A.D. 1198. KING HICHAM) AT Β.ΟΠΕΝ. shop, red or black cloths, or penthouses, or anything else, by means of which the sight of the purchaser is often deceived in choosing a good cloth. It is also forbidden, that any dye shall be sold, or that any, except black alone, shall be made anywhere in the kingdom, except in cities, or in county boroughs. It is also enacted, that in each city or borough, four or six lawful men of the said place, according to the size thereof, together with the sheriff, or together with the chief officer of the city or borough, if the same shall not be in the hands of the sheriff,66 shall be appointed to keep this assize, in the following manner ; they are to see and be assured that all things are sold and bought by the same measure, and that all measures are of the same quantity, according to the different nature of the wares. And if they shall find any person who shall make confession, or be convicted of selling otherwise than by statute measure, let his body be seized, and let him be committed to prison, and let all his chattels be seized to the king's use ; and such persons are not to be set at liberty, except by our lord the king, or his chief justice. "A s to the guardians themselves, it was enacted, that it they should exercise the said guardianship so negligently, that they should be convicted by means of others than themselves, before the justices of our lord the king, of transgressing any one of the before-written statutes, either as to the measures of provisions, or of other wares, or the width of cloth, the guardians themselves should be amerced out of their own chattels by our lord the king. " It was also commanded, that after the feast of the Purification of Saint Ifary, no person should sell anything in any county, except by the prescribed measure, which was to be of the same quantity; and that no one should, after the fair which is held at Mid-Lent, at Stamford, sell any cloth of less width than two ells within the lists." In the year of grace 1198, being the ninth year of the reign of Bichard, king of England, the said Richard, king of England, was at Rouen, in Normandy, on the day of the Nativity of our Lord, which fell on the fifth day of the week. On the same day of the Nativity of our Lord, Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, legate of the Apostolic See, and chief justiciary of all England, was at Hereford, in "Wales, and there received possession of the castle of Hereford, 6 8 The text found in Wilkins has been used here.