III. we find the feud between the citizens and the gild again in full
force. When the authorities of the gild feared that the citizens would
overpower them, they delivered their 'charter into the Exchequer, to be
kept in the treasury there, and to be delivered to them again when they
should want it, and afterwards to be laid up in the treasury.'[325]
Mrs. Green says that in 1300 the Mayor had gained the right to preside
in the weavers' court if he chose, and to nominate the wardens of the
gild.[326] In the fourteenth year of Edward II. (A.D. 1320-1321) the
privileges of the weavers came before a court of law. In spite of the
distinguished position that the Gild of Weavers held in its early days,
the present Weavers' Company only stands forty-second in the order of
the livery companies.
Many of the old trades of London have been entirely lost sight of, and
their names only exist among the patronymics of the people.
The great feud between the victualling and clothing trades of London was
one of the most remarkable features of the fourteenth century. Some
allusion has been made to this in chapter viii. on the governors of the
city, but a reference must also be made here in connection with the
history of the London companies.
After the Peasants' Revolt, London was the battlefield of rival
factions. The friends of the King (Richard II.) were found among the
great merchants of the victualling trades. In one year sixteen of the
twenty-five aldermen were grocers, and Nicholas Brembre was chief of
them. The fishmongers, of whom Sir William Walworth was the leader, were
scarcely less powerful.
The victuallers were very unpopular, and the public have always
specially resented any advance in the price of food. Complaints were
rife in the chief cities of the country of the abuses of the
victuallers, and an Act (12 Edw. II. cap. 6) was passed to the effect
that "no officer of a city or borough shall sell wine or victuals during
his office."
This Act was frequently evaded, and another Act was passed in 1382 (see
_ante_, p. 236). In the end the Act of Edward II. was repealed (3 Hen.
VIII. cap. 8, 1511-1512).[327]
John of Northampton, when he became Mayor, took advantage of this Act,
and began a policy of aggression directed against the victualling
interest. He turned all his enemies off the governing body, and
victuallers were forbidden to hold office in the city. These feuds were
very serious, and the two leaders were unfortunate in their ends.
Brembre was executed in 1388, and John of Northampton was sent to the
Tower and imprisoned in Tintagel Castle.
A few words may be said here about the classes of trades represented by
the gilds and companies commencing with--
_The Bakers._--The price of bread was regulated by law, according to the
price of wheat, and the Mayor had the right to levy a 1/2d. for every
quarter of corn sent to the mill. This tax was called pesage from pisa,
a corruption of mediæval Latin _pensa_, a weight. The right was called
in question at the _Iter_ held in the Tower in 1321, but the matter was
adjourned for the consideration of the King and his Council.[328]
The fraudulent baker had a bad time, for he was sometimes carried about
in a tumbrell, and at other times he was put in the pillory. For his
first offence the culprit was drawn upon a hurdle from Guildhall through
the most populous and most dirty streets, with the defective loaf
hanging from his neck. On a second occasion he was drawn from the
Guildhall 'through the great streets of Chepe' to the pillory, which was
usually erected in Cheap or Cheapside, and there he was exposed for one
hour. For the third offence he was again drawn on the hurdle, his oven
was pulled down, and he was compelled to forswear the trade in London
for ever. The use of the hurdle was discontinued in favour of the
pillory in the reign of Edward II. Another offence punished by exposure
in the pillory, besides short weight and bad quality was the putting of
iron in a loaf of bread to increase its weight.[329]
In the famine of 1258, when the Earl of Cornwall's sixty cargoes of
grain arrived, the first thing the King had to do was to issue an
ordinance against the greed of the middlemen, known as forestallers and
regrators.
No words appear to have been found too strong to hurl at these
unfortunate middlemen, but the regratresses or female retailers who
bought bread at the markets, and delivered it from house to house, were
contented with a small profit. These dealers were privileged by law to
receive thirteen batches for twelve, hence the expression 'a baker's
dozen.' This seems to have been the extent of their profits. It was once
the practice of the baker to give to each regratress who dealt with him
sixpence on Monday morning by way of _estrene_ or present, and
threepence on Friday as _curtasie_ money, but this was forbidden by
public ordinance, and the bakers were ordered to let all such payments
in future go towards increasing the size of the loaf, 'to the profit of
the people.'[330]
Corn used to be stored by the city and the companies against times of
scarcity, but the origin of the practice is obscure, and no obligation
to provide corn appears to have been imposed upon any of the companies
by the terms of their charters. Sir Simon Eyre, Mayor in 1435, formed a
public granary in Leadenhall. Stow and Fuller eulogise Sir Stephen
Brown, who, in 1438, was energetic in his endeavours to get corn stored
in the city granaries. In 1578 the farmers of the Bridge House divided
the store into twelve equal parts, and the same by lots were
appropriated to the twelve companies, to each of them an equal part for
the bestowing and keeping of the said corn.
Pannier (or Panyer) Alley, leading from Newgate Street to Paternoster
Row, was once the standing place for bakers with their bread panniers.
The bakers of London were divided into white bakers and brown or tourte
bakers (turturarii), who made a coarse bread of unbolted meal. No maker
of white bread was allowed to make tourte, nor a tourte baker to make
white bread. House bread was prepared by the bakers of household bread,
while hostellers, by whom it was exclusively used, were forbidden to
make it. Similar trades were the pastellers, who made pies and other
kinds of pastry, pie-bakers and cooks.
_Butchers._--The sale of butchers' meat seems to have been somewhat
limited during the Middle Ages in comparison with the population,
although the number of butchers within the city walls were quite
sufficient to create a considerable nuisance. Smithfield was then the
great cattle market, as it remained until our own time. Lean swine were
sold there, probably with the purpose of fattening them in the town. The
chief meat markets within the city walls were Stocks Market and the
flesh shambles of St. Nicholas, in Newgate Street and its vicinity. A
lease of the latter place to the butchers, in 1343, is recorded in
Riley's _Memorials_. The shocking condition of Newgate Street is
indicated by such names as Stinking Lane, St. Nicholas's Shambles, and
Blowbladder Street. There was a Butchers' Bridge on the Thames side,
near Baynards Castle, to which the offal was brought from Newgate Street
through the streets and lanes of the city, by which 'grievous corruption
and filth have been generated.' The evil, in fact, was so great that a
royal order was issued in 1369 for the removal of Butchers' Bridge.
The 'foreign' butchers, or those who did not possess the freedom of the
city, brought their meat to shambles just outside the civic boundary. On
the west, near St. Clement's Church in the Strand, there was a Butcher
Row, and in the east, immediately beyond Aldgate, was another Butcher
Row. This last still exists as 'Aldgate Market,' and consists of a row
of butchers' shops on the south side of the High Street. Formerly
imported animals were killed behind the shops.
The unfortunate tradesmen had to submit to public enactment, by which
the exact price of the commodities they sold was fixed. In the reign of
Edward I. the carcase of the best ox was sold for 13s. 4d., of the best
pig for 4s., of the best sheep for 2s. The ill-treated butcher had no
redress, for a provision was added to the order that if any person
should withdraw himself from the trade by reason of the said ordinance
he should lose the freedom of the city, and be compelled to forswear the
trade for ever.[331]
These instances of interference with trade continued for centuries, and
we learn that in 1533 it was enacted that butchers should sell their
beef and mutton by weight--beef for 1/2d. a pound, and mutton for 3/4d.
Stow, in relating this, adds that at this time, and not before,
'foreign' butchers were allowed to sell their flesh in Leadenhall
Market.
_Fishmongers._--The information relating to the sale of fish in the City
Records proves how largely the population of London in the Middle Ages
depended upon its ample supply. There was great variety, and a large
number of enactments were made as to the sale. The fish mentioned in the
_Liber Albus_ as being sold in the London market are: Sturgeon, cod,
ray, herring, bass, conger, sole, mackerel, sur-mullet, turbot,
porpoise, haddock, sea-ling, sprats, salmon, shad, eels, pike, barbel,
roach, dace, dabs, flounders, lampreys, smelts, stickelings, oysters,
mussels, cockles, whelks, scallops, and stock fish (imported from
Prussia). Of these, sprats, herrings, mussels, whelks and oysters are
most often mentioned, but lobsters, crabs and shrimps are not alluded
to.
Fish was not allowed to be sold retail upon the quays. The stalls in
Stocks Market were occupied by the fishmongers on fish days, and by the
butchers on flesh days. Other retail markets for fish were held by the
wall of St. Margaret's Church, New Fish Street, by the wall of St. Mary
Magdalen's in Old Fish Street, and in Westcheap. Stow writes of the
first of these places: 'In this Old Fish Street is one row of small
houses, placed along in the midst of Knightrider Street which row is
also off Bread Street ward. These houses, now possessed by fishmongers,
were at the first but moveable boards or stalls set out on market days
to show their fish there to be sold; but procuring license to set up
sheds, they grew to shops, and by little and little to tall houses of
three or four stories in height.' Salmon, cod, and herrings are
mentioned in the _Liber Albus_ as being sold in the shops in the
neighbourhood of Queenhithe.
Old Fish Street, and Old Fish Street Hill which run from it to the
Thames, with Queenhithe as their landing-quay, formed the chief fish
market of London before Billingsgate supplanted Queenhithe.
A curious regulation is found in a royal ordinance in existence as early
as the reign of Henry III., by which the first boat in the season with
fresh herrings from Yarmouth was forced to pay double custom at the
quay.
Fishmongers selling fish in large quantities to their customers were to
sell by the basket, such basket to be capable of containing one bushel
of oats, and, if found deficient, to be burnt in open market. Each
basket was also to contain one kind of sea-fish, and the fishmongers
were warned not to colour their baskets; or, in other words, not to put
good fish on the top and inferior beneath. Very stringent regulations
were also made with respect to the size of nets used for fishing in the
Thames, and any such which were contrary to these regulations were
ruthlessly destroyed.
The trade of the Stock fishmonger was quite distinct from that of the
ordinary fishmonger, and these belonged respectively to two separate
companies. They were united in 1537. Thames Street was formerly known as
Stockfishmonger Row. The Abbot of St. Alban's enjoyed the privilege of
buying fish directly of the fishermen, for which he paid the bailiff of
the market a fee of one mark per annum. The monks, however, appear to
have taken an undue advantage of their privilege, and an order was
issued by the Hallmote of the Fishmongers, _temp._ Edward I., 'that good
care be taken that the buyers of the abbey take out of the city fish for
the use of the abbot and convent only.'[332]
_Poulterers._--Many of the streets of London must have been almost
impassable from the stalls of the traders and the chaffering of the
buyers and sellers. This evil grew, and the complaints of obstruction
were great. Endeavours were made to provide covered markets, but so many
of the trades had special stands appropriated to them, as we see on all
sides by the names of the streets, that it was impossible to dislodge
them.
Free poulterers had several special localities appropriated to their
use. One was Cornhill--they were ordered to stand at the west side of
St. Michael's Church, and were strictly forbidden to sell to the east of
the Tun, the site of which and the Conduit are now marked by an unused
pump, nearly facing No. 30 Cornhill. Another standing was close by, and
still retains the name of the Poultry. Stow tells that it was once known
as Scalding Alley, because the poultry which the poulterers sold was
scalded there. Still another standing was in Newgate Street, close by
the butchers' shambles. 'Foreign' poulterers were ordered to sell their
wares at the corner of Leadenhall, known as the Carfukes (or Carfax).
The articles dealt in by poulterers were rabbits, game, eggs and
poultry. Eggs were brought to market in baskets on men's backs, and
poultry upon horses. The prices of poultry, like those of other food,
were assessed by the Mayor from time to time, and duly proclaimed. In
the reign of Edward I. the best hen was sold for 3d., the best rabbit,
with the skin, for 5d., and without for 4d., 100 eggs (120 to the
hundred) for 8d., a partridge for 3d., a plover for 2d., and eight
larks for 1d.[333]
The body of London citizens suffered from one great evil in marketing,
and that was that lords and great people were allowed the pick of the
market. It was a common practice for the purveyors and servants of these
great people to visit the various markets between midnight and prime (6
a.m.), after which hour the poorer classes were allowed to market. It is
thus ordered by a proclamation of Edward I., that no poulterer,
fishmonger or regrator shall buy any kind of victuals for re-sale until
prime has been run out at St. Paul's, 'so that the buyers for the King
and the great lords of the land and the good people of the city may make
good their purchases, so far as they shall need.'[334]
_Grocers._--The grocers (properly 'grossers,' or wholesale sellers in
gross) were for some time the chief of the victualling companies. They
were originally known as the pepperers of Soper Lane, and the
apothecaries were associated with the grocers until they were
incorporated as a distinct company in 1617.
By various charters and ordinances the company of grocers was entrusted
with the examining, sorting and passing of spices and drugs. They were
empowered to enter the shops of grocers, druggists, confectioners,
tobacconists and tobacco cutters within the city and three miles around
it, to seize and confiscate adulterated and unwholesome goods, and to
fine and, in default of payment, imprison delinquent dealers.
