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MEMORIALS OF THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND
General Editor:
REV. P. H. DITCHFIELD, M.A., F.S.A., F.R.S.L., F.R.Hist.S.
MEMORIALS OF OLD LONDON
VOLUME I.
* * * * *
[Illustration: OLD BELL INN, HOLBORN, 1897
_From the painting by Philip Norman, LL.D._]
* * * * *
MEMORIALS
OF OLD LONDON
EDITED BY
P. H. DITCHFIELD, M.A., F.S.A.
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY
AUTHOR OF
_The City Companies of London and their Good Works_
_The Story of our Towns_
_The Cathedral Churches of Great Britain_
_&c. &c._
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I.
WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
BEMROSE & SONS LIMITED, 4 SNOW HILL, E.C.
AND DERBY
1908
[_All Rights Reserved_]
* * * * *
TO
THE RIGHT HON.
SIR JOHN CHARLES BELL, BART.
LORD MAYOR OF LONDON
THESE MEMORIALS OF THE ANCIENT
CITY OVER WHICH HE RULES
ARE DEDICATED, WITH HIS LORDSHIP'S
KIND PERMISSION,
BY
THE EDITOR
* * * * *
PREFACE
In the year of grace one thousand nine hundred and nine the citizens of
London are celebrating their Pageant, a mighty spectacle representing
some of the stately scenes of splendour and magnificence which London
streets have witnessed from the days of Alfred to the nineteenth
century. It is perhaps fortunate that these volumes of the MEMORIALS OF
OLD LONDON should appear when the minds of the people of England are
concerned with this wonderful panorama of the past history of the chief
city of the Empire. The Pageant will be all very beautiful, very grand,
instructive and edifying, and profoundly interesting; but, after all,
London needs no Pageant to set forth its attractions, historical and
spectacular. London is in itself a Pageant. The street names, the
buildings, cathedral, churches, prisons, theatres, the river with its
bridges, and countless other objects, all summon up the memories of the
past, and form a Pageant that is altogether satisfying. Many books have
been written on the greatest city of England's Empire--some learned and
ponderous tomes, others mere guide books; some devoted to special
buildings and foundations, others to the life, manners, and customs of
the citizens. This work differs from other books in that each chapter is
written by an expert who has made a special study of the subject, and is
therefore authoritative, and contains all the information which recent
investigations have brought to light. It is not exhaustive. London
contains so much that is of profound interest, that many additional
volumes would be needed in order to describe all its treasures. The city
of Westminster, the suburbs and the West End, have for the most part
been excluded from the plan of this work, and possibly may be treated of
in a subsequent volume. The domain of the city of London, not of the
London County Council, provides the chief subjects of these volumes,
though occasionally our writers have strayed beyond the city boundaries.
We have endeavoured to give sketches of London, its appearance, its life
and manners, at various stages of its history. We have tried to describe
its historic buildings, its fortress, its churches, the Exchange, and
other houses noted in its annals. Monastic London is represented by the
Charterhouse. Legal London finds expression in the histories of the
Temple and the Inns of Court. Royal London is described by the story of
its Palaces; and the old city life of the famous merchants and traders,
artizans and 'prentices, is shown in our glimpses of Mediaeval London,
the histories of the Guildhall, the City Companies, the Hanseatic
League, Elizabethan London, and in other chapters. Old inns,
coffee-houses, clubs, learned societies, and literary shrines present
other phases of the life of the old city which are not without their
attractions, and help to complete the picture which we have tried to
paint.
All the chapters have been specially written for this work, and my most
grateful thanks are due to each of the contributors for their valuable
papers, as well as to those who have supplied photographs, old prints,
or drawings. I desire especially to thank Mr. Philip Norman for his
coloured sketches which form the pleasing frontispieces of the two
volumes; to Mr. Harold Sands for his skilfully constructed plan of the
Tower of London; and to Mr. Tavenor-Perry for his valuable drawings of
St. Bartholomew's Church, Smithfield, and the bridges that span the
Thames.
P. H. DITCHFIELD.
_Barkham Rectory,
Berks.,
August, 1908._
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
Page
London in Early Times--Celtic, Roman, Saxon, and Norman
By Rev. W. J. Loftie, B.A., F.S.A. 1
The Tower of London
By Harold Sands, F.S.A. 27
St. Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield
By J. Tavenor-Perry 66
The London Charterhouse
By Rev. A. G. B. Atkinson, M.A. 86
Glimpses of Mediaeval London
By George Clinch, F.G.S., and the Editor 106
The Temple
By Rev. H. G. Woods, D.D. (Master) 133
Holborn and the Inns of Court and Chancery
By E. Williams 149
The Guildhall
By C. Welch, F.S.A. 178
The City Companies of London
By the Editor 191
London and the Hanseatic League
By J. Tavenor-Perry 224
The Arms of the City and See of London
By J. Tavenor-Perry 233
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. I.
