Fig. 35.—Roman Pavement. Drawn in situ by Fairholt, 1854.
Possibly Wren had found some remnant of such an earlier north wall, for he put the northward extent of the city along Cheapside and in line with Cornhill. This earlier north wall seems to have been again found about 1897, in which year Mr. Williamson sent the following passage to the Middlesex and HertsNotes and Queries:—“Very close to St. Peter’s-upon-Cornhill,Romanwalls of immense thickness have been discovered, proceeding in a westerly direction from Leadenhall Market under the Woolpack Tavern in Gracechurch Street along St. Peter’s Alley, a few feet on the south side of the churchyard of St. Peter’s, continuing under the banking-house of Messrs. Prescott, Dimsdale, & Co. (50 Cornhill),supposedto continue under the roadway of Cornhill, and appearing again in the foundations of the new building now being erected on thenorthside of Cornhill (No. 70) for the Union Bank of Australia. For what purpose, is itconjectured, were these walls at Leadenhall and Cornhill built?” By the aid of this valuable observation, I think that the concluding question may be safely answered by the theory of earlier walls.
Mr. Loftie has brought forward a suggestion, or rather stated a conclusion, that there was in the earlier days a walled castrum, like Richborough, at the head of London Bridge, reaching northwards to the “Langbourne.” It is not usual to seat such a post on a steep hill-side, it would be curious to pass all the Bridge traffic through it, and, finally, I have not found a vestige of foundation for its existence—it is a castrum in the air.[214]
It may be held for certain that when Tacitus, writing of the insurrection ofA.D.62, spoke of London as a wealthy and important place, no walls existed, for of the still more important Camalodunum he tells us that it had no defences, and the garrison could only fortify themselves in the temple. “The Roman generals,” he says, “neglecting the useful, embellished the province, but took no care for its defence.”
However, it is reasonable to suppose that the chief centres would have been protected a little laterunder the very thorough policy of Agricola, if these shortcomings were so noticed when Tacitus wrote; and it is the opinion of Mr. Haverfield, our best authority on things Roman, that the walls of the sister city of Silchester, now so well known to us, go back to this time.
I cannot think that the greater wall of London dates back to the first century, but it has never been proved to be later.
Fig. 36.—Roman Brick inscribed London.
Fig. 37.—Inscription from Roman Brick.
Fragments of sculpture, themselves not very early, have been found in portions of the wall, yet the Camomile Street bastion and other similar places might be additions and repairs; and some late fragments from the south wall found by Roach Smith seem to have come from its foundation (Figs.24and25).
If it is difficult to offer any convincing argumentas to the age of the wall of London, it is possible to get a general idea of the walled city and its neighbourhood with some vividness and accuracy. We have the great tidal river, the background of forest, and the nearer fen-lands, which seem to have almost insulated the site. There is the great white posting-road from Canterbury and Dover, and, more remotely, from Rome, Lyons, Chalons, Auxerre, Troyes, Rheims, Amiens, Boulogne, striking straight from point to point. On its course are villas, like one just discovered in Greenwich Park. The road dips towards the river, and passes over the drained and banked marshes to the Surrey suburb. There is a gate-tower at the end of the Bridge, then comes the long and narrow passage over the strong, swift river to the grey walls of Londinium. Along the river-front are several wharves formed of timbering, to the left is the creek of the little river which ran under the west walls, and, still further west, some water-side villas.[215]Entering the city the street ascends steeply towards the north gate; others, parallel to its course, lead to two other gates in the north wall, and two chiefroutes traverse the city longitudinally from west gate to east gate, and from west postern to east postern. A bridge[216]over the Walbrook gives good reason why the street lines in the eastern half of the city converge toward this point. The area extending from the north-gate street to the bank of the Walbrook is covered with the principal buildings closely packed together.[217]Beyond this central mass of buildings stand isolated villas in gardens and orchards. In the open belt of ground outside the walls, and along the roads, west, north, and east, are cemeteries, the graves marked with sarcophagi and sculptured headstones, some of imported marble. A theatre somewhat similar to those at Dorchester, Cirencester, and Silchester is situated without the west gate, being excavated in the steep bank of the rivulet between it and the city wall.[218]
Fig. 38.—Roman Tomb, from outside of the East Walls. Restored.
Fig. 39.—Inscription from Roman Tomb.
