Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/92

74 DUNHEVED. throughout England. And that this our grant and gift and con- firmation may remain firm and stable to all eternity we have, in order to its everlasting duration, confirmed this our Charter to our before named Burgesses with the impression of our seal : These being the Witnesses, Sir Andrew de Cardinan [Reginald de Dun- stanville married Beatrix Cardinan], Sir Reginald de Vallitorta, Sir William de Bottellis, Henry Theutoneus, Andrew de Cancellis, Guido de St. Amand, John Brytask, Robert the son of William, Henry de Bodringam, Walter the son of William, Roger de Tre- losk, Nicholas the King's Chancery Clerk, and many others. In our day we can hardly appreciate the benefits con- ferred by this Charter, but our predecessors understood them. For hundreds of years thenceforth they carefully recorded the fact that theirs was a " Free Borough." They were " free " from the toll paid by other persons passing over bridges, and from contributing towards the main- tenance of bridges [pontage]. They had the right gratu- itously to set up stalls in markets and fairs [stallage]. No tribute was to be claimed from them for the use of ground occupied by their cattle standing for sale. in fair or market (suillage). They might elect their chief magistrates, and hold their own courts (their burghmotes). They were to determine the assize, that is, the quality and price of the ale to be sold within their Borough, and the Earl's own Bailiff was to get only a slight advantage over other people when he chose to test or taste the grateful liquid which our forefathers loved to quaff, and which the Scandinavian heroes believed would be a prominent luxury in their Valhalla. Nearly contemporaneous with the grant of this Charter a statute, 51 Henry III. (1266), passed, regulating the price of ale throughout the kingdom by the price of corn, and an infringement of the act was made punishable by exposure in the Pillory. The authorized Guildhall was erected in Dunheved, and soon became, and for centuries continued, a very useful