Part 57

OF THE GARDENS

Adjoining to the houses on all sides lie the gardens of those citizens that dwell in the suburbs, which are well furnished with trees, spacious and beautiful.

OF THE PASTURE AND TILLAGE LANDS

On the north side too are fields for pasture, and a delightful plain of meadow land, interspersed with flowing streams, on which stand mills, whose clack is very pleasing to the ear. Close by lies an immense forest, in which are densely wooded thickets, the coverts of game, stags, fallow-deer, boars, and wild bulls. The tillage lands of the city are not barren gravelly soils, but like the fertile plains of Asia, which produce abundant crops, and fill the barns of their cultivators with

“Ceres’ plenteous sheaf.”

OF THE SPRINGS

There are also round London, on the northern side, in the suburbs, excellent springs; the water of which is sweet, clear, and salubrious,

“’Mid glistening pebbles gliding playfully:”

amongst which, Holywell, Clerkenwell, and St. Clement’s well, are of most note, and most frequently visited, as well by the scholars from the schools, as by the youth of the city when they go out to take the air in the summer evenings. The city is delightful indeed, when it has a good governor.

OF THE HONOUR OF THE CITIZENS

This city is ennobled by her men, graced by her arms, and peopled by a multitude of inhabitants; so that in the wars under King Stephen there went out to a muster, of armed horsemen, esteemed fit for war, twenty thousand, and of infantry sixty thousand. The citizens of London are respected and noted above all other citizens for the elegance of their manners, dress, table, and discourse.

OF THE MATRONS

The matrons of the city are perfect Sabines.

OF THE SCHOOLS

The three principal churches possess, by privilege and ancient dignity, celebrated schools; yet often, by the favour of some person of note, or of some learned men eminently distinguished for their philosophy, other schools are permitted upon sufferance. On festival days the masters assemble their pupils at those churches where the feast of the patron saint is solemnised; and there the scholars dispute, some in the demonstrative way, and others logically; some again recite enthymemes, while others use the more perfect syllogism. Some, to show their abilities, engage in such disputation as is practised among persons contending for victory alone; others dispute upon a truth, which is the grace of perfection. The sophisters, who argue upon feigned topics, are deemed clever according to their fluency of speech and command of language. Others endeavour to impose by false conclusions. Sometimes certain orators in their rhetorical harangues employ all the powers of persuasion, taking care to observe the precepts of the art, and to omit nothing apposite to the subject. The boys of the different schools wrangle with each other in verse, and contend about the principles of grammar or the rules of the perfect and future tenses. There are some who in epigrams, rhymes, and verses, use that trivial raillery so much practised amongst the ancients, freely attacking their companions with Fescennine licence, but suppressing the names, discharging their scoffs and sarcasms against them, touching with Socratic wit the failings of their schoolfellows, or perhaps of greater personages, or biting them more keenly with a Theonine tooth. The audience,

“well disposed to laugh, With curling nose double the quivering peals.”

OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THE AFFAIRS OF THE CITY ARE DISPOSED

The artizans of the several crafts, the vendors of the various commodities, and the labourers of every kind, have each their separate station, which they take every morning. There is also in London, on the bank of the river, amongst the wine-shops which are kept in ships and cellars, a public eating-house: there every day, according to the season, may be found viands of all kinds, roast, fried, and boiled, fish large and small, coarser meat for the poor, and more delicate for the rich, such as venison, fowls, and small birds. If friends, wearied with their journey, should unexpectedly come to a citizen’s house, and, being hungry, should not like to wait till fresh meat be bought and cooked:

“The canisters with bread are heap’d on high; The attendants water for their hands supply:”--DRYDEN.

Meanwhile some run to the river side, and there every thing that they could wish for is instantly procured. However great the number of soldiers or strangers that enters or leaves the city at any hour of the day or night, they may turn in there if they please, and refresh themselves according to their inclination; so that the former have no occasion to fast too long, or the latter to leave the city without dining. Those who wish to indulge themselves would not desire a sturgeon, or the bird of Africa, or the godwit of Ionia, when the delicacies that are to be found there are set before them. This indeed is the public cookery, and is very convenient to the city, and a distinguishing mark of civilisation. Hence we read in Plato’s Gorgias, “Juxta medicinam esse coquorum officium, simulantium et adulationem quartæ particulæ civilitatis.” There is, without one of the gates, immediately in the suburb, a certain smooth field in name and in reality. There every Friday, unless it be one of the more solemn festivals, is a noted show of well-bred horses exposed for sale. The earls, barons, and knights, who are at the time resident in the city, as well as most of the citizens, flock thither either to look on or buy. It is pleasant to see the nags, with their sleek and shining coats, smoothly ambling along, raising and setting down alternately, as it were, their feet on either side: in one part are horses better adapted to esquires; these, whose pace is rougher but yet expeditious, lift up and set down, as it were, the two opposite fore and hind feet together; in another the young blood colts, not yet accustomed to the bridle,

