york00orns

2o6
YORK.
were sent upin January, 1389 which contain, inter alia,
accounts of the ordinances of certain gilds in York,
Beverley, and Hull. They are singularly interesting.
In one we find a record of the kindly provision which
was made for " the infirm, bowed, blind, dumb, deaf,
maimed, or sick, whether with some lasting or only temporary
sickness, and whether in old age or in youth."
The weekly allowance to each was yd. and it was
continued during life. In the ordinances of the
Great Gild of Corpus Christi at York we find that
eight beds were to be provided for "poor people
being strangers," and a poor woman maintained to
attend to them. This gild was a later foundation,
dating from 1408. It differed in one important
particular from the other gilds in having been
originated by the clergy, who likewise formed its
governing body. But the number of lay persons,
male and female, who were enrolled as members was
% ery large.
Its popularity was probably due in a great measure
to the magnificence of its pageants and processions.
In the year 1415 ninety-six separate crafts
joined in the procession, and no less than fifty-four
distinct pageants were got up by them for the gratification
of the people of York. The subjects of
eleven of these pageants were taken from the Old
Testament, the remainder from the New. Some of
the narrow streets of York still retain a touch of the
picturesqueness of their mediaeval character. Here
and there a house survives with its half timbered front
and projecting gables of fifteenth century work. When
we gaze upon the quaint examples of the domestic