the privileges and power of this Corporation, and the character of the men who composed it; secondly, some idea of how those powers were employed. Unfortunately, there are few, if any, written records now belonging to the Corporation of Winchester anterior in date to the thirteenth century; a fact easily to be accounted for, but to be much regretted. In 1181 there was a Royal Mint in operation at Winchester, at which probably the first English sterling currency was struck; if, indeed, the coins could then be considered sterling. A fire broke out in this building, and spread thence to the public offices, which, with many houses, were then destroyed. If such ancient city. records as existed were not previously lost in some of the similar frequent calamities, they were undoubtedly burnt in 1181. We may estimate something of their possible importance, if we consider a little the remarkable position of the place. It was undoubtedly an ancient British foundation; it flourished under the Romans, and the cathedral was then founded; when they left, in A.D. 519, the Saxon Pagan Cerdic seized it, destroyed the cathedral (which his successors rebuilt), and made Winchester a Royal residence. It was then the metropolis of the country. Egbert, the first king of the Heptarchy, was crowned there, and thence promulgated his decree that the kingdom should be called "England." During all our struggles with the Danes this city was the seat of government, and when, in 1013, Sweyn, the fierce Northman, overran the island, he made Witanceaster his residence. After Sweyn's death, Canute, who for a short time divided the country with Edmund Ironside, kept his Court at London, while Edmund reigned in the Hampshire city; but when Canute became sole king, he quitted London, and Winchester was his capital. This is the first time London appears in opposition to its greatness. Then came the Conquest. William was perfectly sensible of the importance of Winchester; he built the castle there, and for many a year yet it continued to be a Royal residence. Rufus was killed in the neighbourhood, and is buried in the cathedral, where are the bones of several Saxon kings. During the reign of Henry I. the city was very prosperous. The bitter contest of King Stephen's queen and the Empress Matilda, fomented by the King's brother, who was Bishop of Winchester, was waged in the capital with terrible fierceness and pertinacity, and, as a consequence, fearful havoc was made in the town. Then, in all probability, the city records perished, for the Royal palace, the Abbey of St. Mary, Hyde Abbey, about forty churches, and the whole of the town north of High Street, were burnt or laid in ruin. In 1154 Stephen died, and much was restored, but the prosperity of the place had begun to decline. Henry II. rebuilt the palace, and resided there a good deal; but London continued to assume its position more and more; Winchester never recovered. Next came the suppression of ecclesiastical institutions by Henry VIII., which was a serious blow to the prosperity of the city. By the middle of the reign of Elizabeth, it had become poor and ruinous. There is little doubt that before the latter half of the sixteenth century great disasters had impoverished most of the provincial towns, and Winchester was no exception. The houses of many of the most important of them were tenantless, neglected, often filthy, and tending to dangerous ruin. At least, so much is set forth in the preamble of a statute, 32 Henry VIII. (1540), quoted by Mr. Froude. Afterwards came the troubles of Charles I.'s time, when Winchester suffered for the King loyally, and when Cromwell punished her accordingly. Charles II. manifested an intention of making a residence there, and did visit the city, where, by his order, Sir Christopher Wren commenced to build a palace; but the King's death put an end to this plan, and since then royalty has only been an infrequent visitant, never a resident, in the once metropolis of England. London has utterly supplanted her. Yet it is maintained that hers is the most ancient Corporation in the country, as indeed it is, unless we consider the Conqueror's missive to "William the Bishop, and Godfrey the Portreve," which is preserved in the archives of the City of London, as its first charter, is addressed to a "Corporation." That instrument is dated 1079. Winchester had a Mayor before London. Henry II. gave the city a formal charter; and he ordained that it should be governed