Within the walls the city is adorned by more than one bronze statue. The sculptured ornaments of the public buildings are somewhat rude and ponderous, but the dwellings are furnished with numerous imported works of art, such as bronze statuettes, bowls of red Samian ware, and very beautiful coloured glass vessels of themillefiorekind. The rooms have their walls painted in brightcolours with birds, flowers, and figures, and imitations of porphyry and verde antique, while a few are cased with thin slabs of marble. The pavements are patterned mosaic, and raised above hot air chambers; lead pipes supply water, the windows are glazed, and the roofs without are covered with red pantiles. So far there seem to be authentic data for such a picture. It would be vain to attempt in many instances to assign the fragments found in excavations to particular buildings. Roach Smith, however, was of opinion that a large fragment sculptured with the three seated goddesses, theDeae Matres, found in Hart Street, Crutched Friars, and now in the Guildhall, “stood on the outside of a temple dedicated to these popular divinities.”
Fig. 40.—End of a Roman Tomb found in London.
Fig. 41.—Leaden Cist.
Fig. 42.—Plate of figured Glass for Decoration.
Fig. 43.—Roman Inscription.
The illustration of a tomb is made up from fragments in the British Museum found in the east wall (Figs.38 and 39).
A large stone, about two feet high, found fifty years ago below Clement’s Lane, Lombard Street, bearing “a few letters of the sounding wordsPROVINCIA BRITANNIAE,” was thought by the same authority to have stood above a civil basilica. This most important inscription was lodged at the Guildhall, but has disappeared. I have Roach Smith’s original sketch of it, and a letter asking Fairholt to go and draw it more carefully. But in hisRoman Londonhe complains that it could not be found. Fortunately, there is a second careful drawing of the stone in the Archer Collection at the British Museum, and from this my figure is made.[219]
Following the model of Silchester, it is quite probable that a Christian church stood in a main street on such a site as the present St. Peter’s upon Cornhill. The Forum, as has been said, probably lay north of London Stone, which may have been the golden milestone of London. Wren thought that the Prætorium occupied the ground between the two west gates; but the Tower site seems even more probable.
Bagford refers to the discovery of some Roman water-pipes in Creed Lane after the fire, which were “carried round a bath that was built in a round form with niches at an equal distance for seats.”
It has been noticed that the masonry of the walls of the Roman houses seems to have finished not far above ground as if in preparation for timbering; other indications of this have been found, and a rough scratching of a house on a tile shows timber construction. This has recently been confirmed by the discovery at Silchester of houses which had timbered framing covered with clay daubing over wattle work, the outside surface being ornamented with zigzag patterns like mediæval pargeting, all of brick-red colour.
Before the Roman forces were drawn back to the heart of the empire, London seems to have grown into the position of British Metropolis. Its position in regard to the arterial roads when the itinerary was compiled, shows how it tended to take precedence over the more military centres. Moreover, while the mint marks of one or two British cities appear on coins earlier than the mark of London, in Constantinian days London is the only British city where money seems to have been coined.[220]In the last days of the occupation the city had acquired the name of Augusta. We cannot doubt that the Roman soldiers drawn away to protect their lines of communication marched Romeward with the intention of returning again to the city by the Thames when the barbarian Germans and Goths had been thrust back into their woods and plains; yet the day of Rome was done, and their retreat was itself an incident in the advance of a new age.
ON MATERIALS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF MAPS OF EARLY LONDON
In bringing this topographical essay to a conclusion, it may be desirable to note a few observations on the materials we possess for making a map of early London, the reconstruction of which, with considerable fulness and accuracy, is possible. We have in the Survey of Leeke, made directly after the great fire, and engraved on two sheets by Vertue from a parchment original, now in the MS. room of the British Museum (5415. E.I.), an admirable starting-point. Even the widths of the streets are figured on this plan, and the forms of St. Paul’s and the other old churches are given with fair precision. It is entitled “An Exact Survey of the Streets, Lanes, and Churches, comprehended within the Ruins of the City of London; first described in six platts in December, Anno Domini, 1666. By John Leeke.... And here reduced into one entire platt by John Leeke.” This parchment was engraved by Hollar to a smaller scale, with the unburnt portions of the city added in isometrical projection. On this plan the ward boundaries are carefully laid down. As to the ground-plan of the portions left uninjured by the fire, we can supplement Leeke’s Survey by the planWren made for reconstructing the city, now at Oxford, which shows the streets and churches of the uninjured areas; and from Ogilvie’s large map, made only a few years later, details, such as the block-plans of the churches in the unburnt part, can be filled in with greater accuracy. From Faithorne’s map, 1658, some additional facts, especially as to Southwark and the suburbs, can be obtained, as it is of large extent.[221]Putting all these together, we have an exact map of London as it existed at the moment of the fire. Afterwards a few modifications were made in the streets, but the plan of old London remained practically unchanged till Southwark Bridge was built and Queen Street made to lead to it.