_Brewers and Vintners._--A passing allusion must be made to the sale of
drink in London, which has always been very considerable. Mr. Riley
tells us that there is no mention of milk as an article of sale or
otherwise in the _Liber Albus_, and butter must have been of very
inferior quality, for it was sold by liquid measure. The ale tavern, or
ale-house, was a distinct establishment from the wine tavern. In 1309
the number of taverns in London was 354, whilst the number of brewers
amounted to no less than 1334.[335]
The ale brewed was a very different product from what we understand by
the term now, as malt liquor was not hopped in those days. Hops were not
used in the making of beer until the early years of the sixteenth
century. Mr. Riley says that the best ale was no better than sweet wort,
and so thin that it might be drunk in potations 'pottle deep,' without
danger to the head. The smallest measure mentioned in the _Liber Albus_
is the quart, so that it was evidently drunk in large quantities. It was
used immediately after being made, as may be inferred from the fact
that, according to the _Domesday of St. Paul's_, the brewings at the
Cathedral brewery took place twice a week throughout the year.
Immediately after a brewing was finished it was the duty of the brewer
(or rather brewster, for the business was almost entirely in the hands
of women until the beginning of the sixteenth century) to send for the
ale-conner of the ward in order to taste the ale. If this officer was
not satisfied with its quality, he, with the assent of his alderman, set
a lower price upon it, which upon sale thereof was not to be exceeded.
Fine, imprisonment, and even punishment by pillory was the result of
reiterated breaches of the Assize. The Assize price of ale varied at
different periods. At one time it was 3/4d. per gallon and no more, but
later the price was 1-1/2d. for the best, and 3/4d. to 1d. for the
second quality.[336]
The vintners were an important body, and were mostly located in the
Vintry, a district which has kept its name to the present time. The
Vintners' Company consisted of _vinetarii_, or wine importers and
merchants, and _tabernarii_, tavern keepers, or retailers of wine.
The public taste in wine was not a very refined one in the Middle Ages,
or possibly the liquor did not keep very well, as new wine was preferred
to old. It was enacted that after the arrival of new wine at a tavern
none of it should be sold before the old was disposed of. There is no
allusion in the _Liber Albus_ to bottles or flasks, and all the wine
seems to have been drawn from the wood. Taverners who sold sweet wines
were forbidden to deal in other kinds. The sweet wines enumerated are
Malvesie, the modern Malmsey, a Greek wine sold in the reign of Richard
II. at 16d. per gallon; Vernage (Vernaccia), a red Tuscan wine, sold at
2s.; Crete, sold at 1s; and wine of Provence, sold at the same price,
probably a kind of Roussillon. By royal writ of 39 Edw. III., only three
taverns for the sale of sweet wines were in future to be permitted
within the city,--in Cheap, Walbrook, and Lombard Street. In the class
of non-sweet wines were Rhenish, sold in the reign of Richard II. at 8d.
per gallon, and Red (Vermaille) at 6d. Other wines came from Gascony,
Burgundy, Rochelle, and Spain.
No wine was permitted to be sold till it had been submitted to a
scrutiny, and been duly gauged. In the reign of Edward III. four
vintners were chosen yearly to assess the prices of wine. King's
Prisage, or Custom, was taken according to a certain scale on all
imported wines. The wine taverns were furnished with a pole projecting
from the gable of the house, and supporting a sign, or a bunch of leaves
at the end (the bush of the proverb, 'Good wine needs no bush'). In one
ordinance it is stated that the poles of the taverns of Cheapside and
elsewhere were of such a length as to be in the way of persons on
horseback, and so heavy as to cause the risk of greatly damaging the
houses; in consequence of this it was enacted that from thenceforth no
sign-pole should be more than seven feet in length.[337]
No ale or wine tavern was allowed to remain open after curfew.
The clothing trades are well represented among the city companies. The
Mercers head the list of the 'Twelve,' and the freemen were originally
'chapmen in small or mixed wares,' that is, those articles which were
sold retail by the little balance or small scale, in contradistinction
to those things sold by the beam, or in gross, and they did business in
the Mercery, Cheapside. Wadmal, a coarse woollen stuff, lake or fine
linen, fustian, felt, etc., were among these smallwares. Gradually the
mercers of Cheap extended their dealings, became vendors of silks and
velvets (_temp._ Henry VI.), and formed a mixed body of merchants and
shopkeepers, leaving the smallwares, or mercery proper, to the
haberdashers. Sir William Stone held the position of mercer to Queen
Elizabeth, and supplied her with her wardrobe.
The Haberdashers imported a cloth at first styled _halberject_, and in
the fourteenth century _hapertas_, from which, as Mr. Riley suggests,
the term 'haberdasher' probably originated. Subsequently the Hurers and
the Hatters joined them.
The Merchant Taylors and Linen Armourers are in some documents styled
'Mercatores Scissores,' 'Scissors of London,' 'Scissors and Fraternity
of St. John Baptist,'--titles alike pointing to their being anciently
both tailors and cutters, and also making the padding and interior
lining of armour, as well as manufacturing garments. Tailors made
dresses for both sexes, their prices, as usual, being regulated by
public enactment. By ordinance of the reign of Edward III. it is
declared that 'Tailors shall henceforth take for a robe, garnished with
silk, 18d.; for a man's robe, garnished with thread and buckram, 14d.;
also a coat and hood, 10d.; also for a lady's long dress, garnished with
silk and cendale, 2s. 6d.; also for a pair of sleeves for changing,
4d.'[338]
The Drapers' Company is the third on the list of the twelve great
companies, and the second of the clothing companies, the Mercers being
the first. Henry Fitz-Ailwin, the first Mayor of London, was a freeman
of the Drapers' Gild, to which he left by will an inn, called the
Chequer, in the parish of St. Mary Bothaw.
The Skinners represented the trade that dealt with furs. The furs
mentioned in the _Liber Albus_ as imported are, marten skins, rabbit
skins, dressed woolfels, Spanish squirrel skins, and grysoevere or grey
work. In the reign of Edward I. an enactment was made that 'no woman,
except a lady who is in the habit of using furs, shall have a hood
furred with dressed woolfel' (pelure). Women of ill-fame were forbidden
at one period to wear minever or other furs, though at a later date they
were permitted to use lambs' wool and rabbit skin. No mixed work, formed
of different kinds of skins, was allowed to be made, and no new fur was
to be worked up with the old.[339]
'The skynner unto the feeld moot also,
His hous in London is to streyt and scars
To doon his craft; sum tyme it was nat so.
O lordës, yeve unto your men hir pars
That so doon, and acqwente hem bet with Mars,
God of bataile; he loueth non array
That hurtyth manhode at preef or assay.'
(_The Regement of Princes_, by Thomas Hoccleve, II. 477-483.)
The Clothworkers' Company, formed by a junction of the Gilds of Shearmen
and Fullers, has already been alluded to.
The minor companies connected with the clothing trades require some
notice here. The Cordwainers held a prominent position, but in the reign
of Edward I. (1303) there were public complaints of frauds and
irregularities brought against them, and charges were made that they
mixed inferior with the superior leathers. They were continually at feud
with the Cobblers, and every endeavour was made to keep the two trades
distinct. The cordwainers were forbidden to mend shoes and the cobblers
to make them. Moreover, throughout the thirteenth, fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries there were fixed regulations not only that
cordwainers should use new leather in making shoes, but that cobblers
should be restricted wholly to the use of old leather in mending them.
The latter were even punished for having new leather in their
possession.[340]
In the reign of Edward III. the prices fixed for boots and shoes were: a
pair of shoes made of cordwain, 6d.; made of cow leather, 5d.; a pair of
boots made of cordwain, 3s, 6d.; made of cow leather, 3s.[341] This
shows that boots were then very dear.
In Edward IV.'s reign the cordwainers stood up for the defence of their
trade against the decree of the Pope. They were decidedly in the wrong,
but one cannot but admire their pluckiness. The story is told in William
Gregory's _Chronicle of London_, which is thus paraphrased by Dr. James
Gairdner, the editor: 'The Pope issued a Bull that no cordwainer should
make any pikes [at the toes of the shoes] more than two inches long, or
sell shoes on Sunday, or even fit a shoe upon a man's foot on Sunday, on
pain of excommunication. Neither was the cordwainer to attend fairs on a
Sunday under the same penalty; for not only were fairs held on that day,
but the cordwainer's services, it must be supposed, were required at the
fairs to adjust the dandy's _chaussure_, just as much as, in a later
age, the barber's aid was necessary to dress his wig. The papal Bull was
approved by the King's Council and confirmed by Act of Parliament; and
proclamation was consequently made at Paul's Cross that it should be put
in execution. Yet, with all this weight of authority against a silly
fashion, the dandy world had its own ideas upon the subject, and some
men ventured to say they would wear long pikes in spite of the Pope, for
"the Pope's curse would not kill a fly." The cordwainers, too, had a
vested interest in the extravagance, though some of their own body had
been instrumental in getting the Pope's interference. They obtained
privy seals and protections from the King to exempt them from the
operation of the law, which soon became a dead letter; and those who had
applied to the Pope to restrain their practices were subjected to much
trouble and persecution.'[342]
The Leathersellers had still more to do with leather than the
cordwainers, and the same complaints were made against them for passing
off inferior for superior leather. In the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries several ordinances were issued regulating the trade of the
leathersellers in the City of London, and for the prevention of deceit
in the manufacture and sale of their wares.
Pursers or Glovers were incorporated with the leathersellers in 1502,
but in 1638 a new company of glovers was formed.
The Girdlers made belts or girdles for men and women. They were also
called Ceinturiers and Zonars. In 1217 (1 Hen. III.) Benedict Seynturer
was one of the sheriffs of London. The company still exists, although it
cannot be said that the calling survived the reign of Charles II.
The Goldsmiths' Company stands almost alone, on account of the great
services to the State which it performs in connection with the important
trade it represents, and also in connection with the tryal of the gold
and silver coins in the Pyx of His Majesty's Mint, a service which has
been performed without intermission, at any-rate since the year 1281.
This history also contains a strong argument in favour of the received
opinion that the companies are the lineal descendants of the gilds, for
the craft of goldsmiths performed by Statute the same duties of assaying
vessels of gold and silver that the present company does. The Act (28
Edw. I., cap. 20) recites that: 'The wardens of the craft shall go from
shop to shop among the goldsmiths to essay if their gold be of the same
Touch that is spoken of before.'
According to Stow's _Chronicle_ a variance fell between the fellowships
of Goldsmiths and Taylors in 1268, 'causing great ruffling in the city
and many men to be slain, for which riot thirteen of the captains were
hanged.'
By the first charter (1 Edw. III., 1327), 'the company were allowed to
elect honest, lawful and sufficient men, but skilled in the trade, to
enquire of any matters of complaint, and who might, in consideration of
the craft, reform what defects they should find therein, and punish
offenders. It states that it had been theretofore ordained that all
those who were of the goldsmiths' trade should sit in their shops in the
High Street of Cheap; and that no silver or plate ought to be sold in
the City of London except at the King's Exchange, or in the said street
of Cheap amongst the goldsmiths, and that publicly, to the end that the
persons of the said trade might inform themselves whether the sellers
came lawfully by such vessel or not; whereas of late not only the
merchants and strangers brought counterfeit sterling in the realm, and
also many of the trade of goldsmiths kept shops in obscure turnings and
by-lanes and streets, but did buy vessels of gold and silver secretly,
without enquiring whether such vessel were stolen or lawfully come by,
and melting it down, did make it into plate, and sell it to merchants
travelling beyond seas, that it might be exported; and so they made
false work of gold and silver, which they sold to those who had no skill
in such things. These abuses and deceptions this charter provides
against by ordaining that no gold or silver shall be manufactured to be
sent abroad but what shall be sold at the King's Exchange, or openly
amongst the goldsmiths; and that none, pretending to be goldsmiths,
shall keep any shops but in Cheap.'
The King's Exchange for the receipt of bullion was situated in the
street leading from Cheapside to Knight-riders Street, known from the
early part of the seventeenth century as Old 'Change. The London
goldsmiths chiefly inhabited Cheapside, Old 'Change, Lombard Street,
Foster Lane, St. Martin's-le-Grand, Silver Street, Goldsmiths' Street,
Wood Street, and the lanes about Goldsmiths' Hall. That part of the
south side of Cheapside from Bread Street to the Cross was called
Goldsmiths' Row. It was described in enthusiastic terms by Stow as 'the
most beautiful frame of fair houses and shops that be within the walls
of London or elsewhere in England... the same was [re]built by Thomas
Wood, goldsmith, one of the Sheriffs of London, in the year 1491. It
containeth in number ten fair dwelling-houses and fourteen shops, all
in one frame, uniformly built four storeys high, beautified towards the
street with the goldsmiths' arms and the likeness of Woodmen, in memory
of his name, riding on monstrous beasts, all which is cast in lead,
richly painted over and gilt: these he gave to the goldsmiths, with
stocks of money, to be lent to young men having those shops. This said
front was again new painted and gilt over in the year 1594; Sir Richard
Martin being then Mayor and keeping his mayoralty in one of them.'