by a Mayor, with a subordinate bailiff, in 1184. Stowe records that the first Mayor of London was elected at the beginning of Richard Coeur de Lion's reign, which commenced in 1189. Others have maintained that there was no Mayor of London till the tenth year of King John, which would be 1209. However, when Richard I. returned to his kingdom from captivity, after the Crusade, he thought proper to be crowned a second time, with great solemnity, in Winchester Cathedral, on the 14th April, 1194. On that occasion there was a grand dispute for precedence between the citizens of London and Winchester. But thenceforward the contest for supremacy was never doubtful. The dignity of the Mayor and of his colleagues seems to have been a serious matter in the estimation of the old citizens, and of almost as much consequence as guarding their chartered privileges from inroad. They possessed under the charter of Henry II. freedom "from all toll, passage, duty and custom throughout the land, and that none presume to distrust them in any of these things, or to do them injury or insult." But by "the 5th yere of the Raigne of Harry the iiijth, after the Conquest" (1404) the Londoners were able to set at nought the privileges of the old Corporation, by distraining on the merchandise belonging to some of the freemen of Winchester for tolls. So complaint was made, and the point argued at length, when the Winchester men pleaded a distinct agreement arrived at by the two Corporations on an exactly similar infraction of the Hampshire city's charter a hundred years earlier, viz.: "in the XXXiind yere of the Raigne of Kinge Edwarde the sonne of Kinge Harrye " (1304), when John Boland was Mayor of London" and Roger de Inkepen "Mayor of the cytie of Winchester." So that even as early as that time London had encroached. At the period of the dispute in 1404, "Drewghe Barantyne" was Mayor of London, and "Mark le faire" Mayor of Winchester. The document in which this is recorded concludes with the following provision: "For suche as againe say* the charter, usage, or libtie of the cytye. "First. To the honor of almighti god, o' holie mother the church, and of o' soveryne Lorde the Kinge, and to the relieffe of th citie, there is a provision and consideration made wh begnthe in this wise: "Before this tyme the wole cominaltie hathe by there corporall othe made with one hart, one mynde, and one assent, bounde themselfs by all there goods and catells, moveable and unmovable, wereso thei be, that if it chance onye of them, wh god forbide, to againe say any article touchinge the charter, usage, or custome of the libertie of the cytie, or the comon pffytt of the same, by councell or helpe, privilye or openlye, in tyme to come, whn he shall be thereof convinced he shall give ten marks to the comon assayers of the cytie whh shall be employed to supplie the cmon necessities when nede shall require. And if he be not of habilitie to redeeme the trespas w the payment of the ten markes, he shall be expellyd frome the feloshpe and the libirtie, nother for any othr redemption shall be reconsiled, except it be by a cmon consent. And if it chaunce any man so beinge reconsiled to offend againe, he shall by no means be admitted into the copany and feloshpe againe. Iff any pson or any psons be grevid by any man by occasion of this pyision, all and singular of the wole cominaltie shall sustayne the coste and charge, and shall keepe him harmless to the hutermost of there power." * Deny, Oppose. As regards the dignity of the Mayor and his colleagues, it was ordained on "the thyrde day of Aprill, in the thyrde yere of the Raigne of Kinge Harrye the fyvthe, after the Conquest" (1416) that any freeman who "dothe slaunder ther names, whereof blasphemy maye ensue, except he can openlye and lawfully prove his intencio" shall be liable to imprisonment and sundry fines, to be duly levied on his goods in default. For many years afterwards the application of this rule appears to have been carried out; but the fines were sometimes remitted for services in kind, such as when in 1558 Mr. Thomas Colye, for this sort of offence, was punished by having to "amende XXII panes of the Glasse Windowe in the Councell House, and VI quarrells in two other paines of the same Windowe;" and Mr. Edmonde, who had to "make a barge of Leade of ij hande breadthe in the myddle of the Glasse Windowe in the Counsell howsse all the lengthe of the same Wyndowe." In 1559 "Wyll" Brexstone, one of the