Old Bell Inn, Holborn, 1897 _Frontispiece_
(_From the painting by Philip Norman, LL.D._)
Page, or
Facing Page
Roof Tile (Roman) 3
Red-Glazed Pottery (Roman) 5
Roman Sandals 9
Bronze Pin, with Christian Emblems (Roman) 15
The Gates of the City:
Aldersgate and Bridgegate (_From old prints_) 10
Bishopsgate and Cripplegate " 20
Ludgate and Newgate " 24
Moorgate and Aldgate " 26
Gold and Enamel Brooch (Ninth Century) 18
(_From the Catalogue of W. Roach Smith_)
The Tower of London (_From an engraving by Hollar, 1647_) 28
Plan of the Tower of London about 1597 (_Drawn by the Author_) 32
St. John's Chapel, Tower of London 42
(_From a photo. by F. Frith & Co., Ltd._)
The Tower of London (_From a photo. by G. W. Wilson & Co._) 58
St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield:
Norman Capital, discovered in 1863 69
Priory Gate and Church Tower in 1863 70
Transitional Capital, discovered in 1863 71
East Bay of South Aisle of Nave 73
Screen of Roger de Walden's Chantry and Rahere's Monument 75
Prior Bolton's Window 77
Eastern Ambulatory and Purgatory before Restoration 79
Interior of Church in 1863 (_Drawn by J. Tavenor-Perry_) 82
The Charterhouse Hospital (_From a print by Toms_) 86
Old Porch, Charterhouse 96
(_From a drawing by J. P. Neale [1813], engraved by Owen_)
Charterhouse Hall (_From a photo. by Stuart_) 100
Old London Bridge: Showing its Wooden Houses with Projecting
Stories (_From an old print_) 108
Old Wooden Houses at Cripplegate (recently demolished) 110
(_From a photo. by the Author_)
Alley near the Cloth Fair, Smithfield
(_From a photo by the Author_) 112
The Cloth Fair, Smithfield: Looking to the south-west, and
showing the south side of the street 114
(_From a photo. by the Author_)
The Cloth Fair, Smithfield: The north-east end of the street 116
(_From a photo. by the Author_)
The Cloth Fair, Smithfield: Looking to the south-west, and
showing the north side of the street 118
(_From a photo. by the Author_)
Old Wooden Houses, near the Temple Gate, Fleet Street 120
(_From a photo. by the Author_)
South View of Old St. Paul's when the Spire was standing 122
(_From an old print_)
The Temple Church: Exterior View 134
(_From a photo. by F. Frith & Co., Ltd._)
Doorway of the Temple Church (_From an old print_) 136
The Interior of the Temple Church before it was Restored 144
(_From an old print_)
Lincoln's Inn Gate, Chancery Lane 170
(_From an old print published in 1800_)
Middle Temple Hall (_From a photo. by Mansell & Co._) 172
Lincoln's Inn Hall: The Lord Chancellor's Court 176
(_From a drawing by T. H. Shepherd_)
The Guildhall (_From a drawing by A. R. Quinton_) 178
Gray's Inn Hall and Chapel (_From an old print_) 182
The Guildhall (_From an engraving by R. Acom, 1828_) 184
Inner Temple Hall (_From a photo. by F. Frith & Co., Ltd._) 186
The Old Guildhall (_From an engraving by Hollar_) 188
Staples Inn Hall (_From a drawing by T. H. Shepherd in 1830_) 192
Model of Barge formerly used by the Clothworkers' Company
in Civic Procession 192
Furnival's Inn (_From an old print published in 1804_) 196
The Chair of the Master of the Salters' Company 198
Bell (cast 1463) from All Hallows', Staining, belonging to the
Grocers' Company 200
The Hall of the Mercers' Company: Entrance Colonnade and Site of
Ancient Cloister (_From a drawing by A. R. Quinton_) 218
Merchant Taylors' Company--the Kitchen Crypt 220
Samuel Pepys's Loving Cup 222
Coat of Arms of Hansa Merchant in London 226
(_From a drawing by Mr. J. Tavenor-Perry_)
A Flemish Gray-Beard from the Steel-yard of London 231
Sir William Walworth's Dagger (Fishmongers' Hall) 235
Seal of Ralph de Stratford, Bishop of London 236
The City Seal in MDCLXX 238
The City Arms, as portrayed by Wallis, in the Reign of
Charles II. 239
LONDON IN EARLY TIMES
BY W. J. LOFTIE, B.A., F.S.A.
[Illustration]
I.--CELTIC LONDON
When we see the words "Celtic London" at the head of a chapter we
naturally feel inclined to ask, "Was there such a place? Was there any
Celtic London?" Although it is almost impossible to answer such a
question by either "yes" or "no," it may be worth while to examine it
briefly before passing on to the domains of authentic history.
In the first place, there must have been some gathering of huts or
houses, some aggregation of residences, to which a name could be
applied, and it must have been important enough to retain its name after
the Romans came--nay, to retain it even in spite of an attempt on their
part to change it.
But though we must accept the existence of a London in the old obscure
period when something very like modern Welsh was the language of the
south-eastern part of Britain, and though we know that London was
situated on a river which also had a Welsh name, we do not know directly
on which side of that river it stood, and have nothing for it but to
apply to the problem what a great authority has described as an
historical imagination, and try if we can find a sufficient number of
geographical or topographical facts to reduce the problematic side of
the questions involved; and so to leave certain points, certain
pedestals, so to speak, of firm ground on which we may place the
foundations of the greatest city the world has seen.