“Which upright walk on pasterns firm and straight, Their motions easy, prancing in their gait.”--DRYDEN.

in a third are the horses for burden, strong and stout-limbed; and in a fourth, the more valuable chargers, of an elegant shape and noble height, with nimbly moving ears, erect necks, and plump haunches. In the movements of these the purchasers observe first their easy pace, and then their gallop, which is when the fore-feet are raised from the ground and set down together, and the hind ones in like manner, alternately. When a race is to be run by such horses as these, and perhaps by others, which in like manner, according to their breed, are strong for carriage, and vigorous for the course, the people raise a shout, and order the common horses to be withdrawn to another part of the field. The jockeys, who are boys expert in the management of horses, which they regulate by means of curb-bridles, sometimes by threes, and sometimes by twos, according as the match is made, prepare themselves for the contest. Their chief aim is to prevent a competitor getting before them. The horses, too, after their manner, are eager for the race; their limbs tremble, and, impatient of delay, they cannot stand still; upon the signal being given, they stretch out their limbs, hurry over the course, and are borne along with unremitting speed. The riders, inspired with the love of praise and the hope of victory, clap spurs to their flying horses, lashing them with their whips, and inciting them by their shouts. You would think with Heraclitus, that all things were in motion, and that Zeno’s opinion was altogether erroneous, when he said, that there was no such thing as motion, and that it was impossible to reach the goal. In another quarter, apart from the rest, stand the goods of the peasants, implements of husbandry, swine with their long sides, cows with distended udders,

“Oxen of bulk immense, and woolly flocks.”

There, too, stand the mares fitted for the plough, the dray, and the cart, of which some are big with foal, others have their frolicsome colts running close by their sides. To this city, from every nation under heaven, merchants bring their commodities by sea,

“Arabia’s gold, Sabæa’s spice and incense, Scythia’s keen weapons, and the oil of palms From Babylon’s rich soil, Nile’s precious gems, Norway’s warm peltries, Russia’s costly sables, Sera’s rich vestures, and the wines of Gaul, Hither are sent.”

According to the evidence of chroniclers London is more ancient than Rome: for, as both derive their origin from the same Trojan ancestors, this was founded by Brutus before that by Romulus and Remus. Hence it is that, even to this day, both cities use the same ancient laws and ordinances. This, like Rome, is divided into wards; it has annual sheriffs instead of consuls; it has an order of senators and inferior magistrates, and also sewers and aqueducts in its streets; each class of suits, whether of the deliberative, demonstrative, or judicial kind, has its appropriate place and proper court; on stated days it has its assemblies. I think that there is no city in which more approved customs are observed--in attending churches, honouring God’s ordinances, keeping festivals, giving alms, receiving strangers, confirming espousals, contracting marriages, celebrating weddings, preparing entertainments, welcoming guests, and also in the arrangement of the funeral ceremonies and the burial of the dead. The only inconveniences of London are, the immoderate drinking of foolish persons, and the frequent fires. Moreover, almost all the bishops, abbots, and great men of England, are, in a manner, citizens and freemen of London; as they have magnificent houses there, to which they resort, spending large sums of money, whenever they are summoned thither to councils and assemblies by the king or their metropolitan, or are compelled to go there by their own business.

OF THE SPORTS

Let us now proceed to the sports of the city; since it is expedient that a city be not only an object of utility and importance, but also a source of pleasure and diversion. Hence even in the seals of the chief pontiffs, up to the time of Pope Leo, there was engraved on one side of the Bull the figure of St. Peter as a fisherman, and above him a key stretched out to him, as it were, from heaven by the hand of God, and around him this verse--

“For me thou left’st thy ship, receive the key.”

On the obverse side was represented a city, with this inscription, GOLDEN ROME. It was also said in praise of Augustus Cæsar and the city of Rome,

“All night it rains, the shows return with day, Cæsar, thou bear’st with Jove alternate sway.”