Sir Walter Prideaux, in his valuable _Memorials of the Goldsmiths'
Company_, says that the native and the foreign goldsmiths appear to have
been divided into classes, and to have enjoyed different privileges.
First, there were the members of the company who were chiefly, but not
exclusively, Englishmen; their shops were subject to the control of the
company; they had the advantages conferred by the company on its
members, and they made certain payments for the support of the
fellowship. The second division comprised the non-freemen, who were
called 'allowes,' that is to say, allowed or licensed. There were
'allowes Englis,' 'allowes Alicant,' 'Alicant strangers,' 'Dutchmen,'
'Men of the Fraternity of St. Loys,' etc. All these paid tribute to the
company, and were also subject to their control.
All the livery companies possessed a class of young unmarried members
called 'The Bachelors,' and in the Goldsmiths' Company a special place
was reserved for their lodging. This was known as Bachelors' Alley or
Court, and was situated between Foster Lane and Gutter Lane. The
lodgings were supplied at 'very small and easy rents,' the greatest not
to exceed 8s. per annum. The tenants could continue as long as they were
unmarried, but difficulties arose by reason of attempts at underletting
without authority, and disorderly persons gave much trouble. In 1595 an
order was promulgated 'that from henceforth no goldsmith shall have his
dwelling in any of the tenements in Bachelors' Alley before he be
admitted by the wardens for the time being; and that everyone so
admitted shall forthwith enter into a bond to deliver to the wardens, at
his departure, the key of his tenement, and quietly to quit possession
of the same.'
Sir Walter Prideaux states that at the early period of the first charter
the goldsmiths acted as bankers and pawnbrokers. They received pledges
not only of plate, but of other articles, such as cloth of gold and
pieces of napery. Saint Dunstan was the patron saint of the company, and
feasts were held on his day, when also bells were set ringing. This
saint's likeness in wood (gilt) formed the figure-head of the company's
barge. There was also a Chapel of St. Dunstan in St. Paul's Cathedral
which was attached to the company.
In the foregoing remarks there are some references to the livery
companies, but these are introduced more particularly on account of the
light thrown by them upon the trade of London. The work of the gilds was
devoted to the trades which they represented, but in course of time many
of the companies lost touch with the trades whose names they bore. This
largely came about in a quite natural way, and the privilege of
introduction to a company by patrimony caused the addition to the list
of freemen of a large number of those who were engaged in other
occupations.
The relative position in precedence of the various companies have
continually altered, and there is no information to show how the twelve
chief companies have attained that commanding position.
The feuds between the trades continued to comparatively late times.
Pepys relates, in 1664, how there was a fray in Moorfields between the
butchers and the weavers, between whom there had ever been a competition
for mastery. At first the butchers knocked down all the weavers that had
green or blue aprons, but at last the butchers were fain to pull off
their sleeves that they might not be known, and were soundly beaten out
of the field.[343]
Some note must be made here of the Jews and of the Italian moneylenders
who for so long carried on the financial business of the country.
One of the many hardships which the Jews suffered in this country was
that wherever they might dwell they were compelled to bury their dead in
London. This regulation was abolished by Henry II. in 1177.
The cruel calumny that the Jews at Lincoln crucified a Christian child
brought them into great trouble, and in 1256 one hundred and two Jews
were brought from Lincoln to Westminster charged with this crime.
Eighteen of them were hanged, and the remainder lay in prison for a long
time.
Clipping of money became very general about 1278, and the Jews were
supposed to be the chief culprits. Those who were suspected, with their
Christian accomplices, were arrested, and at the end of the trial 300
Jews were condemned to be hanged as well as three Christians. Nearly all
the goldsmiths and moneyers escaped the death penalty. In 1290 came the
final blow, when every Jew was expelled from England. It is difficult to
understand Edward I.'s motive in banishing a class of men who were so
useful to him. In Stow's _Chronicle_ it is said that as their houses
were sold 'the King made a mighty mass of money,' but the action
certainly added to his difficulties, and drove him to resort to the
Italian financiers, who were no more popular with the citizens than the
Jews. The expulsion was ascribed to the instigation of the King's
mother, Eleanor, widow of Henry III., but it certainly expressed the
will of the nation. Stow gives the number of Jews banished as 15,060,
but this is probably an exaggeration. The number of London Jews is
estimated at 2000.
The Old Jewry was originally the Ghetto of London, and the burial-place
of the Jews was on the site of Jewin Street. Mr. Joseph Jacobs, who
compiled a valuable account of the Old Jewry, is of opinion that the
Jews no longer lived in this place at the time of the expulsion. There
was a Jewry within the Liberty of the Tower in the thirteenth century,
and there is still a Jewry Street, Aldgate.
The republics of Italy during the Middle Ages were the home of finance,
and had advanced far before the other states of Europe in wealth and
civilisation. The necessities of the great countries of Europe, caused
by the Crusades of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, were the
opportunity of companies of moneylenders, who acted as the Pope's
collectors.
Before the close of the reign of Henry III. the Italians had gained a
firm footing in England as merchants and moneylenders. Citizens of
Sienna, Lucca and Florence came here, and fought with the Jews for the
financial control of the country.
Matthew Paris relates that Roger, Bishop of London, anathematised the
Caorsins and banished them from his diocese in 1235 in spite of the
support of 'judges that were servants (_familiaribus_) to the Caorsins,
whom they had elected for their will.'[344]
In the early years of Edward I.'s reign, there were four companies of
merchants of Sienna acting under the title of 'Campsores Papæ.' In his
ninth year the keepers of the Exchange delivered £10,000 to Lombard
merchants (as they are styled in the record) in part payment of sums
they had lent to the King. It is recorded that between the twenty-third
and twenty-seventh years of his reign Edward I. contracted a debt to the
Friscobaldi alone of not less than £15,800.[345]
The King wanted much money for his wars, and, as he could no longer look
to the Jews he was forced to apply for aid to the Italians. These loans
grew so formidable that they caused considerable financial
embarrassments in the reign of Edward II.
There were a large number of companies such as the Ricciardi, the Bardi,
the Peruzzi, and the Spini, but the Friscobaldi, of which family there
were several companies, occur most frequently in London history. Amerigo
de' Friscobaldi was constable of Bordeaux in the first year of Edward
II.'s reign.
Here are two entries from the city records:--
'14 Feb. 1299-1300.--Thursday after the Feast of St. Valentine came John
de Pounteysse, goldsmith, and acknowledged himself bound to Faldo
Jamiano, of the society of Frescobaldi, in the sum of £8 and 45d.
sterling, to be paid at Easter next.'[346]
'2 Feb. 1305-6.--Andrew le Mareschal acknowledged himself indebted to
Bettinus Friscobalde and his partners, merchants of the company of
Friscobaldi, in the sum of £102, 13s. 4d.'[347]
The loans in the reign of Edward III. were very considerable, and the
unpopularity of the Italians was great. In 1376 a petition was presented
to the King by the Mayor, Aldermen and Commons of the City of London
against usurious foreign moneylenders dwelling in London, asking that
the Lombards might be forbidden from dwelling in the city, or acting as
brokers and buying and selling by retail which they alleged to be
against their ancient franchises. The King answered the petition to the
effect that if the citizens would put the city under good government for
the future no foreigner should be allowed to dwell, act as broker, or
sell by retail in London or the suburbs save and except the merchants of
the Hanse towns.[348]
On the whole we must extend our sympathy to the Italians, for the King
was not very prompt in paying his debts, and he considered it immoral to
have promised any interest. The effect was that he ruined many of these
unfortunate foreigners. The name of Lombard Street occurs in the city
books in 1382, and was in common use at the beginning of the fourteenth
century. It is a remarkable fact that the locality in which the Italian
financiers first settled in London should obtain a name which has
continued to the present day as a synonym of finance, and was used by
the late Mr. Bagehot as the title of his great work.
Matthew Paris tells us that the houses which the Italian moneylenders
built for themselves were so costly that, although at one period the
Italians were anxious to leave the kingdom to escape the persecutions
they suffered from, they were constrained to remain by the loss they
feared to incur by deserting their houses.[349]
In 1456 a serious attack was made upon the houses of the Lombards by the
mercers and other crafts led by William Cantelowe, alderman and mercer,
who was summoned before the King's Council and imprisoned. We learn also
from the Paston Letters that two of the men who joined in the attack
were hanged (ed. J. Gairdner, 1872, vol. i. p. 387). In Gregory's
_Chronicle_ it is said that the Lombards were compelled to quit London
and take up their residence in Southampton and Winchester. Dr. James
Gairdner writes of this outbreak: 'The withdrawal of the Lombard
merchants in all probability produced a sensible effect upon the
commerce of the city; for they made a bye-law among themselves that no
individual merchant of Northern Italy should henceforth go to London and
trade there.' This ordinance the Signory of Venice ratified by a decree
of the Senate, and prohibited, under a heavy fine, all Venetian vessels
from visiting the port of London.[350]
In spite of all this turmoil affairs settled down again, and the
foreigners appear to have returned to their London houses.
In connection with the introduction of Italian bankers into London, the
popular derivation of bankrupt from a broken bench is naturally called
to mind, and I have tried to find some allusion in the city records to a
broken bench in Lombard Street, but without success.
In Florio's _A New Worlde of Wordes_; or, _Dictionarie in Italian and
English_ (1598), we find the following entries:--
'Banca, a bench or a forme.
'Bancarotta, a bankrupt.'
In Torriano's edition of Florio (1650) we come upon these amplified
entries--
'Banca-rotta, a bankrout merchant, one that hath broken his credit.
'Banca fallito, a bank broken, a merchant's credit crackt.'
This is the explanation that commends itself to Dr. Murray (_New English
Dictionary_), who writes that he cannot trace the reference to a broken
bench earlier than that of Dr. Johnson, who introduced the suggestion
with the formula 'it is said.'
There is, however, an early note bearing on this derivation in Sir John
Skene's remarkable little book, _De Verborum Significatione_
(1641),[351] where we read under the words 'Dyour, Dyvour' this
explanation: 'In Latine, _cedere bonis_, quhilk is most commonly used
amongst merchandes to make bankrout, bankrupt or bankrompue; because the
doer thereof, as it were, breakis his bank, stalle or seete quhair he
used his traffique of before.'
No earlier date for the use of the word than the reign of Henry VIII.
has been found by Professor Skeat or Dr. Murray, but surely an earlier
reference must be lurking somewhere. In the First Folio of Shakespeare
the word is printed 'bankeroute' (pronounced as four syllables), but
this was altered in later editions to bankrupt. There can be no doubt
that the word is directly derived from _bancarotta_, and that the form
bankrupt is an afterthought of the learned to connect it with the Latin
language.
The point that has to be accounted for is the strange appropriation of
an expression meaning broken bench or broken bank to the individual
whose credit is broken. This one would naturally expect to be a
secondary meaning.
In concluding this chapter it is necessary to make an allusion to the
Statute merchant (11 Edw. I.) for the recovery of debts. The first two
Letter Books of the City of London are chiefly concerned with
recognisances of debts, and they are of great value as illustrating the
commercial intercourse of the citizens of London in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries with Gascony and Spain, more especially in
connection with wine and leather.
By the Statute of Acton Burnel (11 Edw. I.) it was enacted (_inter
alia_) that recognisances of debts should be taken before the Mayor and
a clerk appointed by the King. Nevertheless within a very short while
after the passing of this Statute and notwithstanding its express
provision to the contrary, we find the Mayor, sheriffs and aldermen
declaring that such recognisances should be made before the city
chamberlain, who might, if he liked, receive, as he frequently did, the
recognisances at his own house instead of at the Guildhall.[352]
It was ordered that the recognisances should bear 'the debtor's seal and
also the King's seal,' to be provided for the purpose. This latter seal
appears to be no longer in existence. From impressions of it preserved
at King's College, Cambridge, and elsewhere, it is found to have been
circular, and nearly three-quarters of an inch in diameter, with the
King's bust between two castles, with a lion of England in base.
Legend--'S^{+} Edm Reg^{+} Angl^{+} ad recogn Debitor^{+}.'[353]
The following entry from Letter Book A forms an interesting illustration
of the contents of these books:--
'Laurence de Gisors acknowledged before H. le Galeis the Mayor that he
owed Sir Philip le Taylor a cask of wine to be delivered on a certain
love day (_diem amoris_) because the said Laurence killed a dog
belonging to him.'
[Illustration: SIR WILLIAM MARSHAL, EARL OF PEMBROKE, TEMPLE CHURCH.]
CHAPTER XI
_The Church and Education_
The influence of the Church during the mediæval period was great. In
London the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's (secular canons) held the
first place after the bishop, then came other bodies of secular and
regular canons, followed by the monks and friars and officers of the
hospitals, etc. Last in rank, but most esteemed by the people, came the
rectors and vicars of the various parishes. Here was a large army of
persons forming the officials of the Church, and the buildings of the
Church occupied a very large portion of the city and of the land beyond
its walls.
Between the secular and the regular clergy a great feud always existed.
During the Saxon period the number of religious houses was few, but a
great increase occurred almost immediately after the Conquest.
