THE GUILDHALL--LONDON STONE--TOWN BELL AND FOLKMOTE
It is so sure a Stone that that is upon sette,
For though some have it thrette
With menases grym and greette
Yet hurt had it none.
FABYAN.
The Guildhall is frequently spoken of in the thirteenth century; for
instance, the Assise of Buildings of 1212 was given from "Gilde Hall." Mr.
Price, its historian, shows that at this time it must have stood near the
west end of the present hall. This agrees with Stow, who says that it "of
old time" stood on the east side of Aldermansbury, and adds that the
latter was so named from the "court there kept in their bury or court hall
now called the Guildhall." Guildhall Yard was in 1294, as now, to the east
of St. Laurence.[192] Giraldus Cambrensis tells us under 1191 how a
multitude of the citizens met in Aula Publica, which takes its name from
the custom of drinking there. This burgmote at the Guildhall in 1191 was
probably the greatest event in London's history, resulting in the removal
of Longchamp and the establishment of the mayor and commune.[193]
"Aldermanesbury" may be traced back to early in the twelfth century, and
the name carries the Guildhall with it. Mr. Round points out that the
_Terra Gialle_ mentioned in the St. Paul's document, _c._ 1130, refers to
the Guildhall,[194] and when further we find that a _Gildhalla burgensium_
at Dover appears in Domesday we can hardly doubt that the foundation of
the London hall dates from the time of the Frith Gilds. In the laws of
Athelstane it was ordained by the "bishops and reeves of London" that the
people should be numbered in _hyndens_ (tens), and that "every month the
hynden men and those who directed the tithings should gather together for
bytt filling, ... and let those twelve men have their refection together
and deal the remains for the love of God."[195]
The principle, says Dr. Sharpe, of each man being responsible for the
behaviour of his neighbour, which Alfred established, was carried a step
further in London under Athelstane in the formation of Peace Gilds, the
members of which were to meet once a month at an ale-drinking in their
Gildhall.[196] Similar "Gild ale-drinkings" are spoken of in the
_Heimskringla_, and we are there told in regard to the establishment of a
"Great Gild," that before it there were "turn-about drinkings." All this
goes together perfectly with what Giraldus says of the Guildhall of London
being named from the fellowship drinkings there. He who drank to any one,
Geoffrey of Monmouth tells us, said, "Wacht heil"; and he that pledged him
answered, "Drinc heil."
* * * * *
_London Stone._--The first mayor of London (from 1191) was, as the
Chronicle of the Mayors and Sheriffs tells us, Henry FitzEylwin of
Londene-stone. An old marginal note in the _Liber Trinitatis_ says that
"Leovistan was the father of Alwin the father of Henry the Mayor, whose
first charter is in the priory of Tortingtone."[197] The association of
London Stone with city history probably rests in great part on the fact of
the mayor's residence having been near to it. Thomas Stopleton traces, in
an introduction to the _Liber de Antiquis Legibus_,[198] the property and
descendants of FitzAlwin. The town house of the mayor was just to the
north of St. Swithin's Church, which was attached to the property. It was
bequeathed to Tortington Priory by Robert Aquillon, son of the first
mayor's grand-daughter. In Dr. Sharpe's _Calendar of Wills_ it appears
that Sir Robert Aguylun left his "mansione" in St. Swithin's parish,
together with the patronage of the church, to Tortington Priory in 1285.
At the Dissolution it was granted to the Earl of Oxford. Stow says that
Tortington Inn, Oxford Place, by London Stone, was on the north side of
St. Swithin's Church and churchyard, with a fair garden to the west
running down to Walbrook. It was "a fair and large builded house sometime
pertaining to the prior of Tortington, since to the earls of Oxford, and
now to Sir John Hart, Alderman." Munday adds, "_now_ to Master Humphrey
Smith, Alderman." At this point I visited Oxford Place and St. Swithin's
Lane, and it seemed evident that the Salters' Hall stood on the site of
Tortington Inn. Further, on turning to Herbert's _History of the
Companies_, I found that the Salters' Company purchased of Captain George
Smith in 1641 the town inn of the priors of Tortington by the description
of "the great house called London Stone, or Oxford House." The chain of
evidence for the site of FitzAlwin's house thus seems complete.
The mysterious monument, London Stone, now represented by a small rude
fragment preserved a few yards away from its original site, has probably
borne its present name for a millenium, and its mere name shows it to have
had some institutional importance.
_London. Candlewick Street. Enter Jack Cade and the rest, and strikes
his staff on London Stone._
_Cade._ Now is Mortimer lord of this city and here sitting upon London
Stone I charge, ... and now henceforward it shall be treason for any
that calls me other than Lord Mortimer.--_King Henry VI._
Shakespeare here accurately follows Holinshed's Chronicle as to the events
of 1450. About 1430 the Stone is mentioned by Harding, who tells us that
it marked the eastern boundary of London as built by King Lud, whose
palace was at Ludgate. About 1400-30 Lydgate, in the _London Lickpenny_,
wrote: "Then forth I went by London Stone, throughout all the Canwick
Street."[199]
The _Liber Trinitatis_ says that a great fire in the time of Ralf the
prior of Holy Trinity, 1148-67, burnt from the house of Ailwardin nigh
London Stone to Aldgate and St. Paul's. Of the Stone itself Stow says:
"The same has long continued there, namely since (or rather before) the
Conquest, for in the end of a Gospel book given to Christ Church in
Canterbury by Athelstane I find noted of lands in London belonging to the
said church one parcel described to lie near unto London Stone."[200]
Holinshed says that the Kentish captain came from the White Hart in
Southwark and "strooke his sword on London Stone, saying, Now is Mortimer
lord of this city." Mr. Coote has claimed that this must be an ancient
ceremonial, at the same time advancing the impossible (after Wren's
acceptance of it as Roman) theory that the stone was a part of the house
of the first mayor.[201] But I have come over to this view so far as to
think it possible that its civic importance originated in its association
with the house of the first mayor. According to Stow, "some have said this
stone to be set as a mark in the middle of the city--some others have said
the same to be set for the making of payment by debtors to their
creditors, till of later times payments were more usually made at the font
in Paul's Church and now most commonly at the Royal Exchange." Mr. Gomme,
citing Brandon, says that London Stone entered into municipal procedure,
as when the defendant in the Lord Mayor's Court had to be summoned from
that spot, and when proclamations and other important business of like
nature were transacted there; and comparing Cade's action with customs
elsewhere, he seems to suggest that it was the centre for the assembly of
the Saxon folkmotes. But the proximity of the mayor's house, in which
courts might have been held, gives reason enough for its being made use of
as a place of proclamation.
