its place. This street was pulled down to make way for the new Law
Courts, and now nearly the whole northern portion of St. Clement's
parish has been cleared away. A great improvement has been made, but in
order to obtain this many picturesque houses of interest have had to be
destroyed.
Returning within the Bar to the city, and walking up Chancery Lane, we
come to Lincoln's Inn Gateway, one of the three historical gateways of
importance in London; the other two being St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell,
and the entrance to St. James's Palace. This gatehouse of brick was
built by Sir Thomas Lovell, K.G., son of the executor of Henry VII., and
bears the date upon it of 1518. This interesting building, although
perfectly sound and in good condition, was shored up a few years ago
when old chambers by the side of it were pulled down and rebuilt, and it
then narrowly escaped destruction. Efforts were successfully made to
save the gate, and it is to be hoped that it may remain to give
distinction to Chancery Lane for many years. Returning to Chancery Lane,
and crossing Holborn, we come to Gray's Inn. The fine hall, which is
full of associations of the deepest interest, was built between the
years 1555 and 1560. Of the hall which it replaced there is no record,
save that in 5 Edw. VI.
[Illustration: LINCOLN'S INN GATEWAY, CHANCERY LANE.]
(1551), it "was seiled with fifty-four yards of wainscot, at 2s. a
yard."
[Illustration: GRAY'S INN HALL]
The present hall has the great distinction, according to Mr.
Halliwell-Phillipps, of being "one of the only two buildings now
remaining in London in which, so far as we know, any of the plays of
Shakespeare were performed in his own time."[385] The other, of course,
being the Middle Temple Hall, where _Twelfth Night_ was acted on
February 2, 1601-2.
_The Comedy of Errors_ was played on the evening of Innocents' Day
(December 28), 1594, in the hall, before a crowded audience; some of the
guests from the Inner Temple created a disturbance because they were not
properly accommodated, and this led to an official inquiry. Mr. Sidney
Lee thinks it probable that Shakespeare himself was not present, as he
was acting on the same day before the Queen at Greenwich. Another
performance of the play was given in the hall by the Elizabethan Stage
Society on December 6, 1895.[386]
George Gascoigne's _Jocasta_, adapted from the Phoenissæ of Euripides,
was acted in the Refectory in 1566. Gray's Inn was famous for its
masques and revels, and on July 7, 1887, in honour of Queen Victoria's
Jubilee, the Benchers of Gray's Inn presented in the hall, to a
distinguished audience, the _Masque of Flowers_, which had been
performed before James I. on Twelfth Night, two hundred and sixty-four
years before.
Gray's Inn had a brilliant roll of members in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, but it is Bacon's spirit that seems to haunt the
whole place. He helped the students in preparing their revels, probably
wrote a masque or masques, and planted trees in the gardens, the
arrangement of which he is believed to have super-intended. His name
remains in Verulam Buildings.
Returning to Holborn, and walking a little to the west, we come to the
impressive front of Staple Inn, the most remarkable street front of old
houses still in existence in London. The origin of the place is unknown,
and nothing satisfactory has been discovered respecting the meaning of
the name, or as to what it was before it came into the occupation of the
Inn of Chancery. There is a tradition that it originally belonged to
the merchants of the Staple. It was purchased by the Benchers of Gray's
Inn in 1529, and in Elizabeth's reign there were 145 students in term,
and 69 out of term. It was bought in 1884 by the Prudential Assurance
Company for £68,000, and the Holborn front was restored and cleared from
plaster covering the timber beams.
[Illustration: Staple Inn.]
There are now very few old street fronts of interest in London, one or
two in the Strand, and some in the great roads out of London, but a few
years ago there were many still remaining in the Whitechapel and Mile
End Roads, and in Bishopsgate Street Without. In the latter street (No.
169) there was until lately the remains of the mansion of Sir Paul
Pindar, an eminent English merchant (who died in 1650), distinguished
for his love of architecture, and the magnificent sums he gave towards
the restoration of old St. Paul's Cathedral. In 1617-1618 the house was
occupied by the Venetian Embassy. In its last days it was used as a
public-house, with the sign of "Sir Paul Pindar's Head." When it was
pulled down the front was obtained for the South Kensington Museum,
where it was re-erected.
The London of Johnson and Hogarth was not a handsome city, but it was a
social one, and we owe to these two men many vivid pictures of the life
lived in it. They were both true Londoners, but they were not alone in
their love for their city, for a marked feature in the character of the
eighteenth-century Londoner was his intense feeling that here only was
life to be lived with true enjoyment. Much of the life was frivolous,
and some of it worse than that, but among the respectable classes the
opportunities for social intercourse were greater than now, when large
numbers of the workers live out of London, some in the north, and some
in the south, and it takes as long to get from Hampstead to Croydon as
to travel a hundred miles into the country.
During the eighteenth century London continued to grow, but it became
uglier every day. The original growth was along the course of the river,
but near the middle of the century a little building was commenced to
the north of Oxford Street, when Cavendish Square and the surrounding
streets were laid out. Soon afterwards the New Road from the Angel at
Islington to the Edgware Road (now re-named Pentonville, Euston, and
Marylebone Roads) was planned. The opening of this road greatly
facilitated the locomotion of the town, but it was disliked by the
dwellers in what was then thought
[Illustration: Sir Paul Pindar's House]
to be the north of London, who had their view of the country cut off.
When Queen Square was built in the reign of Queen Anne it was left open
to the north, as it has remained to this day, in order to enable the
inhabitants to have a view of Hampstead and Highgate. The gardens of
Bedford House, which stood on the north side of Bloomsbury Square, had
an uninterrupted view of the country, and the Duke of Bedford strongly
opposed in the House of Lords the Bill for making the New Road. On this
opposition Horace Walpole cynically remarked to Conway (March 25, 1756):
"A new road through Paddington has been proposed to avoid the stones;
the Duke of Bedford, who is never in town in summer, objects to the dust
it will make behind Bedford House, and to some buildings proposed,
though if he was in town he is too short-sighted to see the prospect."
The gardens of Bedford House were famous for their beauty and for the
trees which flourished there, "the ancient stems" of "the light and
graceful acacia" being specially mentioned by Walpole.
Behind Montagu House (now the British Museum) was Capper's Farm, which
extended to Tottenham Court Road. The old farmhouse still exists behind
Messrs Heal & Son's shop, No. 195 Tottenham Court Road.
Near where University College in Gower Street now stands was a wild
district known as the Field of Forty Footsteps, which had a bad repute
as the scene of a sanguinary duel about the time of the Monmouth
Rebellion between two brothers who were both killed.
No grass would grow over the footsteps trodden by the duellists, which
were said to be recognisable until the year 1800 when the ground was
built over.
A little further east, where Cromer Street now stands, was a wayside inn
named "The Boot," which is made by Dickens in his _Barnaby Rudge_ the
meeting-place of the Gordon Rioters of 1780.
The site of this inn is still occupied by a public-house with the same
sign.
Even after these fields were built upon, the air continued so good that
the gardens round about produced excellent fruit. When Lord Eldon lived
at No. 42 Gower Street at the beginning of the nineteenth century his
peaches and vegetables were famous. Nectarines were grown at 6 Upper
Gower Street in 1800, and grapes were also successfully cultivated
there.
The district north of the New Road is of a clayey soil and without a
sufficient water supply, so that the ground remained unbuilt upon until
at the beginning of the nineteenth century several new Water Companies
came into existence and the building operations were commenced. Since
that time the suburbs have continued to increase, and a great start was
given to the increased growth of the town after the holding of the Great
Exhibition of 1851. Before the middle of the nineteenth century the
growth of London had been continually increasing, but it was not until
after 1851 that the abnormal growth set in.
The Commissioners of the Exhibition of 1851 bought a large property at
Brompton and the district of South Kensington sprang into existence. The
glass and iron forming the Exhibition buildings were transferred to
Sydenham, and the Crystal Palace was erected there. Soon this rural
district, where gipsies once told fortunes, was covered with houses.
This was the beginning of the onward march of bricks and mortar, which
is going on still so rapidly that on all sides we have to travel by rail
for miles before we get out of the labyrinth of buildings.
When we see on all sides of us modern buildings where interesting old
buildings once stood, we are apt to jump to the conclusion that all
signs and relics of Mediæval London have passed away, but this is not
so, for there is still much to see in out-of-the-way places if we go
about the search with intelligence. From what we see we may reconstruct
much of the old topography in our mind's eye. The first thing to do is
to follow the course of the wall, and mark out the position of the
gates. This can easily be done by studying an old map. Some remains of
the wall are still to be seen.
Many most interesting remains of Roman London will be found in the
Guildhall Museum.
There are few remains left of the Saxon period, but some bits are to be
seen at Westminster. Of Norman buildings we have portions of the Tower,
of Great St. Bartholomew's Church, the 'Round' of the Temple Church, and
the Crypt of Bow Church, Cheapside.
Of later ages there are a few relics of the religious houses which have
already been referred to. All the churches which escaped the ravages of
the Great Fire have their points of interest. Lambeth Palace, although
much of it is comparatively modern, has a most venerable appearance and
is certainly one of the most important relics of past ages that the
present London has to boast.