Monasteries grew in number rapidly during the Norman period, but in time
the monks having grown rich and lazy the need of a revival became
evident. The great movement of evangelisation which took place during
the early Plantagenet period when the friars came from Italy to England
caused a religious revolution.
Poverty and humility were the great principles of the friars, but these
were soon forgotten, and in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries all
the regulars became equally obnoxious to the reformers. Wycliffe and
his followers preached against them, and writers with such different
views as Langland and Chaucer had little but evil to say of them.
Chaucer condemns monks and friars alike, and reserves his praise for the
poor parish priest.
We must first deal with the bishop and the secular clergy, and then
consider the conditions relative to the establishment of the regulars,
ending with a note on education in London during the Middle Ages.
The Cathedral Church of St. Paul's is of great antiquity, and was
established in the first period of Saxon Christianity. There have been
three buildings on the same site, and the first was erected in the
earliest years of the seventh century by Mellitus the missionary bishop
and Ethelbert, King of Kent. Although this church existed for nearly
five centuries no record whatever remains of it. Sir Gilbert Scott
wrote: 'I am not aware that we have any information as to the Cathedral
built by the companions of Augustine (Mellitus and Justus) at London and
Rochester. Curiously enough there continues to this day at Rochester,
and continued to the seventeenth century in our own St. Paul's equally
as at Canterbury, a crypt beneath the elevated sanctuary, no doubt the
lineal successor and representative of those erected by these missionary
bishops, in imitation of the great basilica at Rome, whence they had
been sent to evangelise this distant region.'[354]
Erkenwald, whose shrine stood at the back of the high altar in the
oldest church, was the fourth bishop (A.D. 675-693), and it was at his
house in London that Archbishop Theodore, the organiser of the Church of
England, was reconciled to Bishop Wilfrid after their long
estrangement.[355] Aelfun, or Alhunus, was Bishop of London in 1012,
and performed the burial service over Aelfah (or Alphage), Archbishop of
Canterbury, who was murdered by the Danes and buried in St. Paul's.
William, the chaplain of Edward the Confessor, was consecrated in 1051.
He was driven from England with the other foreign prelates in the
following year, but returned to his See and died in 1075. It was he who
was addressed as 'William Bishop' in William the Conqueror's charter to
the citizens of London.
The first Church of St. Paul's was destroyed by fire at the end of the
eleventh century, but the exact time is not certain as Matthew of
Westminster and Roger of Wendover give conflicting dates for the
rebuilding. There seems to be no doubt that the second cathedral was
commenced by Bishop Maurice, and as he was not consecrated until 1085
the date given by Dugdale, 1083, must be wrong. Probably the received
date of 1087 (the last year of William the Conqueror's reign) is more
correct. Fire again did great damage in the year 1136, but the work of
rebuilding proceeded slowly, and in 1221 the steeple was finished; the
choir was rebuilt and the whole building was nearly completed by 1283.
Old St. Paul's was a very grand building, which took a prominent
position among the cathedrals of the country. It was longer than
Winchester, and the height of the choir was the same as Westminster;
that of the nave was rather less.[356]
The crowning glory of old St. Paul's was its elegant spire, but the
building itself had many beauties, the magnificent rose window at the
east end of the Lady Chapel, with the beautiful seven-light window
beneath, being among these. This grand building, therefore, standing on
a hill in the most prominent position of city, was for several centuries
the great ornament of London, bringing in harmony all the picturesque
elements of the mediæval town.
In the year 1314 the cross fell, and the steeple of wood being ruinous,
was taken down and rebuilt with a new gilt ball. Many relics were found
in the cross, which were replaced in the new cross, and the new pommel
or ball was made of sufficient size to contain ten bushels of corn. A
Chronicle in Lambeth Palace Library contains an account of the solemn
dedication of these relics, which is quoted by Canon Benham: 'On the
tenth of the calends of June 1314, Gilbert, Bishop of London, dedicated
altars, namely those of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of St. Thomas the
Martyr, and of the Blessed Dunstan, in the new buildings of the Church
of St. Paul, London. In the same year the cross and the ball, with great
part of the Campanile of the Church of St. Paul, were taken down because
they were decayed and dangerous, and a new cross, with a ball well gilt,
was erected; and many relics of divers saints were, for the protection
of the aforesaid Campanile, and of the whole structure beneath, placed
within the cross, with a great procession, and with due solemnity, by
Gilbert the bishop, on the fourth of the nones of October, in order that
the Omnipotent God and the glorious merits of His saints, whose relics
are contained within the cross, might deign to protect from all danger
of storms.'[357]
In 1444 the spire was nearly destroyed by lightning and was not repaired
until 1462. In the severe fire of 1561 the spire was destroyed and never
rebuilt, although the rest of the Cathedral was restored in 1566. The
great height of the steeple gave point to many a proverb, and in
Lodge's _Wounds of Civil War_ (1594) a clown talks of the 'Paul's
steeple of honour,' meaning by that phrase the highest point that could
be attained.[358] The choristers ascended the spire to a great height on
certain saints' days, and chanted prayers and anthems, a custom still
observed in the tower of Magdalen College, Oxford, on May Day. The last
observance of the custom at St. Paul's is said to have taken place in
the reign of Mary I.[359]
The western front was originally a plain Norman façade of great size,
which was flanked by two strong stone towers. The one on the north was
connected with the Bishop's Palace, while that on the south was called
the Lollards' Tower, and was used as the Bishop's prison 'for such as
were detected for opinions in religion contrary to the faith of the
Church' (Stow's _Survey_).[360]
St. Paul's Churchyard was formerly an enclosure, and not a thoroughfare.
The public route to Cheapside from Ludgate Hill passed up the Old Bailey
and along Newgate Street. The Cathedral Close is thus described by the
late Dr. Sparrow Simpson: 'The wall erected about 1109, and, by
letters-patent of Edward I., greatly strengthened in 1285, extends from
the N.E. corner of Ave Maria Lane, runs eastward along Paternoster Row
to the north end of Old 'Change in Cheapside, thence southward to Carter
Lane, and on the north of Carter Lane to Creed Lane, back to the Great
Western Gate. There are six entrances to the enclosure. The first is the
Great Western Gate, by which we have just entered; the second, in Paul's
Alley in Paternoster Row, leading to the postern gate of the Cathedral;
the third at Canon Alley; the fourth, or Little Gate, where S. Paul's
Churchyard and Cheapside now unite; the fifth, S. Augustine's Gate, at
the west end of Watling Street; the sixth, at Paul's Chain.'[361]
The great western gate spanned the street towards the ends of Creed Lane
and Ave Maria Lane. On entering the gate the west front of the Cathedral
came in view. The old Church of St. Gregory adjoined the main building
at the south-west corner. It stood in the same position to the first
Cathedral, and within its walls the body of St. Edmund, king and martyr,
was preserved for a time before it was carried to Bury St. Edmund's for
honourable burial. The early history of this church is lost, and it is
not known whether it was destroyed with the first Cathedral, and rose
again from its ashes like the second Cathedral, or whether it continued
for a time in its original state. It was pulled down before 1645, and
not rebuilt. On the northern side of the nave of the Cathedral stood the
Bishop's Palace, a large and gloomy building.[362]
Still further to the north (past the palace and its grounds) was the
cemetery, called Pardon Church Haugh. Here was a cloister painted with
the subjects of the Danse Macabre or Dance of Death, commonly known as
the Dance of Paul's. John Lydgate translated out of French the old
verses that explained these paintings. Over the east quadrant of the
cloister was the Cathedral Library, built by Walter Sherington,
[Illustration: PAUL'S CROSS.
(_From an original drawing in the Pepysian Library, Cambridge._)]
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in Henry VI.'s time, and Canon
Residentiary. At one time the library was 'well furnished with
fair-written books in vellum.'
In the midst of the churchyard was a chapel, first founded by Gilbert,
the father of Thomas à Becket, and rebuilt by Dean More in the reign of
Henry V. Near by was Minor Canons' Hall, and the College of Minor
Canons, or Peter's College. The Charnel House, with a chapel over it,
stood at the north-east, not far from Paul's Cross.[363] This building
existed in the reign of Edward I., and the chapel contained some
monuments and alabaster figures. Among the historians of St. Paul's
there is some little confusion respecting these various chapels.
Paul's Cross holds a very prominent position in the history of the
religious life of the Middle Ages and for many years after. In ages when
the voice of the people was largely inarticulate the preacher has often
been the man to make it heard. Stow describes the Cross as having 'been
for many ages the most solemn place in this nation, for the greatest
divines and most eminent scholars to preach at,' and Carlyle calls it a
kind of _Times_ newspaper. It is worthy of remark that the position of
Paul's Cross was near the place where the ancient folkmoots were held,
and the former continued the traditions of the latter.
At the east end of the Cathedral was St. Paul's School, founded by Dean
Colet, and the famous Bell Tower, formed of wood covered with lead, and
containing the common bell, which called the people to their folkmoots,
and afterwards four bells, known as the Jesus Bells, because they
specially belonged to Jesus Chapel, in the crypt of the Cathedral. As
the open space at the east end was claimed by the citizens as a place
for their assemblies in folkmoots, so the space at the west end was
reserved for the military displays in connection with the appearance of
Fitz-Walter as Bannerer of the city.
On the south side of the close, and to the west of the transept, was the
old octagonal Chapter House, with its own two-storeyed cloister (built
in 1332). This was a small but beautiful building.[364]
Close by stood the house of the Chancellor. On the south-west is the
Deanery, first built by Ralph de Diceto, and more westward various
houses for the use of the canons. On the south side of the Cathedral
also stood the dormitory, refectory, kitchen, bakehouse and brewery of
the college. The brewhouse became subsequently the Paul's Head tavern.
This brief list of the buildings in the old Cathedral Close will give
some idea of the arrangement of the College of Secular Canons, and the
houses which they occupied.
Having walked round the close we may now enter the Cathedral church at
the western end where were three gates or entries. The middle gate had a
massive pillar of brass, to which the leaves of the great door were
fastened. In the nave were twelve noble Norman bays with Norman
triforium and pointed clerestory windows. It is probable that originally
the roof of the nave was a flat painted ceiling, but Mr. Ferrey supposes
that a vaulted roof was
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF OLD ST. PAUL'S.]
added in 1255; apparently this was originally of wood, but that stone
vaulting was intended may be inferred from the flying buttresses in some
of the pictures of the Cathedral.
The view along the nave, as represented in Hollar's engraving is very
fine, and reminds one of the noble nave at Ely. Both the nave and choir
had twelve bays counting from the west door. The second bay of the north
side contained the Court of Convocation, and close by was the font near
which Sir John Montacute desired in his will (1388) to be buried. 'If I
die in London, then I desire that my body may be buried in St. Paul's,
near to the font wherein I was baptized.' In the tenth bay was the
Chantry Chapel of Thomas Kempe, bishop of the diocese (1448-1489), and
rebuilder of Paul's Cross.
In the eleventh bay, on the south side, was the tomb of Sir John
Beauchamp, K.G. (d. 1358), Constable of Dover Castle, and son to Guy
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. This tomb was commonly called after Duke
Humphrey, and the nave of the church from this misnomer went by the name
of Duke Humphrey's Walk. On May Day watermen and tankard-bearers came to
the tomb early in the morning, strewed herbs upon it and sprinkled it
with water. At the foot of this tomb was the image of the Virgin, before
which a lamp was kept perpetually burning, and every morning after
matins a short office was said before it. A taper was also kept burning
before the Great Crucifix, near to the north door, fabulously said to
have been discovered by King Lucius, A.D. 140. Richard Martin, Bishop of
St. David's in the reign of Edward IV., had a special veneration for
this crucifix, and left an annual gift to the choristers that they might
sing before it _Sancte Deus fortis_.[365]
In the north aisle was the famous _Si quis_ door, on which notices were
fixed; originally these were probably purely ecclesiastical, but in
course of time all classes made their wants known there. Decker writes:
'The first time that you venture into Paul's, pass through the body of
the church like a porter, yet presume not to fetch so much as one whole
turn in the middle aisle, no, nor to cast an eye to _Si quis_ door,
pasted and plastered up with serving-men's supplications, before you
have paid tribute to the top of Paul's steeple with a single penny.'
Bishop Hall, in his _Satires_, shows that Churchmen could be hired there
too--
'Sawst thou ever _Si quis_ patched on Paul's church door,
To seek some vacant vicarage before?'
This practice is alluded to by Chaucer:--
'He sette not his benefice to hyre,
And leet his sheepe encombred in the myre,
And ran to Londoun unto Saint Paules,
To seken hym a chaunterie for soules.'
(Prologue to _Canterbury Tales_.)
Passing from the nave to the transept we notice that the central tower
was treated as a lantern internally, and was open to the base of the
spire. The choir was cut off by a screen with a central archway; on each
side of the entrance were four canopies with figures beneath them. An
ascent of twelve steps took the worshipper to the level of the choir
pavement.