London, instead of theatrical shows and scenic entertainments, has dramatic performances of a more sacred kind, either representations of the miracles which holy confessors have wrought, or of the passions and sufferings in which the constancy of martyrs was signally displayed. Moreover, to begin with the sports of the boys (for we have all been boys), annually on the day which is called Shrovetide, the boys of the respective schools bring each a fighting cock to their master, and the whole of that forenoon is spent by the boys in seeing their cocks fight in the school-room. After dinner, all the young men of the city go out into the fields to play at the well-known game of foot-ball. The scholars belonging to the several schools have each their ball; and the city tradesmen, according to their respective crafts, have theirs. The more aged men, the fathers of the players, and the wealthy citizens, come on horseback to see the contests of the young men, with whom, after their manner, they participate, their natural heat seeming to be aroused by the sight of so much agility, and by their participation in the amusements of unrestrained youth. Every Sunday in Lent, after dinner, a company of young men enter the fields, mounted on warlike horses--

“On coursers always foremost in the race;”

of which

“Each steed’s well-train’d to gallop in a ring.”

The lay-sons of the citizens rush out of the gates in crowds, equipped with lances and shields, the younger sort with pikes from which the iron head has been taken off, and there they get up sham fights, and exercise themselves in military combat. When the king happens to be near the city, most of the courtiers attend, and the young men who form the households of the earls and barons, and have not yet attained the honour of knighthood, resort thither for the purpose of trying their skill. The hope of victory animates every one. The spirited horses neigh, their limbs tremble, they champ their bits, and, impatient of delay, cannot endure standing still. When at length

“The charger’s hoof seizes upon the course,”

the young riders having been divided into companies, some pursue those that go before without being able to overtake them, whilst others throw their companions out of their course, and gallop beyond them. In the Easter holidays they play at a game resembling a naval engagement. A target is firmly fastened to the trunk of a tree which is fixed in the middle of the river, and in the prow of a boat driven along by oars and the current stands a young man who is to strike the target with his lance; if, in hitting it, he break his lance, and keep his position unmoved, he gains his point, and attains his desire: but if his lance be not shivered by the blow, he is tumbled into the river, and his boat passes by, driven along by its own motion. Two boats, however, are placed there, one on each side of the target, and in them a number of young men to take up the striker, when he first emerges from the stream, or when

“A second time he rises from the wave.”

On the bridge, and in balconies on the banks of the river, stand the spectators,

“well disposed to laugh.”

During the holydays in summer the young men exercise themselves in the sports of leaping, archery, wrestling, stone-throwing, slinging javelins beyond a mark, and also fighting with bucklers. Cytherea leads the dances of the maidens, who merrily trip along the ground beneath the uprisen moon. Almost on every holyday in winter, before dinner, foaming boars, and huge-tusked hogs, intended for bacon, fight for their lives, or fat bulls or immense boars are baited with dogs. When that great marsh which washes the walls of the city on the north side is frozen over, the young men go out in crowds to divert themselves upon the ice. Some, having increased their velocity by a run, placing their feet apart, and turning their bodies sideways, slide a great way: others make a seat of large pieces of ice like mill-stones, and a great number of them running before, and holding each other by the hand, draw one of their companions who is seated on the ice: if at any time they slip in moving so swiftly, all fall down headlong together. Others are more expert in their sports upon the ice; for fitting to, and binding under their feet the shinbones of some animal, and taking in their hands poles shod with iron, which at times they strike against the ice, they are carried along with as great rapidity as a bird flying or a bolt discharged from a cross-bow. Sometimes two of the skaters having placed themselves a great distance apart by mutual agreement, come together from opposite sides; they meet, raise their poles, and strike each other; either one or both of them fall, not without some bodily hurt: even after their fall they are carried along to a great distance from each other by the velocity of the motion; and whatever part of their heads comes in contact with the ice is laid bare to the very skull. Very frequently the leg or arm of the falling party, if he chance to light upon either of them, is broken. But youth is an age eager for glory and desirous of victory, and so young men engage in counterfeit battles, that they may conduct themselves more valiantly in real ones. Most of the citizens amuse themselves in sporting with merlins, hawks, and other birds of a like kind, and also with dogs that hunt in the woods. The citizens have the right of hunting in Middlesex, Hertfordshire, all the Chilterns, and Kent, as far as the river Cray. The Londoners, then called Trinovantes, repulsed Caius Julius Cæsar, a man who delighted to mark his path with blood. Whence Lucan says,

“Britain he sought, but turn’d his back dismay’d.”

The city of London has produced some men, who have subdued many kingdoms, and even the Roman empire; and very many others, whose virtue has exalted them to the skies, as was promised to Brutus by the oracle of Apollo:

“Brutus, there lies beyond the Gallic bounds An island which the western sea surrounds:

* * * * *

To reach this happy shore thy sails employ: There fate decrees to raise a second Troy, And found an empire in thy royal line Which time shall ne’er destroy, nor bounds confine.”