Our first facts are meagre enough. We have three words; no more. They
are Lon, don, and Thames. We are like the Oriental lady in the legend of
St. Thomas of Canterbury. She knew but two words of English--Gilbert and
London. We know three words, and, keeping them in our minds, wander down
the Thames till we find the place to which we can fit the other two
words. But, first, we must make an attempt to translate them into modern
English. The Welsh _Lynn_ is pronounced _lunn_. _Dun_, or _down_, has
passed into English. _Thame_, or _thames_, occurs in many parts of
England, everywhere denoting the same thing, and, according to most
authorities, being practically the same as the English word _tame_. The
name of the Tamar will occur to the mind as well as Thame. In the case
of the Thames, the name may very well have come over from the Continent
with the early traders--the Angles, for instance, or the Danes--and have
thus passed into British use. A great authority, Mr. Bradley, is said to
have mentioned that Lynn in London may be a personal name. The ordinary
interpretation is so simple that it seems hardly worth
while--unphilosophical, in fact--to search for another. Lynn, pronounced
Lunn, is a lake. Dun is a down or hill. London, as the first syllable
may be taken adjectively, will mean the Lake Hill. Where, then, is the
hill which stands by a lake?
If we consult a map which includes the lower Thames, and has the levels
clearly marked or contoured, and follow the coast line from, say, Kew
Bridge, we come to no higher ground for more than six miles, the surface
varying from one foot above the ordnance datum of high water to seven.
Hills are visible in the background, but none at the water's edge, until
we reach that on which St. Paul's stands. Mylne gives it as forty-five
feet high, and that on which, close by, the Royal Exchange stands he
marks as forty-eight. If we could denude this region of its myriad
houses, we should see a plain extending back to the higher ground from
the site of the Temple Gardens--that is, to Clerkenwell. Ludgate, rising
nearly fifty feet in a steep slope from the river's edge, would appear
something great in such a landscape, backed, as it would have been, to
the eastward by a still higher down, with the narrow stream of Walbrook
rushing to the Thames, between them. No other height would stand so near
the water's edge, or would be visible within a couple of miles, on this
left bank of the river. So much for our "down." But where is our "lynn"?
[Illustration: ROOF TILE (ROMAN).]
If we could see Southwark and the region immediately to the south of it
similarly denuded, we should find that, across the Thames from the
double down, an archipelago of islets extends from what is now
Bermondsey westward to Lambeth. The dry ground would be seen dotted here
and there, while every tide, every flood, every increase of water from
the upper Thames, would make the whole region into a morass. The main
stream of the great river, coming eastward round a bend from
Westminster, would deepen its channel under the down, leaving the
opposite islets in shallow water, and spreading, according to the first
author by whom the place is mentioned, "at every tide would form a
lake."
Here, then, Dion Cassius, writing in the second century, describes for
us the site of Southwark. He furnishes us with what we want--the "lynn"
for our "down," the Lon for the Don. We do not know for certain whether
this Celtic London was on the double hill or among the islets
opposite--whether, that is, the town was on the lynn or on the dun.
There is, however, a certain amount of evidence that it was on the
lynn. A British road seems to have been already in existence--the road
which led from Dover toward Chester. Where did it cross the Thames? If
we could make sure of the answer, our three facts would become four.
There was no bridge in this Celtic period to carry the road across the
Thames. At the same time, we know that a crossing was made; and, if we
judge by the course and direction of the road, it must have been at or
very near what is now called Westminster. Here the shoal-water, as
sailors say, was on both sides of the river. The islets, many of them
covered at every high tide, existed where a landing was called by later
settlers the Lambhithe. Other landing-places are denoted by such names
as Stanegate, Toothill, Merefleet, Pollen Stock, Thorney, Jakeslea and
others, all Saxon, which tell us of the condition of both banks of the
Thames at a very remote period. From this we may safely argue--first,
that the amount of water coming down being approximately the same, it
had a much wider district to cover; and, secondly, that it was much more
shallow. These names also show that, in crossing, the road from Dover
had in Saxon times certain landmarks to follow, while the use of the
word Toot, our word "tout," shows that guides existed, who could be
called upon to help travellers across. All these items are more or less
obscurely mentioned by Dion Cassius, and show that wheresoever Celtic
London stood, whether on the left or the right bank, Aulus Plautius
chose the easternmost of the double hills for his bridge head; and when
the wall was built, a couple of centuries later, it took in the western
hill as well, while the bridge rendered the ford at Westminster useless,
and the Watling Street was diverted at the Marble Arch along Oxford
Street, instead of running straight down Park Lane to the ford at
Westminster.
As for facts in the history of Celtic London, we have none. The late
General Pitt Rivers recorded the discovery of piles, of origin possibly
before the Roman period, in the street called London Wall, and also in
Southwark, some nine feet below the present surface. A few articles of
Roman make were found mixed with a few bone implements of a ruder type.
This, the only authentic discovery of the kind, does not prove more than
that some of the Britons lived among the Romans, and the date is quite
uncertain. As to their dwellings before the Romans came, we have remains
in various places from which we can but gather that, though some ancient
race in these islands built up such rude but vast temples as Stonehenge,
the dwellings of the people who lived by the Walbrook, or in Southwark,
were mere wigwams. A hollow was dug in the ground, and where stones were
plentiful, which cannot have been the case on the site of Lynn Dun, a
few were used in the flooring. Over the hollow the house was raised--a
bank of earth, perhaps roofed with boughs and trunks, and with some
means of making a wood fire. Rings of brass and scraps of pottery are
often found in the hollows, but of such discoveries in London the
records are silent.