Westminster Hall, Abbey, Church and School are of transcendent interest,
and some relics of the old Abbey buildings still exist in connection
with the School.
Of secular buildings there are Crosby Hall, Middle Temple Hall, Gray's
Inn Hall, and some others.
It is impossible to print a detailed list of all the places that should
be visited, but these few notes will give some slight indication of what
little is left of Mediæval London.
INDEX
A
Aldermen of London, 249-257;
distinct rank accorded to, 255;
to reside in the city, 255;
use of the title, 250;
connection with the Wards, 252-255.
Aldgate, Chaucer tenant of, 34, 81, 82;
Stow's etymology, 25;
earliest form of name, 28.
Arderne (John), an early surgeon of mark, 172, 173.
Arms of London, 261-263.
Austin Friars in London, 364.
B
Bachelors, class of unmarried members of Livery Companies, 321.
Bachelors' Alley, near Goldsmiths' Hall, 321.
Bakers of London, 305-307.
Bankrupt, etymology of, 327.
Bankside, 380.
Barbican, or watch tower, 26.
Bartholomew's (St.) Hospital, 179-191;
founded by Rahere, 180;
repaired by Whittington, 185;
Wat Tyler died there, 185;
law officers, 188;
Thomas Vicary, first governor, 189;
Dr Roderigo Lopus first physician, 191.
Baynard Castle, 31;
privileges associated with its possession, 264.
Bedford House, Bloomsbury 401;
gardens, 401.
Bell Tower of St. Paul's, 337.
Benedictine Monastery of Black Monks, Westminster, 352.
---- Reforms of the Benedictines, 352-356.
Bishop of London, his prominent position, 19.
Bishopsgate, site marked by tablets, 27.
Black Death, the first great plague, 197.
Black Friars in London, 360.
Boot (The), in Cromer Street, immortalised by Dickens, 401.
Bow Church, Cheapside, 348, 349.
Brembre (Nicholas), feud with John of Northampton, 236.
Brewers of London, 313-315.
Building, Assize of, 36, 37.
Butchers of London, 307-309.
Butchers' Row, Temple Bar, 391, 392.
C
Canons regular, Order of St. Austin, 351.
Canons secular, 350-351;
Barking College, 351;
Holmes's College, 351;
Collegiate Church of St. Martin-le-Grand, 350;
College of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, 351;
Collegiate Chapel of St. Stephen, Westminster, 351.
Caorsins, company of Italian financiers banished from London, 324.
Capper's Farm, Tottenham Court Road, 401.
_Carta Mercatoria_, 1303, 289.
Carthusian Order in London, 355.
Castellan and Bannerer of London, 264.
Chamberlain or Comptroller of the King's Chamber, 271, 272
Charing Cross, 138, 375, 376.
Charterhouse, remains of, 369.
Chaucer (Geoffrey) a representative Londoner, 80-89.
---- tenant of Aldgate, 34, 81, 82.
---- his portrait of the "doctor of physick," 166, 167.
---- and poets of his time, round the town with, 71-89.
Cheapside, the market-place, 25, 286;
the cross, 138.
---- streets running out of, appropriated
to sale of different commodities, 25.
Christ Church, Newgate Street, 24.
---- town ditch ran through grounds, 24.
Christ's Hospital, deaths from plague, 209 (note).
Church and education, 330-374.
Churches, 347-351.
---- St. Bartholomew, 348;
St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, 348;
St. Martin's-le-Grand, Collegiate Church of, 348;
St. Mary le Bow, 348;
St. Michael le Querne, 348;
St. Peter's, Cornhill, 348.
Cistercian Order in London, 355.
Clergy forbidden to practise surgery, 168.
Clerkenwell, crypt of St. John's, 369.
Clothing trades, antagonism to victualling trades, 235-238, 304, 305.
Clothworkers' Company, 301-303, 317.
Cluniac Order in London, 352.
Cnut's trench on the south side of the Thames, 12.
Cobblers of London, 317.
Commerce and trade in London, 277-329.
Common Council of London, 259-261;
court of, 259;
election of, 260.
Common Hunt of London, 272.
Common Sergeant, 270.
Commune of London, origin of, 223-230;
character, 225;
oath, 227;
mayor and skivins, 227.
Cordwainers' Company, 317.
Coronation banquets, Mayor of London's position at, 246-248.
Craft gilds, 293, 294.
Cripplegate, etymology of, 26.
Crutched Friars in London, 366.
Custom-House first built in 1385, 29.
E
Eating-houses and taverns, 157-160.
Eleanor crosses, 138.
F
Fabian (St.) and St. Sebastian, gild of London, 297.
Fairs and markets, 282-288;
Bartholomew fair, 282;
Cloth fair, 282;
Nane fair, 282;
_la novele feyre_, 282;
prohibition against being held in churchyards, 285;
Stocks Market, 286.
Faith (St.), Church of, 344, 345.
Field of Forty Footsteps, 401.
Fire of London, 1666, 388-391;
schemes for rebuilding, 388-391.
Fires in London, 36, 37;
precautions for their prevention, 37, 38.
Fishmongers of London, 309-311.
Fitz-Ailwin (Henry), Mayor of London, 230;
his seal, 231;
assize of building, 36, 37;
second assize, 37.
Fitzstephen's picture of London, 32, 90, 96, 131, 163, 373.
Fitz-Walter, Castellan and Bannerer of London, 264;
his seal, 269.
Football in the streets of London, 133.
Friars in London, 359-368;
Austin, 364;
Black, 360-363;
Crutched, 366;
De Areno, 367;
Grey, 363, 364;
Maturine, 368;
Penance of Jesus Christ or _de Sacco_, 367;
Pied, 367;
White, 365, 366.
Friday Street, Chaucer in, 86.
Friscobaldi, Company of Italian financiers, 325.
G
Galley Quay by the Tower, 29.
Garlekhith, gild of, London, 296.
Gates of London, their position should be marked, 27;
as dwelling-houses, 34.
Gilbertus Anglicus, first English writer on medicine, 167.
Gild merchant, 291-293.
Gilds and Companies of London, 290-323;
bakers, 305-309;
brewers and vintners, 313-315;
fishmongers, 309-311;
grocers, 312, 313;
poulterers, 311, 312.
Giles's (St.) and the leper hospital, 195.
Girdlers' Company, London, 319.
Gloucester (Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of), her penance, 91.
Goldsmiths' Company, 319-322.
Goldsmiths' Row, Cheapside, 320.
Governors of the city, 218-263.
Gower (John), Londoner, 76-78.
Gray's Inn, 392-395.
Grey Friars in London, 363, 364.
Grocers of London, 312, 313.
Guildhall of London, 273, 274.
H
Haberdashers of London, 315.
Health, disease and sanitation of London, 161-217.
Heptarchy, changes in the so-called, 16.
Hermitages, 368;
Monkwell Street, Cripplegate, 368.
Hoccleve (Thomas), Londoner, 74, 75.
Hogarth, a true Londoner, 398.
Hospitals of London, 179-195;
St. Bartholomew's, 179-191;
St. Thomas's, 191, 192;
for lepers, 192, 197.
I
Inns of London, 384, 385;
Devil, Fleet Street, 385;
Mermaid, 384;
Mitre, 384;
Windmill, 384.
Inns of Southwark, 379;
Bear at Bridge Foot, 379;
George, 379;
King's Head, 379;
Tabard, 379;
White Hart, 379.
Italian bankers in London, papers by Bond, Rhodes and Whitwell, 325 (note).
J
Jack Cade's Rebellion, 48, 49, 63-70.
Jews in London, 165, 323, 324;
as practisers of surgery, 165;
hardships of, 323;
expelled from England, 323.
John of Gaddesden, doctor of physick, 167, 168.
Johnson (Samuel), a true Londoner, 398.
Jonson's (Ben) London, 383.
Justiciar of London created by Henry I.'s charter, 221, 222.
K
Katherine's (St.) Gild, 296.
King's household, their right to lodgings, 40;
London exempted from this charge, 40-42.
King's Palace (the Tower), 108-130.
L
Lambreth Palace, 376.
Lazar houses, 192;
"The Loke," Kent Street, Southwark, 192;
at Hackney, 192;
hospital of St Giles's, 195.
Leathersellers' Company, London, 318.
Lepers, regulations respecting, in London, 192-197.
Life, expectancy of, in the Middle Ages, 162.
Lincoln's Inn gateway, 392.
Lithsmen, their position in London, 19.
Livery Companies and the Gilds, 299-301;
feuds of the companies, 235-238, 304, 305.
Lombards, Italian financiers in London, 324-327.
