^{Page ii note *} Rogers' Calendars of Al-Hallowen, Brystowe, 1846, p. 166. Other writers following the same story are Dallaway, Antiquities of Bristow, p. 36 note, Corry and Erans, Hist, of Bristol, 1816, ii. p. 285, Pryce, Popular Hist, of Bristol, 1861, p. 619.

^{Page ii note †} Hist, of Bristol, 1789, p. 456.

^{Page ii note ‡} Chronological Outline, 1824, pp. 114, 127.

^{Page ii note §} Memoirs, I. Pref. pp. xi. xii.

^{Page ii note ║} Rogers, p.166.

^{Page iii note *} Quoted by Mr. Lucas (Secularia, p. 109), under the name of an “inventory.”

^{Page iii note †} I am indebted to Mr. A. Heales of Doctors' Commons for making a search in the Registry of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. But the only result was a Will, proved on 26 March, 1504, of one Robert Riccarde of Bristol, a Whittawyer, who was a parishioner of St. James. The closeness of name and date are singular ; it may be noted however that Ricart always spelled his name without variation, with one c and a t. (See his signature on p. xxiv ) The name in different forms was not uncommon. Beginald Ricard was Steward of Bristol in 1267, Arthur Rycarte was Sheriff in 1558, while the name Richards is known in Bristol to this day.

^{Page iv note *} Hist, of Bristol, p. 473.

^{Page v note *} The Gild of Kalendars in Bristol must have been one of the oldest Gilds in England, as well as one of the most remarkable in its objects. A fire which unfortunately took place among its muniments at an early date (said to be 1466) destroyed many valuable records which would have thrown light upon its history, but owing to its connection with the Corporation enough have been preserved, together with gleanings from other sources, to enable some idea to be formed of its scope and importance. But there is no account of this Gild among the Returns sent in from Gilds in 1389. which are preserved in the Record Office.

William Worcester, writing about 1478, says that it was founded about A.D. 700, “ut per literas certificatorias tempore Sancti Wolstani epiacopi sub antiqua manu vidi et legi.” (Itinerary in Dallaway, p. 144.) It was a brotherhood of the clergy and laity, men and women, of the people of Bristol, and in very early times used to meet in the church of the Holy Trinity, otherwise Christ Church, but in the time of Henry II. it was removed by the influence of Robert Earl of Gloucester and Robert Fitzharding, a burgess of Bristol, to the church of All Saints. “At this tyme” (says Leland, Itin. ed. Hearne, vol. vii. p. 88) “were scholes ordeyned in Brightstow by them [the two Roberts] for the conversion of the Jewes, and pute in the ordre of the Calendaries and the Maior.” Leland goes on to say, however, that “William, Erie of Glocester, founder of the monastery of Cainesham [see after, p. 23], gave the prefecture and mastarshipe of the schole in Brightstow to Cainesham, and tooke it from the Calendaries.” This, if true, must have been after the year 1171, when the Abbey of Keynsham was founded.

In 1216 Henry III. held a Parliament at Bristol, and at this, according to the Inquisition hereafter referred to, the King and the legate Gualo approved of the gild “propter antiquitates et bonitates in ea Gilda repertas,” and Gualo commended it to the care of William de Bleys, Bishop of Worcester, within whose diocese Bristol lay. It was in this same year that the town procured one of its principal charters (see p. 4), and it was an opportunity taken by the Gild also to get its rights and privileges confirmed or re-affirmed by high authority; we find in the “Little Red Book” (fos 82, 83) the entry at length of the Rule or Ordinances of the brotherhood of Kalendars as approved by William de Bleys, and with his help confirmed by the Pope. These ordinances, which are in Latin, resemble those of other Gilds, making provision for regular meetings of the members on the first Monday in each month, visiting the sick, burial, prayer for the dead, mutual help, and good behaviour, new members to be of “honest conversation and good report.” In 1318 there seem to ha,ve been some complaints made of the infringement of their rights, and on a mandate of the then Bishop of Worcester an Inquiry was made by the chief men of the Monastery of St. Augustine's (the church of All Saints was impropriate to this Monastery), and of the Corporation of Bristol, into their history and privileges. A copy of the “Inquisition” returned thereupon to the Bishop is also in the “Little Red Book” (fo. 83 b); it traces the early history of the Gild, and the establishment of the schools for the “Jews and others” (but does not mention any transfer of these to Keynsham), and recites the confirmation of their rights in 1216.