xxiiii ;" was expelled "for that he revealyd the secrettes spoken in the same Howse unto Strangers;" but on undertaking the "makinge of a Cubborde for the Records" he was readmitted. It appears that on the 20th Sept., 1656, Mr. John Woodman contested an ordinance of the Corporation whereby he had been expelled from the Council, and that the members met, and after due deliberation confirmed the order. The document recites that the offences complained of took place in 1650 and 1651. In the first year the offender stood up in Council and, referring to the then Mayor's speech, said: "Tush! I would have had Jack Soppe of Hampton (being a notorious fool) have sayd as much to the business as you have done." And in 1651 he incited and headed a riot, when the doors of St. Maurice Church were forced, on the Lord's day; and when the Mayor came to restore order his worship was so abused that he had to beat an ignominious retreat; moreover, when the minister came he was also abused "and his Bible taken out of his Hands by ye command or countenance of ye sayd Mr. Woodman.” But long prior to this there had been many stringent ordinances in maintenance of the dignity and dignified appearance of the Mayor. In 1462 a statute was made "That from hensforthe everye cytizen of the cytie aforesaide shall come at the commandemente of the maior for the tyme beinge, uppon paine of every one of them that make defaute to forfaite half a pounde of wex." This was to add to his state. A penalty to mend and repair the west window in the Hall of St. John's Hospital was imposed on Mr. William Goodwin, in January, 1560, for during his mayoralty bringing slander on his high office by "dyverse and sondrye enormyties and mysdemeanors," which are set forth as follows:-"For that he oftentymes dyd ryde out of the cytye to Hampton, and to other Townes wthin the Shire wthout a Svant waightinge uppon him that he comaunded George Browne, one of the 24" to the Westgate, the Gate beinge shutt uppon him, contrary to an ordynance made in the tyme of Mr. Gyles White, being Mayor, when he sholde have comaunded him to St. John's House: And also for that openlie in the Chequer between the gate he drew his Dagar at one of the S'geants cotrary to the Queen's peace." This Mr. Goodwin was Mayor in 1558, and it was he who had imposed similar punishments to that he was made to suffer, on Mr. Thos. Colye and Mr. Edmonde, as noted above. On the 15th August, 1566, it was ordained "That no persone of the citie that hathe byn or shalbe maior of the same cytye shall come into the High Strete, nother into the comon market, except he be rydinge, out of the Towne or goinge a shoting, whout a gowne or cloke, uppon payne of Forfeture of 3s. 4d. for evri tyme that he shal be convicted thereof by the testimony of two citizens. Provided alwaye that anye of them may walke before there Dores or Shopps without any Gowne or cloke abought there necessary business there to be done." In 1573 Mr. Stephen Asheton was chosen Mayor. It appears that he was an innkeeper, and that he united to this occupation that or hawking fish about the streets, having himself brought up said fish from the sea. The Corporation passed a law that during his mayoralty the eastern part of his house should be set apart as his residence, while his wife and servants could carry on the inn for him in the remainder; that he was not himself to sell fish in the streets, or to ride to the sea for fish except he should "have great occasion," and then not "without a man to attend upon him. Not to lodge any fisherman." In 1580 the Mayor was bound to "pvide for his wiffe a scarlet Gowne, accordinge to the ancient order of the saide citie," under a penalty of "Tenne Pounds," a mighty fine, considering the value of money at that time. Furthermore, on the 4th September, 1584, this ordinance was made : - "Item. That noe citizen of this citie that hath byn elected bayliffe of the same, or to anie office above that degree, shall from henceforth were in the Strete within this citie anie hose or stockings of white, green, yellowe, redde, blewe, weggett or oringe color; neither shall were at anie assemble, boroughmote, or Sessions, or at anie Sermon to be preached uppon the Sondaies, or hollidaies, anie white, greene, yellowe, or redde dublet, upon payne to forfayte," &c., $276 to the use of the poor. In 1656, again, a close prescription was made as to the wearing of "decent gownes," and in this document the gowns and the occasions |