London, a distinct political unit during the Saxon period, 17;
Arms of London, 261-263;
British remains, 1, 2;
centre of early commerce, 277;
Church and education, 330-374;
commerce and trade, 277-329;
Commune, 223;
condition of houses, 35;
Danish invasions, 8;
disputes as to the rebuilding by Alfred, 8;
early history of, to Norman Conquest, 1-20;
eating-houses and taverns, 157-160;
education, 372-374;
exempt from billeting of soldiers, 40, 41;
fairs and markets, 282;
feuds of Livery Companies, 235-238;
fire of 1666, 388;
fires, 36, 37;
foreign element in, 20, 222;
foreigners and strangers not permitted to reside in, 289;
free citizens of, subject to onerous laws under
the Normans, 21, 22;
gates closed at curfew, 23, 24;
Governors of the city, 218-263;
growth in eighteenth century, 398;
health, disease, and sanitation, 161-217;
Jack Cade's rebellion, 48, 49, 63-70;
large portions of town left desolate at dissolution
of religious houses, 368;
lights to be extinguished at curfew, 23;
line of the walls, 23-28;
Ludgate, chief entrance of, 23;
manners, 131-160;
Mayors of, 231-235;
first use of the title Lord Mayor, 239-241;
migration of upper classes westward, 387;
narrowness of streets, 383;
Newgate, western approach, 23, 24;
officials of the city, 264-274;
older than Middlesex and Surrey, 17;
overcrowding, 213;
pageants, processions and tournaments, 136-153;
peasants' rising under Wat Tyler, 47-63;
"Pui" brotherhood of, musical society French merchants, 153;
plans for rebuilding after Great Fire, 388;
population, 46, 47, 207;
recognised capital under Edward the Confessor, 19;
references to, in _Piers Plowman_, 71, 72;
right to a voice in selection of king during the Saxon period, 13;
round the town with Chaucer and the poets of his time, 71-89;
sanctuary, 370-372;
schools, 372-374;
seal, 261;
seat of trade in Eastern luxuries, 280;
sports, 131-136;
streets first lighted by lanterns in 1415, 23;
stringent regulations relaxed under Henry I., 23;
suburbs, 385, 386;
tower of, as a fortress, 112-114;
as a palace, 113-125;
as a prison, 125-130;
victualling and clothing trades' antagonism, 235-238;
walled town and its streets, 21-70;
water fetched from conduits, 383;
westward growth of, 387;
London and Londonburgh, use of the names in the Saxon Chronicle, 4;
Roman, 3;
Saxon Chronology, 3-20;
from mediæval to modern times, 375-403.
London Bridge, 100-107;
destroyed by Olaf, 11, 12;
wooden bridge, 100;
first stone bridge, 100;
built on piles, 102;
weight of buildings on, 105;
the chief sight of London, 105;
waterway obstructed by, 107.
London Stone, 230.
Lord Mayor, first use of title, 239-241.
Ludgate, 23, 31.
Lydgate (John), a visitor to London, 78, 79.
M
Mace-bearers of London, 272.
Manners of the Londoners, 131-160.
Markets; _see_ Fairs and markets.
Martin's (St.) le Grand, curfew tolled from the church, 24.
Mayors of London, 231-235;
position at coronation banquets, 246-248;
position in the city, 242-245;
summons to Privy Council on accession of sovereign, 245, 246.
---- pageants connected with election of, 248, 249.
---- skivins assistants to the mayor, 227.
Medical skill in the Middle Ages, 164.
Medicine and surgery, faculty of, 170, 171.
Mercers' Company, London, 315.
Merchant Taylors and Linen Armourers, London, 315.
Middle Temple Hall, 396;
_Comedy of Errors_ played in, 396.
Military orders, 356, 357;
Knights Hospitallers, 356, 357;
Templars, 356, 357.
Minoresses by Aldgate, 85, 364.
Minories, derivation of the name, 28.
Monks (Benedictines) in Westminster, 352-359.
---- Cluniac reform, 352-354;
Carthusians, 355;
Cistercians, 355, 356.
Montfichet, Tower of, 268.
Morestede (Thomas), King's surgeon, 176, 177.
Murage, a tax for keeping the walls in repair, 33;
Hanse merchants freed from payment of, 33.
Music on the ships in the Thames, 95.
N
New Road, formation of, 398.
Newgate erected in reign of Henry I., 24;
prison, 24;
its rebuilding, 24;
its earlier name Chamberlain's gate, 24.
Night-walkers in London, 43, 44.
Northampton (John of), feud with Nicholas Brembre, 236.
O
Officials of the City, 264-274;
Castellan and Bannerer, 264-270;
Chamberlain or Comptroller of the King's Chamber, 271, 272;
Common Hunt, 272;
Common Sergeant, 270;
Coroner, 271, 272;
King's Butler, 271;
Mace-bearers, 273;
Recorder, 270;
Remembrancer or State Amanuensis, 272;
Sword-bearer, 272;
Town Clerk, 270.
Olaf, London Bridge destroyed by, 11, 12.
Old Jewry, 324.
P
Pageants, processions and tournaments, 136-153.
Paul's (St.) Cathedral, 331-335;
tombs, 341;
choir, 342, 344;
nave, 341, 342;
reredos, 343;
altars, 343;
dean and chapter, 345, 346.
---- dimensions of the old cathedral, 332, 333.
Paul's (St.) Cathedral Close, buildings in, 335-338;
gates, 336, 337;
folkmoot held in the precincts, 10.
Paul's Cross, 337.
Paul's (St.) School, 337.
Peasants' rising under Wat Tyler, 47-63.
Penthouses in the streets, 39.
_Piers Plowman_, references to London in, 71, 72.
---- Professor Skeat's edition of, 73 (note).
Pile dwellings in London, 2.
Pindar's (Sir Paul) mansion, 398.
Pirates in the Thames, 280-282.
Pui, brotherhood of the, musical society of French merchants, 153-157.
---- regulations, 154-157.
Plagues in London, 197-209;
(black death, 1349), 197-200;
1361, 200;
1368-1369, 200;
1430-1440, 200;
regulations, 200-205;
statistics of deaths, 207.
Population of London, various estimates, 46.
---- of certain great towns, 47.
Port-reeve, derivation of, 219.
Poulterers of London, 311-312.
Prisons of London, 45, 379;
Borough Compter, 379;
Clink, 379;
King's Bench, 379;
Marshalsea, 379;
burnt by mob, 54;
White Lion, 379.
Privy Council, Mayor's summons to, on accession of sovereign, 245, 246.
Punishments and fines in London, 42.
Pursers or glovers of London, 318.
Q
Queenhithe, early history, 93, 94.
---- and Billingsgate, the chief wharfs, 30.
R
Rahere, founder of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 180-183.
Recorder of London, 270.
Religious houses, dissolution of, 368.
Remembrancer or State Amanuensis of London, 272.
River, the, and the bridge, 90-107.
Roman villa, foundations of, discovered on north
side of Upper Thames Street in 1847, 30.
Round (J. Horace) on the early governors of London, 220;
views as to the justiciar, 221;
on the character of the Commune, 225.
S
Sanctuary in London, 370-372.
Sanitation of London, 211-217.
Schools of London, 372-374.
Seals: London Common Seal, 261-262;
Mayoralty seals, 262-263;
Henry Fitz Ailwin, 231;
Robert Fitz-Walter, 269;
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 180.
Selds or warehouses in London, 39.
Serfdom, abolition of, 50.
Sheriffs of London, 219-221, 257-259;
elected by mayor, aldermen and commonalty of city, 258.
Shakespeare in London, 387, 395, 396.
Skeat (Professor), his edition of _Piers Plowman_, 73 (note).
Skinners' Company, London, 316.
Skivins, assistants to the mayor, 227.
Smithfield, tournaments held at, 25.
Southwark, chief thoroughfare from London to the South of England, 376;
St. Mary Overy, 376;
inns, 379;
prisons, 379.
Sports and pastimes in London, 131-136.
Staple, merchants of, 286; ordinance of, 287;
staple towns, 287.
Staple inn, 396.
Statute merchant of London, 328, 329
Steelyard, merchants of, 278, 279.
Streets, narrowness of, 383.
Suburbs of London, 385, 386.
Suffolk (William de la Pole, Duke of), 64.
Suffolk's (Duchess of) escape from London, 381.
Surgeons, 171;
barbers as, 171, 178, 179;
military, 171;
gild of, 174-176;
sergeant, 177 (note);
fellowship of, 178.
Surrey, etymology of, 17, 18;
formerly an integral part of Kent, 19.
Sweating sickness in London, 209-211.
Sword-bearer of London, 272.
T
Tabard (The), at Southwark, 88.
Temple, right-of-way through the, 96.
Temple Bar, 391;
closing of, to sovereign, 241, 242.
Thames (River), 90-100;
attempts of landowners to close lanes leading to, 96-99;
infested by pirates, 280-282;
sports on, 90, 91;
as a highway, 90-92;
localities adjoining northern bank, 95;
use of unlawful nets, 99.
Thomas's (St.) Hospital, 191, 192;
destroyed by fire, 191;
rebuilt, 192.
Tower of London, origin of the name, 108, 109;
fortress planned by the Conqueror, 110;
alterations and additions by Henry III., 111, 112;
additions by Edward III., 117, 118;
menagerie of wild beasts, 123, 124;
prisoners, 125-127;
ceremony of locking the gates, 114, 115;
as a fortress, 112-114;
as a palace, 113-125;
as a prison, 125-130;
King's Palace, 108-130;
St. John's Chapel, 123.
Tower Green, names of celebrities beheaded there, 127, 128.
Town Clerk of London, 270.
Town populations, conditions of, 162.
Trade and Commerce, 277-329.
Traitors' Gate, Tower of London, 129, 130.
Trevelyan (G. M.), _England in the Age of Wycliffe_ referred to, 48, 370.
