faithful to his promise, and wishing to give pleasure to his queen,
dreaming not then of divorces and the headman's axe, with which he
became so familiar in after life, brought her in regal state and
pomp, accompanied by a crowd of nobles and court ladies, to see the
civic spectacle, which they witnessed from the hall of the Mercers'
Company in Cheapside. The street itself, before the procession was
arranged, was a sight worth seeing, and one to be remembered for many
a long day. Huge bonfires were blazing up in different parts; the
houses were hung with tapestry, and were lighted up with oil lamps and
"branches of iron curiously wrought, containing hundreds of lamps,
lighted at once, which made a great show;" timber stages, hung with
variously coloured stuffs, and the latticed windows were filled with
elegantly-dressed ladies, whose diamonds flashed in the light; banners
and pennons floated in the evening breeze; "every man's door was
shadowed with green birch, long fennel, St. John's-wort, and such like,
garnished upon with beautiful flowers;" whilst prancing steeds in gay
trappings, armed men with plumed casques, city and guild officials in
gay liveries and a crowd of citizens, male and female, in the quaint
costume of the period, mingled in picturesque groups below. After
sunset the procession was arranged, and set out. First came a band of
music, followed by the officials of the Corporation in parti-coloured
liveries, and the sword-bearer mounted on a gaily-trapped steed, and
in armour. Then came the Mayor on a magnificent horse with housings
reaching to the earth, accompanied by a giant; two pages, mounted; a
band of morris dancers, footmen, and three pageants. After him came
the sheriffs, similarly attended with giants, morris dancers, and
torchbearers, but with only two pageants. Then followed a cloud of
demi-lancers, in armour, with the City arms emblazoned on their backs
and breasts; a company of archers with their bows bent; pikemen and
halberdiers, in corslets and helmets; and billmen, with helmets and
aprons of mail. The whole body consisted of about 2,000 men, and
between the divisions were bands of drummers, fifers, and whifflers,
and standard and ensign bearers. Interspersed amongst them were 940 men
bearing lighted cressets—iron frames filled with pitched rope, which
blazed up and sent forth volumes of black smoke, "which showed at a
distance like the light of a burning city," and the same number of men
to supply the cressets with fresh supplies of fuel. Two hundred of
these were supplied by the City; 500 were supplied at the expense of
the City companies, and the remainder were the ordinary watchmen.
The midsummer watch was kept up until 1539, when Henry VIII.,
considering the great expense it was to the City, caused it to be
abolished. It was revived, however, in 1548, and continued until 1569,
when in consequence of its bringing together "abundance of rogues,
pickpockets, quarrellers, whoremongers, and drunkards," it was again
abolished, and although some attempts were made afterwards to restore
it, they were not successful.
A.D. 1485-1610. In the interval between these dates, Cheapside was
the scene of many a grand spectacle, and it may be added of many a
so-called vindication of justice in a way of barbarous mutilations and
inhuman executions.
A.D. 1513. The Cheapsides 'prentices, of whom we have spoken, were a
turbulent and unmanageable element of the community, keeping their
clubs at hand in the shops, to be ready at any moment to rush out
and join a fray, and many a broken head they gave and got in these
fights, which generally arose, not so much out of malice as from pure
love of contention for mastery, which then developed itself in this
rough way as it now displays itself in games of cricket and athletic
sports. There was one class of persons, however, against whom they had
a special hatred, and nothing pleased them better than to insult them
with vile speeches, drag them in the gutter or belabour them with their
clubs. These were the foreign merchants, importers of silks, wine, and
other commodities; the Lombard money-lenders and stranger craftsmen
and citizens, who, they said, impoverished the English traders and
carried away the English gold. This jealousy continued to grow, and
was brought to a crisis by a Lombard seducing a citizen's wife, and
obtaining through her, his plate chest, and afterwards causing the
citizen to be arrested for a debt for his wife's board and lodging
during the time she was at his house. A rumour got abroad that on the
ensuing May Day a sort of Bartholomew's massacre should take place,
and that all foreigners found in London then would be put to death.
The 'prentices now began to insult and ill-treat them as they passed
along the street, and several fled from the city. A report of these
proceedings reached the king, and Wolsey sent for the mayor and charged
him to see that the peace was kept in the city, which he assured the
cardinal he was quite capable of maintaining, and departed. This was
about four o'clock on the eve of May Day, and on his return to the city
he assembled the magistrates and council, amongst whom was Sir Thomas
More, ex-under-sheriff, when, after some discussion, it was decided
to issue an order to the citizens to have their doors closed at nine
o'clock, and to keep all their 'prentices and servants within until
nine the following morning, and the aldermen went to their respective
wards to see that this mandate, which had been confirmed by the king
and council, was obeyed.
