fowder, 606. ffoyndes, 680.

gadir, 398. garbelid, 400. Goddardes, 531. gooth, 399.

grene, 689, (of wool) probably unwashed, i.e. with yolk in. It might also refer to skin wool, i.e. wool removed from the skin of slaughtered animals, as to-day reference is still madeto "greenskins." The first suggestion is more likely to be the correct one (Prof. A. F. R. Barker). greunde, 630.

gurdell, 181, girdull, 184; girdulmen, 181, gurdelmen, 183; gurdeldraweng, ib. The authorities quoted under brakeman (q.v.) say the girdleman annealed the wire; and that the middleman "represented the cleaner, who removed the scale and prepared the wire after annealing for further manipulation." Now annealing and cleaning may well have been part of the business, but the combination gurdel-drawing implies that actual drawing of wire through, or by means of, a "gurdel" was the work of this craft of "gurdlemen," while the fact that "gurdelmen" and "middlemen " are mentioned (p. 182, 183) each time in connection with other wiredrawing crafts but not together [cf. also "middelyng," p. 184, mentioned together with wiredrawing, while all reference to any "girdling" process is omitted] seems to imply that "girdlemen" and "middlemen " were but different names for the same occupation, and that the process of "middelyng" and fashioning the wire "atte gurdel"

1

were one. What a "gurdel" actually was can only be conjectured. A girdle or gridle is a circular iron plate on which cakes are cooked; a gird is a hoop for a barrel. It seems at anyrate possible that a "gurdel" was a draw-plate intended for wire of a "middle" size, thinner than that fashioned by the wortle of the "brakeman," but not so thin as it became after the manipulation of the cardwiredrawer. The instrument may have been the forerunner of the barrels employed by the rippers [who seem to correspond to the girdlemen, just as the overhousemen do to the cardwiredrawers] described in Ray's "Manner of the Wire-Work at Tintern in Monmouthshire." (Skeat, Reprinted Gloss., B. 15, pp. 16-17). These barrels were furnished with hooks to which tongs were attached; the tongs were fastened to the wire by the workmen, and, the hooks being forced back by the action of a wheel, drew the wire through the holes of a plate. The various processes of the Tintern manufacture reduced the iron bars (1) into rods "about the bigness of one's little finger," (2) after the operations of the rippers -to the size "as of a great pack thread." The third process of the small wiredrawers, or overhousemen, is not given in detail. It may be noted that at Coventre (p. 183) two kinds of wire, i. e. "Cardwyre" and "mystermannes wyre," are mentioned, the latter representing in all probability the material of ordinary commerce, and the former the thinner kind reserved for cards for combing wool.

gysarnez, 28.

required, 409.

Spayr, 261, spayre, ib., spay, 121, spyre = ? sp[e] yre, 254, Spayers, 257, 258, Spayes, Spay[r]es, 258, spayre, 260. See Spay and Spayre in N.E.D.

spole, 776.

stresse-rolle, 169-70, a list of people whose goods were liable to distraint to compel their appearance in

court.

ship. (N.E.D.)

revelisshen, 576.

396;

(1) a measure of corn, varying in amount (See Friar John Bredon in Additional Notes), so called because the grain was "struck" or smoothed level with the brim of the measure; (2) a smooth piece of wood with which the surplus grain was so levelled; cf. stryke, vb., to smooth out, hence to measure, transferred from corn to cloth, p. 657. (See strike sb. E.D.D. and cf. strickle, O.E. stricel.)

stulpes, 252. There were "Stulpes" on the Southwark side of London Bridge, where the way could be barred by a chain.

warrant, grand, 684.

(traps).

Teyre, 669.

(N.E.D., s.v. lead.)

weyued, 303.

wilfuly, 116.

wirtilmaker, 142, writelmaker, 160,

a maker of wortles, drawplates of

stone or iron, used in wire-making,

see brakeman.

wodpleck, 668.

wrete, 657.