We can now check our plan and add to the names of the streets from Stow’s perambulation of every street and alley, and his account of ward boundaries and parishes. Further than this, however, we have in the remarkably clear plot of the city given in Braun and Hogenburghe’sCivitates Orbis Terrarum(1572), a survey of the city as it existed about 1570. It is often said that this viewmustdate back to 1561 at least, as St. Paul’s spire, which was burnt in that year, is shown in it. But as it was known to be the intention to rebuild this famous spire at once, it seems probable that a view even in the interim would not leave it out. It is not quite certain who drew this admirable map. In the preface to a copy of the book which I have examined, George Braun of Cologne, January 1, 1575, speaks of the admirable industry of the painter Hogenburghe, and the living portraitures he hadso carefully painted, so that the cities may be seen at a glance more easily than in reality. On comparing the prospects of other cities, it looks almost certain that London was drawn by the same hand which drew Paris, Brussels, etc. Hofnagle, who it is thought may have made this prospect, is known to have been in England in or before 1571. It is to be remarked in this connection that the plan of London is not numbered with the rest of the plates; it is marked A, and put in at the beginning of the series as if it came to hand late.
This valuable map, whoever it may have been drawn by, and whatever may be its exact date, is delineated according to a method which is still made use of at times—the buildings, trees, and other details being figured in perspective. This has resulted in giving the whole such a pictorial character, that the correctly planned basis is not at first apparent. I have not seen it pointed out that it is properly a map and not a view, and this method of projection may be what Braun refers to in the preface cited above. About this same time William Smith, the herald, made some drawings of cities; and on one of Bristol, which is drawn according to the same method as the London map we are now considering, he writes:—“Bristow, measured and laid in Platforme by me, W. Smith, at my being in Bristow the 30 and 31 July Ano Dni 1568” (Sloane MSS. 2596). Pictorial views of cities had been known for centuries; this “laying in platform” is, however, new. We may suppose that Smith, the Rouge Dragon, was not the first to make use of this method in his Survey of Bristol, and that there must even at this time have existed such a plan of London; it may also be pointed out that Smith’s MS.viewof London, which may, however, have been made later than the one ofBristol, is plainly founded on Braun’s plan, or on some original used in common. Bagford speaks of having seen a single sheet on copper, from Temple Bar to St. Katharine’s and the Bank-side Southwark, which seemed to him the best of old London and perhaps the most ancient.
It is necessary to notice the large woodcut prospect usually called Aggas’ plan, if only to criticise this ascription, which is accepted in theDictionary of National Biography. It is plain on comparing it with Braun’s plan that one of them is copied from the other, or a common original source, and this relation is made more certain when we notice that the large woodcut, which I shall call the Anonymous plan, has been cut down at the margins, and that it must originally have included Westminster and St. Katharine’s exactly like Braun’s. As the Anonymous woodcut plan is far inferior in workmanship to the other, and as it was still being printed from in the seventeenth century, there seems to be some likelihood that it is the copy, and yet, as we shall see, a “Large Mappe” existed before 1580. Although so little is known in regard to the Anonymous plan, there seems to be sufficient evidence to negative the idea propounded by Vertue that it was the work of Aggas. This idea he gained because a view of Oxford, drawn by Aggas in 1578, and published in 1588, speaks of his having had a desire to publish a plan of London, but (in 30 Queen Elizabeth, 1588) “meantime the measure, form, and sight I bring of ancient Oxford.” A trained surveyor like Aggas would hardly have brought out an enlarged copy of Braun’s map twenty years after the original. It is probable indeed, considering the spelling of the names, that Bagford’s observation on the Anonymous plan, that it seemed tohave been “done in Holland,” is true. Mr. Thomas Dodd, in a MS. letter in the Crace Collection, points out a passage in Hakluyt where it is advised that the Pit and Jackman Expedition of 1580 should take with them the map of England and the “large Mappe of London.” Mr. Dodd goes on to point out that Hakluyt also refers to Clement Adams as an engraver on wood, and he might have been the author of such a large map, which may be the Anonymous woodcut plan. Mr. Overall, in his inconclusive preface to the reproduction of the Anonymous plan, shows that Giles Godhed had submitted “the Carde of London,” in 1562, to the Stationers’ Company. We might conclude that this was a large plan on the same projection as Braun and Hogenburghe’s plan, but this is uncertain, as just at this time there was published an engraved view of St. Paul’s and the neighbourhood, of which there is a unique copy at the Society of Antiquaries. The most beautiful plan known to me, executed after the manner of Braun’s cities, is a large plan of Bruges, signed by Marcus Gerard, pictor, 1562. Altogether I am inclined to think that there was such a plan of London existing before Braun’s, and that the Anonymous plan is a coarse copy of one of those made in Holland for popular sale some time before 1580. Braun’s plan, in any case, carries us back on firm ground to the end of the mediæval period, and by its aid we can check over our former results for an accurate plan of mediæval London.
