Notes and Queries, Number 42, August 17, 1850 by Various
page 46 of 66 (69%)
page 46 of 66 (69%)
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"No butcher shall kill any flesh within his scalding-house, or
within the walls of London, in pain to forfeit for every ox so killed 12d. and for every other beast 8d., to be divided between the king and the prosecutor."--Bohun's _Privilegia Londini_ 1723, p. 480. Brydall, in his _Camera Regis_ (Lond. 1666, p. 114.), quotes the statute of 11 Hen. VII. c. 21, as the authority for the "singularity" attaching to the city, that "butchers shall kill no beasts in London." I believe, however, Bohun's reference will be found to be the correct one. The statute in question has, I think, never been repealed; but in the absence of abbatoirs, or other proper provision for the slaughtering of cattle without the walls of the city, it seems doubtful whether the {189} pains and penalties to which the "contrary doers" were liable, were at any time strictly enforced. JAMES T. HAMMACK. _Sanitary Laws of other Days_ (Vol. ii., p. 99.).--The statute referred to by T.S.D. in his article, by which "it is ordeigned y't no such slaughter of best shuld be used or had within this cite," was no doubt 4 & 5 Henry VII. c. 3., intituled "An Act that no Butcher slea any Manner of Beast within the walls of London." The penalty is only twelvepence for an ox or a cow, and eightpence for any smaller animal. The act itself seems unrepealed, but the penalties are too small at the present day to abate the nuisance. C.R. SOC. |
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