The choir was naturally the most gorgeous portion of the Cathedral. The
architecture was pure and noble, and the carved woodwork of the canons'
stalls was famous for its beauty. The reredos and high altar, dedicated
in honour of St. Paul, formed the chief attraction of the choir. There
was also an altar to the north, dedicated in honour of St. Ethelbert,
king and confessor, and one to the south, dedicated to St. Mellitus. Six
more steps led to the sanctuary, from which the worshipper could pass
behind the altar screen. Eastward of the screen was the famous shrine of
St. Erkenwald. Mention has already been made of the original tomb in the
first Cathedral. Legend reports that in the fire of the eleventh century
the saint's resting-place alone remained unharmed. On 14th November 1148
his bones were transferred to a more noble tomb. Gilbert de Segrave laid
the first stone of a still more magnificent shrine in 1314, in which the
body of the saint was placed on 1st February 1326. This was for a long
period the most famous of the tombs of old St. Paul's, to which pilgrims
flocked from distant parts, and riches of all kinds were lavished upon
it. A canon of the church, Walter de Thorpe, gave to it all his gold
rings and jewels; the Dean and Chapter in 18 Edward II. presented a rich
store of gold and silver and precious stones; in the 31st of Edward III.
three goldsmiths were engaged upon it for a whole year, at wages of 8s.
a week for one and 5s. a week for each of the others. King John of
France, when he was a prisoner in England, made an offering of twelve
nobles, and Richard de Preston, citizen and grocer, presented a
remarkable sapphire in the reign of Richard II. This stone was supposed
to cure infirmities of the eyes, and the donor directed proclamation to
be made of its great virtues. Dean Evere in 1407 provided an endowment
for the lights which burned before the shrine.[366]
The choir was full of tombs and brasses, many of them of great
importance. On the north side stood the stately tomb of John of Gaunt,
Duke of Lancaster (d. 1399), with recumbent figures of the Duke and his
second wife, Constance of Castile. Special offices were performed at
several of the shrines, especially those of St. Erkenwald and St. Thomas
of Lancaster, as the grandson of Henry III. was popularly styled,
although he was never canonised. On the 28th of June 1323 Edward II.
sent a letter to Stephen Gravesend, Bishop of London, commanding him to
prohibit the reverence paid to Thomas of Lancaster in the
Cathedral.[367]
The high altar was the scene twice a year of a strange custom, which was
kept up for several centuries. Sir William le Band in 1275 commenced to
give yearly a doe in winter and a fat buck in summer to be offered at
the altar and then distributed to the resident canons. These were given
in lieu of twenty-two acres of land lying within the lordship of Westlee
in Essex, to be enclosed within his park of Toringham, so that the
knight appears to have made a very good bargain. The reception of the
buck and doe was 'till Queen Elizabeth's days solemnly performed at the
steps of the quire by the canons of this Cathedral, attired in sacred
vestments, and wearing garlands of flowers on their heads, and the horns
of the buck carried on the top of a spear in procession round about
within the body of the church, with a great noise of horn-blowers.'[368]
As already stated the choir was rebuilt early in the thirteenth century,
and in 1255 it was considerably extended. Previously a street ran close
to the east end, from Watling Street to Cheapside, and here stood the
old Church of St. Faith. The exact site of the houses was marked by
nine wells in a row which were found by Wren. When this street was built
over and the church pulled down the parishioners were provided with a
church in the Crypt. About the middle of the north side of the choir was
a low-arched door, and from this six-and-twenty steps led down to St.
Faith's, at the eastern end of which was the Jesus Chapel.[369]
We have now traced the principal features of the exterior and interior
of old St. Paul's, and a few words may be said of the body who governed
the Cathedral.
Bishop Stubbs, in the remarkable Preface which he added to the Master of
the Rolls' edition of the _Historical Works of Ralph de Diceto_, Dean of
London, at the end of the twelfth century, has given a vivid picture of
the ecclesiastical greatness of London during the reigns of Henry II.
and Richard I. Ralph was the friend of Fitz-Stephen, the biographer of
Becket, and before he became dean he had held the office of archdeacon.
Stubbs writes: 'The fact that the Cathedral of Canterbury was in the
hands of a monastic chapter left St. Paul's at the head of the secular
clergy of southern England. It was an educational centre too, where
young statesmen spent their leisure in something like self-culture.
London with its 40,000 inhabitants had 120 churches all looking to the
Cathedral as their mother. The resident canons had to exercise a
magnificent hospitality, carefully prescribed in ancient Statutes; twice
a year each of them had to entertain the whole staff of the Cathedral
and to invite the Bishop, the Mayor, the sheriffs, aldermen, justices
and great men of the Court.'
The dean was a capable head, and his government stands out in history as
one of the most successful during a very difficult period.
'Early in 1187 Ralph lost his old friend and patron, Bishop Foliot, and
the See of London was not filled up for nearly three years. Within a
few weeks after Foliot's death he had to receive the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Baldwin, who visited the church on mid-Lent Sunday, and he
took advantage of the opportunity to obtain from him an injunction
forbidding the persons who were in charge of the temporalities of the
See to interfere with the spiritual officers in the discharge of their
duties.'
[Illustration: DOORWAY, ST. HELEN'S, BISHOPSGATE.]
How important a body the Chapter of St. Paul's really was may be
inferred from the remarkable fact stated by Serjeant Pulling in his work
on _The Order of the Coif_ that among the canons in the reign of Henry
III. were as many as ten of the Judges at Westminster Hall.
The early history of the parishes of London is one of great difficulty
and complexity. Although some of the parishes must be of great
antiquity, we have little authentic information respecting them before
the Conquest. The dedications of many of the churches indicate their
great age, but the constant fires in London not only destroyed the
buildings but also the records within the buildings. The original
churches appear to have been very small, as may be judged from their
number. It is not easy, however, to understand how it was that when the
parishes were first formed so small an area was attached to each. Mr.
Loftie is of opinion that there is no proof that London was divided into
more than three or four parishes until the time of Alfred, or, indeed,
till much later.[370]
[Illustration: ST. HELEN'S, BISHOPSGATE.]
He has written a very instructive chapter on 'the Church in London' in
his _London_ (Historic Towns, 1887), but he is not able to give any very
definite information. Moreover, he doubts whether it is wise to take
for granted the early dedications of, for instance, such churches as are
named in honour of Sts. Alphage, Magnus and Olave, or of Sts. Ethelburga
and Osyth.
The parish church of which we have the most authentic notice before the
Conquest is St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, in existence many years before the
Priory of the Nuns of St. Helen's was founded. In 1010 the remains of
St. Edmund, King and Martyr, were removed from Edmundsbury in order that
they might not fall into the hands of the Danes, and deposited in the
Church of St. Helen, where they remained three years. Many of the London
churches were small, but some were of considerable size. When the
religious houses were dissolved the churches of some of these became the
most important of the parish churches.
The Church of St. Mary le Bow in Cheapside (better known as Bow Church)
is named from having been the first in London built on arches of stone,
and the Norman Crypt is of great interest. When Wren built his church he
used these arches of the old churches to support his own superstructure.
This crypt also gives its name to the Court of Arches which was held
here.
In the _Liber Albus_ there is a chapter on the periodical visits of the
Mayor to various churches on certain saints' days, such as to St.
Thomas's at the Feast of All Saints (November 1), to St. Peter's on
Cornhill on the Monday in the Feast of Pentecost, and to St.
Bartholomew's and St. Michael le Quern on other occasions.[371]
The position of the parish priest was a good one in the eyes of the
parishioners, who looked up to him as a friend, and resented the
interference with his duties by monks and chantry priests. Among the
parish priests the highest rank was conceded to the rector of St.
Peter's, Cornhill. The mediæval writers, who are mostly vituperative
when speaking of monks and friars, have little but good to say of the
parson.
The great evil of lay rectorship, which has done so much to injure the
Church, was largely introduced by the monasteries.
[Illustration]
Bishop Stubbs, in his Introduction to the Historical Works of Ralph de
Diceto, writes: 'S. Paul's stood at the head of the religious life of
London, and by its side, at some considerable interval, however, S.
Martin's-le-Grand, S. Bartholomew's, Smithfield, and the great and
ancient foundation of Trinity, Aldgate.'[372]
[Illustration: CHURCH OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT.]
Besides the Chapter of St. Paul's, there were several other bodies of
secular canons. One of these was at the Collegiate Church of St.
Martin-le-Grand, within Aldersgate, which church was founded about A.D.
1056, and its privileges confirmed by William the Conqueror. It had
special rights as a royal free chapel, and its privileges of sanctuary
were given by Henry VIII. to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster.
Others were the College of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, founded by William
Walworth in 1380; Barking College, Holmes's College, and several other
colleges in London, besides the Collegiate Chapel of St. Stephen,
Westminster.
The canons regular of the Order of St. Austin occupied the Priory of
Christ Church or Holy Trinity, the Priory of St. Bartholomew in
Smithfield; the Priory of St. Mary Overy, in Southwark, and many
hospitals.
These canons were less strict than monks, but lived under one roof, had
a common dormitory and refectory. They were well shod, well clothed, and
well fed. Monks always shaved, but canons wore beards, and caps on their
heads.
The chief rule of the canons regular was that of St. Augustine (or
Austin), Bishop of Hippo, A.D. 395. The Order was little known until the
tenth or eleventh centuries, and was not brought to England until after
the Norman Conquest, and the designation of Austin canons was not
adopted until some years afterwards.
The Priory of Christ Church or the Holy Trinity within Aldgate was a
house of the first importance in London, and the Pope absolved it from
all jurisdiction. Norman, the first prior, was the first canon regular
of his Order in England.
The priory was founded in 1108 by Queen Maud, and in 1125 the land and
soke of Cnichten Gild (now Portsoken Ward) were assigned to it. The
prior became an alderman of London by reason of possessing the soke
without the port or gate called Aldgate, an honour continued to his
successors till the dissolution of the religious houses, when the church
was surrendered and the site of the priory granted by Henry VIII. to
Sir Thomas Audley, Lord Chancellor.
The great Benedictine monastery of Black Monks was situated at
Westminster, away from the city, as was usual. This was the only
monastic house subject to the rule of St. Benedict in the neighbourhood
of London, but the houses of nuns, of which there were many dotted over
the suburbs of London, were governed by the rule of St. Benedict. Among
these may be mentioned the nunneries of Barking, Clerkenwell, Halliwell
at the eastern extremity of Finsbury Fields, St. Helen's, Bishopgate,
Kilburn and Stratford at Bow.
As time proceeded there was a widespread desire for a stricter rule
among the monks, and reforms of the Benedictine rule were instituted at
Cluni (A.D. 910), Chartreux (about 1080), and Citeaux (1098). All these
reforms were represented in London.
_Cluniac Order._--This reform was begun by Bernon, Abbot of Gigni, in
Burgundy, and perfected by Odo, Abbot of Cluni. The first charter of the
Order was dated A.D. 910. The Order was first brought to England by
William, Earl of Warren, son-in-law to William the Conqueror, who built
the first house at Lewes, in Sussex, about 1077. The Priory of
Bermondsey, in Surrey, was founded by Aylwin Child, citizen of London,
about 1082. The manor of Bermondsey and other revenues were granted by
William Rufus. The original priories were subject to the heads of the
parent foreign houses, but John Attilburgh, prior of Bermondsey, having
procured the erection of his priory into an abbacy, himself became the
first of the abbots in 1399.
If we are to believe the word of the satirist, we may judge that the
rule of the Cluniac Order was hard, for we are told that--
'When you wish to sleep they awake you,'
and
'When you wish to eat they make you fast.'
[Illustration]
There were cells attached to the Cluniac house of Bermondsey at
Aldersgate, Cripplegate and Holborn.
_Carthusians._--Bruno first instituted the Order at Chartreux, in the
diocese of Grenoble in France, about 1080. The rule was confirmed by
Pope Alexander III. about 1174. This was the most strict of any of the
religious Orders. The monks never ate flesh, and were obliged to fast on
bread, water and salt one day in every week. No one was permitted to go
out of the bounds of the monastery except the priors and procurators or
proctors, and they only upon the necessary affairs of their houses. When
the Order was brought to England in 1178 the first house was started at
Witham, in Somersetshire. In all there were nine houses of the Order in
England. One of these was the Charterhouse of London, which was not
founded until 1371 by Sir Walter Manny, K.G.
Until Henry II. founded the Carthusian house at Witham it is said that
there was no such thing known in England as a monk's cell, as we
understand the term. It was a peculiarity of the Carthusian Order, and
when it was first introduced it was regarded as a startling novelty for
any privacy or anything approaching solitude to be tolerated in a
monastery. The Carthusian system never found much favour in England.
_Cistercians._--The Cistercian Order was named after Cistertium or
Cîteaux, in the bishopric of Chalons in Burgundy, where it was founded
in 1098 by Robert, Abbot of Molesme, in that province. St. Bernard was a
great promoter of the Order, and founded an abbey at Clairvaux about
1116, and after him the members of the Order were sometimes named
Bernardines.
It was usual to plant these monasteries in solitary and uncultivated
places, and no other house, even of their own Order, was allowed to be
built within a certain distance of the original establishment. This
makes it surprising to learn that there were two separate houses of
this Order in the near neighbourhood of London.
