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22 chapters
The Story of LONDON by Henry B. Wheatley Illustrated by W. H. Godfrey K. Kimball, H. Railton etc.
The Story of LONDON by Henry B. Wheatley Illustrated by W. H. Godfrey K. Kimball, H. Railton etc.
colophon London: J. M. Dent & Co. Aldine House, 29 and 30 Bedford Street Covent Garden W.C. decorative image decorative image 1909 To the Memory OF A LIFE-LONG FRIEND DANBY PALMER FRY ( late Legal Adviser to the Local Government Board ) I dedicate this little book as a slight expression of the debt of gratitude I owe to him, and of the great loss I, in common with all his friends, have suffered by his death. I especially wish to associate his honoured name
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PREFACE
PREFACE
‘History! What is history but the science which teaches us to see the throbbing life of the present in the throbbing life of the past.’— Jessopp’s Coming of the Friars , p. 178. T HERE can be no doubt that our interest in the dim past is increased the more we are able to read into the dry documents before us the human character of the actors. As long as these actors are only names to us we seem to be walking in a world of shadows, but when we can realise them as beings like ourselves with the sa
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CHAPTER I Introduction: Early History of London to the Norman Conquest
CHAPTER I Introduction: Early History of London to the Norman Conquest
T HE question as to the great antiquity of London has formed a field for varied and long-continued disputes. An elaborate picture of a British London, founded by Brut, a descendant of Æneas, as a new Troy, with grand and noble buildings, was painted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. The absurdity of this conception, although it found credence for centuries, was at last seen, and some antiquaries then went to the opposite extreme of denying the very existence of a British London. The solid foundation of f
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CHAPTER II The Walled Town and its Streets
CHAPTER II The Walled Town and its Streets
I N the mediæval city the proper protection of the municipality and the citizens largely depended upon the condition of the walls and gates. The government of town life was specially congenial to the Norman, and the laws he made for the purpose were stringent; while the Saxon, who never appreciated town life, preferred the county organisation. Thus it will be found that, as the laws of the latter were too lax, those of the former were too rigorous. Riley, referring to the superfluity of Norman l
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CHAPTER III Round the Town with Chaucer and the Poets of his Time
CHAPTER III Round the Town with Chaucer and the Poets of his Time
H AVING considered some of the chief conditions of life in a walled town, and the manners of the inhabitants, we can now proceed to look at old London through the eyes of the great English poets of the later mediæval period, to whom we are so much indebted for the insight they give us into the habits of a long-dead past. That wonderful book, Piers Plowman , not only brings before us in the most vivid fashion the life of the fourteenth century, but opens out to us the thoughts and hopes of the le
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CHAPTER IV The River and the Bridge
CHAPTER IV The River and the Bridge
T HE river has made London, and London has acknowledged its obligations to the Thames. It was the Silent Highway along which the chief traffic of the city passed during the Middle Ages, and, probably, the roads of London would have been better if the water carriage had not been so good. The river continued to be the Silent Highway until the nineteenth century, when it lost its high position. With the construction of the Thames Embankment the river again took its proper place as the centre of Lon
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CHAPTER V The King’s Palace—The Tower
CHAPTER V The King’s Palace—The Tower
T HE Tower of London has existed for over eight centuries, and long before the Conquest the site was occupied by a Roman fortification. It is the most time-honoured building in Great Britain, and probably the foremost building (not a ruin) in the world. With so much in London that is new, it is a source of the deepest pride to every Londoner that there is a relic of the past of unequalled interest, on whose walls are written the chief incidents of the history of England. The name has long been a
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CHAPTER VI Manners
CHAPTER VI Manners
O UR notices of the sports of mediæval London must commence with a reference to the curious essay of the monk Fitz-Stephen, who was the first to describe the chief features of London history. ‘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 schoolroom. After
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Hospitals
Hospitals
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. —We are justly proud of the hospitals of the twentieth century, but one of them stands out from the rest on account of its early foundation, and its enormous influence on the growth of professional feeling. In following the incidents in the history of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, we cannot doubt but that this is one of the noblest institutions in London. The hospital was founded by Rahere in 1123, and refounded in 1546. We have little history of the earlier period, but
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Sanitation
Sanitation
Having considered the condition of medical practice at the hospitals and among private patients, and having also reviewed the particulars of some of the chief epidemics, we shall now be better able to understand the sanitary condition of mediæval London, and the means taken to keep it clean. There can be little doubt that strenuous attempts were made at different periods to improve its condition. We may allow at once that old London was not a clean or healthy town, as we understand these words n
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I.—The closing of Temple Bar to the Sovereign.
I.—The closing of Temple Bar to the Sovereign.
The gates of Temple Bar were invariably closed by the city authorities whenever the sovereign had occasion to enter the city. A herald sounded a trumpet before the gate—another herald knocked—a parley ensued—the gates were then thrown open and the Mayor for the time being presented the sword of the city to the sovereign, who graciously returned it to the Mayor. The earliest record of this custom is connected with Queen Elizabeth’s visit to St. Paul’s to return thanks for the defeat of the Spanis
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II.—The Mayor’s position in the City.