The Gild possessed much property. In 1333 we find a deed for building a house upon the wall of the north side of All Saints Church for the use and habitation of the Prior and co-brethren, and again in 1443 and 1466 other deeds referring to the rebuilding or repair of their house or houses. (“Abstract of Deeds” belonging to All Saints, referred to above, p. iii.; see also Barrett p. 450.) In 1464 (the days of William Canynges) provision was made as to a library, lately erected in the house of the Kalendars; Barrett (pp. 453, 454; see also Dallaway, p. 34 note) quotes from a highly interesting deed of that date in the Council Chamber, by which it is appointed that all who wish to enter for the sake of instruction shall have “free access and recess” at certain times, and that, lest the books should be lost, three inventories shall be made, to be yearly collated with the books, which books shall be chained in the room, and for the loss of which heavy penalties are imposed on the prior. The prior to be appointed by the Mayor. This library seems to have been built over a Chapel of the Virgin on the north side of All Saints, abutting at one end to the belfry of the church, and on the other end to the house of the Kalendars ; and though “the antiquities of the Calendaries were for the moste parte brent by channce” (Lei. Itin. vii. p. 87), yet this fire, of which mention is frequently made, does not appear to have so utterly destroyed the library but that it was built up again and continued in its original occupation until 2 Edw. VI. (1548), when the Gild was put an end to with other bodies of the same nature.

The possessions of the Gild in 1548 Were considerable, and were granted by the Crown with other properties to Sir M. Partriche and his brother (Misc. Augmentation Book, vol. Ixvii. fol. 563; Let. Patent. 2 Edw. VI. Pt. vii. m. 14, both in the Public Record Office), who in a month's time granted away again the house of the late Kalendars, “and one chamber annexed to the said house called the Library.” (“Abstract of Deeds” 10 Nov. 1548.)

^{Page vi note *} In the vestry-room of All Saints' Church two old MS. volumes of theological writings in not very good preservation still exist, together with several early printed books, which are considered to be the remains of the old Library of the Kalendars.

^{Page vii note *} Dallaway's Antiquities of Bristowe, 1834, pp. 17, 35, 165. This volume contains a short account of Worcester and his works, together with his Itinerary for Bristol at length, with notes.

^{Page viii note *} Itinerary of Will. Worcester. Nasmith's ed. 1778, Preface.

^{Page viii note †} There are a few contractions which have been extended in the print. The side notes where they occur, being for the most part unimportant, are omitted, except in the French ordinances in the sixth Part, where they have been printed in italics.

^{Page viii note ‡} See a few lines at top of the Plan, p. 10.

^{Page xi note *} Retrospective Keview, vol. ii. Series ii. p. 458, note. Besides the High or Market cross there were others in Bristol, the Stallenge, the Gallows, and the Temple crosses. See after, pp. xviii, 51.

^{Page xi note †} See p. 36.

^{Page xii note *} The shield to the right bears the old arms of Bristol, of which several differing delineations are given by Seyer, Mem. Brist. i. p. 380, this among the rest. In the centre are the arms of England, temp. Hen. VI., and to the left is the cross of St. George.

^{Page xii note †} In a painting of Christ and the Doctors, by Gaudenzio Ferrari (A.D. 1484), in the collection of the late Sir Thomas Phillipps at Cheltenham, there is an ink-stand with pen-case attached exactly resembling that in Ricart's picture.

^{Page xiii note *} Mem. Bristol, Preface, pp. x. xi. I have not been able to find any of these.

^{Page xiv note *} Boys' Hist, of Sandwich, Pref. p. v, p. 495.

^{Page xiv note †} Dascribed in the note pp. 7, 8.

^{Page xiv note ‡} The relation of the beginning of the quarrel between Arthur and Lucius is.

^{Page xvi note *} See the preliminary note on p. 17. The reader is requested to supply the omission, in its proper place on p. 23, of the passage referred to in that note as to Eleanor, John's niece, as follows : “Mccij. Joh'is iiij. * * * And the same king John send Alianora, suster of the said Arthur, vnto the Castell of Bristowe, and ther lay in prison vnto the cominge of kinge Harry, son to kinge John, and so there she deide.”

^{Page xvi note †} Seyer, who was well acquainted with the City documents, and printed the Charters of Bristol, says, that, “so far as I can find, no charter for the election of a Mayor has been discovered, or quoted by any succeeding charter.” Mem. Bristol, vol. ii. p. 7.

