purveyors had first purchased what was required for their master's
table.

When fish had been brought to the City, no fishmonger might buy "before
the good people have bought what they need." It was the same with
poultry. Until prime had been sounded at St. Paul's, poulterers were
forbidden to buy for resale, the object being that "the buyers for the
King and great lords of the land, and the good people of the City may
make good their purchases, so far as they shall need."

LIVERY

So much for purveyance. As regards the disposition of the provisions
thus obtained, it was expressed by the term "livery," formerly of much
wider application than at present. The word comprehended all that was
delivered or dispensed by the lord to his underlings or
domestics--money, victuals, wine, garments, fuel, and lights; but no
doubt it was employed more particularly of external and distinctive
garb. The Wardrobe Book of 28 Edward I. and the Household Ordinances
show that officers and retainers of the Court were presented with a
_roba estivalis_ and _hiemalis_. The _livree des chaperons_, so often
mentioned, refers to hoods or tippets of a colour sharply contrasting
with that of the garment over which they were worn. Subsequently this
mark took the form of a round cap, attached to which was a long
liripipe, which might be wound round the head, but more usually hung
over the arm. In the dress of the City Liverymen traces of it may still
be found.

This suggests the remark that livery was used not by the members of
great households merely, but by brotherhoods and _gentz de mester_;
hence it is that Chaucer in his Prologue of the "Canterbury Tales"
enumerates

A Haberdassher and a Carpenter
A Webbe, Dyere, and a Tapicer;

and says of them:

... they were clothed alle in a liveree
Of a solempne and great fraternitee.

The statute 7 Henry IV. conceded this privilege to the "trades of the
cities of the realm," thus confirming previous acts of the reign of
Edward III. and Richard II., which sanctioned the wearing of livery by
menials and members of gilds, but prohibited the distribution of badges
to adherents who assumed them in testimony of their readiness to aid
their patron in any private quarrel. The practice was therefore a grave
menace to the King's peace.

The prohibition was renewed 8 Edward IV., c. 2., which inflicted a
penalty of one hundred shillings for every person "other than his menial
servant, officer,