A branch of the Order came to England about 1128, and their first house
was founded at Waverley in Surrey. Very shortly after (about 1134) the
Abbey of Stratford Langthorne, in Essex, was founded by William de
Montfichet, who endowed it with all his lordship in West Ham.
It was not until two centuries afterwards that the second Cistercian
house in the immediate neighbourhood of London was founded. This was the
Abbey of St. Mary Graces, East Minster or New Abbey, without the walls
of London, which Edward III. instituted in 1350 after a severe scourge
of plague (the so-called Black Death.)
The two great military Orders--the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of
Jerusalem and the Templars--followed the Augustinian rule, and both were
settled in London. The Knights Hospitallers were founded about 1092 by
the merchants of Amalfi, in Italy, for the purpose of affording
hospitality to pilgrims in the Holy Land. The Hospital or Priory of St.
John was founded in 1100 by Jordan Briset and his wife, Muriel, outside
the northern wall of London, and the original village of Clerkenwell
grew up around the buildings of the knights. A few years after this the
Brethren of the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem, or Knights of the
Temple, came into being at the Holy City, and they settled first on the
south side of Holborn, near Southampton Buildings. They removed to Fleet
Street or the New Temple in 1184, when, as Spenser terms it, 'they
decayd through pride,' and the Order after much persecution was
suppressed in England, as it had been in other countries, by command of
the Pope. The house in Fleet Street was given in 1313 by Edward II. to
Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, at whose death, in 1323, the
property
[Illustration: THE TEMPLE CHURCH--THE ROUND.]
passed to the Knights of St. John, who leased the New Temple to the
lawyers, still the occupants of the district.
The Templars wore a long flowing white mantle with a red cross on the
left breast. The Knights Hospitallers originally wore a black robe with
a cross, but subsequently, when the Order was reconstructed on the model
of the Templars, they wore a red mantle with a white cross on the
shoulder. After Palestine was lost the original body passed (1) to Acre,
(2) to Cyprus, (3) to Rhodes, and (4) to Malta.
The Templars left their beautiful church to continue for centuries one
of the most interesting architectural relics of a past age. The
buildings of the Knights Hospitallers at Clerkenwell passed through more
vicissitudes, and when the religious houses were suppressed by Henry
VIII. these were mostly destroyed. The gateway which was completed in
1504 by Prior Docwra still stands, but no portion of the church or other
buildings remain above ground.
FRIARS
The enthusiasm which brought the great religious movement after the
Conquest and produced the numerous monastic institutions of the country
had cooled by the beginning of the thirteenth century, when the
remarkable evangelical revival instituted almost simultaneously by St.
Dominic and St. Francis swept over Europe.
The distinctive characteristics which at first marked them off from the
monks were poverty and care for others. The monks lived apart from the
world in order to attend first to their own souls, while the friars
placed care for others first of all duties. They preached to and visited
the masses; hence, instead of living in retired spots, they settled in
the heart of the cities. In their humility they called themselves
brothers rather than fathers, but in course of time they fell far short
of the ideals of their founders. Their property increased, and their
houses grew to be as rich as those of the monks, and in consequence they
became singularly unpopular. Mr. Trevelyan writes in his _Age of
Wycliffe_ that, while the monks were despised by the reformer, the
friars were hated.
_Black Friars._--The Spaniard, St. Dominic, founded the Order of
Preaching Friars at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Their rule,
which was chiefly that of St. Augustine, was approved of by Pope
Innocent III. in the Lateran Council, A.D. 1215, by word of mouth and by
the Bull of Pope Honorius III., A.D. 1216. They were called Dominicans
from their founder, Preaching Friars from their office to preach and
convert heretics, and Black Friars from their garments. In France they
were known as Jacobins from having their first house in the Rue St.
Jacques in Paris. This name gained a portentous meaning in the
eighteenth century from the French Revolutionists who met in the disused
friary. At first the friars used the same habit as the Austin Canons,
but about the year 1219 they took another, viz., a white cassock with a
white hood over it, and when they went abroad, a black cloak with a
black hood over their white vestments. They came to England in 1221, and
their first house was at Oxford. Shortly after this they came to London,
settled in Holborn near Lincoln's Inn, where they remained for more than
fifty years. In 1276 they removed to the neighbourhood of Baynard
Castle, where they erected a magnificent house with the help of royal,
clerical and other noble benefactors which has given a name to a London
district that it still retains. The place is thus described by Stevens,
the monastic historian: 'This monastery enjoyed all the privileges and
immunities that any religious
[Illustration:
St. John's Gate
Clerkenwell
Residence of Edward Cave.
]
house had; and having a very large extent of ground within its liberty,
the same was shut up with four gates, and all the inhabitants within it
were subject to none but the King, the superior of the monasteries and
justices of that precinct; so that neither the Mayor nor the sheriffs,
nor any other officers of the City of London, had the least jurisdiction
or authority therein. All which liberties the inhabitants preserved some
time after the suppression of the monastery.' Thomas Lord Wake is said
to have intended to bring Dominican nuns into England, and he had the
King's license for this purpose, but he does not appear to have carried
out his intention. The nuns of Dartford, in Kent, are supposed to have
been of this Order at one time.
_Grey Friars._--The Italian, St. Francis, was the founder of this Order,
whose rule he drew up in 1209. It was approved of by Pope Innocent III.
in 1210, and by the Lateran Council in 1215. His followers were called
Franciscans from their founder, Grey Friars from their clothing, and
Minor Friars from their humility.
Nine Grey Friars landed at Dover in the eighth year of Henry III.
(1223-1224), five of them settled at Canterbury, and there founded the
first house of the Order in England. The remaining four established
themselves in London, lodging for fifteen days with the Dominicans in
Holborn. These four, we learn from a Cottonian MS. (Vitellius, F. xii.,
13, fol. 45) were (1) Richard Pugworth, an Englishman, priest and
preacher; (2) Richard Senonef, English, clerk acolyte, a youth; (3)
Henry Detrews, by nation a Lombard, lay brother; (4) Monachetus, also a
lay brother.
These four men founded the great London house of Grey Friars. They
removed to Cornhill, where they erected cells, made converts, and
acquired the goodwill of the Mayor and citizens. John Ewin, mercer,
appropriated to the use of the friars a piece of ground within Newgate.
Here a noble building was erected by the help of numerous distinguished
persons, which contained a church, a chapter house, a dormitory, a
refectory, an infirmary, etc. The district was long known as Greyfriars,
and afterwards as Christ Church or Christ's Hospital.
The habit of the friars was a loose garment of a grey colour reaching
down to their ankles, with a cowl of the same, and a cloak over it when
they went abroad. They girded themselves with cords and went barefoot.
In connection with the Franciscans were the nuns of the Order of St.
Clare, founded at Assisi by St. Clare about 1212. The nuns observed St.
Francis's rule and wore the same coloured habit as the Franciscan
Friars. They were called Poor Clares and also Minoresses.
About the year 1293 Blanche, Queen of Navarre, wife to Edward, Earl of
Lancaster, Leicester and Derby, founded a house for the Minoresses on
the east side of the street leading from the Tower to Aldgate without
the walls of the city. This street is still known as the Minories. There
were only three other houses of this Order in England, viz.: at
Waterbeche and Denny in Cambridgeshire, and Brusyard in Suffolk.
_Austin Friars._--The history of the foundation of the Friars Eremites
of the Order of St. Augustine has not been given with any fulness, and
its origin is somewhat uncertain. They came to England from Italy about
1250, and a house in Broad Street ward was founded by Humphrey Bohun,
Earl of Hereford and Essex, in the year 1253. The habit of the Austin
Friars was a white garment and scapulary when they were in the house,
but in the choir and when they went abroad they had over the former a
sort of cowl and a large hood, both black; round their waist they had a
black leather girdle fastened with an ivory bone.[373]
_White Friars._--The origin of the Friars of the Blessed Virgin of Mount
Carmel is not very clear. Their rule, which was chiefly that of St.
Basil, is said to have been given them by Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem
about 1205, and to have been confirmed by Pope Honorius III. in 1224.
They were driven out of Palestine by the Saracens about 1238, and they
then sought refuge in Europe. They were brought into England by John
Vasey and Richard Gray, and had their first houses at Hulne in
Northumberland and Ailesford in Kent. At the latter place they held
their first European charter _A.D._ 1245.
The London house of the Carmelites or White Friars was founded in 1241
by Sir Richard Grey on land situated between Fleet Street and the Thames
which was given by Edward I. The garments of the friars at first were
white, but having been obliged by the infidels to change them to
parti-coloured ones, they continued these for fifty years after their
coming into England, but about the year 1290 they returned to the use of
white again.[374]
Of the four chief Orders of mendicant friars, the Carmelites ranked
last, and in official processions had to give place to the Dominicans,
Franciscans and Austin Friars.
The district which originally contained the house of the White Friars
continues still to be known by the old name. After the dissolution of
the religious houses, the privileges of sanctuary were still allowed to
the inhabitants, and in consequence the place, generally known as
Alsatia, gained a most unenviable notoriety. Other places in London
obtained an evil repute from the same cause, but Whitefriars was far
beyond all others in disgraceful associations. It is known from old
records that the bad repute of the district dates back to a period long
before the suppression of the friary.
From a Close Roll of the 20th Edw. III., it appears that persons of
ill-repute had for a considerable time made their abode so close to the
friary that the friars could not celebrate divine service in their
church in consequence of the continual clamours and outcries by which
the district was disturbed, and the Mayor and aldermen of London were
ordered, in the King's name, for the tranquility of the prior and
brethren, to remove the nuisance.
Mr. Trevelyan writes: 'Twenty years before Wycliffe's attack was made
Fitz-Ralph, Bishop of Armagh, had laid a famous indictment against the
four Orders before the Pope at Avignon. It made a great stir at the
time, but came to nothing, for the friars were under the Pope's special
protection. The bishop chiefly complained of their competition with his
secular clergy in the matter of confession and absolution.[375]
Besides the four chief Orders, several other Orders of friars were
settled in London. First in importance of these were the Crutched
Friars, from the cross forming part of the staff carried by them, which
was styled a crutch. This was afterwards given up, and a cross of red
cloth was placed upon the breast of the gown. The Order is said to have
been instituted by Gerard, Prior of St. Mary of Morella at Bologna, and
confirmed in 1169 by Pope Alexander III., who brought them under St.
Austin's rule. They came to England in 1244, and had their first house
at Colchester. It was not until about 1298 that these friars came to
London, and the house in the parish of St. Olave, Hart Street, was
founded by Ralph Hosier and William Sabernes. The memory of the friary
is kept alive in the name of the street that marks its site.
Other Orders in London were the Friars of the Penance of Jesus Christ,
or _de Sacco_, and the Friars de Areno.
The Friars of the Sac, according to Stow, first settled in a house near
Aldersgate, outside the gate. This was about the year 1257. When the
Jews were banished from England by Edward I., these friars were given
the synagogue on the south side of Lothbury, at the north corner of the
old Jewry.
The tenements which the prior and friars held in the street 'called
Colcherdistrete' were in the parishes of St. Olave in the Jewry and of
St. Margaret de Lothebury.
The friars of the Order of St. Mary de Areno were settled at Westminster
at a house near Charing Cross, given to them by Sir William de Arnaud or
Amand, 51 Henry III., and here the small house remained until the death
of Hugh de Ebor, the last friar, 10 Edw. II.
Bishop Stubbs refers to a cemetery near St. Clement's Danes, which once
belonged to the Pied Friars, a small order of mendicants which had been
suppressed in 1278.
In the revised edition of Dugdale's _Monasticon_, by Caley, Ellis and
Bandinel, there is a notice of the house of the Fratres de Pica or Pied
Friars at Norwich, from Blomefield's _History of Norfolk_, but no
mention is made of any house in London. Tanner says that there is no
mention of these friars in any public record, and Taylor, in his _Index
Monasticus_, gives no new information concerning them. Blomefield says
that the friars were called from their outward garment, which was black
and white like a magpie.
At Hounslow there was a House of Trinitarian or Maturine Friars for the
Redemption of Captives. The earliest record known of this priory is a
charter dated 1296.
Besides the religious houses, there were during the Middle Ages many
hermitages over the country, and several of these were to be found in
London. One was in Monkwell Street, Cripplegate, which was founded by
the widow of Sir Eymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who was killed in a
tournament in 1324. This was Mary de Castillon, daughter of Guy, Count
of St. Pol, third wife of the earl, and the foundress of Pembroke Hall,
Cambridge, who established the hermitage for the good of the soul of her
husband.
London was so full of religious houses, both within and without the
walls, that when the great dissolution took place in Henry VIII.'s
reign, large portions of the town were left desolate. Doubtless the time
had come for this great revolution, or, otherwise, even that King could
never have carried it through.
The popular feeling which held these great establishments in disfavour
had gradually grown. Still the number of those who were dependent upon
the religious houses was very considerable, and great evils followed the
dissolution. Multitudes were thrown out of their regular employment, and
the poor who were dependent upon the alms bestowed upon them at the
gates of the monasteries had to be considered and provided for in some
other way. The difficulties of this position certainly formed one of the
causes of the institution of the Poor Law in the reign of Henry's
daughter Elizabeth.
