with selling the meat of bulls which had not been baited, "taurorum infugatorum." The regulation, made more than a century later, which forbade butchers to kill bulls that had not been baited, may therefore not have been a new one. It is possible, however, that the 15th century edict had no reference to the popular "sport" of bull-baiting, as Kelly supposed, but merely provided for the baiting or stall-feeding of cattle before slaughter, as a similar order made at Cambridge certainly did. The offence of the butcher Lambert was aggravated by his having used base language in the Saturday Market, contradicting and contemning the Mayor, and he was fined £10, but pardoned on the condition that if he offended again he should pay 100s, of silver or gold without any ransom. When Thomas Beeby died, between 1382 (the date of his will), and 1384 (the date of its proof), he left money to the Guilds of St. Margaret and St. Michael in Leicester, and he directed that when he was buried in St. Martin's Church, Leicester, no less than 300 pounds of wax should be burnt around his body, and afterwards distributed to the parish priests to use at masses. But for all his supersitious piety he seems to have been touched by some breath of the new religious spirit then beginning to ruffle the mediaeval faith, for he also gave a legacy to the notorious Lollard, William de Swinderby, "Chaplain of St. John's Chapel, Leicester." He left 40s. each to the North and West Bridges, and 20s. for repair of a road called "le Wodegate."
One of the most prominent burgesses of Leicester in the first half of the 14th century was William de Clowne, who entered the Guild Merchant in the year 13 18, "at the special order of the lord Earl, wherefore the fine is pardoned him as the order willed that nothing be taken of him." He was an important person even at that time, it is evident, and in the spring of the following year the Mayor sent him on behalf of the town a present of bread and beer. When John Brid built the West Bridge in 1325, he hired William de Clowne's cart. In 1326 William de Clowne subscribed 2s. to the lord Earl's present. He became Bailiff of Leicester in 1330, and held that office until 1343. In 1332 he represented the Borough in Parliament. During the
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