Beyond this point we have an overwhelming mass of documentary evidence, by which the names of the streets, churches, and other landmarks, can be carried backwards by references in deeds, wills, patents, close-rolls, and Parliament-rolls, etc. etc. I have little doubt that almost every street and lane in London which existed in Stow’sday could be carried back by this means to the thirteenth century, and a good many can be shown to have borne the same names in the century after the Conquest.
Then we have the complete list of city churches in the time of Edward I. given in theLiber Custumarum. The parish boundaries probably remain much as at that time, and the wards in their present form go back as far. It may be noted that a study of the boundaries shows that the parishes are in the main subdivisions of wards, and not that wards are aggregations of parishes. Such general documentary evidence can be further supplemented by the data which we have in regard to particular buildings which are still in part existing, or of which we have plans and other evidence.
We can accurately reinstate the City wall with its bastions and gates, the Bridge and the Tower of London. We have ample particulars as to the Cathedral and precinct of St. Paul’s, with the line of the Close wall, the position of its gates, and the site of the Campanile in the north-east corner. The boundaries of the Conventual Establishments can be plotted, and the buildings within them can, in many cases, be laid down in detail. The plan of the Guildhall buildings may be reconstructed, and Hollar and Leeke’s map gives the position of the Halls of the several Companies. An attempt has been made in the body of this work to sift out what can be learned of a still more remote London.
THE END
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Footnotes:
[1]Mr. Green, from the long sections dealing with London inThe Making of EnglandandThe Conquest of England, must be reckoned among the specialists on London. I shall often have to criticise Mr. Loftie’s conclusions, but I do so merely because those are the views in possession at the present time. His books have the distinction of having revived an interest in London topography.
[2]E.g.Mr. Loftie’s most recent book,London Afternoons.
[3]Origines Celticæ.
[4]Loftie, vol. i. ch. ii.
[5]Hearne actually says it is Long-town.
[6]Canon Isaac Taylor,Dict. of Place-Names.
[7]Social England, vol. i.
[8]Rhys,Celtic Britain.
[9]Ramsay, vol. i. p. 32.
[10]See Ludgate below.
[11]Now represented by Edgware Road.
[12]SeeDict. Nat. Biog., and De la Moyne Borderie.
[13]Thorpe’sAncient Laws.
[14]Joceline de Brakelonde, p. 56, cited by Wright.
[15]Cal. St. Paul’s MSS., Ninth Report Historic MSS. Com., p. 65.
[16]Rhys,Celtic Britain; Elton’sOrigins.
[17]Thomas Wright says the Billings, a Saxon people, settled at Billingsgate, and Mr. W. H. Stevenson derives the name from Billing, a Saxon name.
[18]There is probably some fact at the bottom of this story: perhaps the sword of St. Paul was carved on the Bishop’s Gate. According to Geoffrey, the older Belinus had been placed in a golden urn on Billingsgate.
[19]Robert of Gloucester.
[20]See the story of Lludd in the Mabinogion.
[21]English Hist. Rev.vol. ii.
[22]Episcopal Succession.
[23]Celtic Britain, p. 124.
[24]C. F. Keary,Vikings.
[25]Asser.
[26]Asser.