[Illustration: RED-GLAZED POTTERY (ROMAN).]
II.--ROMAN LONDON
With the coming of the Romans, we might expect to find ourselves on
firmer ground than in our vain endeavours to learn something about the
early Britons in London. But if we date the Latin discovery of Britain
with the coming of Julius Caesar to the southern coast of our island in
55 B.C., it is evident that before the expedition, which was eventually
commanded by Aulus Plautius in A.D. 43, nearly a century elapsed, and
that during all that time there is no mention at all of London. To use
Dr. Guest's cautious words: "The notion entertained by some antiquaries
that a British town preceded the Roman camp has no foundation to rest
upon." In the chapter on Celtic London I have endeavoured to show that
the British town, if there was one, stood, as Ptolemy asserts, on the
Cantian side of the river. The Romans seldom or hardly ever chose a
Celtic site for a new building, but, to quote Guest again, "generally
built their _castellum_ two or three miles from the British _oppidum_."
On this principle, the new building of Aulus would be either a couple of
miles from the Celtic town, or separated from it at least by the width
of the Thames. If we suppose, as is more than probable, that Lynn Dun
was in Southwark, and that some settlement was also among the shallows
and islets crossed by the Dover Road and named by the Anglo-Saxons the
Watling Street, the Roman general, by building London Bridge and by
making a strong fort on the hill at the northern end of it, laid the
foundation of Roman London.
The new city, which speedily rose round the bridge head on the northern
side of the river, was of considerable dimensions by the time it is
first mentioned--namely, in A.D. 64. This is by Tacitus, who describes
it as full of merchants and merchandise. At the same time, except for
the pretorium at the bridge head, there were no defences. Anything like
a walled town must have been among the islets on the southern side; but,
from the character of the Roman remains found in Southwark and St
George's Fields, it is probable that the British town there was not of
any importance, and answered to Julius Caesar's contemptuous description:
"The Britons call a thick wood, enclosed with a rampart and a ditch, a
town." The new Roman fort at the northern end of the bridge, with its
suburb of merchants' houses along the Walbrook, is the London of
history, and the first we hear about it is that--while Camalodunum was a
Roman Colonium, and Verulam a Municipium--London was only a Prefectura.
This is the opinion of Pennant; but Tacitus, who first names London as
being in existence at all and who lived and wrote about A.D. 90,
expressly mentions it as abounding in merchants and business. Dr. Guest
was of opinion that the Roman fort was made in A.D. 43. It stood above
the outfall of the Walbrook, its western wing being where Cannon Street
terminus is now, and its eastern extremity reaching to Mincing Lane.
These limits were determined in a paper by Arthur Taylor in
_Archaeologia_ in 1849, and were confirmed during the building of Cannon
Street Station. The road from the bridge divided in East Cheap and
passed out towards the spot now called from the Marble Arch, where it
joined the old road which the Saxons subsequently named the Watling
Street, now Park Lane and Edgware Road, as to one branch; and as to the
other, the Ermin Street, which led towards Lincoln. The Roman governor
probably lived in his Pretorium, where, at the north-west corner, close
to the celebrated London Stone, remains of pavements and buildings have
been found. At the south-eastern corner, too, but at a lower level,
another pavement, which still exists under the Corn Exchange, may have
been part of a bath. There are no remnants of a church or a temple, but
some antiquaries fancied they saw relics of a Roman basilica, or
judgment hall, among the fragments of masonry removed for the station.
There were no burials within the walls, but they begin, even among the
pavements and villas, just outside the limits marked by the wall of the
Pretorium. That it was defended by the stream of Walbrook on the west,
and by a wide fosse on the northern side, seems certain. The Mansion
House, in 1738, was built on piles "in a ditch," according to Stukeley.
This fosse probably communicated with the Walbrook, and from what Stow
says, seems to have had a certain amount of stream through it.
"Langborne Ward," he says, "is so called of a long borne of sweete
water, which of old time breaking out into Fenchurch streete, ran down
the same streete and Lombard streete to the West end of St. Mary
Woolnothe's Church, where turning south, and breaking it selfe into many
small shares, rilles or streames, it left the name of Shareborne, or
south borne lane (as I have read) because it ranne south to the river of
Thames."
* * * * *
Stow's interpretations of names often read like bad jokes, not to say
bad puns. We remember his Matfelon, his Sherehog, his Cripplegate and
other curiosities of the kind. Sherborn Lane has now disappeared, but
there can be little doubt the "burn" or "bourne" was a relic of the
fosse of the first Roman London. It divides two wards, so was as ancient
as those wards--namely, Cornhill and Langborne; and if there was any
stream through it fell into Walbrook, between the parish church of St.
Mary on the Woollen Hithe and St. Mary of the Woolchurch Haw. This
corner, then near the modern Mansion House, was the north-western corner
of the little fort, Dowgate was at the south-western, and Billingsgate
at the south-eastern corner, while Mincing Lane, perhaps at Fenchurch
Street, completed the rectangle. What formed the defence on this, the
eastern side, we have no evidence, but it was probably one of the
"shares, rilles, or streames" which so puzzled Stow. The Walbrook was
248 feet wide.