After the issuing of this order, which only took place about
half-an-hour before nine, Alderman Sir John Munday, on going down
Cheapside found two young fellows playing at bucklers in the middle
of the street, and a number of other young men looking on. He ordered
them to desist and go within doors, and upon their asking him why,
instead of explaining the order, which they had no knowledge of, he
threatened to send them to the compter, and after a little altercation,
seized one of the youths to commit him to prison. "But," says Stow,
"the 'prentices resisted the alderman, taking the young man from him,
and cried, ''Prentices! 'prentices! clubs! clubs!' Then out of every
door came clubs and other weapons, so that the alderman was put to
flight. Then more people arose out of every quarter, and forth came
serving-men, watermen, courtiers, and others, so that by eleven o'clock
there were in Cheap 600 or 700, and out of St. Paul's Churchyard came
about 300. From all places they gathered together and broke open the
compters, took out the prisoners committed thither for hurting the
strangers. They went also to Newgate and took out Studley and Bets,
committed for the like cause. The mayor and sheriffs were present and
made proclamation in the king's name, but were not obeyed." After this
they went in separate bands, breaking open and plundering the houses
of the foreigners, until about three in the morning, when they began
to disperse, and being thus disunited, the authorities were enabled to
capture about 300 of the rioters and place them in prison. Sir Roger
Cholmley, lieutenant of the Tower, had come forth with a military
force, "and shot off certain pieces of ordnance against the City, but
did no great hurt." About five o'clock the Earl of Shrewsbury and other
nobles, and the prior of St. John's, Clerkenwell, came with what forces
they could get together, as did the Inns of Court, "but before they
came the business was over."
A special commission of oyer and terminer was issued to the Duke of
Norfolk and other lords, with the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and justices,
to try the prisoners. The court was held in the Guildhall, on the
2nd of May, whither the delinquents, to the number of 278 persons,
were brought, tied together with ropes, and escorted by 1,300 men.
On the 4th, thirteen of them were condemned to be hanged, drawn, and
quartered, in divers parts of the City; which sentence was carried
out with great barbarity, in the presence of Lord Edward Howard, "a
knight marshal, who shewed no mercie, but extreme crueltie to the poore
younglings in their execution."
A few days after, Lincolne, Shirwin, and Bets, instigators of the
affray, with divers others, were dragged on hurdles to be hanged at
the Standard in Cheapside. They were placed under the gallows with
the ropes round their necks, when a reprieve arrived. The people
shouted "God save the king," and the condemned were taken back to
prison. On the 14th, the Recorder and some aldermen waited upon the
king at Greenwich, to solicit pardon for the rest of the prisoners,
which he bluntly refused, but ordered them to be brought before him at
Westminster on the 22nd. On that day the king sat in state, attended
by "the cardinal and many great lords," and the mayor and aldermen of
London. "The king commanded that the prisoners should be brought forth,
so that in came the poore yonglings and old false knaves, bound in
ropes all along, one after the other, in their shirts, and everie one
a halter about his necke, to the number now of foure hundred men and
eleven women. And when all were come before the king's presence, the
cardinall sore laide to the maior and commonaltie their negligence; and
to the prisoners he declared that they had deserved death for their
offence. Then the prisoners cried 'Mercie, gratious lord, mercie!'
Herewith the lords altogether besought his grace of mercie, at whose
sute the king pardoned them all. Then the cardinall gave unto them a
good exhortation to the great gladnesse of the hearers. Now when the
generall pardon was pronounced, all the prisoners shouted at once, and
altogether cast up their halters into the hall roofe, so that the king
might perceive they were none of the discreetest sort. Then were all
the gallows within the Citie taken downe, and many a good prayer made
for the king."
And thus came to an end the proceedings in connection with the frolic
of the Cheapside 'prentices, on what was long afterwards called "Evil
May Day."
When King John, in 1215, granted a mayor, it was stipulated that he
should present himself before the king or his justices for approval,
whence arose the annual procession on Lord Mayor's Day. At first it was
a very simple matter, the mayor riding on horseback accompanied by
the aldermen, and preceded by the beadle and a company of minstrels.
It gradually, however, added new features, such as banner bearers,
standards emblazoned with arms, trumpeters, "men apparelled like devils
and wild men to clear the way with squibs," "savages or green men"
with fireworks for the same purpose, wild animals of various kinds,
emblematic figures and devices, many exceedingly quaint and grotesque,
and some with punning allusions to the mayor. But the most conspicuous
features of the shows of the 16th and 17th centuries were the pageants,
a species of emblematical stage representation provided by the company
which had the honour of giving the mayors. These pageants displayed
a great deal of imagination and mechanical skill, and sometimes cost
nearly a thousand pounds.