The legend given by Harding is that "Lud, king of Britain, builded from
London Stone to Ludgate and called that part Ludstowne." Here we get a
clue to its name London Stone, and the idea accounts for its having been
to some extent the palladium of the city, of which it seems to have been
regarded as the sacred and immovable foundation stone. Stow says, "On the
south side of the High Street near unto the channel is pitched upright a
great stone called London Stone, fixed in the ground very deep, fastened
with bars of iron, and otherwise so strongly set that if carts do run
against it through negligence the wheels be broken and the stone itself
unshaken." The lines from Fabyan which head this chapter refer to this
same idea of stability, and evidently imply that the stone was looked on
as a talisman. Strype says that before the fire of London it was worn down
to a stump. But it is "now" handsomely cased with stone "to shelter and
defend the old venerable one, yet so as it might be seen." An architect,
writing to the _Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1798, says: "It has often been
called the symbol of the great city's quiet state, from its being always
believed to be fixed to its everlasting seat." This idea of a stone of
foundation has many parallels.
It was evidently a monolith, and from what Shakespeare says of Cade
sitting on it, it would seem in his time not to have been more than 3 or
4 feet high above ground. Wren's son says "London Stone, as is generally
supposed, was a pillar in the manner of the Milliarium Aureum at Rome,
from whence the account of their miles began, but the Surveyor [Sir
Christopher] was of opinion, _by reason of the large foundation_, it was
rather some more considerable monument in the Forum, for in the adjoining
ground on the south side, upon digging for cellars after the great fire,
were discovered some pavements and other extensive remains of Roman
workmanship and buildings."[202] Wren was an expert observer with a
perfect knowledge of the Roman level in the city, and Dr. Woodward says he
had made a special observation of the Roman remains in the city and
promised an account of them. His evidence must be held sufficient to prove
that the stone was of Roman origin, but was no recognisable part of a
building such as a column. It was Camden who first suggested that it was a
"miliary like that in the Forum of Rome," being at the "centre in the
longest diameter of the city." Grant Allen thought it was an early Celtic
monument preserved by the Romans. As to Mr. Coote's view that it might
have been part of FitzAlwin's house, which seems to be adopted also by Mr.
Round, it has also to be pointed out that the house was certainly to the
north of the street, while the Stone was on the south, and St. Swithin's
Church intervened.
* * * * *
_Town Bell and Folkmote._--An institution which must have dated from the
time of the English occupation was the great assembly of all freemen in
Folkmote, the final court which survives to-day in form at the election of
a sovereign, when the Commons, who should have free access, are asked for
their assent. Stephen was elected at the ordinary Folkmote of London, and
the charter of Henry I. recognises the assembly as an existing
institution. The place of assembly within historical times was the market
of St. Paul's (_Forum Sancto Paulo_), at the east of the cathedral against
Cheap, marked by St. Paul's Cross.
The Chronicle of the Mayors and Sheriffs tells how Henry III. in 1257
ordered the sheriffs to convene the Folkmote "at St. Paul's Cross, to make
inquiry of the commons" as to certain customs, when the populace answered
"with loud shouts of Nay, nay, nay." The position held by St. Paul's
Cross in civic customs in later times is thus accounted for. It was no
mere adjunct to the cathedral, but the rostrum of London, the Market Cross
at the end of Cheap. Just by it rose the city belfry (_Berefridam_), which
contained the great town bell. Such a Beffroi is an acknowledged mark of
communal liberties, and we can understand the traditional feeling which
was stirred when under Edward VI. it was destroyed. Even at this day it is
the Lord Mayor who orders the Great Bell of St. Paul's to be rung on such
an occasion as the death of the late Queen. Probably the "mote-bell"
summoned the citizens in Saxon times, as we know it did in the thirteenth
century. Dugdale says the first mention he found of the bell tower was
_temp._ Henry I., when the schoolmaster of St. Paul's was granted a house
"at the corner of the Turret (id est the Clochier); but I suppose it was a
thing of much greater antiquity, for upon a writ issued 15 Edward I., it
was certified that the citizens of ancient time held the Folkmote there
and rang the bell to summon the people." The _Gesta Stephani_ records how
the citizens assembled at the ringing of the city bells and expelled the
Empress Matilda.
The _Heimskringla_ tells of Olaf the Quiet, the contemporary of Edward the
Confessor, that "in his days the cheaping steads of Norway hove up
much.... King Olaf let set up the Great Gild at Nidoyce and many others in
the cheaping towns, but formerly there were turn-about drinkings. Then was
Town-boon[203] the great bell of the turn-about drinkings in Nidoyce. The
Drinking Brothers let build there Margaret's stone church." One day Olaf
was merry in the Great Gild, then spake his men, "It is joy to us, lord,
that thou art so merry." He answered, "Your freedom is my glee."
We need a town bell in London. We might set it up to Alfred's memory.