It is
a motley group that stands around; there are several
masters and bachelors,. . . but the larger proportion is of
boys or quite young men in every variety of coloured dress,
blue and red, medley, and the like, but without any
academical dress. Many of them are very scantily clothed,
and all have their attention rivetted on the chest, each with
curious eye watching for his pledge, his book or his cup,
brought from some country village, perhaps an old treasure
of his family, and now pledged in his extremity, for last
term he could not pay the principal of his hall the rent
of his miserable garret, nor the manciple for his battels, but
now he is in funds again, and pulls from his leathern
money-pouch at his girdle the coin which is to repossess
him of his property."[2] Naturally their duty as valuers of
much-prized property invested the stationers with some
importance. Their work was thought to be so laborious
and anxious that about 1400 every new graduate was
expected to give clothes to one of them; such method of
rewarding services with livery or clothing being common in
the middle ages.[3] The form of their oath was especially
designed to make them protect the chests from loss.
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