[Illustration: ROMAN SANDALS (FOUND IN LONDON).]
It is evident, then, that the Roman London Bridge was well protected,
but the town which grew round it lay open to any attack. Such a
contingency was the rebellion of Boadicea, when Suetonius abandoned the
bridge fort and open town and held to Verulam and Camalodunum, which had
walls. We do not hear anything about the repairs of the bridge when the
rebellion was over. It probably, as in so many other places, consisted
of a few piers of massive masonry, and great beams, probably wide apart,
formed the roadway. The line of coins found in the Thames may have been
dropped as offerings to the river-god, or merely by careless passengers.
They dated back to republican times, and ended only with the last years
of the Roman occupation, long after the introduction of Christianity. It
may be mentioned here that in the catalogue of Roach Smith (1854), from
which we have borrowed some illustrations, is an account of a box which
had perished, but which had contained tiers of iron coins, plated with
silver, oxydised together in masses, being obviously base money coined
to pass current in Britain in the reign of Claudius, A.D. 41. It was
discovered in King William Street, almost the centre of the old fort.
Forged _denarii_ of lead or brass formed the larger part of those found
in the Thames. The bridge was probably in a line with Botolph Lane, the
old London Bridge of Peter of Colechurch being higher up, and the
present London Bridge higher again. The Roman Bridge, frequently
repaired, and frequently, too, broken down--as when Anlaf, the Dane,
sailed up the Thames with his fleet in 993--was finally removed in
favour of the nineteen arches and a drawbridge, which subsisted until
1831. (The site of the Roman Bridge is discussed in a paper on "Recent
Discoveries in Roman London," in volume lx. of _Archaelogia_.)
[Illustration: THE GATES OF THE CITY: ALDERSGATE AND BRIDGEGATE.]
Such, then, was Roman London during the greater part of the Roman
occupation of Britain--as it is still, a city of suburbs.
Of the date of the building of the wall we have no certainty. A recent
writer finds fault with my cautious statement in _Historic London_ that
"in 350 London had no wall," and would substitute 360. The wall was
certainly built about that time or a little later, but may have been
begun long before. It is evident that such a piece of work was not
completed in a single year, even under the Roman Emperors. Perhaps--it
is too easy to form theories--Constantine (Stow says _Helena_) projected
it and left it to be finished by his successors. It had been completed
by the reign of Theodosius, about A.D. 368.
The course of the new wall, according to Stow, was from the Tower to
Aldgate, thence to Bishopsgate, and from Bishopsgate to Aldersgate, with
a postern at Cripplegate. Next came Newgate, and Ludgate was towards the
Fleet--the wall ending at the Thames. The whole length was two miles and
a half and 608 feet. Stow did not know that several of the gates he
named--Aldgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, and Ludgate--were not Roman.
Nor did he know that Ludgate means a postern, and Crepulgeat a covered
way, both these gates being probably of late construction, though
possibly of the time of Alfred. The exact site of the wall and the two
landward gates seems to be indicated by the old ward boundaries, but
modern investigators have neglected them. There was another Roman
settlement, namely, at Westminster, where the abbey stands on the site
of some older buildings. Roman concrete forms the foundation of the
older part of the church and the dark cloisters. The pavement of a
dwelling was found under the nave, and a sarcophagus, bearing a rudely
carved cross, showed that the town was not walled. The Romans possibly
built here on account of the ford, and we may be sure that at times,
when the only bridge was under repair or unfinished, the crossing here
for the ancient road, which the Saxons named the Watling Street, was
found convenient. There is mention of the buildings on Thorney in a
charter at the British Museum (Kemble, D.L.V.), apparently a thirteenth
century forgery, but of interest as showing that a tradition survived.
King Eadgar is made to say that a temple of abomination had been
destroyed to make way for the church of St. Peter. Such a temple, if one
existed, was more probably Saxon than Roman.
As to the houses and buildings of Roman London within the walls we know
very little. Sir W. Tite enumerated a large number of mosaic pavements,
some of them of considerable size, and scattered over a wide area, but
apparently not marking any fine or magnificent public buildings.
Stukeley made a plan showing where, in his opinion at least, remains of
such buildings should be found; but, to put it briefly, remains of the
kind have been conspicuous by their absence on his eight sites. Stukeley
is, in fact, a very untrustworthy authority. He thought, with Stow, that
Algate, the mediaeval name, meant Oldgate, or, as Stow wrote it,
Ealdgate, whereas it was in reality one of the latest. The name probably
denoted a gate open to all without toll.
The remains of the wall, which still or lately existed, have been
carefully examined by Mr. Norman, of the Society of Antiquaries, and Mr.
Francis Reader. Their account of various excavations is in volume lx. of
_Archaeologia_, and illustrated by a series of plans, sections, and other
drawings by Mr. Reader, who seems to have proved that the marsh on which
Moorfield was laid out in 1605 did not exist in the early Roman time,
but was caused by the building of the wall.
III.--SAXON LONDON
If we know but little about Roman London, we know still less, if
possible, about Saxon London. So far as it was inhabited at all, it was
the capital of the kings of Essex, and is so described in a very few
documents. On this account it was an episcopal see. How the Saxons
became possessed of it we do not know. Probably Stow's account may be
accepted as the most likely:--
"This citie of London having beene destroyed and brent by the
Danes and other pagan ennemies about the yere of Christ 839,
was by Alfred King of the West Saxons, in the yere 886,
repayred and honorably restored and made againe habitable."