Sir John Norman is supposed to have been the first mayor who went to
Westminster by water, whither he was rowed with silver oars, in 1621,
for which he was lauded in verse as "The Sun in Aries," by Middleton,
the Laureate.
From 1639 to 1655 the prevalence of Puritanism and the civil war
together abolished the show, as did the Plague and the Fire from 1664
to 1671. In 1703 the pageants were discontinued, much to the regret of
the people, who looked upon them as the best part of the show, and were
especially delighted with some time-honoured representations which were
repeated year by year, and never lost their interest, such as that of
the Goldsmiths, in which St. Dunstan, their patron saint, seized the
devil by his nose with the tongs, and made him roar with pain.
As an illustration of this olden-time mode of celebrating the
inauguration of a new mayor, we have selected a pageant of the
Fishmongers' Company, in the procession of Sir John Lemon, 1616,
of which company he was a member. The pageant consisted of several
sections: 1. The trade pageant, "A Fisshing Busse," ornamented with
carvings of fish and other devices, the company's crest at the head
and St. Peter's keys at the stern, with three fishermen aboard, one
casting the net and the others distributing live fish among the crowd.
2. A dolphin, argent, naisant and crowned, part of the company's arms.
"Arion, a famous musician and poet, rideth on backe." 3. The Emperor of
Morocco, in regal costume, with crown and sceptre, "gallantly mounted
on a golden leopard, and hurling gold and silver everywhere about him."
He is attended by six tributary Moorish kings "carrying ingots of gold
and silver and each a dart." 4. A lemon tree, in reference to the
name of the Lord Mayor, with a pelican at the foot feeding her young
with the blood of her own breast, emblematic of the love the chief
magistrate has for the citizens. Around sit the "five senses, picturing
flower, fruit, rind, pith, and juice." This portion is preceded by a
winged figure, seated on a white horse, and bearing a sword, eight men
in armour bearing emblazoned banners, and two trumpeters. 5. A man in
armour, on a white horse, carrying the head of Wat Tyler on a spear,
and five men in armour bearing truncheons. 6. A merman and mermaid,
heraldically habited with gold chains, and riding on the sea waves.
These are the supporters of the company's arms. 7. "The Fishmongers'
Pageant Chariot," pyramidal in form, with thirteen allegorical figures,
the upper part forming a throne, and seated thereon a winged and
crowned figure, over which is a canopy with the Fishmongers' crest.
In front of the throne sits King Richard II., in golden armour, whose
life was preserved by Walworth, the winged figure above being his
guardian angel, who inspired Sir William to use his dagger. There are
also numerous children seated in rows above each other, splendidly
dressed, representative of the Royal virtues. The stages of this part
of the pageant are made to appear as if passing over the sea waves. 8.
"The Fishmongers' bower." An arched recess with double columns, adorned
with shields of arms of former mayors of the company. This is supposed
to have been to a certain extent a copy of the tomb of Sir William
Walworth, who lies thereon, dressed in a purple robe trimmed with
ermine, and a hat and feather, after the style of the Jacobean period,
an anachronism considered at that time of but little consequence. Above
him stands an angel, "the genius of London," who bids him arise from
his tomb. Forthwith he stands up, makes a congratulatory speech to
the new mayor, and then "ridd on horsebacke with the rest of them,"
accompanied by representatives of the five citizens who were knighted
along with him for their services against the rebels in Smithfield.
From the time when the pageants were discontinued in 1702, the show
sank down into a mere procession, with banners, music, the companies
in their liveries, and the men in armour, as they have come down to
our day. Hogarth gives us, in his series of _Idleness and Industry_,
a graphic representation of the show of 1750, with the Prince and
Princess of Wales seated under a canopy at the end of Paternoster Row.
A.D. 1643. Cheapside was one of the nine resting-places of the body
of Eleanor of Castile, Queen of Edward I., on its progress from
Lincolnshire to Westminster for burial, and here, opposite Wood
Street, was erected, by Master Michael, a Canterbury mason, one of her
beautiful memorial crosses. It fell to decay, and in 1441 was rebuilt
with a conduit or fountain connected with it, but was not completely
finished until the accession of Henry VII. The fanaticism of the
Puritans after the Reformation caused them to look upon it and its
statues of Jesus Christ, the Virgin, the Apostles, and a figure which
they presumed to be, and which probably was, the effigy of a pope,
with feelings of superstitious horror, and on several occasions they
defaced the images and otherwise mutilated the cross. At length the
reign of the Puritans commenced, and in 1643 the Parliament decreed
its destruction, deputing one Robert Harlow to see it carried out.