[27]See Ramsay,Foundations of England, vol. i. p. 126.
[28]Compare Tame, Tamar, Teme, Tean, Teign. SeeSurrey Collections, vol. v.
[29]Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles, Camden Society.
[30]See Green,Making of England, vol. i. p. 105;Surrey Collections, vol. iii.; andAthenæum, 1901, No. 3838.
[31]Polyolbion.
[32]Bailey.
[33]Calendar of St. Paul’s MSS.
[34]Dugdale’sMonasticon, art. “Temple”; and Round’sGeoffrey de Mandeville.
[35]Transactions of London and Middlesex Archæological Society, vol. iv.
[36]Hardy and Page,London and Middlesex Fines, vol. i. p. 3; see also Dugdale.
[37]London and Middlesex Fines.
[38]Kempe translates the same passage, “From the north angle of the City wall, where a rivulet of Springs near thereto flowing marks it out (i.e.the moor) from the wall as far as the running water which entereth the City” (Sanctuary of St. Martin).
[39]Eng. Hist. Rev., 1896.
[40]A.S. dictionaries giveWylle-burn= Wellbrook.
[41]Other cases of churches called by personal names are St. Benet Fink, St. Martin Orgar, St. Martin Outwich, etc.
[42]St. Stephen’s Walbrook is mentioned in a charter ofc.1100. See “Churches,” below.
[43]Dr. Sharpe,Letter Book A.
[44]Archæological Journal, vol. i. p. 111.
[45]Roman Antiquities on Site of Safe Deposit, andRoman Pavement in Bucklersbury; see alsoArchæological Review, vol. iv.
[46]Letter Book A.
[47]Price,Safe Deposit, p. 30.
[48]Origines Celticæ, vol. ii.
[49]Sir J. H. Ramsay.
[50]Maitland sounded the river, and thought that there had been a ford at Chelsea; and the large number of Celtic and Roman antiquities found from time to time at Battersea and Wandsworth incline me to the view that there was a passage here.
[51]Horsley’s account of the Roman roads is still the best general authority; but see theAntiquaryfor 1901-2. The subject is being carefully re-examined in the new Victorian County Histories.
[52]Thorpe.
[53]The last, like all names compounded of “street,” is a significant name wherever found.
[54]Clark,Military Architecture, vol. i. p. 31.
[55]Hardy and Page,Fines; and see Stow.
[56]London and Middlesex Archæological Society Trans., vol. iii. p. 563.
[57]London and Middlesex Fines.
[58]Ackerman’sWestminster, vol. i. p. 74.
[59]For Old Ford seeLondon and Middlesex Archæological Society Trans., vol. iii. p. 206.
[60]Crawford Charters.
[61]Bentley’sCartulary of Westminster Abbey, p. 4.
[62]SeeArchæologia, vol. xxvi., and, on the Tyburn, theLondon and Middlesex Archæological Society Trans., vol. vi.
[63]Surrey Collections, vol. i.
[64]See Faulkner’sChelsea.
[65]Kemble, No. 872. See also Arnold’sStreatham.
[66]Eng. Hist. Rev.1898.
[67]See Rhys,Celtic Britain. The compiler of the pseudo-itinerary of R. of Cirencester writes Guethlin Street.
[68]It has been argued that if the Britons had chariots they must also have had roads; and it is generally held that the Icknield and other “Ridgeways” are of British origin. Mr. Boyd Dawkins has recently shown, from objects found in a camp with which the Pilgrim Way from Canterbury is associated, that this ridge-road is early Celtic at latest. It seems reasonable to suggest that it joined the Icknield Way, and that they formed an early road-system crossing the river at Wallingford.
[69]A paved way, thought to be the Watling Street, has just been found in Edgware Road. It was 20 feet wide, 3.6 below surface, and pitched with “boulders.” A fragment was also found in Oxford Street.
[70]Kemble,Codex Dip.591.
[71]Powell and Vigfusson’sCorpus.
[72]I do not share this view as to Claudius and the bridge. Sir J. H. Ramsay even suggests that it may have been the work of Cunobeline.
[73]Roach Smith,Archæological Journal, vol. i. p. 112.
[74]Bruce,Handbook to the Roman Wall.
[75]See Price’sBucklersbury.
[76]Making of England, pp. 21, 105.
[77]Hermann,De Mirac. S. Edmund, p. 43; seeEng. Hist. Rev.vol. xii. p. 49.