That Stow's account is according to the best authorities will be
apparent to any reader of Green's _Conquest of England_. In chapter iv.
he describes the condition of London and the neighbouring kingdom of the
East Saxons--"A tract which included not only the modern shire that
bears their name, but our Middlesex and Hertfordshire, and whose centre
or 'mother-city' was London." He goes on to point out that at the time
of Alfred's great campaigns against the Danes, London had played but
little part in English history: "Indeed," he affirms, "for nearly half a
century after its conquest by the East Saxons, it wholly disappears from
our view." Its position, he goes on to show, was sure eventually to draw
in both trade and population, but the Danish war arrested progress.
"To London the war brought all but ruin; so violent, in fact,
was the shock to its life that its very bishoprick seemed for a
time to cease to exist. The Roman walls must have been broken
and ruined, for we hear of no resistance such as that which in
later days made the city England's main bulwark against
northern attack."
Asser, in his _Life of Alfred_, tells us plainly enough of the condition
of the space within the ruined walls. It must have been that of Pevensey
now, or of Silchester before the grass grew over it. Alfred, he says,
"restauravit et habitabilem fecit." "To make a town habitable" implies
that it was uninhabited; "to restore it" implies that at some previous
period it had been what the great king then made it once more. How long
this condition of desolation prevailed within the Roman wall we have no
information. Unfortunately no successful attempt has been made to
discriminate between the Roman masonry, that of Alfred, and that of the
successive mediaeval repairs, in the recent examinations of what is left
of the wall.
It is well to keep the few chronological facts before us in trying to
judge of the influence of the events of 457 on what was left of Roman
London. These facts may be briefly stated. In 369 London was Augusta of
the Romans. In 457, or ninety-eight years--practically a century--later,
the Saxons caught the Britons of London at the ford over the Cray, in
Kent, fifteen miles down the Thames, and slew 4,000 of them, the rest
flying "in great terror to London." The chronicle does not tell us
whether the Saxons entered the city then or not. Judging by analogy,
they did enter it then or soon after, and slew the Britons that were
left from the slaughter at Crayford. The Britons had certainly ceased
out of London when we hear of it again. They had so utterly perished
that not a single Celtic or Roman local name was left, except the two
already mentioned--Thames and London. There is absolute silence in the
chronicle. This ominous silence lasts from 457 to 609. We have,
therefore, a hundred years from the departure of the Romans to the
battle of Crayford, and 152 years more to the next mention of London; in
all 250 years during which there is only one thing certain--namely, that
owing to some cause, the British and Roman languages ceased altogether
to be spoken or even remembered, and together with them the Roman
religion. The change is complete, as well it might be in that long
time--as long as between the death of Charles I. and the accession of
Edward VII. This blank in the history is all the more marked because no
inscriptions have survived. We have a few--very few--examples of writing
before the Romans left. We have not a line, not a letter, during those
250 years, and when we find anything again, the writers are
Anglo-Saxon--the language is entirely changed, so entirely that not even
one local name survives.
It may be necessary to note here that some excellent authorities,
finding certain traces of Roman law and customs existing in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, have formed the opinion that such laws were
relics of the Roman occupation. It would be interesting if we could
accept this view, just as if, for example, we could say that Paternoster
Row was so named by the Romans. But, as I shall have to point out a
little further, the origin of such usages is obvious without any
recourse to the revival of laws dead and buried centuries before; if,
indeed, they ever existed among people whose very language had wholly
died out and been forgotten. It is, to say the least, unlikely that a
continuity should exist in this respect, while the language in which it
must have been preserved, orally, if not in records, died out and left
not a trace even in a local name.
[Illustration: BRONZE PIN WITH CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS (ROMAN).]
I had written so far when I received Mr. Gomme's very interesting volume
on the Governance of London. I greatly regret to say I cannot make his
views fit with most of the facts I have endeavoured to put into
chronological order above. For example, Roman London, when walled, was a
Christian city. When the Saxons had held it from about 457 to 609, it
was, we know, a heathen city, and twice afterwards returned to the
worship of Woden and Thor. Is this compatible with the survival of a
Roman constitution? Or, again, is there any London custom or law which
might not have come to it from the cities of Flanders and Gaul more
easily than after the changes and chances of two or three centuries?
This is not the place to discuss these and other similar questions, and
I for one will be extremely glad if Mr. Gomme can prove his point in the
face of so much which seems to tell against him.
The East Saxons, it is pretty certain, made but little use of London. We
only hear of it when the King of Kent, Ethelbert, set up Sebert, his
sister's son, as King of Essex, and having become Christian himself,
sent Mellitus, a Roman priest, to preach to Sebert and his people,
making him Bishop of London. So much we learn from the _Chronicle_ under
the year 609. Next, in Beda, we read that Ethelbert furthermore built
the church of St. Paul in London for Mellitus, "where he and his
successors should have their episcopal see." Beda also tells us that the
Metropolis of the East Saxons is London; so that when we, at the present
day, speak of it as the Metropolis, we mean it is the chief
ecclesiastical city of Essex; which shows the absurdity of a phrase very
common at the present day. Sebert lived till 616 or later, but there is
no distinct mention of his life in London. His supposed burial, whether
in St. Paul's or at Westminster, belongs to monkish legendary lore, and
cannot be discussed as serious history. When his three sons turned back
from Christianity they were attacked and slain by the men of Wessex, who
seem to have acquired an ascendancy over the East Saxons which they
retained till the Danish wars and the settlement of Alfred.
