The distance between baron and a country knight and between
a yeoman and knight was wider. Manor custom was strong. But a
yeoman could give his sons a chance to become gentlemen by
entering them in a trade in a town, sending them to university, or
to war. Every freeman was to some extent a soldier, and to some
extent a lawyer, serving in the county or borough courts. A
burgess, with his workshop or warehouse, was trained in warlike
exercises, and he could keep his own accounts, and make his own
will and other legal documents, with the aid of a scrivener or a
chaplain, who could supply an outline of form. But law was growing
as a profession. Old-established London families began to choose
the law as a profession for their sons, in preference to an
apprenticeship in trade. Many borough burgesses in Parliament were
attorneys.
In London, shopkeepers appealed to passers-by to buy their goods,
sometimes even seizing people by the sleeve. The drapers had
several roomy shops containing shelves piled with cloths of all
colors and grades, tapestries, pillows, blankets, bed draperies,
and 'bankers and dorsers' to soften hard wooden benches. A rear
storeroom held more cloth for import or export. Many shops of
skinners were on Fur Row. There were shops of leather-sellers,
hosiers, gold and silver cups, and silks. At the Stocks Market
were fishmongers, butchers, and poulterers.
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