Most of the relics of the various religious houses which occupied so
large a portion of London and its environs have been entirely swept
away.
In the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries many
remains existed. There were then vestiges of St. Helen's Priory, and the
old hall of the Nunnery was not pulled down until 1799. Relics of
Bermondsey Abbey were standing in 1807.
[Illustration: THE CRYPT, ST. JOHN'S, CLERKENWELL.]
The grand Crypt built soon after the foundation of the house of the
Priory of St. John at Clerkenwell, which was added to and afterwards
made to form an undercroft to the choir, is now one of the most
interesting of the remains of mediæval buildings in London. It is below
the Church of St. John, Clerkenwell, and has been restored with loving
care to much of its original beauty. Other portions of the old buildings
of the Priory are to be seen in the cellars of some of the houses round
about.
The position of the old Charterhouse buildings can still be traced,
although little of the old monastery exists, but the east and south
walls of the Chapel and Washhouse Court can be seen. The latter was
built by the monks to accommodate the lay brothers who acted as
servants to the convent. The walls of the monastic refectories surround
the present Brothers' Library. Beneath this is the Monks' Cellar.
The friaries situated within the walls of old London have left little
but their names to tell the Londoner of to-day of their existence. Still
even here something of the past remains. The Church of Austin Friars is
left to us, and the position of the choir of the great Franciscan house
of Grey Friars is marked by the present Christ Church, Newgate Street.
Some traces of the buildings of the Whitefriars have also been found
underground.
_Sanctuary._--One of the privileges of the Middle Ages, which continued
on into comparatively modern times, was that of sanctuary, and in its
belated form this caused many gross scandals. There are numerous stories
connected with the College of St. Martin's-le-Grand, which was under the
jurisdiction of the Abbot of Westminster. One of these relates to
Richard III. and Lady Anne. When the Duke of Gloucester desired to marry
Anne, the betrothed of the late Edward Prince of Wales, son of Henry
VI., her brother-in-law Clarence objected and hid her away. Richard
discovered her in London, disguised as a kitchen-maid, and placed her in
sanctuary at St. Martin's-le-Grand.[376]
In 1416 a man was sentenced to the pillory for slandering an alderman,
but he escaped and found sanctuary at the monastery of St. Peter's,
Westminster.[377]
Mr. G. M. Trevelyan, in his work on the _Age of Wycliffe_, gives a full
account of the great scandal which occurred in 1378, when two prisoners
escaped from the Tower and sought sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. The
governor of the Tower, with his soldiers, entered the nave and attempted
to drag one of the prisoners, who was attending Mass, out of sanctuary.
He fled for his life, and his pursuers chased him twice round the choir.
He was stabbed to death, and one of the attendants of the church,
interfering to save him, was killed in the scuffle.
Archbishop Sudbury excommunicated the governor of the Tower (Sir Alan
Buschall) and all his aiders and abettors. Richard II. ordered the
reading of the excommunication to be stopped and the church to be
reconsecrated. The abbot refused to allow the place to be hallowed, and
the services ceased for a while. There was now an open quarrel between
Church and State, which continued till the Parliament met at Gloucester
in October, 'when the whole question of sanctuary was brought up in all
its issues.'
Mr. Trevelyan sums up the case in these words: 'In vain Wycliffe argued,
in vain the Commons petitioned and the Lords hectored. From all the
mountains of talk in the discussions at Gloucester there came forth the
most absurd legislative mouse in the shape of a Statute passed at
Westminster by the next Parliament in the spring of 1379. By this Act
the fraudulent debtor taking sanctuary was to be summoned at the door of
the church once a week for 31 days. If at the end of that time he
refused to appear, judgment was to go against him by default, and his
goods, even if they had been given away by collusion, might be seized by
his creditors. This mild measure, which was scarcely an interference
with the right of sanctuary itself, was accepted even by the staunchest
adherents of the Church.'
If a felon succeeded in taking sanctuary in a church or other privileged
place before capture, he was free from the clutches of the law for the
space of forty days. He was allowed to be supplied with food, but he was
sufficiently guarded to prevent his escape. If he elected to abjure the
realm an oath was administered to him.[378]
There seem to have been special privileges of sanctuary in the city, for
we learn that at the end of the thirteenth century it was ordered by the
aldermen that no robber, homicide, nor other fugitive in the churches
should be watched. This ordinance was for the purpose of giving a
fugitive a chance of escape out of sanctuary. In 1321 a royal pardon was
granted to the city for neglecting to keep watch on those who had fled
for sanctuary to the city churches. This was granted, however, on the
distinct understanding that in future a watch was to be kept on such
fugitives in the same manner as in other parts of the realm.[379]
In 1334 the Mayor was roundly taken to task, and made to do penance by
the Archbishop for allowing a felon to escape from the Church of
Allhallows', Gracechurch.[380]
The sanctuary men were marked by a badge representing cross keys.
_Education._--Mediæval London was well supplied with facilities for
education. We know that there were many schools in various parts of the
city, although we still require more definite information. The Church
supplied the public well with schools, although for a time these fell
into decay, and then it was that lay schools came into existence.
Bishop Stubbs writes: 'Over against the many grievances which modern
thought has alleged against the unlearned ages which passed before the
invention of printing it ought to be set to the credit of mediæval
society that clerkship was never despised or made unnecessarily
difficult of acquisition. The sneer of Walter Map, who declared that in
his days the villains were attempting to educate their ignoble and
degenerate offspring in the liberal arts proves that even in the twelfth
century the way was open. Richard II. rejected the proposition that the
villains should be forbidden to send their children to the schools to
learn "clergie"; and even at a time when the supply of labour ran so low
that no man who was not worth twenty shillings a year in land or rent
was allowed to apprentice his child to a craft, a full and liberal
exception was made in favour of learning; "every man or woman"--the
words occur in the Petition and Statute of Artificers passed in
1406--"of what state or condition that he be, shall be free to set their
son or daughter to take learning at any school that pleaseth them within
the realm."' Again: 'Schools were by no means uncommon things; there
were schools in all cathedrals; monasteries and colleges were
everywhere, and wherever there was a monastery or a college there was a
school. Towards the close of the Middle Ages, notwithstanding many
causes for depression, there was much vitality in the schools.'[381]
The larger English abbeys about the country not only had schools within
their own precincts, but others dependent upon them in the neighbouring
towns.
Fitz-Stephen, in his description of London as preserved in the city's
_Liber Custumarum_ (vol. i. p. 5), particularises the Church of St.
Martin-le-Grand as one of the principal churches of London which had
ancient and prerogative schools,[382] the others being St. Paul's and
Holy Trinity, Aldgate. In other texts of Fitz-Stephen's work the names
of the churches are not mentioned, and Stow, overlooking the text in the
city archives, gives the three schools as attached to St. Paul's, St.
Peter's Westminster, and St. Saviour's.[383]
Fitz-Stephen's patron, St. Thomas of Canterbury, received his early
education at one of the London schools after leaving the school of the
canons regular at Merton, and before proceeding to the university.
In 1447 four parish priests, in a petition to Parliament, begged the
Commons to consider the great number of grammar schools 'that sometime
were in diverse parts of the realm beside those that were in London, and
how few there be in these days.' They asked leave to appoint
schoolmasters in their parishes, to be removed at their discretion. King
Henry VI. granted the petition, but subjected the priests' discretion to
the advice of the Ordinary. During this King's reign nine grammar
schools were opened in London alone.
[Illustration: CHARING CROSS.
(_From the Crace Collection, British Museum._)]
CHAPTER XII
_London from Mediæval to Modern Times_
Mediæval London was almost entirely within the walls; but outside the
walls, to the west, there was a connecting line of mansions on the river
front leading to the village of Charing and on to Westminster, which is
almost of equal antiquity with London itself. When the body of Queen
Eleanor arrived at its last stage the funeral procession stopped a fair
way from Westminster Abbey. One might have expected that the body would
have remained under the shadow of its last resting-place, and we are,
therefore, led to inquire why the village of Charing was chosen. The
only answer to the question that can be given is, that here, on the site
of Northumberland House, now occupied by Northumberland Avenue, there
then stood a Hospital and Chapel of St. Mary, belonging to the Priory of
Rouncevall (Roncesvalles), or De Rosida Valle, in the diocese of
Pampelon, in Navarre. At the death of Eleanor this house was a
comparatively recent establishment, having been founded by William
Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, in the reign of Henry III., but it probably
afforded sufficient accommodation for the funeral procession for one
night. The house was suppressed as an alien priory in the reign of Henry
V., but restored in that of Edward IV. for a fraternity. In the Year
Books of Henry VII. the master, wardens, brethren and sisters of
Rouncevall are mentioned, and these continued until the general
suppression.
The Cross, which gives its name to the place, was erected in the years
1291-1294, and is supposed to have been the handsomest of the series. As
good a copy of the original as our imperfect information allows is to be
seen within the railings of the South-Eastern Railway terminus.
Westminster is of unknown antiquity, and was long known, from its wild
growth of underwood, as Thorney, before the Abbey and the Palace arose
to give the place a name which marked its position in relation to London
and St. Paul's. There is but little authoritative history before Edward
the Confessor and the consecration of the Abbey Church in 1065, but the
history since that time is so considerable, and of so important a
character, that it is impossible to do more than refer in these few
words to what is universally acknowledged by all Englishmen to be the
most hallowed building in the country.
On the opposite shore of the Thames is Lambeth, where is situated the
Manor House of the Archbishops of Canterbury (now called Lambeth
Palace). The site was originally given to the See of Rochester by the
Countess Goda, sister of Edward the Confessor, and wife of Eustace,
Count of Boulogne, but in the year 1197 the Bishop of Rochester made an
exchange with the Archbishop of Canterbury of this place for other
property, and Lambeth has ever since been the London residence of the
Archbishops. From here we pass over Lambeth Marsh to Southwark, a place
whose history has been intimately associated with that of the City of
London, and is now an integral part of the county.
The chief glory of the borough is the grand church of the Augustinian
Priory of St. Mary Overy, dating from the beginning of the twelfth
century, and now known as St. Saviour's.
Southwark has been from the earliest times the chief thoroughfare to and
from London and the southern
[Illustration]
counties and towns, and the cities of the Continent. From this cause it
was for centuries the quarter for famous old inns, beginning in order of
importance with the Bear at the Bridge Foot, the Tabard of Chaucer, and
following on with the King's Head, the White Hart, and the George--a
portion of the latter hostelry only remaining to the present day.
[Illustration: The Gatehouse & Church Tower Lambeth Palace]
Southwark was also notorious for its prisons--the King's Bench, the
Marshalsea, the White Lion, the Borough Compter and the Clink. The
last-named was on the Bankside, so intimately associated from the
earliest times with the rough sports of the Londoners, and in
Elizabeth's reign the chief home of the dramatic displays of that great
period. The "Bank" was then a long straggling street, extending from the
manor of Paris Garden on the west to the liberty of the Clink on the
east. Near Paris Garden was the Falcon Inn, which was once supposed to
have been the resort of Shakespeare. This apparently is an error, for at
the time of the great dramatist's death there appears to have been no
inns on the Bankside. Little or nothing actually exists now that was
there in the sixteenth century, but the contour of the street and nearly
every name have lasted in their integrity, and probably will last for
many a long year more.
Although during the reigns of the Tudor sovereigns the Renascence became
triumphant, the men and women of London still continued to live in a
town which retained its mediæval characteristics.
Two striking scenes in the history of London during the reign of Mary I.
may be alluded to here.
When the Queen made known her intention of marrying Philip of Spain, the
discontent of the nation found vent in the rising of Sir Thomas Wyat,
and the city had to prepare itself against attack. Wyat took possession
of Southwark, and expected to have been admitted into London, but
finding the gate of the Bridge closed against him and the drawbridge cut
down he marched to Kingston. Having restored the bridge there, which had
been destroyed, he proceeded towards London. In consequence of the break
down of some of his guns he imprudently halted at Turnham Green. Had he
not done this he might have obtained possession of the city. He planted
his ordnance on Hay Hill, and then marched by St. James's Palace and
Charing Cross. Here he was attacked by Sir John Gage with a thousand
men, but he repulsed them, and reached Ludgate without further
opposition. He was disappointed at the resistance which was made, and
after musing a while "upon a stall over against the Bell Savadge gate,"
he turned back. His retreat was cut off, and he surrendered to Sir
Maurice Berkeley.
To picture another striking scene, we must move from the west side of
London to the north. Outside Cripplegate was built a barbican or
watch-tower, as an outwork for observance, and the little village, with
its Fore Street, which grew up outside the walls, was sheltered behind
it. The care of this important position was naturally given to
trustworthy persons. Edward III. appointed Robert Ufford, Earl of
Suffolk, Keeper of the Barbican, and from him it descended, in course of
time, to Catherine, daughter of William Lord Willoughby de Eresby, who
married, firstly, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk; and secondly,
Richard Bertie. Bertie and his wife were Protestants, and in Queen
Mary's reign their lives were in such danger that they were forced to
arrange in secrecy for their flight.