II.—The Mayor’s position in the City.
None of the privileges connected with the Mayor’s office has been so jealously guarded as the one upon which is founded the claim to the Mayor’s supremacy in the City of London, where the sovereign only takes precedence of him. In Riley’s Memorials there is an extract from Letter Book I (1415) which refers to Henry V.’s speech on the contemplated invasion of France and the seat of honour accorded to the Mayor, in presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the King’s brothers. When these notabi
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III.—The Mayor’s summons to the Privy Council on the accession of a new Sovereign.
III.—The Mayor’s summons to the Privy Council on the accession of a new Sovereign.
This is intimately connected with the claim of the city to a voice in the election of the King, which found practical expression even before the Conquest. There can be no doubt that in mediæval times the support of London was eagerly sought for in cases of disputed succession. During the nineteenth century it was the custom to belittle the Mayor and Corporation, and Lord Macaulay in his history ignores the considerable influence of the city in securing the succession of his hero William III. to
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IV.—The Mayor s position at the Coronation Banquets.
IV.—The Mayor s position at the Coronation Banquets.
The privilege of assisting the chief butler at the coronations of the Kings of England accorded to the citizens of London appears to date back before the appointment of a Mayor. Dr. Sharpe, referring to the double coronation of Richard I., writes: ‘His first coronation had taken place at Westminster (3rd Sept. 1189), soon after his accession, and the citizens of London had duly performed a service at the coronation banquet—a service which even in those days was recognised as an “ancient service”
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Aldermen
Aldermen
The consideration of the actual position of the alderman in the government of London is one of great difficulty, and Mr. Round’s discovery of the Oath of the Commune in which aldermen are not mentioned has made it difficult to conjecture when it was that they took their natural place as the advisers of the Mayor. The title ‘alderman’ is a survival of the Saxon period (as is also that of ‘sheriff’), but the duties of the holders of the office have frequently been changed. The word ‘alderman’ was
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Sheriffs.
Sheriffs.
The government of the city by reeves dates back to a very early period of our history, and these reeves were appointed by the King. When William the Conqueror demanded entrance to London the joint governors were the bishop and the portreeve. How long before the Conquest a portreeve had been appointed and how long after his office was continued we do not know. The sheriff to some extent took his place, but Henry I. gave the city the right of appointing justiciars and sheriffs, and the justiciar,
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Common Council.
Common Council.
We do not know when the Court of Common Council was first formed, but, as already stated, Mr. Round supposes it to have grown out of the body of echevins brought into being on the granting of a Commune. It seems probable that the two courts—that of aldermen and that of the Common Council—were formed about the same time, but it is remarkable that we have at present no definite information on the subject. Now that special attention is drawn to this matter, it is to be hoped that some facts settlin
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Arms of London.
Arms of London.
The arms of the City of London are simple and of great interest, consisting as they do of the Cross of St. George with the Sword of St. Paul in the dexter quarter, but unfortunately an absurd popular blunder has been prevalent that the sword was really the dagger with which Sir William Walworth killed Wat Tyler. The history of these arms is fully set forth in Jewitt and Hope’s Corporation Plate , and there illustrated with figures of the old common seal of London, and the first and second mayora
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CHAPTER IX Officials of the City
CHAPTER IX Officials of the City
T HE chief of the officials of the City of London was for many years after the Conquest the Castellan and Bannerer. When William the Conqueror obtained possession of London he built a castle on the river at each end of the city, to intimidate the Londoners. The Tower was at the east end, and at the west end was what according to Dugdale was called at first The Castle . This was placed under the charge of Baynard, one of the Conqueror’s followers, after whom it came to be known as Baynard’s Castl
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CHAPTER X Commerce and Trade
CHAPTER X Commerce and Trade
T HE earliest trade recorded as carried on in the British Isles consisted of the exchange of tin with the Gauls, and, perhaps, also with Phœnician traders. Under Roman rule the agricultural and mineral resources of Britain were more fully developed. Julius Cæsar praised the Southdown mutton, and Rome was supplied with oysters which came from Whitstable and Reculvers ( Regulbium ), and were carried through the River Stour (forming the western boundary of the Island of Thanet), and were exported f
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Friars
Friars
The enthusiasm which brought the great religious movement after the Conquest and produced the numerous monastic institutions of the country had cooled by the beginning of the thirteenth century, when the remarkable evangelical revival instituted almost simultaneously by St. Dominic and St. Francis swept over Europe. The distinctive characteristics which at first marked them off from the monks were poverty and care for others. The monks lived apart from the world in order to attend first to their
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CHAPTER XII London from Mediæval to Modern Times
CHAPTER XII London from Mediæval to Modern Times
M EDIÆVAL London was almost entirely within the walls; but outside the walls, to the west, there was a connecting line of mansions on the river front leading to the village of Charing and on to Westminster, which is almost of equal antiquity with London itself. When the body of Queen Eleanor arrived at its last stage the funeral procession stopped a fair way from Westminster Abbey. One might have expected that the body would have remained under the shadow of its last resting-place, and we are, t
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