When we next hear of a bishop, he is a missionary from the West Saxons.
The brother of the great Chad, the bishop of the Mercians, Cedd, is
invited to preach to the heathen East Saxons by Oswy, King of
Northumbria. We may take Oswy as godfather of the East Saxon king,
Sigebert; but there are many names with little certainty in the few
contemporary records. In the confusion Sigebert is murdered, and of his
successor we know nothing. He may have reigned at Kingsbury or at
Tilbury, where--not in London--Cedd preached: at Colchester or at St.
Albans. Then there comes a story of "simony," in which the influence of
Worcester is again apparent. Then, at last, we have some documentary
evidence. The kings, or kinglets, of Essex were usually two in number.
At this time they were Sebbi and his colleague, Sighere, and they both
witness a gift made by their cousin Hothilred to Barking Abbey. The
document is printed by Kemble in _Codex Diplomaticus_ (vol. i.), and is
dated by him in 692 or 693. After this date again the East Saxons--there
is not a word about London--become pagans. Sighere and his people of the
"East Saxon province" are mentioned by Beda. The subjects of Sebbi
remain steadfast, and if we care to guess they will probably be found to
have belonged to the "Middlesaxon province." It is mentioned in a
document relating to Twickenham, which is described as in that part of
the province, and is signed by Swaebred, King of the East Saxons, under
the sanction of Coenred, King of Mercia.
The same year that Hothilred gave his land to Barking, the great
legendary benefactor of that nunnery died. This was Erkenwald, Abbot of
Chertsey, who had become Bishop of London in 675. Two years before, in
673, there is a distinct mention of a church in London. The Archbishop
of Canterbury consecrated a bishop of Dunwich "in the city of London."
The next mention is by Beda, who tells us of the appointment of
Erkenwald, and immediately after of the death of King Sebbi and his
burial "in the church of the blessed apostle of the Gentiles."
It thus appears likely that both Erkenwald and Sebbi lived in London. It
does not follow that Erkenwald built or rebuilt Bishopsgate. Newgate
was in existence under the name of Westgate very soon after. As it
opened near the church, it is surely more likely that Erkenwald rebuilt
it than the northern gate; but the history of this bishop is so overlaid
with monkish legend that we do not require any guesswork.
[Illustration: GOLD AND ENAMEL BROOCH (NINTH CENTURY).
_Found in Thames Street._]
In the same way Offa, King of Essex, son of Sighere, is constantly
confused with Offa, the great King of Mercia. That one of the two had a
house in London is very likely, and is noticed by Matthew Paris. But it
is curious that the great Offa's biographers wholly omit to mention
London. There were some half-dozen kings of the East Saxons after the
abdication of Offa, of Essex, and there is some confusion among them and
among the Saxon "dukes" after the submission to Egbert in 823, when we
may suppose the Kinglets of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Essex assumed the
lower title.
Now, at last, we come to a document which throws light on the condition
of London before the Danish war, and the passage quoted from Green's
_Conquest of England_. This is a grant by Burhed, or Burgred, King of
Mercia, afterwards styled Duke, who married a sister of Alfred, and no
doubt abdicated the royal title when Egbert became king. In it Burgred
gives to Bishop Alhun, of Worcester, a piece of land--"a little cabbage
garden," as it may be translated--"in vico Lundoniae; hoc est ubi
nominatur Ceolmundingchaga," in the street of London where it is called
the enclosure of Ceolmund, "qui est non longe from Uestgetum positus,"
which is not far from Westgate. We observe the scribe's ignorance of the
Latin of "from," and his presumption that those who read the grant would
be at least equally ignorant. This grant throws light on the condition
of London before the great Danish inroad. There is no building of note
along the principal thoroughfare between the modern Newgate and
Coleman's enclosure, now, we may safely assume, represented by some part
of Coleman Street. Moreover, such an enclosure was possible. Also the
ground was occupied by a market garden. There is nothing about a Roman
city. There is nothing about a government, municipal or otherwise; there
is a king--not of London or of Essex, but of Mercia; and there is a
bishop, but he is bishop of Worcester. The date is in full--April 18th,
857. Several other charters occur in which London is named more or less
distinctly, and it is evident that the old desolation, if not quite at
an end, was at least a circumstance worthy of remark. More than one of
these documents speak of the port and of ships resorting to it, and we
see the meaning of Green's allusion to the fact that, while London up to
that time--namely, the end of the eighth century--had played but little
part in English history, its position made it sure to draw both trade
and population. Then came the great Danish invasion, the reign and
victories of Alfred, the repair of the wall and a new London, England's
main bulwark against foreign invasion.
Asser and Stow point out clearly that Alfred's settlement came after a
long period of ruin. This period was brought to an end by the renewal of
the Roman wall. If we date the events as follows, the slow progress of
the re-settlement is apparent. The Danes pervaded London and the
neighbourhood in 872. Alfred drove them out twelve years later, in 884.