^{Page xviii note *} When Rleart wrote, Edward IV. was King, who seems to have been popular in Bristol, antl to have been well received, there with shows and rejoicings (see p. 43). In a MS. in Lambeth Palace (vol. 306, fol. 132), is found the following fragment, illustrating this, written apparently in the early part of the sixteenth century:

“The receyvyng of kyng Edward the iiij^th at Brystowe. First atte the comyng ynne atte Temple Gate there stode Wylliam Conquerour with iij. lordis, and these were his wordis:—

Well come Edwarde, oure son of high degre, Many yeeris hast you lakkyd owte of this londe, I am thy fore fader, “Wylliam of Normandye, To see thy welefare here thrugh goddys sond.

Over the same gate stondyng a greet Gyaunt delyueryng the keyes. The Receyuyng atte Temple Crosse next folowyng. There was seynt George on horsbakke vppon a tent fyghtyng with a dragon, and be kyng and be quene on hygh in a castell, and his doughter benethe with a lambe. And atte the sleyng of the dragon ther was a greet melody of aungellys.”

^{Page xviii note †} The authenticity of Kicart's information in these two passages has been doubted (Pryce “The Canynges Family,” p. 219; Archseologia, vol. xxxv. 282). No one has noticed however that he did not write them at all. See after, p. 32 note.

^{Page xix note *} Of the oaths themselves there is a collection, probably of the date 1344, in the “Little Red Book,” similar to that in the Liber Albus, pp. 306—314. Seealsothose entered after Ricart's time, after pp. 87—90.

^{Page xix note †} Sharp notes the use of “the play of St. Katherine,” at Coventry (Coventry Mysteries, p. 9). As to the festival of the Boy Bishop, see Hone's “Ancient Mysteries,” pp. 195—199, Brand's “Popular Antiquities,” vol. i. pp. 328—336, and Dr. Rock's “Church of Our Fathers,” vol. iii. part 2, p. 215.

^{Page xix note ‡} Bristol, like Worcester ( “English Gilds,” p. 408), adds another to the number of towns where the keeping of the midsummer watch was an important ceremony held by the municipal officers attended by the crafts. In the “Great Red Book,” fol. 14ft (mis-quoted by Barrett, p. 125), it is recorded that “20th May, 28 Hen. VI. it was ordained by William Canynges., Mayor, and the Common Council, that the drinking at St. John's and St. Peter's nights should utterly be lefte among persons of crafts, going the nights before the Mayor, Sheriff, and notable persons ; and that the Mayor and Sheriff on forfeiture of five marks apiece, the one at St. John's night, the other at St. Peter's, should dispense wine to be disposed to the said crafts at their halls : viz. to the weavers and tuckers each ten gallons, provided that the craftsmen send their own servants with their own potts for the same,” enumerating twenty-six crafts who were to have ninety-four gallons of wine among them. See this subject treated fully in Sharp's Coventry Mysteries, pp. 174—206.

^{Page xx note *} See note on p. 90.

^{Page xxi note *} Sec after, pp. 95—113.

^{Page xxi note †} See Mr. Riley's Preface to Liber Albus, p. xvii.

^{Page xxii note *} This book is described in the Retrospective Review, vol. ii. of 2nd Series, p. 471 note, as beginning with a Will of May 8, 1282, 10 Edw. I. The first leaf of the book is now gone, but leaf iii contains the date 6 Richard II., 1382.

^{Page xxiv note *} The chief part of another similar “remembraunce” on behalf of the Mayor in 22 Edw. IV. (fol. 313) was published in the Transactions of the Archaeological section of the Birmingham and Midland Institute for 1870.

^{Page xxiv note †} “Libertatu” in the original.

^{Page xxv note *} See after, p. 56 note.

^{Page xxv note †} The materials for the History of Bristol abound, though scattered, and need but that some one should take up the pen of a Freeman, and complete what Mr. Seyer so well began. The collections made by Mr. Seyer for the second part of his work are unfortunately divided; he bequeathed his MSS. deeds and charters to the Bristol Library (not the City Library), where they are, I believe, about to be arranged and indexed: his notes and papers are in private hands. Some of the parish chests in Bristol also do now or did possess large numbers of deeds and other MSS., for initance, All Saints. Barrett mentions (Preface, p. vii.) the existence of a MS. in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, CCCCV. p. 26, entitled Constitutiones Villæ Bristolliæ, the date about 1314 lie thinks; and, to gather in other scattered threads, the British Museum possesses, besides a charter relating to St. Michael's Mount, Bristol, of A.D. 1236 (Add. Charter 6518), several MSS., especially three volumes, the first of which (Egerton 2044) contains transcripts made in the seventeenth century of the City laws and ordinances from 1467 to 1656, and of a number of Wills; the other two (Add. MSS. 24784—5) consist of a large number of official extracts made from the Public Records and otherwise, beginning at an early date, apparently for the purposes of a Case respecting the City dues which was tried some years ago.