Between four and five o'clock in the morning of 1st January 1554-1555
the Duchess began her adventurous journey in a thick fog. She could
place no confidence in the bulk of her dependants, and there was great
difficulty in arranging for company and baggage. As she was leaving, one
Atkinson, a herald, issued from the house bearing a torch in his hand,
and evidently bent on discovering the cause of the unusual bustle at
this early hour. Fearing to be discovered as she stood up under a
gateway, she moved on quietly and left her baggage at the gatehouse.
Finding that the herald still followed, she bade her servants to hasten
onwards to Lion Key, where she proposed to embark. Taking with her only
two servants and her child, "she stept into Garter House, hard by."[384]
She dared not pass into the city through Cripplegate but walked on to
Moorgate. Thence she proceeded across the town to the port of
embarkation. Eventually she joined her husband, who had preceded her, in
Flanders. Soon after her escape she gave birth to a son at Wesel. He was
named Peregrine, from the circumstance of his being born in a foreign
land and during the wandering of his parents. This name was long
continued in the family. The child grew up to be one of Queen
Elizabeth's greatest generals, popularly known as the "brave Lord
Willoughby."
"But the bravest man in battel
Was brave Lord Willoughby."
There is a special fascination to us now in a picture of Elizabethan
London, for with its history are bound up some of the most interesting
incidents in the lives of the statesmen and other great men of the
spacious days of the great Queen; and have we not Shakespeare and Ben
Jonson among those who have portrayed the various places for us.
London has always appealed to the imagination of the adventurous country
youth to be the home of golden promise. If he can only get there he
believes that his successful career has commenced, but it appears that
in Elizabeth's reign there was pretty much the same difficulty in
obtaining employment as there is now. This is illustrated by a curious
account of the early life of John Sadler, a native of Stratford-on-Avon,
and one of Shakespeare's contemporaries, which has come down to us. "He
joined himself to the carrier, and came to London, where he had never
been before, and sold his horse in Smithfield, and having no
acquaintance in London to recommend him or assist him he went from
street to street, and house to house, asking if they wanted an
apprentice, and though he met with many discouraging scorns and a
thousand denials he went on till he lighted on one Mr. Brokesbank, a
grocer in Bucklersbury, who, though he long denied him for want of
sureties for his fidelity, and because the money he had (but ten pounds)
was so disproportionate to what he used to receive with apprentices, yet
upon his discreet account he gave of himself and the motives which put
him upon that course, and promise to compensate with diligent and
faithful service whatever else was short of his expectation, he ventured
to receive him upon trial, in which he so well approved himself that he
accepted him into his service, to which he bound him for eight years."
The outdoor life of his time, with the men and women who frequented the
streets, is brought vividly before our eyes in Ben Jonson's plays. The
useful and useless members of society pass across the stage. The
water-carriers who congregate around the conduits are represented by Cob
in _Every Man in His Humour_.
Before Sir Hugh Myddelton made the New River and brought to men's
houses, all water that was wanted had to be fetched from the conduits.
The men who supplied the town drew off the water into large wooden
tankards, broad at the bottom, but narrow at the top, which held about
three gallons. This vessel was borne upon the shoulder, and to keep the
carrier dry two towels were fastened over him, one to fall in front and
the other to cover his back.
The narrowness of the old London streets is strikingly shown in _The
Devil is an Ass_, where the lady and her lover speak gentle nothings to
each other from the windows of two contiguous buildings.
All the fashions of his time--the rapier fighting of the gallants, the
smoking madness of all classes at a time when tobacco was supposed to be
the panacea for all the ills of human nature, the custom of garnishing
conversation with oaths--are introduced into the books of Ben Jonson.
The poet's love of good liquor and social intercourse made him a
frequenter of inns. His acquaintance with the two rival taverns of
Cheapside--the Mermaid and the Mitre--must have commenced early, because
the names of both occur in the first quarto of _Every Man in His Humour_
(1601); in the later folio edition the Mitre is changed to the Star and
the Mermaid to the Windmill. The ever-memorable Mermaid was situated on
the south side of Cheapside, between Bread Street and Friday Street.
From the mention of this tavern in the first draft of _Every Man In His
Humour_ it may be inferred that Jonson was a frequenter before the
famous club, consisting of Shakespeare, Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher,
Carew, Donne, Selden and others, was established by Sir Walter Raleigh
in 1603.
The Mitre was a rival house, and some writers tried to write it up at
the expense of the Mermaid. Thus Middleton has the following dialogue in
his comedy, _Your Five Gallants_ (1608):--
"_Goldstone._ Where sup we, gallants?
_Pursenet._ At Mermaid.
_Gold._ Sup there who list, I have forsworne the house.
_Pur._ Faith! I'm indifferent.
_Bungler._ So are we, gentlemen.
_Pur._ Name the place, Master Goldstone.
_Gold._ Why, the Mitre, in my mind, for neat attendance, diligent boys,
and--Push! excels it far.
_All._ Agreed. The Mitre then."
The Windmill, in the old Jewry, which occupies so prominent a position
in the revised edition of _Every Man in His Humour_, was a house with a
long history. It was first of all a synagogue for the Jews of the
neighbourhood; then it was granted by Henry III. to the prior and
brethren of the Order of friars called the Fratres de Sacca, and in 1439
it was occupied by Lord
[Illustration: WESTMINSTER.]
Mayor Robert Large. In 1492 Sir Hugh Clopton, the worthy who built
Clopton Bridge at Stratford-on-Avon, kept his mayoralty in the mansion,
which, a hundred years afterwards, was turned into a tavern.
The Devil, in Fleet Street, was one of the most famous of the places of
entertainment of the time. It is not known when Ben Jonson started the
"Apollo" Club here, but it was probably not long before 1616, when the
_Devil is an Ass_ was acted.
Herrick, in his well-known ode, mentions several other taverns to which
Ben and "his sons" resorted:--
"Ah, Ben!
Say how or when
Shall we thy guests
Meet at those lyric feasts
Made at the Sun,
The Dog, the Triple Tun?
Where we such clusters had
As made us nobly wild, not mad;
And yet each verse of thine
Outdid the meal, outdid the frolic wine."
It was in Jonson's day that the suburbs, which (as previously referred
to) had long been treated with disfavour, were gradually asserting
themselves, and the poet was particularly at home in the understanding
of their peculiarities. Of the northern suburbs the fullest mention is
to be found in _A Tale of a Tub_, where we read of Totten Court, Kentish
Town, Maribone, Kilborne, Islington and Belsize, and the fields near
Pancras.
If we look for Hoxton in a modern map of London we shall find it near
Old Street, St. Luke's, not far from the centre of the present London,
but in Jonson's time it was a country place, cut off from the city by
Moorfields. Knowell's house (_Every Man in His Humour_) was at Hogsden,
which was then, according to Stow, "a large street with houses on both
sides." Master Stephen describes his uncle's property as "Middlesex
land," and he himself is called a country gull, in opposition to Master
Matthew, the town gull. Ben had reason to remember Hoxton, for it was in
the fields close by that he fought and nearly killed Gabriel Spenser.
Moorfields remained for several years in an almost impassable condition,
but in 1511 regular dykes and bridges of communication over them were
made, in order partially to drain the rotten ground.
In the play so frequently referred to we find Turnbull mentioned by
Bobadil, among other disreputable places, as one of the "skirts of the
town." Turnbull, or, more properly, Turnmill Street, was situated near
Clerkenwell Green, and was known as the haunt of ruffians, thieves and
disorderly persons. Justice Shallow boasted to Falstaff of the wildness
of his youth and the feats he had done in Turnbull Street.
On the west the Oxford Road, commencing at the village of St. Giles, was
in the country, and where Stratford Place now stands was a cottage among
trees and hedges called the Lord Mayor's Banqueting House, which was
used by the city magnates when they hunted at Bayswater and Hyde Park.
This is alluded to in _The Devil is an Ass_:--
"But got the gentlewoman to go with me
And carry her bedding to a conduit-head,
Hard by the place towards Tyburn which they call
My Lord Mayor's banqueting house."
"Eastward for Ratcliff!" is a cry in the _Alchemist_. Ratcliff, which
Stow remembered as a highway, with fair elm trees on each side, in later
times became the synonym of all that is dangerous and disreputable in
London streets.
The actor William Kemp, in describing his remarkable morris dance from
London to Norwich (1600), writes: "Being past Whitechappel and having
left fair London, multitudes of Londoners left not me, eyther to keepe a
custome which many holde, that Mile-end is no walke without a recreation
at Stratford Bow with cream and cakes, or else for love they beare
towards me, or perhaps to make themselves merry if I should chance (as
many thought) to give over my morrice within a mile of Mile-end."
Shakespeare lived outside the city walls, and although we cannot exactly
tell the position of his houses it is pretty certain that he lived both
in the parish of St. Helen, Bishopsgate, and in the Clink on the
Bankside.
Stuart London followed Tudor London, but with the death of James I. in
1625 the older history may be said to close, for there was a
considerable change during the reign of Charles I. The upper classes
moved westward to Lincoln's Inn and Great Queen Street and Covent
Garden. The great architect, Inigo Jones, built houses for them in both
these districts.
There was a certain stagnation in the movements of the population during
the period of the Commonwealth, but at the Restoration of Charles II. a
new life came into existence. The exiled Cavaliers returned to their
country and found their fathers' houses in the City of London either
occupied by others or unfitted for their reception. In consequence, they
migrated to a district far from the city. The builders were busy in
covering fields with houses, and Pall Mall, where the game of that name
had been played, was planned out as a fine street, which it remains to
the present day. Lords Clarendon, Burlington and Berkeley erected
mansions in Piccadilly, and Lord St. Albans created St. James's Square.
Many others followed the example of these leaders of Society, and the
upper classes were completely cut off from the city. The contemptuous
references to the traders of London, which are first noticed in
Elizabeth's reign, became common. The cits were laughed at, and the
courtiers poured out a torrent of abuse upon all those who lived in the
east.
The Great Fire of 1666 made an enormous change in the topography of
London, and caused great misery, but it is supposed to have been a
blessing in disguise as it cleared out many a centre of plague and
disease.
When we read of the heroism of the homeless Londoner we must feel proud
of our ancestors. They had lost everything, but they did not sit down
and wring their hands. When the streets were destroyed by fire the river
became more than ever a highway, and boats filled with the goods of the
sufferers covered the waters. Moorfields formed a handy open space, and
soon streets of huts were raised to shelter the homeless families. Wren,
England's greatest architect, John Evelyn, the most accomplished man of
his time and the model of a Royalist gentleman, and Robert Hooke, the
great philosopher, were all three, ready within a few hours of the fire
with plans for the rebuilding of the city, but none of the plans were
adopted although all had their good points, and Wren's especially would
certainly have given us fine avenues and convenient thoroughfares.
The difficulties in carrying out these schemes would no doubt have been
very great, and it is useless now to regret that a great opportunity was
lost.
Wren and Hooke were appointed to superintend the progress of the work of
making London arise anew out of its ashes. The Act of Parliament passed
to regulate the work of rebuilding was a very practical, and altogether
excellent, statute. In fact, the way in which all concerned in the
complicated business of raising a new city worked in unison is worthy of
every praise. At the same time that they proceeded with their labours
they did not allow the trade and business of the country's
[Illustration: Butcher Row]
centre to fall out of gear, and this does the greatest credit to all
concerned, both governors and governed.
While the burnt town remained a waste there must have been overwhelming
inconveniences, but no time was allowed to be lost, and in the end a new
city arose infinitely superior in comfort and convenience to that which
had gone before, although certainly it was not so picturesque.
Before passing on to take a rapid view of the later periods of London
life some mention may be made of a few of the interesting buildings that
escaped the fire and have not previously been alluded to in these pages.
Outside the confines of the city to the west grew up from early times a
district with many various associations. Curious traditions and odd
customs gather round the history of the parish of St. Clement Danes,
where Westminster and London met, which still suggest many points of
special interest well worthy of fuller investigation than they have as
yet received.
The accompanying view shows Temple Bar and the old-world houses of
Butcher Row. The first mention of Temple Bar is in a grant of land
"extra barram Novi Temple" in 1301. At that time there was no building,
but merely posts, rails and chain to mark the extent of the liberties of
London. In course of time a gate was erected, and the one which existed
at the time of the Great Fire was pulled down, and a new gate was
erected in 1670-1672 from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. This,
after existing for two centuries as one of the best-known objects in
London, was removed in the winter of 1878-1879. The stones remained
exposed to the weather for ten years before Temple Bar was re-erected at
the entrance to the late Sir Henry Meux's private grounds at Theobalds,
Waltham Cross. The erection was completed on 3rd December 1888, and the
gate in its new position and restored condition presents a very
handsome appearance, showing it to be worthy of its great architect.
The history of Butcher Row is crowded with incidents in the lives of
authors and the unfortunate hangers-on to literature. The timber-framed
house, with projecting upper storeys and barge-boarded gables, the front
decorated with _fleurs-de-lis_ and coronets, was known as Beaumont
House, and it is said that Sully, then Marquis of Rosny, supped and
slept there on his arrival in London (1603) as Ambassador to James I.