i. 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.

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"Pray remember the Grotto!" on St. James's Day.

When 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 observances. 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,^[1] we have the real, although hitherto unnoticed, origin of the Three Balls which still form the recognised sign of a Pawnbroker. The passage is so curious, that it should be transferred entire to the "Notes and Queries."

"None of the many diligent investigators of our popular antiquities have yet traced home the three golden balls of our pawnbrokers to the emblem 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 Lombards had merely assumed an emblem which had been appropriated to St. Nicholas, as their charitable 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 knowing what to do, and not having bread to eat; and

1. Edinburgh Review, vol. lxxxix. p. 400.