V
Vicary (Thomas), famous surgeon, 177, 189.
Victualling and clothing trades, feud between, 235-238, 304, 305.
Vintners of London, 313-315.
W
Walled town and its streets, 21-70.
Wat Tyler's rebellion, 48-63;
demands of the rebels, 56, 57, 60.
Water fetched from conduits, 383.
Weavers' gild, London, 303, 304.
Weights and measures, 288;
King's great beam or tron, 289.
Westminster, 376.
White Friars in London, 365.
William the Conqueror outside London, 15;
citizens repair to him at Berkhamsted, 15.
Windows, glass only used by the opulent, 39;
mere apertures, 40.
Woad merchants in Cannon Street, 279.
Women of bad repute restricted to certain garb, 44.
Wyat's (Sir Thomas) insurrection, 380.
* * * * *
THE END
EDINBURGH
COLSTONS LIMITED
PRINTERS
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Journal, Anthropological Society, vol. v. pp. lxxi.-lxxx.
[2] _Lake Dwellings in Europe_, 1890, pp. 460-464.
[3] Elton, _Origins of English History_, p. 360.
[4] Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson, _Chapters in the History of Old St.
Paul's_, 1881, p. 3.
[5] _Archæologia_, vol. xxxii. pp. 298-311.
[6] _Norman Conquest_, vol. i. pp. 44-46.
[7] The Treaty was really made at Chippenham.
[8] _See_ Earle's edition of the Saxon Chronicle. Mr Charles Plummer,
who edited a new edition of _Two of the Saxon Chronicles, Parallel_
(Oxford, 1892-99), does not altogether agree with Earle in these
views. He holds that no distinction was meant between Lunden and
Lundenburh.
[9] Quoted in _Archæologia_, vol. xxxix. p. 56.
[10] _Heimskringla_, done into English out of the Icelandic by William
Morris and Eirikr Magnusson, vol. ii. p. 14.
[11] _Norman Conquest_, vol. i. p. 418.
[12] This device of Cnut's is one of great interest, although we have
no details of how it was carried out. The late Sir Walter Besant
contended that it was not the great work which some had supposed, and
he made an elaborate plan of his suggestion as to its construction.
(See _South London_, 1899, p. 40.)
[13] A very instructive article on 'The Conqueror's Footprints in
Domesday,' which contains an account of his movements after the Battle
of Senlac, between Enfield, Edmonton, Tottenham, and Berkhamsted, was
published in the _English Historical Review_, vol. xiii. (1898), p. 17.
[14] _See_ Dr. Reginald Sharpe's _London and the Kingdom_, to the
contents of which valuable work I am pleased to express my great
obligations.
[15] _Archæologia_, vol. xxxii. p. 305.
[16] Riley's Introduction to _Liber Albus_ (Rolls Series), 1859, vol.
i. p. cx.
[17] _Political Poems and Songs_, ed. T. Wright (Rolls Series), 1861,
vol. ii. pp. 157-205.
[18] _See_ Riley's _Memorials_, pp. 21, 93; also _Liber Albus_, p. 240.
[19] Records of St. Giles's, Cripplegate (1883).
[20] It is scarcely creditable to the city authorities that no
mark of the position of the other gates has been set up. To place
these memorials would be an easy thing to do, and this attention to
historical topography would be highly appreciated by all Londoners.
The mark of Aldgate should take the form of a statue of Chaucer,
who lived at that gate for some years. The Corporation would honour
themselves by doing further honour to the great Englishman, who was
also one of the greatest of Londoners, if they placed at the great
eastern entrance to London a full length effigy of the son of one of
London's worthy merchants. This would be in addition to the gift of a
bust to Guildhall by Sir Reginald Hanson. The line of the wall should
also be marked, but this would be a more difficult operation.
[21] _Liber Albus_, p. 603.
[22] William Fitz-Stephen's invaluable work has been printed several
times both in the original Latin and in an English translation. The
most convenient form is the reprint in Thoms's edition of Stow's
_Survey_, 1842 or 1876.
[23] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 79.
[24] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 489.
[25] _History of English Law before Edward I._, vol. i. p. 633.
[26] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 479.
[27] Stow's _Chronicle_, ed. 1615, p. 300.
[28] Quoted in Turner's _Domestic Architecture in England_, vol. i. p.
18.
[29] Quoted in Turner's _Domestic Architecture in England_, vol. i. p.
22.
[30] Riley's Introduction to _Liber Albus_, pp. xxxiii., xxxiv.
[31] Riley's Introduction to _Liber Albus_, p. xxxii.
[32] Riley's Introduction to _Liber Albus_, p. xxxiii.
[33] Translation of the _Liber Albus_, p. 263, and Riley's
Introduction to _Liber Albus_, p. lix.
[34] Letter Book B, p. i.
[35] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 54.
[36] _Ibid._, p. 86.
[37] _Ibid._, p. 458.
[38] Riley's Introduction to _Liber Albus_, p. lii.
[39] From an 'Anominalle Cronicle,' once belonging to St. Mary's
Abbey, York. The original apparently has been lost, and the copy now
existing is a late sixteenth-century manuscript of this portion of the
Chronicle in the handwriting of Francis Thynne. It is now preserved
in the British Museum (Stowe MS. 1047), and was one of the Duke of
Buckingham's MSS. in the library at Stowe, Bucks, which came into
the possession of the Earl of Ashburnham, and was sold by his son to
the nation. It was published by Mr. G. M. Trevelyan in the _English
Historical Review_, vol. xiii. (1898), p. 509. It is a curious
circumstance, that it may be referred to as the 'Stowe MS.,' because
it comes from the Stowe collection, or as the 'Stow MS.,' because it
was used by the historian, John Stow.
[40] Trevelyan, p. 226.
[41] Trevelyan, p. 227.
[42] Trevelyan, p. 227.
[43] Trevelyan, p. 234.
[44] Trevelyan, p. 240.
[45] Stow's _Chronicle_, ed. 1615, p. 288.
[46] _English Historical Review_, xiii. p. 519.
[47] Stow's _Chronicle_, p. 288.
[48] _Second Part of King Henry VI._, act iv. sc. i
[49] _Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles_, ed. J. Gairdner (Camden
Society), 1880, p. 94.
[50] Stow's _Chronicle_, ed. 1615, p. 391.
[51] Rendle and Norman's _Inns of Old Southwark_, 1888, p. 134.
[52] _Historical Collections of a Citizen of London_, ed. Gairdner
(Camden Society), p. 191. The chief contents of this volume consist of
the valuable 'Chronicle of William Gregory, Skinner' (1189-1469).
[53] _Ibid._, p. xxii.
[54] Vernon Text (A), ed. Skeat, pp. vi., 60.
[55] _Piers Plowman_ (Text C), ed. Skeat, pass. xvii. II. 286-296.
[56] There was another Cock Lane near Shoreditch (now Boundary
Street), which may be the one connected with Langland.
[57] _Piers Plowman_, part iv. sect. ii. p. xliii.
[58] It is scarcely possible to keep within bounds one's enthusiasm
for the magnificent edition of _Piers Plowman_, which Professor
Skeat has placed in our hands. I feel, having watched the work from
its inception in 1866, when 'Parallel Extracts from 29 Manuscripts'
was published, that if the Early English Text Society had published
nothing else it would have worthily justified its existence. The
labour bestowed on the work by its editor is immense, and the result
is that we have for the first time a perfect text of one of the most
influential works in English literature, with all the illustrative
notes necessary to exhibit its vast effect upon English history.
[59] Hoccleve's Works, vol. i. Minor Poems, ed. by F. J. Furnivall
(Early English Text Society, Extra Series), p. 61, 1891. The editor
has gathered much fresh material for the biography of Hoccleve.
[60] _Gower's Complete Works_, ed. G. C. Macaulay, Oxford, 1899, vol.
i.
[61] Of these especial honour is due to Dr. Furnivall, who has for
years sought ceaselessly and with the greatest success for documentary
evidence of the facts of Chaucer's life.
[62] Chaucer at Aldgate, _Home Counties Magazine_, Oct. 1900, p. 259.
[63] Chaucer at Aldgate (_Folia Litteraria_, 1893, p. 87).
[64] _Folia Litteraria_, pp. 88, 89.
[65] _Folia Litteraria_, p. 100.
[66] _Scrope and Grosvenor Roll_, vol. i. p. 178 (translated from
French).
[67] _See_ letter of Prof. J. W. Hales, _Athenæum_, Aug. 9, 1902, p.
190.
[68] The Tabard was one among many inns from which travellers started
on their journeys along the road to Canterbury and to the seaports of
the South. The whole of the buildings which Chaucer knew were burnt in
the great Southwark fire of 1676.
[69] Commune, p. 246. Further consideration is given to the condition
of trade in London in the Middle Ages in chapter x.
[70] _Liber Custumarum_, ed. H. T. Riley, 1860, p. xxxvi.
[71] _Liber Custumarum_, p. cix.
[72] Inquis. 1 _Henr. V._, quoted by Riley, p. cix.
[73] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 306.
[74] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 376.
[75] _Riley's Memorials_, p. 648.
[76] _Ibid._, p. 215.
[77] _Ibid._, p. 219.
[78] _Ibid._, p. 220.
[79] Cal. Letter Book A, p. 187.
