View report page

282
1913]
It was the practice in those days for bakers of Stratford (which appears
to have had some celebrity for its cheap bread) to come to the City to sell
bread to the poor which was "two ounces in the penny wheat loaf heavier
than the penny wheat loaf baked in the city."
And Stow tells us in his "Survey of London," published in 1598, that he
has "read that in the 4th year of Edward II., Richard Reffeham being
Mayor, a baker named John of Stratforde, for making bread less than the
assize, was with a fool's hood on his head, and loaves of bread about his neck,
drawn on a hurdle through the streets of this city."
One wonders if the said John was the same man whom Piers Plowman
makes one of his many characters in his book say "they grumble when my
cakes come not to town with baked bread from Stratford." If so he received
his deserts for not selling his bread according to the assize.
Stow also writes: "I read also in the 20th of Henry VIII., Sir James
Spencer being Mayor, six bakers of Stratford were amerced in the Guildhall
of London for baking under the size appointed." These Stratford bakers
appear to have ceased selling bread in London about 1568.
The assize of 1634 was very drastic, for it enacted that "If any person or
persons who by any false wayes or meanes sell any meale unto the Kinge's
subjects, either by mixing it deceitfully or selling any musty or corrupted
meale, which may be to the hurte or infection of man's body, or use any false
weight, or any deceitful wayes or meanes, and so deceive the subject, for the
first offence he shall be grievously punished, the second he shall loose his
meale, for the third he shall suffer the judgment of the pillory, and the fourth
time he shall forsweare the town wherein he dwelleth."
Vintners, spicers, grocers, butchers, regrators, and others were subject to
like punishments, as it was thought that the pillory, by appealing to the sense
of shame, was far more deterrent of such crimes than fine or imprisonment.
In other parts of England also punishments for offences are recorded, as,
for instance, a knavish Tavener of the City of Chester was taken round the
town in a cart in which the refuse of the privies has been collected.
Ale tasters were appointed in various places, whose duty it was to look
after the quality of the ale, which was the universal drink of the country,
much as tea is to-day, and to test it. Their mode of testing was novel,
for "the tester spilled some on the wooden seat and then sat on the wet place