In 886 Alfred commenced his repairs, and before his death in 901, the
beginning of the tenth century, he may have seen houses and streets
newly rising, some, it is possible, where Roman buildings had stood, but
for the most part on wholly new lines. It would not have been like
Alfred if he did not leave London with a settled government; and if
there are certain foreign usages which can be traced to his time, they
had probably been brought in with the concourse of foreign merchants who
formed a large part, if not the majority, of the new citizens. A century
and a half later they were described by the Norman conqueror as
"burghers within London, French and English," and from the prevalence of
certain names we find a large Danish element among them, while the term
French indicates that perhaps the largest part were either Normans or
Gauls from the opposite coast. It is possible that a careful survey of
the early history of St. Paul's might bring a few facts to light,
whether directly or by inference; but even after the reign of Alfred we
have very little knowledge of the condition of the city and its port. It
was never taken by the Danes. During the reign of Ethelred "the
Unready," the King seems to have been shut up in London while the
marauders ravaged the country round. Either the Londoners had great
stores of provisions, or they had access to foreign markets. Edgar first
recognised the importance of this trade, and no doubt the ill-advised
Ethelred, his successor, was well advised in this respect. In years of
comparative peace, Edward the Confessor built or rebuilt Westminster
Abbey, and lived there; but London trade was not interrupted, and
William the Norman was too wise to interfere with it.
[Illustration: THE GATES OF THE CITY: BISHOPSGATE AND CRIPPLEGATE.]
We have no remains of Saxon times in the city. The bridge continued to
exist, and must have been well fortified. There is a story, which may be
true, that Cnut dug a canal through or round Southwark, but as we have
seen, this was probably no great feat. He did not succeed in taking
London. Soon after, and down to Hastings, Normans, as well as Danes,
settled in large numbers in the city, and their names are found in the
oldest lists among those of the Saxon aldermen and leading citizens. In
the laws of Ethelred, printed by Thorpe, we find two additions to the
list of the gates. As we have seen, only two Roman gates are known on
the landward side--the Westgate, later known as Newgate, which opened on
the Watling Street; and the northern gate, said to have been rebuilt
later on a slightly different site, and named Bishopsgate. Ethelred
provides for guards at Cripplegate and Aldersgate. This provision
seems to show that the gates were then new. Of Aldred, whose name was
given to one of them, we have no special knowledge, and Stow supposes it
was called "of alders growing there," a typical guess, but nothing to
his guess about "Cripplesgate," so called "of cripples resorting there"!
But "Crepul geat" is good Anglo-Saxon for a covered way, and the covered
way here led to the Barbican. Both gave their names to wards of the
city, and in the twelfth century Alwold was alderman of Cripplegate and
Brichmar, "who coins the King's money," of Aldersgate, which is
distinctly named "Ealdredesgate."
The same document, in which these new gates are mentioned, also gives a
few topographical particulars. Thus Billingsgate is mentioned as a place
to which ships brought fish, and as being close to the bridge. This was
probably what was left of the Roman bridge. It names the merchants of
Rouen as entitled to certain consideration in the tax they pay on
cargoes of wine. The cities of Flanders, of Normandy, and of France are
named in that order, as well as Hogge (Sluys), Leodium (Liege), and
Nivella (Nivelle), and there is special mention of the Emperor's men. If
any imperial usages, any laws following Roman customs and differing from
those of other English cities, prevailed in London it is probably hence
that they came, and not through two periods of emptiness and desolation,
lasting in all at least 250 years, and probably a good many more.
IV.--NORMAN LONDON
London comes more and more into prominence in the second half of the
eleventh century. Whether this was on account of the increase of its
trade and wealth when the Danes had ceased from troubling, or on account
of the personal qualities of certain citizens, we cannot now
distinguish. The French or Norman element increased, and it is possible
to name a few individuals who are known to have lived within the walls
both before and after Hastings. Among them are Albert the Lotharingian,
after whom Lothbury is called. William "de Pontearch" and William Malet,
both of whom are mentioned in histories of the Conquest, were citizens.
Ansgar, the Staller, who was Portreeve the year of Hastings, appears to
have been, like King Harold, of Danish descent. He was described in
Edward the Confessor's great charter to Westminster Abbey as "Esgar,
minister," so apparently filled several offices, as well as that of
Portreeve. We begin about the same time to hear of a governing guild,
and of reeveland, or a portsoken, as its endowment. Sired, a canon of
St. Paul's, built a church on land belonging to the Knightenguild. There
is mention, apparently, of a son of Sired, who was a priest, about the
time of Hastings, among the documents preserved at St. Paul's; but I
have, so far, failed to find any reference there to this guild, of which
Stow has so much to tell. According to him, it was founded by Edward the
Confessor, or perhaps by Edgar, and had a charter from William Rufus.
Can it be commemorated in the name of the Guildhall which then fronted
Aldermanbury?
More authentic are the charter of the Conqueror and a few facts which go
to prove that London and its trading and industrial citizens were but
little disturbed by the change of government. Things went on as before.
The bishop, himself an alderman, the Portreeve and the burghers, French
and English, are addressed "friendly." The liberties, whatever they
were--whether, as Mr. Gomme thinks, they had come down from Roman times,
or whether, as seems to me so much more likely, they had come over from
the cities of the continent--were confirmed to them, and everything went
on as before.