[80] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 509.
[81] _Chronicle of Mayors and Sheriffs_, pp. 146, 147, quoted in Cal.
Letter Book C, p. 61 (note).
[82] Cal. Letter Book C, p. 133.
[83] _Ibid._, p. 95.
[84] Cal. Letter Book B, p. 219.
[85] Cal. Letter Book A, pp. 178, 179.
[86] Stow's _Chronicle_, p. 681.
[87] W. B. Rye's _England as seen by Foreigners_, 1865, pp. 9, 192.
[88] _Liber Custumarum_, ed. Riley, 1860, p. ciii.
[89] Round's _Geoffrey de Mandeville_, 1892, pp. 328-346.
[90] _Mediæval Military Architecture_, 1884, vol. ii. p. 204.
[91] _Mediæval Military Architecture_, 1884, vol. ii. p. 205.
[92] _Mediæval Military Architecture_, 1884, vol. ii. p. 253.
[93] _Mediæval Military Architecture_, vol. ii. p. 271.
[94] 'Geoffrey de Mandeville.'
[95] _London and the Kingdom_, vol. i. p. 53.
[96] Stow's _Chronicle_, p. 193.
[97] Longman's _Edward III._, vol. i. p. 179.
[98] Clark's _Mediæval Military Architecture_, vol. ii. p. 271.
[99] _Liber Custumarum_, pp. 407-409.
[100] Clark's _Mediæval Military Architecture_, vol. ii. p. 264.
[101] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 320.
[102] Stow's _Chronicle_, p. 896.
[103] Proclamation was made against playing at football in the fields
near the city as early as 1314 during the mayoralty of Nicholas de
Farndone, _Liber Memorandorum_ (preserved at Guildhall), folio 66
(quoted in Riley's _Memorials_, p. 571 (note)).
[104] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 561.
[105] _Ibid._, p. 571.
[106] Riley's _Memorials_, pp. 509-510.
[107] _Ibid._, p. 510 (note).
[108] Stow's _Chronicle_, p. 208.
[109] Riley's _Memorials_, pp. 105-107.
[110] Jessopp's _Coming of the Friars_, etc., 1889, p. 177.
[111] Stow's _Chronicle_, p. 264.
[112] Stow's _Survey of London_, ed. by Strype, 1754, vol. i. p. 303.
[113] Gregory's _Chronicle_ (_Historical Collections of a Citizen
of London_, ed. J. Gairdner, Camden Society, 1876), p. 165. This
_Chronicle_ contains a full description of the coronation and of the
banquet in Westminster Hall.
[114] This description is taken from Fabyan's _Chronicle_. The
speeches in the pageant were by Lydgate, who also wrote a long poem on
the 'Coming of the King out of France to London.'
[115] The particulars respecting the sermon on Edward IV.'s title were
obtained by Dr. J. Gairdner from a Latin Chronicle, printed by the
Camden Society (_Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles_, 1880, pp. xxii.
173), as also his sitting in the royal seat (_sedes regalis_), which
Dr. Gairdner supposes to be the King's Bench.
[116] Stow's _Chronicle_, p. 416.
[117] Information on London pageants can be obtained from a small
octavo volume published by J. B. Nichols & Son in 1831, and from
Nichols's _Progresses of Queen Elizabeth and James I._
[118] _Liber Custumarum_, p. 579.
[119] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 42.
[120] _See_ Mr. Riley's Introduction to the _Liber Custumarum_, pp.
xlviii.-liv.
[121] _Liber Custumarum_, p. xxxii.
[122] Glossary to _Liber Custumarum_, p. 795.
[123] Riley's Introduction to _Liber Albus_, pp. lv., lvii.
[124] Introduction to _Liber Albus_, p. lviii.
[125] In the compilation of this chapter I am much indebted to the
kindness of my friend Mr. D'Arcy Power, who has not only helped me
with information from his own great knowledge of the history of
surgery and medicine, but who also drew my attention to and lent me
books and pamphlets of which I should otherwise have been ignorant.
[126] _Coming of the Friars_, London, 1889, p. 6.
[127] _A History of Epidemics in Britain_, 2 vols. 8vo, Cambridge,
1891-1894.
[128] _Medical Times and Gazette_, November 18, 1881, p. 601.
[129] _Progress of Medicine at St. Batholomew's Hospital_, 1888, p. 5.
[130] _See_ the _British Medical Journal_, 1902, vol. ii. p. 1176.
[131] In 'How Surgery became a Profession in London.' London, _Medical
Magazine_, 1899.
[132] Dr. Poore has analysed the different points in Chaucer's
description, and explained the various allusions of the statement that
the doctor's line of study had little to do with the Bible. Dr. Poore
writes: 'This line is frequently quoted to show that the scepticism
with which doctors are often charged is of no modern growth. The
point of the line is however to be found in the fact that Chaucer's
doctor was certainly a priest, as were all the physicians of his
time, and that the practice of medicine had drawn him away, somewhat
unduly, perhaps, from the clerical profession, to which he also
belonged.'--G.V. Poore, M.D. _London from the Sanitary and Medical
Point of View_, 1889, p. 52.
[133] _Joannis Anglici praxis medica, Rosa Anglica dicta_ (Augsburg,
1595, lib. ii. p. 1050), quoted by J. J. Jusserand (_English Wayfaring
Life in the Middle Ages_, 1901, p. 180), and by J. Flint South (_Craft
of Surgery_, 1886, p. 29.)
[134] D'Arcy Power's _How Surgery became a Profession in London_
(1899), which valuable article contains a full account of the scheme.
[135] _Ibid._, p. 9.
[136] D'Arcy Power's _How Surgery became a Profession in London_, p. 9.
[137] _Ibid._, p. 1.
[138] He was born in 1307 (Sloane MS., No. 75).
[139] See _John Arderne and his Time_, by William Anderson, F.R.C.S.,
1899 (reprinted from the _Lancet_, Oct. 23); J. F. South's _Memorials
of the Craft of Surgery_, ed. by D'Arcy Power, M.A., F.R.C.S., 1886,
pp. 30-45; also _London from the Sanitary and Medical Point of View_,
by G. V. Poore, M.D., F.R.C.P., 1889, pp. 53-56.
[140] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 274.
[141] _How Surgery became a Profession in London_, pp. 3, 4.
[142] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 337.
[143] _Ibid._, p. 519.
[144] _Ibid._, p. 520.
[145] _How Surgery became a Profession in London_, p. 4.
[146] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 651.
[147] _How Surgery became a Profession in London_, pp. 2, 3.
[148] 'William Hobbes (appointed in 1461) was the first Serjeant
Surgeon, a distinguished office which carried with it certain
well-defined professional privileges. Thomas Morstede, William
Bredewardyne, and John Harwe, who attended Henry V. in his French
campaigns, did not receive this title, but are called simply
"_Surgeons to the King_."'--D'Arcy Power, _The Serjeant Surgeons of
England and their Office_ (_Janus_, 1900, p. 174).
[149] _How Surgery became a Profession in London_, pp. 11, 12.
[150] _Annals of the Barber Surgeons of London_, by Sidney Young.
London, 1890.
[151] _Ibid._, p. 245.
[152] London, 1885.
[153] Dr. Norman Moore has printed the Cottonian MS. Life of Rahere in
the _Bartholomew Hospital Reports_, vol. xxi., and copious extracts
from the MS. had previously been given by Mr. J. Saunders in his
articles on St. Bartholomew's in Knight's _London_, vol. ii.
[154] _Progress of Medicine_, 1888, p. 21.
[155] These documents are printed in the Appendix to _Memoranda
relating to the Royal Hospitals of London_, 1836, pp. 1-49.
[156] Reprinted in Dr. Furnivall's edition of Thomas Vicary's
_Anatomie of the Bodie of Man_, E. E. T. S., 1888, pp. 289-336.
[157] 'The Physicians and Surgeons of St. Bartholomew's Hospital
before the time of Harvey,' St. Bartholomew's Hospital Reports, vol.
xviii., 1882, pp. 333-338.
[158] 'The Serjeant-Surgeons of England and their Office,' by D'Arcy
Power (_British Medical Journal_, 1900, vol. i. p. 583).
[159] The manuscript is dated 1392, but the handwriting of the copy
used by Dr. Payne is of a much later date. Dr. Payne says that the
_Anatomy_ of Vicary is absolutely that of the fourteenth century,
without any correction or addition to bring it up to the standard
of his own day, 'On an unpublished English Anatomical Treatise of
the fourteenth century, and its relation to the _Anatomy_ of Thomas
Vicary' (_British Medical Journal_, 25th January 1896, p. 208).
[160] _A History of Epidemics in Britain_, by Charles Creighton, M.D.,
1891, vol. i. pp. 97, 98.
[161] _Ibid._, p. 106.
[162] Creighton, vol. i. p. 97.
[163] _England in the Fifteenth Century_, 1888, p. 208 (note).
[164] Creighton, vol. i. p. 105.
[165] _Quarterly Review_, No. 388, p. 540.
[166] _Epidemics in Britain_, vol. i. p. 119. _See_ also _The Great
Pestilence_, by F. A. Gasquet, D.D., O.S.B., London, 1893.
[167] Riley's Introduction to _Liber Albus_, p. liv.
