as "contrarie to the good and laudable rules of this Housse the Benchers were very strict—so far, at least, as the Inn and its precincts were concerned—and many are the fines recorded in respect of the surrep titious introduction of the fair sex into the Inn.
THE "CONEY GARTH." The greater part of the Town was rented from the Bishop of Chichester—at 20 marks (£6-13-4) a year, but there was a small strip on the north held at 93 a year from the Prior of St. Giles, which contained a "coney garth," or rabbit warren, with seven elms and an ash growing in it. This "coney garth" was a source of much temptation to the young gentlemen of the Inn with sporting proclivities and of corresponding trouble to the Benchers. For instance, in 1483, two gentlemen of the Town, Arundel and Knevet, are put out of commons "for hunting and killing coneys in the coney garth;" and the chasing of the coneys be came so common that at last the Bench had tc order that "if anyone of the society shall hunt or kill any coney within the coney garth or within the metes and bounds of the same he shall forfeit on each occasion 2os," and this had shortly after to be sup plemented by a further order that "none of the Companie shall have hys bow bent withyn the coney yard nor hunt nor kill coneys upon payne of Xld. ORDER IN HALL. Keeping order and decorum in Hall, too, was no easy matter. The young gentlemen, instead of the proper costume of cap and gown, would wear "hattes" in Hall—even in Chapel, or "redd" coates, or, later, long heare or great Ruffes," or "goe booted" or with "their rapyer under the gowne." In 1509 it is recorded by the Benchers that "in future no one may be at Clerk's com mons unless he be decorously clad and not
with his shirt in public view beyond his doublet at his neck. It was also agreed at a Benchers' Council "that no gentleman beying a felowe of this Housse shall ware any cut or ponsyd hosyn or bryches or ponsyd doublett upon payne of puttyng out of the house." In 1520 we have the following entry: "Mem: to call the Compaiiie and to exhort them to leave knockyng on the pottes and makyng of noyse in the Hall and not to inquyett Mr. Reder in the vacation of his study." Making wagers in Hall was likewise forbidden as being a practice wherof "insuyth moche dyscencyon. One of the duties of the "butteler" and of the steward also was to report those that "speake loud and high at meal time in the Hall and cause such persons to cease their high speech. Possibly this may have been the cause of one of the young gentlemen being fined i2d "for gyvyng off one off the buttelers a blowe on the ere." Another "lately admitted is fined for committing a "fowle affray" upon the person of the steward, and shortly after another is suspended "for his disorder ::i throwing a dish of butter at the steward in Hall time." This was certainly worse than "giving the Panierman a slap in Hall." The officers of the Society evidently needed special protection at Christinas, for we find a resolution of the Benchers that "it be pronouncyd to the Companie that they myshandell not the officers of the Housse this tyme of Chrystimasse upon payne of grievous amercyamentes." "THE PUMPEING OF THE PORTER." Then comes the expulsion of another gentleman for "pumpeing of the Porter." The worst of this affair was that he was assisted in it, the pumpeing, by two other barristers, one of whom actually boasted of the feat and gloried in it before the Council. This was a Mr. Heron, and his being in con sequence put out of commons, led to an
