Of this book 500 copies have been printed, and this is No.......12 STOW'S MONUMENT, IN THE CHURCH OF ST. ANDREW UNDERSHAFT, LONDON. Bygone London. BY FREDERICK ROSS, F.R.H.S., AUTHOR OF "LEGENDARY YORKSHIRE," "YORKSHIRE FAMILY ROMANCE," ETC., ETC. LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO., PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1892....

Notwithstanding the multitude of books that have been written relating to its history and antiquities, the History of London still remains to be written, a work that cannot, from its ocean-like infinitude of matter, be accomplished by a single hand, but will require the combined action of a multiplicity of labourers. By London is here meant, not the vast aggregation of buildings and population spreading into four or five counties but that small fraction lying north and south of the Thames, which

In prehistoric ages the valley of the Thames formed the bed of an estuary or arm of the sea, whose waters flowed over the low lands of Essex, and whose waves dashed against the sloping uplands of Middlesex and Surrey, on whose summits now stand the Crystal and Alexandra Palaces. In process of time, by the deposition of silt brought down from the west, and of sand brought up by the flow of the tide, the estuary was reduced to a river, afterwards still further reduced in width by the embankments m

There are many famous streets in the capitals of the world—the Rue de Rivoli, Paris; the Nevski Prospekt, St. Petersburg; the High Street, Edinburgh; the Broadway, New York; the Joseph Platz, Vienna; the High Street, Oxford; and the Via Sacra of Old Rome, with many others. All these are renowned for various characteristics of picturesque beauty, architectural grandeur, or as the scenes of important events in bygone times. In an æsthetic point of view, Cheapside is inferior to many of these, alth

Some fourteen or fifteen centuries ago what is now Bishopsgate Street Within was a fashionable suburb of the Roman Londinium, the Belgravia or South Kensington of the period, where the aristocracy and wealth of the City located itself and built magnificent mansions after the fashion of Rome, with columns, frescoes, and tesselated pavements, such as we see in the disinterred city of Pompeii. In the streets might then be seen charioteers driving rapidly along to contend in the chariot race; fair l

These two streets, forming one continuous thoroughfare, are so intimately associated in their annals, that it is almost impossible to write the history of one of them without constant reference to the other. Aldersgate Street derives its name from the old City gate which was the north-western outlet of the City, and St. Martin's-le-Grand (formerly Martin's Lane) from the collegiate establishment which occupied the site of the older or eastern portion of the Post Office. In the last century, that

The ward to which this street gives its name is unquestionably the richest in the City of London, containing within its limits, extending from Cornhill Ward on the south to Bishopsgate Ward on the north, and from Bishopsgate Ward on the east to Coleman Street Ward on the west, some of the most wealthy and important commercial establishments of the metropolis. Within its boundaries are the Bank of England, and a multitude of other high-class banks, the Royal Exchange, the Stock Exchange, several

The Tabard has passed away! Another of the relics of old London—a link between the picturesque past and the prosaic present—rich as it was in remembrances associated with the birthtime of English poetry, is now a thing of the past. We have but few of these relics of Bygone London remaining; it is true the Tower, St. John's Gate, and the house of Sir John Crosby still linger with us; but who knows how soon the site of the Tower will be wanted for a railway station, the gateway of the old knights

Not long had the Norman dynasty ruled over England. Scarcely more than a third of a century had elapsed since the Norman Duke unfurled his standard at Hastings, and in that interval the first William and the second William had passed away, and Henry le Beauclerk, by an act of usurpation had leapt into the vacant throne, which belonged by right to his elder brother Robert. The Saxon people, reft of their lands, deprived of their liberties, and subject to oppressive laws, had become the vassals an

Wondrously different was Plantagenet London from that of the Victorian era: different in every respect, notably in size, population, and aspect. It was chiefly comprised within the walls, which commenced at the Postern Gate of the Tower, and completed the circuit at the river near the present Blackfriars Bridge. There were a few outlying groups of houses and villages; a road along the river strand through the little village of Charing to Westminster, and marshes on the north, with causeways to t

It was in the autumn of the year 1347, that a storm-shattered vessel might be seen threading its way up the Thames. Its single broad sail was rent in divers places, its single mast broken, and considerable portions of its lofty poop and its high pointed stem reft away. It had come from Calais, and in mid-channel had encountered a terrific tempest, every soul on board deeming himself lost, and offering up heartfelt prayers to the Virgin or his favourite saint for succour, or for intercession in c

It was with mutterings of discontent and gloomy forebodings that Saxon London beheld, soon after the victory at Hastings, the erection of a fortress at the east end of their city—replaced soon after by the earliest portion of the present Tower of London—and two huge castles to the west, ostensibly to guard, really to keep the City in awe. Duke William, after the Battle of Hastings, knowing how important it was to hold possession of the largest and most influential city in the kingdom, hastened u

Edward III. was one of the greatest of English kings, and the progenitor, by Philippa of Hainault, of a family of stalwart sons, brave warriors and able statesmen, whose names will long live in the annals of England and the poetry of romance. They were Edward the Black Prince, the hero of Creci and Poictiers; Lionel, Duke of Clarence; John of Gaunt, "time-honoured Lancaster," titular king of Castile, father of King Henry IV. and of two queens, and the most conspicuous figure in the pages of Froi

In the pleasant Northamptonshire village of Braybrooke, on the verge of a forest, and near the Leicestershire border, there was born, some five-and-a-half centuries ago, a child who was destined to pass his name down to posterity in the annals of London. In the earlier portion of the thirteenth century, Robert May, otherwise de Braybrooke, a favourite of King John, and landed proprietor in Braybrooke, built a castle on his estates for his residence. His eldest son, Henry, married Christian Ledle

At the period when this prelate lived, England was struggling to free itself from the shackles of its Norman and Angevin rulers. The feudal system had been introduced at the Conquest, which constituted the king the absolute master of the land; the barons were his vassals, holding their lands by tenures of military service, and the great mass of the people were either vassals of the barons, holding portions of land by knight's service, or were mere serfs, excepting some merchants and traders in t

In the sixteenth century there dwelt in the parish of Holy Trinity the Less, Queenhithe, a worthy and honest citizen, one Henry Machyn, a member of the Merchant Taylors' Company. He was born about the period of the accession of Henry VIII. , and lived until after the accession of Elizabeth, dying, it is presumed, in 1563, of the plague which visited London in that year, when his diary comes to an abrupt conclusion. The age in which he lived was a most important period, that of the transition fro