[78]Home Counties Mag.vol. i.
[79]Leland.
[80]Earle,Land Charters; andCodex Dip.No. 280.
[81]Cal.p. 25.
[82]Archæologia, lii.
[83]In the A.S. dictionariesCrepelstands for an underground passage: there is said to be a Cripplegate on the Wansdyke.
[84]Archæologia, lii.
[85]Loftie’sLondon, andLondonin “Historic Towns” series; maps in Green’sShort History, and in Miss Norgate’sAngevin Kings.
[86]It seems necessary to notice these points in such excellent books, as they are repeated in Sir W. Besant’sLondon, p. 19, and more recent works, as if they were settled. Mr. Loftie, in a still later book,London City(1891), writes: “We know that Aldgate was opened about sixty years before FitzStephen’s time. Aldersgate must have been made soon after the Conquest, and Cripplegate, with its covered way to the Barbican, cannot have been much later.” In “Historic Towns” volume he says: “The foundations of the North Gate were lately found in Camomile Street. The massive masonry of the West Gate was also lately uncovered in Giltspur Street.” In hisLondon AfternoonsLudgate appears as probably the latest of the gates. All this is conjecture and, as I have shown, contrary to the evidence.
[87]London and Middlesex Archæological Society Trans.vol. iii.
[88]Illustrations of Roman London.
[89]Thorpe’sAncient Laws.
[90]Earle,Land Charter.
[91]W. de G. Birch,London Charters.
[92]Kemble,Codex Dip.No. 1074.
[93]Leland,Coll.vol. i.
[94]J. H. Round,Calendar of French Documents.
[95]J. H. Round,Feudal England, p. 320.
[96]London and the Kingdom.
[97]Pauli,Pictures of Old London.
[98]Price,Hist. Guildhall. In a deed,temp.Henry III., the Gildhall of the Cologne Merchants is said to be near Hay Wharf, for which see Stow.
[99]J. H. Round,Calendar of French Documents. See alsoSoc de Waremanshakerand St. Peter Ghent in Dugdale, vol. ii. p. 384.
[100]Calendar of St. Paul’s Documents.
[101]Dugdale, vol. vi. p. 623.
[102]Codex Dip.ii. p. 3.
[103]Heimskringla.
[104]C. F. Keary,Vikings, p. 125.
[105]J. Earle,Saxon Chronicles.
[106]It is true it has been shown by Mr. Round that about two centuries later than this timeArxwas a technical word for a military tower, and it is used by FitzStephen for the Tower of London itself: on the other hand, passages cited inDomesday and Beyond, p. 187, show that earlier it was convertible withcastrumorburh, and it is beginning to be believed thatburhmeans acastrumrather than a mound. Grants of property run, “within Burh and without Burh, on Street and off Street.” Alfred himself writes of “Romeburh” and “Babylonburh.”
[107]It is usually said that the members of the gild entered Holy Trinity Monastery, but this Mr. Round has shown is a misconception.
[108]Alfred Memorial volume.
[109]Journal British Archæological Association, 1900.
[110]Domesday and Beyond, p. 192.
[111]“I have been in White Hill in the Court of Cynvelyn” (Taliessin). According to a Triad it was Arthur who disinterred the head of Bran, disdaining to be so protected.
[112]Dr. Maitland,Domesday and Beyond.
[113]The Anglo-Saxon chronicler under 878 tells how Alfred made ageweorcat Athelney.
[114]As to the Danes holding the burh with London, see above,p. 68. I find London “and the Boro” mentioned together early in the thirteenth century.
[115]See G. R. Corner,Archæologia, vol. xxv.
[116]Saxon Chronicle.
[117]On the boundary of Paris Gardens was an embankment called the Old Broad Wall.
[118]See “House of Lewes Priory,”Archæologia, vol. xxxviii.
[119]So well informed a guide as Baedeker says the Abbey was so named with reference to Eastminster by the Tower, which was only founded in the fourteenth century.
[120]See Sir J. H. Ramsay, vol. i. p. 422.
[121]See, for example, Hardy and Page,London and Middlesex Fines, p. 3. This volume also shows that Norton Folgate was formerly called Norton Folyot from a well-known family.
[122]Calendar of St. Paul’s Documents, p. 25.
[123]A sixteenth-century London document has “stoop or post.”