Accordingly in May of that year he filled Cheapside with a troop of
horse, two companies of foot, and a body of workmen with ladders,
picks, crowbars, and hammers, and as the official report informs
us:—"On the 2nd of May, 1643, the cross in Cheapside was pulled down.
At the fall of the top cross, drums beat, trumpets blew, and multitudes
of caps were thrown in the air, and a great shout of people with joy.
The 2nd of May, the Almanack says, was the invention of the cross, and
the same day, at night, were the leaden popes burnt in the place where
it stood, with ringing of bells and great acclamation, and no hurt at
all done in these actions."
There is a print extant of the demolition of the cross, with workmen on
ladders, hammering at the statues, and two men pulling down the finial
cross with ropes, with a surrounding of horsemen, and beyond a body of
troops with banners and uplifted weapons. A copy of the print is given
in _Old and New London_, vol. i., p. 331.
In connection with that event a multitude of pamphlets appeared on both
sides of the question, which may be seen in the Guildhall Library.
From the mass we select two for notice, the former especially as
showing that the Cheapside 'prentices were then a power in the city
worthy of being courted by flattery and adulation. Generally they
adhered to the Puritanical side, but it would appear that there were
some amongst them who held opposite views, from their coming forth
with their clubs to prevent the demolition of the Cross; or it may be
that they looked upon their Cross as a sort of palladium; had come to
venerate it, and not being so bigoted as some of the Puritans, did not
care to see it demolished. The title of the pamphlet runs thus:—"The
Doleful lamentation of Cheapside Crosse: or, Old England sick of the
Staggers: Together with the hearty thanks, which I, Jasper Crosse,
hath lately returned to those noble-minded and gentele-bred 'prentices
thereabouts, for rescuing my honour from being ravished, especially to
Robert York, who was my chief protector at that time. London, 1641."
The second pamphlet, dated 1643, is entitled, "The Downfall of Dagon;
or, the Taking Downe of Cheapside Crosse, the 2nd of May, 1643. Wherein
is contained these principalls following, viz.: 1. Cheapside Crosse
sick at the heart. 2. His death and funerall. 3. His will, legacies,
inventory, and epitaph. 4. The reason why it was taken down, and the
authority for it. 5. The benefit and profite that is made of the
materialls of it, and the severall summes of money which is offered for
it. Likewise the satisfaction it will give to thousands of people. 6.
Notes worthy of the reader's observation that the crosse should just
happen to bee taken downe on that day which crosses were first invented
and set up."
We have now brought down the annals of Cheapside to comparatively
modern and more prosaic times.
We no longer see the splendid pageantry and quaint festivities
of the Norman, Plantagenet, and Tudor eras, with their bonfires,
cresset-bearers, morrice-dancers, mummers, allegorical pageants, and
house-fronts hung with tapestries, and other such textures. The joust,
and tournaments, the setting of the Midsummer watch, and other curious
and picturesque spectacles, are things of the past. It is true we
still have the Lord Mayor's Show, and the procession to Westminster,
but passing along the embankment instead of in the civic barges.
We still retain the men in armour and the old gilt coach, and have
representatives of the city companies in olden-time costumes, and we
sometimes introduce novelties, such as a group of elephants mounted by
"Africans."
Bishopsgate Street Within and Without.
Some fourteen or fifteen centuries ago what is now Bishopsgate Street
Within was a fashionable suburb of the Roman Londinium, the Belgravia
or South Kensington of the period, where the aristocracy and wealth
of the City located itself and built magnificent mansions after the
fashion of Rome, with columns, frescoes, and tesselated pavements, such
as we see in the disinterred city of Pompeii. In the streets might then
be seen charioteers driving rapidly along to contend in the chariot
race; fair ladies going to witness the gladiatorial displays in the
amphitheatre; bronzed soldiers from many a distant province of the
empire; slaves groaning beneath heavy burdens or employed in laborious
occupations—all mixed up with the ordinary traffic of a considerable
city. Northward, stretching eastward and westward, ran the City wall,
a portion of which may still be seen in the street call London Wall,
adorned with stately towers and bastions, one of the latter having
been exposed to public view by the opening of a pathway through St.
Giles's Churchyard. There was, however, no gateway in this part of the
wall, as beyond lay an untraversable morass, and beyond that a forest
extending to and up the heights of Highgate, Muswell Hill, etc., those
who wished to go northward from the city having to go eastward to
Aldgate or westward to Aldersgate. This probably was the reason why
the rich selected this portion of the environs of the City for their
residence, as being more retired and quiet than in the vicinity of a
thoroughfare leading to a City outlet.
