William Sandys Wright Vaux

“ I now propose to give a few extracts, chiefly from the Court Leet Books. I cannot but notice the jealous care with which the jury of the Court Leet watched over the general interests of their fellow citizens, checking all encroachments on the common lands, lest, though originally of small importance, they might grow up into a prescriptive right, and removing obstructions and nuisances in the highways and streets. ”

“ In 1577, a charge is preferred against the brewers, and they "are commanded to use no more iron-bound carts, for that it is great decay not only of the paved streate, but also causeth his beere to work uppe, in such sort that as his barrel seemeth to be full when they are brought, and when they are settled, they lack, some a gallon of beer and some more, to the enriching of the brewers, and the great defayte and hindrance of the town." ”

“ The brewers are ordered to dig no clay in the Saltmarsh, because it is town land: a man named Rock is presented for having encroached with his garden "the value of half a yard" into Houndwell Fields: and a remonstrance is entered against the sowing of woad in Hogland, because "the common sort of the people find themselves greatly grieved withal, for that after woad-sowing, there will grow no grass or any thing else, for the cattle to feed on." ”