[168] Jessopp's _Coming of the Friars_.
[169] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 219 (note).
[170] _Ibid._, p. 240 (note).
[171] _A History of Epidemics in Britain_, vol. i. p. 202.
[172] _Ibid._, p. 228.
[173] Creighton, vol. i. pp. 313, 314.
[174] _Anatomie of the Bodie of Man_, ed. Furnivall, App. 161.
[175] _Ibid._, pp. 163, 164.
[176] _Calendar of State Papers_, Venetian, vii. 749.
[177] Creighton, vol. i. p. 316.
[178] Vicary, App. iii. p. 166.
[179] Mr. Power refers me to the fact that isolated cases of plague
and local epidemics occurred long after the Great Fire.
[180] In a broadside referring to '_The Plague of London_, printed
by Peter Cole, at the printing office in Cornhill, near the Royal
Exchange, 1665,' the number of deaths from plague in 1603, 1625 and
1636 are given as follows:--1603, 30,561 persons; 1625, 35,403; and
1636, 10,400. The numbers in 1593 are given as above.
[181] Mr Pearce gives some interesting facts in his _Annals of
Christ's Hospital_ (p. 207) respecting the effects of the plague in
1603 and 1665 on the condition of the Blue Coat School. During 1665 no
more than 32 children of the total number of 260 in the house died of
all diseases, although the neighbourhood was severely visited.
[182] Creighton, vol. i. p. 265.
[183] Creighton, p. 270.
[184] _Progress of Medicine_, 1888, p. 24.
[185] Creighton, vol. i. p. 44.
[186] _London (Ancient and Modern) from the Sanitary and Medical Point
of View_, by G. V. Poore, M.D., F.R.C.P., 1889, p. 114.
[187] _Ibid._, p. 31.
[188] Creighton, vol. i. p. 323.
[189] Stow's Chronicle, p. 212.
[190] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 67.
[191] Rymer's _Foedera_, vol. iii. p. 411.
[192] Creighton, vol. i. pp. 323, 324.
[193] Creighton, vol. i. p. 324.
[194] Riley's Introduction to _Liber Albus_, p. xl.
[195] Cal. Letter Book A.
[196] Riley's Introduction to _Liber Albus_, p. xli.
[197] Mr. Round conjectures that the 'Gosfregth Portirefan' of the
Conqueror's Charter was the first Geoffrey de Mandeville.--_Geoffrey
de Mandeville, a Study of the Anarchy_, 1892, p. 439.
[198] 'The acceptance of this view will at once dispose of the alleged
disappearance of the portreeve, with the difficulties it has always
presented, and the conjectures to which it has given rise. The style
of the "portreeve" indeed disappears, but his office does not. In the
person of the Norman vicecomes it preserves an unbroken existence.
Geoffrey de Mandeville steps, as sheriff, into the shoes of Ansgar,
the portreeve.'--_Geoffrey de Mandeville_, p. 354.
[199] _Constitutional History_, chap, xi., note to par. 131.
[200] _Select Charters_, Oxford, 1884, p. 107.
[201] _Geoffrey de Mandeville_, 1892, p. 372
[202] _Geoffrey de Mandeville_, p. 373.
[203] _Constitutional History_, chap. xiii. par 165.
[204] _Ancient Charters prior to_ 1200, edited by J. H. Round. Part
I, p. 27, 1888 (Pipe Roll Society).
[205] _The Commune of London_, p. 98.
[206] Round's _Commune of London_, pp. 223, 224.
[207] 'A London Municipal Collection of the Reign of John,' part i.,
_English Historical Review_, July 1902, p. 480.
[208] 'Nunc primum in sibi indulta conjuratione, regno regem deesse
cognovit Londonia, quam nec rex ipse Ricardus, nec prædecessor
et pater ejus Henricus pro mille millibus marcarum argenti fieri
permississet.'--_Richard of Devizes_, p. 416 (_Commune of London_, p.
223)
[209] Bishop Stubbs's _Historical Introductions_, pp. 200-309.
[210] _The Commune of London_, p. 224. The Beffroi of France was
the symbol and pledge of independence. So was the bell-tower of St.
Paul's, which is styled in documents _berefridum_ or campanile, p. 234.
[211] _The Commune of London_, p. 225.
[212] _The Commune of London_, p. 228.
[213] _Ibid._, p. 228.
[214] 1193. 'Sacramentum Commune tempore regis Ricardi quando detentus
erat Alemaniam' (Add. MS., No. 14,252, f. 112 d.), 1205-1206.
'Sacramentum xxiiij factum anno regni regis Johannis viiº.' (Add. MS.,
No. 14,252, f. 110).--(_The Commune of London_, 1899, pp. 235-237.)
[215] _Commune of London_, p. 240.
[216] A curious point is that formerly the Leges Britolii were
supposed to relate to Bristol, and the great English port obtained
credit which it did not deserve.
[217] 'The Laws of Breteuil [Britolium],' _English Historical Review_,
xv. (1900), pp. 73, 302, 496, 754.
[218] The seal is figured in '_Rotuli Curiæ Regis_. Rolls and Records
of the Court held before the King's Justiciars or Justices, ed. by Sir
Francis Palgrave,' vol. i., 1835 (plate 1), and is here reproduced.
[219] _Constitutional History_, chap. xiii. sec. 165.
[220] Cal. Letter Book B, p. 244.
[221] Cal. Letter Book A, pp. 89, 209.
[222] Rymer's _Foedera_, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 892.
[223] Cal. Letter Book C, pp. 27, 212, 213.
[224] _Constitutional History_, chap. xxi. sec. 486.
[225] Sharpe, _London and the Kingdom_, vol. i. p. 158.
[226] Letter Book F, fo. 44. Riley's Introduction to _Liber Albus_,
1859, pp. xcviii., xcix. (note).
[227] This church was destroyed in the Great Fire, and rebuilt after
the designs of Sir C. Wren. It was cleared away in 1831 to make way
for the approaches to the new London Bridge.
[228] Stubbs, _Constitutional History_, chap. xxi. sec. 487.
[229] Statutes at Large, ed. 1762, ii. 257.
[230] Riley's _Memorials_, pp. 473, 474.
[231] Riley's _Memorials_, pp. 415, 416.
[232] _Rotuli Parl._ iii. 227.
[233] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 494.
[234] _Ibid._, p. 526.
[235] Cal. Letter Book A, p. 64.
[236] _Constitutional History_, chap. xxi. sec. 488.
[237] See Jewitt and Hope's _Corporation Plate_, 1895, vol. ii., pp.
446, 463.
[238] Riley's _Memorials_, pp. 604, 605.
[239] _Historical Collections of a Citizen of London_, 1876, pp. 222,
223.
[240] _London and the Kingdom_, i. 69. 'Cives vero Lundonie servierunt
de pincernaria, et Cives Wintonie de Coquina.'--Roger de Hoveden,
Bodl. Laud., MS. 582, fo. 52. (_See_ Wickham Legg's _English
Coronation Records_, 1901, p. 50).
[241] 'Andrew the Mayor came to serve as butler with 360 cups, on the
ground that the City of London is bound to serve in butlery to help
the great butler (just as the City of Winchester serves in the kitchen
to help the steward). The King said that no one ought to serve by
right except Master Michael Belet, so the Mayor gave way and served
the two bishops on the King's right hand. '_De Servitiis magnatum in
die Coronationis Regis et Reginæ_, Red Book of the Exchequer, ed.
by Hubert Hall, pt. ii., 1896, pp. 755-760 (Rolls Series). The germ
of the Court of Claims will be found in this MS. _See_ also Wickham
Legg's _English Coronation Records_, 1901, pp. 60, 63.
[242] _English Coronation Records_, 1901, pp. 140, 159.
[243] _London and the Kingdom_, i. 275.
[244] 'Dinner being concluded, the Lord Mayor and twelve principal
citizens of London, as assistants to the Chief Butler of England,
accompanied by the King's cupbearer and assistant, presented to
His Majesty wine in a gold cup; and the King having drank thereof,
returned the gold cup to the Lord Mayor as his fee.'--L. G. Wickham
Legg, _English Coronation Records_, 1901, p. 361.
[245] The Petition of the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of London,
containing their claims fully set forth, is printed in _Coronation of
King Edward VII. The Court of Claims. Cases and Evidence_, by G. Woods
Wollaston, London, 1903, p. 52.
[246] _Constitutional History_, iii. 587.
[247] Cal. Letter Book C, p. 32.
[248] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 41.
[249] _Ibid._, p. 46.
[250] _Ibid._, p. 78.
[251] _Liber Albus_, trans. by Riley, p. 291.
[252] _Liber Albus_, p. 276.
[253] _The Aldermen of Cripplegate Ward_, by John James Baddeley,
1901, p. I (Calendar of Letter Book A, pp. 209, 226).
[254] Cal. Letter Book C, pp. 11, 12.
[255] In 1711 a return was made to the practice of nominating two
persons only, followed in 1714 by 'an Act for reviving the ancient
manner of electing aldermen'(13 Anne), which restored to the
'inhabitants their ancient rights and privileges of choosing one
person only to be their alderman.' These particulars respecting the
election of aldermen are taken from _The Aldermen of Cripplegate
Ward_, from 1276 to 1900, by Mr. Deputy John James Baddeley, who
has collected in his valuable book a considerable amount of fresh
information on the office of aldermen, etc.
