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were called the Guilds of St. George, Corpus Christi, The Cross, St. John the Baptist, St. Peter, St. Thomas, St. Laurence, and of the Holy Virgin Mary.

From the records, the Guild seems to have continued in a flourishing condition throughout these contentious times. The wars of York and Lancaster were desolating the interior of the kingdom and destroying the power of its people; but the din of battle, compared with its clangour in other parts, could only have been faintly heard in this remote province; we therefore find the members of the Guild indulging in their feasts and revels with all the pride and satisfaction of peace-loving citizens. One of these banquettings at this period [1460] appears to have been on an extraordinary occasion and the list of provision, betrays the hearty and overflowing spirit with which our ancestors were wont to indulge in their rude festivities. In the enumeration of the articles directed to be provided for this banquet, we find seven bushels of frumenty, six dozen of beer, twenty-four custards, bokenard for pottage, one strike of veal, lamb or mutton, chickens or pigeons, and two shillings' worth of spices named, and finally it provides that if more is ordered they [the banquetters we suppose] are to pay for it out of their own purse; which was perhaps by no means an unnecessary caution.

Beside the officers we have enumerated, the accumulating power of the Guild had, previous to this time, [1475] added several others. We find a Scribe, two Storekeepers, Keeper of the Jewels, a Bailiff, and a Chaplain mentioned, and afterwards two Chamberlains, two Cupbearers, and a Porter. They had also an altar in the church, which shows how much religion was

mingled with the institution: it was however no uncommon possession of these fraternities, as all the Guilds that were able to support it, had, it appears, this appendage to their dignity, which was sometimes richly decorated. In one part of this interesting register we meet with an order for the altar of the Holy Trinity to be prepared for the 'Principal Feast' "with nine crowns, and pannel with the jewels," and previously with several memorials relating to the care of the jewels. From this it seems the fraternity kept increasing in this species of wealth. The employment of Keeper of the Jewels, would indicate them to be valuable.

It is rather surprising that no mention should be made in the register of the Guild of the visit which Edward 4th paid the town in 1469. This monarch after a pilgrimage to St. Edmundsbury came by Wisbech to Crowland with a suite of 200 horse; but the bare recital of his visit is its only memorial.

As the fraternity advanced in years, its observance of the rites of religion and charity seem to have progressively increased. Mention is more frequently and solemnly made of the duties to be observed. One order inculcates the presbyters of the Guild to celebrate three masses in the Chapel of the Holy Trinity [daily], the first at the sixth hour, the second at the eighth, and the third at pleasure; and commands that they appear in their surplices at all hours, to sing in the Chapel of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul at Wysbech. At two obits, commanded to be kept in the Chapel in 1514, four torches of wax were ordered to be borne before the Alderman to and from Church, and to burn in the

Hall at the time of grace and prayers. The same were ordered to be borne before every brother and sister of the Guild at their death, and to burn all the time of the dirge and mass: these august regulations were, however, but the prelude of its dissolution.

The imposing ceremonies of the Catholic Church were fitted for the age in which they flourished; men the less cultivated they are, are found to be the fonder of parade and ornament, and nothing could be more satisfying to such desires than the gaudy pomp of Catholicism in the age at which we have arrived. There was a glitter and richness about every religious ceremony, extravagant as it was universal. The vast churches pierced with windows, whose pictured panes tessellated the floor with color, the glare of solemn tapers, the intoxicating clouds of delicious incense which filled the spacious building, the sweeping robes of stoled priests, the music of the deep-toned organ bursting forth and dying away and warbling 'along the roofs, like the pure airs of heaven,' the harmonies of their choirs, and the splendor of their altar decorations; all united in commanding the awe of an unlettered multitude, whose minds had never been cultivated by education, or regulated by experience.

But this tinsel-work of religion was hastening to its close, and was bearing down with it, not only the Guilds of Wisbech, but those of every town in the kingdom. Henry the 8th, having once been disgusted with the Roman supremacy, resolved, with the vindictiveness of an arrogant and cowardly tyrant, to subvert even the most trivial monument of its sway. The Guilds were, as has been noticed, strongly imbued with

the superstition of the Church, and were much under its dominion. These institutions, then, could not hope long to survive the decay of the religion, by which they were in a manner upheld, and they therefore gradually died away amid the disorder and commotion which filled the kingdom on the subversion of the monasteries; that period of heartless crime and desolate distress

When every form of death and every wo

Shot from malignant stars to earth below;
When murder bared her arm, and rampant war
Yok'd the red dragons of her iron car;
When peace and mercy, banish'd from the plain,
Sprung on the viewless winds to heaven again.*

The last meeting of the Holy Trinity was in 1557, the first year of the reign of Edward the 6th; but no entry of the proceedings of the body was made after 1540, the year of the dissolution of the monasteries. All the property of the Guilds on their final dissolution, fell into the Kings' possession, whose generous and gentle nature, widely at variance with the avarice of his grandfather, or the headstrong impiety of his father, converted this property into a means of founding many of the Corporations of this kingdom, and among others, that of Wisbech. We reserve this subject for our sixth Chapter; taking a previous glance at the History of the Castle.

* Pleasures of Hope. (Campbell's Collected Poems, Vol. 1. p. 7.)

CHAPTER V.

Early History of the Castle.

THE circumstances which led to the foundation of Wisbech Castle have been related in a former Chapter of this work; the few incidents of its history to the present period [1546] which have reached us, have now to be traced.

Most of the English Castles are of no higher antiquity than the Conquest. The accession of William introduced such arbitrary principles into government; and he was so profuse in his rewards of the lands of the English to his followers; that Castles became necessary to the protection of his Norman followers and their ill-gotten wealth, from the fury and resentment of the despoiled natives. From this purpose the Castle at Wisbech was erected, and, in the reign of Henry the 2nd, upwards of eleven hundred Castles had thus been built, which, on the further dissemination of the feudal system, became heads of baronies. Each

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