Since the planting of the Christian religion there, London has given birth to the noble emperor Constantine, who gave the city of Rome and all the insignia of the empire to God and St. Peter, and Pope Sylvester, whose stirrup he held, and chose rather to be called defender of the holy Roman church, than emperor: and that the peace of our lord the Pope might not, by reason of his presence, be disturbed by the turmoils consequent on secular business, he withdrew from the city which he had bestowed upon our lord the Pope, and built for himself the city of Byzantium. London also in modern times has produced illustrious and august princes, the empress Matilda, King Henry the Third, and St. Thomas, the archbishop and glorious martyr of Christ, than whom no man was more guileless or more devoted to all good men throughout the whole Roman world.

INDEX

Abchurch lane, 196

Aeldgate, 29 ff.

Aetheling street. _See_ Watheling street

Alcestone, Manor of, 22

Aldemarie church, 226

Alder street, 30

Aldersgate (Aeldresgate, Ealdersgate), 27, 33

Aldersgate street, 272

Aldersgate ward, 271

Aldgate (Aeldgate), 27

Aldgate ward, 125

Alfred, King, 10

Alhallowes, Bread Street, Church of, 309

Allen, Sir John, 103

Allhallowes, _ad fœnum_, 210

Allhallowes the Great, Grammar school at, 67, 175

Allhallowes the Less, Church of, 97, 210

Allhallowes the More, Church of, 210

Allhallows, Barking, Church of, 119

Allhallows, Church of (Stane church), 182

Allhallows Grasse church, 181

Allhallows, Honey lane, Church of, 243

Allhallows-in-the-Wall, Church of, 145, 158

Armourers’ hall, 254

Askew, Sir Christopher and Lady, 270

Audley, Thomas, 81, 117

Augustine Friars, Church of, 159, 160

Augustine Papey, Church of, St., 132. _See_ Papey

Austrie, Sir Raph, 222

Ave Mary lane, 34, 280, 303

Axe, The, 74

Bacon house, 272

Bakers’ hall, 121

Bakewell hall (Blakewell hall), 256 ff.

Baldoke, Robert, 35

Bamme, Adam, 99

Barbers-Chirurgeons’ hall, 282

Barbican, Burhkenning, 64, 271

Barnard’s inn, 71

Barnes, John, 98

Basset family, The, 133

Basset, Robert, 30

Bassinges hall street, 248

Bassings family, The, 257, 258

Bassings hall ward, 255

Battailes inn, Abbot of, 371

Battle abbey, 22

Baynard’s castle, 56 ff., 325

Beamore, Richard, 34

Beare lane, 121

Bear gardens, on Bank side, 87

Becket, Thomas, 43, 83, 96

Bedrisworth (Bury St. Edmonds), 32

Belinsgate, 185

Belinsgate (Belins gate), 17, 39, 41, 123. _See_ Billingsgate

Belzettar’s lane (Billitar lane), 126

Benbrige’s inn, 137

Benet, Abbot of Wirrall, 9

Benonye Mittun, 250

Bermondes high street, 359

Bethlehem hospital, 97

Bevis markes, 133. _See_ also Buries markes

Billingsgate ward, 185. _See_ Belinsgate

Birchin lane, 278. _See_ Birchover lane

Birchover lane, 75, 178, 182

Bishopsgate, 27, 30, 31

Bishopsgate ward, 148 ff.

Bishops of London, List of, 424 ff.

Blacke-friers stairs, 38

Blacke Fryers, 63

Blackesmiths’ hall, 315

Blackfriars church, 11

Bladder street, 280

Blanch Apleton, Manor called, 135

Blethenhall (Bethnal-Bednal) green, 30

Blossoms inn, 243

Bollein, Godfrey, 101

Boniface, 336

Bordello, The, 360

Bosse alley, 187

Bourns serving the City, 12

Bow lane, 240

Bowyers’ row, 75

Boyers’ hall, 268

Bread street, 307

Bread street ward, 307

Brewers’ hall, 266

Bricklayers’ hall, 125

Bride lane, 351

Bridewell, 64, 351 ff.

Bridge gate, 40

Bridgegate, 27

Bridgehouse, The, 142

Bridge ward within, 189 ff.

Bridge ward without, 358 ff.

Bridges of the city, 21

Bridges over the town ditch, 26

Broad street ward, 157

Brode street, 15, 158

Brooks serving the City, 12

Browne, Stephen, 100

Brune, Walter, 97

Buckles bury (Bucklesberrie), 74, 205, 232

Budge row, 74, 224

Bulmer, Bevis, 323

Burhkennings, watch-towers, 65, 66

Buries markes, 124, 133. _See_ Bevis markes

Bush lane (Carter lane), 207

Butchers’ alley, 279

Butchers’ hall, 283

Buttolfe wharf, 23

Buttolph’s gate, 22, 40, 186

Cade, Jack, 25, 121, 137, 237

Caire-Lud, or Lud’s town, 3

Cambridge heath, 30

Cambridge University, 66, 157, 347

Campeius, Cardinal, 304

Candlewick street, 74

Candlewick street ward, 194 ff.