Of these mansions of the patricians of Londinium several vestiges
have been found. On the site of St. Helen's, the foundations of large
edifices have been laid bare. In 1707, at the corner of Camomile
Street, a fine tesselated pavement was found; in 1752 another at the
side of St. Helen's Gateway; in 1761 another in Camomile Street; and in
1836 a splendid specimen, in red, white, and grey, at the north-west
angle of Crosby Square, besides fragments elsewhere.
This, however, was only in the later period of the Roman rule. When
they had subdued the Trinobantes, they found the capital of the
country, although a place of commercial importance, merely a scattered
collection of round huts with trackways in the midst, extending from
Tower Hill to the Fleet River and from the Thames to Cheapside and
Cornhill, defended on the north by earthworks, felled trees, and
a ditch; and in midst of these huts they erected more substantial
houses, with towers at the eastern and western extremities, and
probably a temple to Diana, where St. Paul's Cathedral now stands. The
northern outskirts, now Bishopsgate Street Within was appropriated
as a burial-place, as they never buried their dead in the midst of
the living; but in process of time the exigencies of the increasing
population demanded an extension of the City boundaries, and they
built over the old grave-yard, making a new cemetery on the site of
the modern Bishopsgate Street Without, Shoreditch, and the fenlands
lying eastward and westward of these. In 1576, when digging for clay
near where Christ Church, Spitalfields, now stands, a great number
of cinerary urns were found, containing burnt human remains, and
in each a piece of coin, wherewith to pay Charon for ferrying the
defunct across the Styx; also, as Stow says, "divers vials and other
old-fashioned glasses most cunningly wrought, such as I have not seen
the like of, all which had water in them, differing from spring water"
(_lachrymatories_), "cups and dishes of red earthenware and three
or four images of white earth, about a span long, one of Pallas."
Under the Camomile tesselated pavement, found in 1706, lay two feet
of rubbish, and beneath that several funeral urns. Stone and timber
coffins have also been found, or rather the nails of the latter, a
quarter of a yard long, the wood having perished, and a Roman vault in
St Botolph's Churchyard, all these, with skeletons or decayed bones in
them, indicating burial after Christianity had become the religion of
the empire, when the custom of burning the dead was abandoned.
The Saxons despised the effeminacy of decorated architecture and
luxurious appliances in the way of household furniture, hence when they
came into possession of London they allowed the sumptuous dwellings of
the Romans to fall into decay and crumble to dust, preferring their
own rough and uncomely habitations built of wood, but afterwards built
their churches, monasteries, and public buildings generally of stone,
and thus Roman London passed away.
The Saxons found it necessary to have another exit from the city
northward between Aldgate and Aldersgate Street, and pierced the wall
at the end of the street running from the river, whatever it may then
have been called, and erected there a new gate. Erkenwald, Bishop of
London, 679-97, has been credited with the work, but as this is only
based upon the discovery, near by, of the statue of a mitred bishop,
which it was presumed represented St. Erkenwald, the tradition may be
doubted, but it was unquestionably this supposition which gave it the
name of Bishops' Gate.
There are four churches in London dedicated to St. Botolph "the
Briton," all situated by gates, Aldgate, Aldersgate, Billingsgate,
and Bishopsgate. The latter lays claim to having been founded by the
ancient British Christians, but, more probably, was built by the Saxons
and dedicated to the British monk St. Botolph. It has been rebuilt no
doubt several times since then. It escaped the ravages of the fire of
1666, but having become very much dilapidated, an Act of Parliament
was obtained at the beginning of the last century for rebuilding it,
by means of a rate of two shillings in the pound upon all household
property in the parish, payable by the landlords, but this proving
insufficient a parish rate was laid to supply the deficiency. It was
commenced in 1725, and re-opened in 1728, having cost (there is nothing
like precision) £10,444 1s. 8½d.
Tradition says that it was the burial-place of a brother of King Lud.
The present building contains the tombs of Sir Paul Pinder; Edward
Alleyn, the founder of Dulwich College; William, Earl of Devonshire,
from whom Devonshire Square takes its name; and in the churchyard lies
Hodges Shoughshware, "the chiefest servant of the King of Persia,
who came from the King of Persia and died in his service, 1626, and
Maghmote, his wife." The epitaph is in Persian, and entreats that all
Persians who may read it will pray for their souls.
The Rev. Stephen Gorson, author of _The School of Abuse_, was rector of
St. Botolph.