Page:The Cornwall coast.djvu/244

238 THE CORNWALL COAST The charitable doings of these good St. Ives folk were evidently very numerous and very varied ; but these entries are not all of almsgiving. Thus, in the same year as above, we have the following : — " Easter Quarter. Impmis pd. for two dele boordes to make a uewe seate to the vicar, Hid." Also : — " Item paid to the younge felow which is oiu* clarke, lis." Many of the entries have to do with licensed beggars, or shipwrecked seamen, or the raising moneys for the deliverance of foreign captives ; but the variety is endless and delightful. Thus, after reading of a shilling bestowed upon '* a man of Irelande that had his barke stollen by pirats," we have the record of a similar sum paid " ffor a paire of breches ffor John the lasar." This John seems to have cost the parish sundry amounts for his breeches and jerkins ; but in 1596 it would appear that St. Ives was quit of him, if it is he to whom the following refers : — ' ' Pd to a cople of women that shrowded ye lazar John Nyclis : and ther breake faste yt tyme, Vis." Immediately after this eightpence is given " to a pore lame sowldior hurted in the queues servyce in yrland having a lisens." The town could make merry at times, as we find when sixpence was paid " for a pynte of Secke when our burgesse Mr. Harrys was chosen" — which is very moderate compared with Falstaff's payments for the same liquor. In 1626 we read that special harbour-dues