Carpenter, Jenken, 35

Carpenter, John, 99

Carpenters’ hall, 158

Castle Baynard ward, 324 ff.

Cavendish, John, 192

Caxton, 421

Cernet’s Tower, 233

Champneis, Sir John, 121

Chancelar lane, 350

Charterhouse lane, 386

Chaucer, 130, 216, 334, 368

Cheape, The, 34, 240 ff.

Cheape ward, 231 ff.

Cheape, West, 74

Chequer alley, 208

Chester’s inn (Strand inn), 71

Chichley, Robert, 100

Chichley, William, 122

Christ’s hospital, 68, 286, 347

Churchman, John, 98

Clarkenwell (Clarkes’ well), 16, 95

Clarkenwell, Priory of, 388

Clarkes’ well, 12

Clement’s inn, 71

Clement’s well, 12, 16

Clifford’s inn, 71

Clinke, The, 362

Clopton, Hugh, 101

Clothworkers’ hall, 121

Coke, Edward, 147

Cold Harbrough, 211

Coleman street, 248

Coleman street ward, 248

Colet, John (Collet), 68, 102, 294, 295

Compter, The, 235, 265, 360

Conduits, 12, 18, 171, 190

Conyhope lane, 232

Cooke’s row, 73

Cooks’ hall, 276

Coopers’ hall, 259

Copped hall (Skinners’ hall), 206

Cordwainers’ hall, 314

Cordwainer street ward, 224

Cordwayner street, 74

Cornehill, 74, 86

Cornhill ward, 168

Cornewallies, Mistress, 126

Coursitors’ office, 390

Court of Arches, 227

Courtein (theatre), The, 377

Cowbridge, 26

Creed lane, 280

Cripplegate, 13, 32, 33

Cripplesgate ward, 260 ff.

Crockers lane, 353

Cromwell, Thomas, 82, 161

Crooked lane, 193

Crosby place, 155

Crosley, Sir John, 155

Culver alley, 126

Curriers’ hall, 266

Curriers’ row, 158

Customers’ key, 41, 123

Cutlers’ hall, 219

Danne, Margaret, 106

Day, John, 33

Distaffe lane. _See_ Mayden lane

Ditch, The, without the wall of the city, 12, 19

Dixie, Sir Wolston, 105

Doctors’ Commons, 328

Dolphin, The, 148, 378

Dowgate, 206

Downe gate, 39

Downegate ward, 206 ff.

Drake, Sir Francis, 207

Drapers’ company, 11, 134 _n._

Drapers’ hall, 158, 162

Drury lane, 399

Ducke lane, 335

Dyers’ hall, 212

Eastcheape, 74, 194, 195

Eastfield, Wm., 100

Eayre (Eyre), Simon, 69, 101, 139

Ebgate, 39

Ebgate lane, 40, 191

Edington, William, Bishop of Winchester, 51

Edredes hithe, 221. _See_ Queen’s hithe

Edward, Earl of Derby, 81

Elbow lane, 207

Eldenese lane, 306

Elemosinary (Almonry, Ambry), Westminster, 421

Elie’s inn, Bishop of, 344, 345

Elms, The, Smithfield, 46

Elsing Spittle, 97

Elsing, William, 97

Embroiderers’ hall, 281

Erbar (Herber), The, 80, 205

Ethelred, Earl of Mercia, 10

Ethelwald, Bishop of Winchester, 82

Exchange, The, 50

Fabian, Robert, 101

Fags’ well, 12, 16

Falconar, Thomas, 99

Farringdon ward within, 277 ff.

Farringdon ward without, 331 ff.

Fauster’s lane, 142

Fenchurch street, 15, 133, 180 ff.

Fensburie field, 95

Fewter lane, 332, 348

Ficquetes Croft, 357

Filpot, John, 98

Finkes lane, 158, 164

Fish street hill, 190

Fisher, Jasper, 149

Fishmongers’ hall, 191

Fishmongers’ hall (six), 192

Fisher’s folly, 149, 150, 378

Fitz Alewine, Henry, 174

Fitzmary, Simon, 97

Fitzosbert, William, 46, 228

Fitzstephens, William (William Stephanides), 1

Fitzwalter, Robert, 58 ff.

Fleet dike, 14