[256] _Liber Albus_, translated by H. T. Riley, 1861, p. 29.
[257] Sharpe's _London and the Kingdom_, vol. i. p. 217.
[258] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 655.
[259] Cal. Letter Book A, p. 76. By the Local Government Act of 1888
the citizens of London were deprived of all right of jurisdiction over
the county of Middlesex, which had been expressly granted by various
charters.
[260] _Liber Albus_, English translation, p. 399.
[261] _The Aldermen of Cripplegate Ward_, 1900, p. 235.
[262] Mr. Baddeley continues the account of the changes in the mode
of election up to the present time: 'From 1642 to 1651 the Mayor's
claim to elect a sheriff was always contested. For the year 1652 and
for some years afterwards the Mayor neither nominated nor elected a
sheriff, but in 1662, when he would have elected one Bludworth as
sheriff, the commonalty claimed their right, although they accepted
the Mayor's nominee. The prerogative thus claimed by the Mayor,
although frequently challenged, was exercised for the most part by
subsequent Mayors down to 1674, when exception was taken to William
Roberts, whom the Mayor had formally nominated (according to a custom
which is said to have arisen in the time of Elizabeth) by drinking
to him at a public banquet. In the following year and for some years
later the Mayor exercised his prerogative of electing one of the
sheriffs without opposition. In 1703 an Act was passed declaring the
right of election of sheriffs to be in the liverymen of the several
companies of the city in Common Hall assembled.' It was, however,
lawful for the Lord Mayor to nominate for the office. 'By an Act of
1748 the Lord Mayor might continue to nominate to the extent of nine
persons in the whole.' By an Act of Common Council in 1878 the right
of election to the office of sheriff was vested in the liverymen of
the several companies of the city in Common Hall assembled. The Lord
Mayor nominating one or more freemen (not exceeding three in the
whole) for the shrievalty.
[263] _The Aldermen of Cripplegate Ward_, by J. J. Baddeley, 1900, p.
218.
[264] Letter Book F, f. 206.
[265] Letter Book H, f. 46b (Baddeley's _Aldermen of Cripplegate
Ward_, p. 215).
[266] _Corporation Plate and Insignia of Office of the Cities and
Towns of England and Wales_, by Llewellyn Jewitt, ed. and completed by
W. H. St. John Hope, 1895, vol. ii. p. 122.
[267] _Corporation Plate and Insignia of Office of the Cities and
Towns of England and Wales_, p. 120.
[268] _Archæologia_, vol. v. pp. 211-213.
[269] See _Liber Custumarum_ (Rolls Series), Introduction, p. lxxvi.
[270] Cal. Letter Book C, p. 71.
[271] Cal. Letter Book A, p. 222.
[272] _Dugdale's Baronage_, i. 220.
[273] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 178.
[274] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 236.
[275] _Ibid._, p. 178.
[276] Cal. Letter Book A, p. 161.
[277] _Calendar of Charter Rolls_, vol. i. 1903, p. 163.
[278] _Liber Custumarum_ (Rolls Series), vol i. p. 243.
[279] Calendars: Letter Book A, p. 128; Letter Book C, p. 116.
[280] Letter Book C, p. 157 (note).
[281] Letter Book B, pp. vi., xi.
[282] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 650.
[283] _Corporation Plate and Insignia of Office of the Cities and
Towns of England and Wales_, by Llewellyn Jewitt, ed. by W. H. St.
John Hope, 1895, vol. ii, pp. 100, 109.
[284] _Ibid._, p. 91.
[285] Round's _Commune of London_, p. 246.
[286] _Calender of Documents preserved in France_, ed. by J. Horace
Round, 1899, p. 502.
[287] No woollen cloth was allowed to be dyed black except with woad.
See _Liber Custumarum_, Introd., pp. xl., xliii., quoted in Letter
Book C, ed. Sharpe, pp. 135, 136 (note), from which this information
is obtained. The whole history of the cultivation and use of woad is
one of great interest. It was cultivated in England from the earliest
times, and the trade was ruined by the indigo growers as they in turn
have been ruined in our own day by the manufacture in Germany of
synthetic indigo.
[288] Sharpe's _London and the Kingdom_, vol. i. p. 215.
[289] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 444.
[290] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 345.
[291] _Calendar of State Papers_, 1611-1618, p. 369.
[292] Cal. Letter Book B, p. 236; Cal. Letter Book C, p. vii
[293] Cal. Letter Book B, p. 236.
[294] Letter Book A, p. 3; Letters-Patent for St. Botolph's Fair,
1298. Letter Book B, p. 219.
[295] _Liber Albus_, English translation, p. 473.
[296] _Liber Albus_, English translation, p. 228.
[297] Mr. W. J. Ashley writes of this town: 'The conquest of Calais
furnished a place which combined the advantages of being abroad and
therefore near the foreign market with that of being within English
territory.'--Introduction to _English Economic History and Theory_,
1888-1893, p. 112.
[298] Starkey, _England in the Reign of Henry VIII._ (Early English
Text Society), p. 173.
[299] Mr. W. J. Ashley notes that the earliest instance of the
prohibition of the export of wool is found in the action of the
Oxford Parliament of 1258. The barons then 'decreed that the wool of
the country should be worked up in England and should not be sold to
foreigners, and that every one should use woollen cloth made within
the country,' and lest people should be dissatisfied at having to put
up with the rough cloth of England they bade them 'not to seek over
precious raiment.'--_English Economic History and Theory_, 1888-1893,
part ii. p. 194.
[300] _Political Poems and Songs_, ed. T. Wright (Rolls Series), vol.
ii. 1861, pp. 157-205.
[301] Letter Book C, p. 128 (note).
[302] _Liber Custumarum_, p. xxxix.
[303] Letter Book B, p. 94.
[304] _English Gilds_, p. xvi.
[305] _Ibid._, p. lxxv.
[306] _Ibid._, p. cvii.
[307] _English Economic History and Theory_, p. 67.
[308] _Ibid._, p. 82.
[309] _English Historical Review_, No. 70 (April 1903), vol. xviii. p.
315. _See_ also _Calendar of Charter Rolls_, vol. i. (1903), p. 407.
[310] _Twelve Great Livery Companies_ (1834), vol. i. p. 24.
[311] _Chronicles of the Mayors and Sheriffs of London_, 1188-1274.
Translated from the _Liber de Antiquis Legibus_ by H. T. Riley, 1863,
p. 59.
[312] _London and the Kingdom_, vol. i. p. 101.
[313] _Ibid._, p. 108.
[314] _English Economic History and Theory_, p. 87.
[315] _London and the Kingdom_, vol. i. p. 200.
[316] _English Gilds_, p. xlii. (note).
[317] See _English Economic History and Theory_, 1888-1893, pt. ii.
pp. 134, 148, 154.
[318] _History of London_, vol. i. p. 171 (note).
[319] _London_ (Historic Towns), p. 50.
[320] _London Afternoons_, 1902, p. 88.
[321] I am indebted to Sir Owen Roberts, M.A., D.C.L., clerk to the
Clothworkers' Company, for this information.
[322] Botfield's _Manners and Household Expenses of England_, 1841.
[323] W. J. Ashley, _English Economic History and Theory_, pp. 81, 83.
[324] Cal. Letter Book C, p. 35.
[325] Madox's _Firma Burgi_, p. 286.
[326] _Town Life_, vol. ii. p. 142.
[327] The reason given for the repeal of the Act of Edward II.
excluding victuallers from the office of Mayor is that 'since the
making of the Statute many and the most part of all cities, boroughs
and towns corporate be fallen in ruin and decay, and not inhabited
with merchants and men of such substance as they were at the time
of making the Statute. For at this day the dwellers and inhabitants
of the same cities and boroughs be most commonly bakers, brewers,
vintners, fishmongers, and other victuallers, and few or none other
persons of substance.'
Mr. W. J. Ashley (Introduction to _English Economic History and
Theory_, part ii. 1893, p. 53), observes that, 'without further proof
it were hardly safe to build on the wide language of the preamble of a
Statute a conclusion which seems in obvious conflict with what we know
of the generic course of events.'
In London, evidently, little or no attention was paid to the original
Act of Edward II., but in other places this was not the case. The
Statute of Henry VIII. provided that when the Mayor was a victualler,
two honest and discreet persons, not being victuallers, should be
chosen to assist him in 'settling prices' of victuals.
[328] _Liber Custumarum_, vol i. p. 326-333.
[329] _Liber Albus_, Introduction by H. T. Riley, 1859, p. ci.
[330] _Liber Custumarum_, p. lxviii.
[331] _Liber Albus_, Introduction by H. T. Riley, p. lxxxi.
[332] _Liber Albus_, Introduction by H. T. Riley, p. lxxix.
[333] These prices, obtained from the _Liber Albus_, are of great
interest. Of course, it is necessary to bear in mind the great
difference in the value of money. It is impossible to fix a uniform
standard of comparison, but we may put the present value broadly at
between twelve and twenty times that of the reign of Edward I., the
latter being more likely to be a true one. It will thus be seen that
much food was dearer in the Middle Ages than at present. A rabbit and
its skin are considerably less valuable now, as also a partridge.
