a kind soul would bring them actually a dish of meat, sometimes even
a bottle of wine, but as a rule their fare was bread--made up into
_twists_, we hear, when it was specially excellent--wheat-bread,
wholesome and palatable; but, alas, sometimes barley-bread, washed
down with beer too sour to drink undiluted with water. Alexander, the
master of the Priest's House at Canterbury, soon after gave them a
piece of ground and built them a temporary chapel, but when he was
for presenting them with the building, he was told that they might
not possess houses and lands, and the property was thereupon made
over to the corporation of Canterbury to hold in honourable trust for
their use, the friars _borrowing_ it of the town. Simon Langton
too, Archdeacon of Canterbury, the primate's brother, stood their
friend, and one or two people of influence among the laity, as Sir
Henry de Sandwich, a wealthy Kentish gentleman, and a lady whom
Eccleston calls a "noble countess," one Inclusa de Baginton, warmly
supported them and liberally supplied their necessities. It is worthy
of notice that at Canterbury their first friends were among the
wealthy, _i.e._, those among whom a command of English was not
necessary.

While Agnellus and his brethren were waiting patiently at Canterbury,
Ingworth and young Richard of Devon with the two Italians had made
their way to London and had been received with enthusiasm. Their
first entertainers were the Dominican friars who, though they had
been only two years before them, yet had already got for themselves a
house, in which they were able to entertain the new-comers for a
fortnight. At the end of that time they hired a plot of ground in
Cornhill of John Travers, the Sheriff of London, and there they built
for themselves a house, such as it was. Their cells were constructed
like sheep-cotes, mere wattels with mouldy hay or straw between them.