[334] _Liber Albus_, Introduction by H. T. Riley, p. lxxxii.
[335] Cal. Letter Book D, p. xix.
[336] Riley's Introduction to _Liber Albus_, p. lxii.
[337] Riley's Introduction to the _Liber Albus_, p. lxv.
[338] H. T. Riley's Introduction to _Liber Albus_, p. lxxxviii.
[339] _Ibid._, p. lxxxix.
[340] _Liber Custumarum_, ed. Riley, p. lxx.
[341] _Liber Albus_, p. xc.
[342] _Historical Collections of a Citizen of London in the Fifteenth
Century_ (Camden Society, 1876).
[343] Diary, July 26, 1664.
[344] Whitwell (Roy. Hist. Soc. Trans., xvii. p. 208).
[345] Extracts from the Liberate Rolls relative to loans supplied
by Italian merchants to the Kings of England in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, with an Introductory Memoir by E. A. Bond
(_Archæologia_, xxviii. (1839), pp. 207-326). There has lately been
a revival of interest in this subject. In 1902 Mr. W. E. Rhodes
published a paper on 'The Italian Bankers in England, and their Loans
to Edward I. and Edward II.,' in _Historical Essays by Members of the
Owen's College, Manchester_. Mr. R. J. Whitwell read his important
paper on 'Italian Bankers and the English Crown' before the Royal
Historical Society on March 19, 1903, which is published in the
Transactions of that Society, N.S., xvii. pp. 175-233.
[346] Cal. Letter Book B, p. 94.
[347] _Ibid._, p. 165.
[348] Longman's _Edward III._, vol. ii. pp. 262, 263.
[349] _Archæologia_, vol. xxviii. p. 240.
[350] _Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles_ (Camden Society, 1880), p.
9.
[351] _'De Verborum Significatione._ The Exposition of the Termes and
difficill wordes contained in the foure buiks of Regiam Maiestatem and
uthers. Collected and exponed by Master John Skene. London, 1641.'
[352] Cal. Letter Book A, ed. Dr. Reginald Sharpe, p. iv.
[353] _See_ Jewitt and Hope's _Corporation Plate_, etc., vol. ii. p.
123 (Cal. Letter Book A, p. 79).
[354] Scott's _Lectures on Mediæval Architecture_, vol. ii. p. 29.
[355] Sparrow Simpson's _Chapters in the History of Old St. Paul's_,
1881, p. 19.
[356] The dimensions as given by Dugdale agree with those stated on a
tablet which once hung in the Cathedral on a column near the tomb of
John of Gaunt. They are:--
Length 690 ft.
Breadth 130 ft.
Height of roof of west part from floor 102 ft.
Height of roof of new fabric (viz., east from steeple) 88 ft.
Body of church 150 ft.
Height of tower steeple from the level ground 260 ft.
Height of the spire of wood, covered with lead 274 ft.
'And yet the whole, viz., tower and spire, exceedeth not' 520 ft.
Cross, 'length' above the ball 15 ft.
Cross, traverse 6 ft.
Ball contains ten bushels of corn.
Space on which the cathedral stands, 3-1/2 acres, 1-1/2 roods, 6 perches.
--(_Documents Illustrating the History of St. Paul's Cathedral_,
Camden Society, 1880, p. 191.)
Mr. Edmund B. Ferrey, who worked on Hollar's plans, and made
illustrations for Mr. William Longman's _Three Cathedrals of St. Paul_
(1873), considers that Dugdale's figures are untrustworthy. His own
figures are:--
Length (inclusive of end walls) 596 ft.
Breadth (including aisle walls) 104 ft.
Height of roof, west part (up to ridge of vaulting) 93 ft.
Height of roof (up to vault ridge) to 'choir proper' 101 ft. 6 in.
Height of roof at Lady Chapel 98 ft. 6 in.
External height (ground to ridge of outer roof to choir) 142 ft.
External height (ground to ridge of outer roof to nave) 130 ft.
Height of tower steeple from level ground 285 ft.
Height of the spire covered with lead 208 ft.
(or 204 ft. if calculated from top of tower parapet).
--(Longman's _Three Cathedrals dedicated to St. Paul in London_, 1873,
p. 30).
It will be seen that Mr. Ferrey's figures, formed on careful
calculations, not only differ considerably from those of Dugdale, but
in the case of the relative heights of the nave and choir they are
positively opposite. Mr. Ferrey came to the conclusion that the choir
was decidedly higher than the nave.
[357] _Old St. Paul's Cathedral_, by Canon Benham, D.D. (Portfolio
Monograph), 1902, pp. 6, 7.
[358] Simpson's _History of Old St. Paul's_, 1881, p. 64.
[359] Stow quoted in Longman's _Three Cathedrals_, p. 57.
[360] In 1633 Inigo Jones designed, at the expense of Charles I., a
classic portico of some beauty in itself, but quite incongruous to the
Gothic design of the rest of the building. The King, however, is said
to have intended to rebuild the church, and of this scheme the portico
was an instalment, but political events effectually prevented this
from being carried out. After the Restoration, but before the Fire of
London, it was proposed to rebuild the Cathedral in the style of the
Renaissance, under the direction of Wren, who had no more liking for
Gothic than Inigo Jones had.
[361] _History of Old St. Paul's_, 1881, pp. 62, 63.
[362] The name of London House Yard preserves the memory of the palace.
[363] Paul's Cross was pulled down in 1642, but its site was long
marked by a tall elm tree. This mark passed away and the exact
position was forgotten. In 1879, however, Mr. F. C. Penrose found
the remains of the octagonal base, which are now to be seen at the
north-east angle of the choir of the present Cathedral.
[364] During the Commonwealth it was proposed to turn the so-called
Convocation House into a meeting-place for Mr. John Simpson's
congregation. A plan (dated 1657) in the Public Record Office (Council
of State Order Book, 1657-1658, p. 172) shows the remains of the
pillars of the cloisters as they were then. This plan is reproduced in
_Documents Illustrating the History of St. Paul's Cathedral_ (Camden
Society, 1880), p. 154.
[365] The amount of the offerings at St. Paul's during the Middle
Ages must have been enormous; for instance, the receipts at the Great
Crucifix, in May 1344, amounted to no less than £50 in the money of
that day.--Dr. Sparrow Simpson's _History of Old St. Paul's_, p. 83.
[366] Simpson's _History of Old St. Paul's_, p. 90.
[367] The late Dr. Sparrow Simpson's Documents illustrating the
History of St. Paul's Cathedral (Camden Society, 1880) contains a list
of altars in old St. Paul's (p. 178), and a list of chapels (p. 181).
[368] Dugdale quoted in Longman's _Three Cathedrals_, p. 58.
[369] Simpson's _History of Old St. Paul's_, p. 91.
[370] _London_ (Historic Towns), 1887, p. 158.
[371] _Liber Albus_, translated by Riley, pp. 24-27.
[372] Historical Introduction to the Rolls Series. Collected by Arthur
Hassall, 1902, p. 77.
[373] In connection with the history of the Austin Friars the fact
that the church of the friary still exists is one of great interest.
At the dissolution a large portion of the friary was given to Lord St.
John, afterwards Marquis of Winchester and Lord Treasurer. The church
was reserved by the King, and the nave still remains.
[374] Dugdale (_Warwickshire_, ed. 1730, p. 186), says that the
Patriarch Albert prescribed for the Carmelite Friars a parti-coloured
mantle of white and red, and that Pope Honorius III., disliking this,
appointed in 1285 that it should be all white.
[375] G. M. Trevelyan, _England in the Age of Wycliffe_, p. 139.
[376] _Dictionary of National Biography_ (Anne), vol. i. p. 424.
[377] Riley's _Memorials_, p. 630.
[378] Cal. Letter Book B, pp. xiii.-xv.
[379] _Ibid._, p. 215.
[380] In Gross's _Select Cases from Coroner's Rolls_ (Selden Society,
Introduction, p. xxx.), instances are given of the part played by the
privilege of sanctuary in thwarting criminal justice.
[381] _Constitutional History of England_, chap. xxi. para. 496.
[382] Master Hugh de Whytington was master of the scholars of St.
Martin-le-Grand in 1298 (Cal. Letter Book B, p. 73).
[383] _Survey_, ed. Thoms, pp. 27, 28.
[384] Foxe, _Acts and Monuments_, ed. 1597, p. 1885; Holinshed, p.
1142. This incident will be recognised as the groundwork of Mr.
Weyman's delightful romance of _Francis Cludde_.
[385] _Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare_ (seventh edition), 1887,
vol. i. p. 124.
[386] _Life of William Shakespeare_, 1898, p. 70.
* * * * *
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
the gate of Bisshopesgate=> the gate of Bishopesgate {pg 27}
at Clerkemwell=> at Clerkenwell {pg 55}
various prominent citzens=> various prominent citizens {pg 145}
oaths shall he taken=> oaths shall be taken {pg 265}
a wine merhant of Bergerac=> a wine merchant of Bergerac {pg 271}
The number or trades=> The number of trades {pg 303}
their folk moots=> their folkmoots {pg 337}
End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of London, by Henry B. Wheatley