[124]Athenæum, 8th July 1899.
[125]Compare “portmeadows” and lands belonging to citizens elsewhere. At Colchester in 1086 there was a strip eight perches wide surrounding the town wall. As late as 1833 the borough of Bedfordincluded“a broad belt of land.” For a full account of the commonable fields of Cambridge and a discussion of the subject generally, see Maitland’sTownship and Borough. The London boundary was called the Line of Separation.
[126]The common pasturage of Westminster is mentioned in a charter.
[127]London and Middlesex Archæological Society Trans., vol. v. See also for these documents Dr. Sharpe’sLetter Book C.
[128]See also Stow’s account of the alienation of common lands. Mile-End, according to Froissart, was “a fair plain place where the people of the city did sport them in summer.”
[129]Fenchurch also seems to have been connected with this land, or at least the eastern suburb.
[130]The Friday fair of horses still lasted when Froissart wrote his account of Wat Tyler.
[131]Township and Borough and Village Community.
[132]Hudson Turner.
[133]Making of England.
[134]See Green’sConquest of England.
[135]In the summary of reigns at the end of Florence’s Chronicle he speaks more than once of “London and the adjacent country” as going together.
[136]See L. Gomme,Village Community, p. 212.
[137]Munday. Loftie says there was another Romeland at Dowgate.
[138]Calendar of Ancient Deeds.
[139]See J. H. Round,Commune of London, p. 99.
[140]Riley, Sharpe, Loftie’s two books,French Chronicle of London, notes.
[141]Or Langbourne and Fenny-about, as the east and west halves of this ward seem to have been sometimes called.
[142]Sharpe’sCalendar of Wills, vol. i.
[143]Calendar of Ancient Deeds, vol. iii.
[144]Riley’s Memorials.
[145]TheLiber Trinitatisstates that the precinct of Holy Trinity Aldgate was “of old” (pre-Conquest) one parish of Holy Rood. Two adjoining parishes are mentioned in a twelfth century charter (Commune of Lond.p. 253)—St. Laurence de Judaismo and St. Marie de Aldermanebury.
[146]Judicia civitatis Londoniæ.
[147]Liber Albus, p. 80.
[148]A document of about 1120-30 at St. Paul’s gives us the name of “Salidus, Bedellus Warde.”
[149]Liber Albus, p. 32.
[150]Archæological Journal, vol. iv. p. 278.
[151]Kemble,Codex Dip.685.
[152]See Dugdale, who is wrong, however, in saying it was called a “Palatine tower.” Stow applies this grant to Bridewell by mistake.
[153]See the genealogy as given by Mr. Round. It is interesting to find that the arms of Fitzwalter, the banner-bearer of London, a fess between two cheverons, is but a difference from the three cheverons of Clare.
[154]The arms of the Munfichets were similar to the arms of Clare, with the difference only of a label of five points. From this fact we may suppose that the families were allied. Munfichet Castle afterwards fell into the hands of the Fitzwalters.
[155]Howell’sLondinopolis, 1657.
[156]Dr. H. J. Nicholson,History of the Abbey of St. Albans, Newcourt, and Maitland’sLondon, vol. ii. p. 1051.
[157]Dr. Sharpe considers that the Royal was the name of a street near Dowgate, so called from La Reole, near Bordeaux.
[158]T. E. Price,Safe Deposit, p. 29.
[159]Archæol.xxix.
[160]J. Kempe,Archæologia, vol. xxiv.
[161]A large open Cheap is put in various parts by different writers. Mr. Joseph Jacobs, in an interesting inquiry as to the Jewry, makes the ground south of the Guildhall an open market.
[162]Codex Dip.i. p. 133. The Wilton Domesday gives aMagnus Vicusat Winchester.
[163]Parentalia.
[164]London and Middlesex Transactions, vol. ii.
[165]See J. E. Price,Safe Deposit. Price claims that the crypt found by Wren at Bow Church and described as Roman by him is not the now existing crypt. But the text and index ofParentaliaplainly prove that the present church was builtonit, and therefore it was the existing Norman structure.
Price says that remains of a bridge were found in Bucklersbury, and that a Roman road, possibly a continuation of that by Bow Church, passed here.
[166]Hudson Turner’sDomestic Archr., vol. i. App.;Calendar of St. Paul’s Documents, Sharpe’sCalendar of Wills,Calendar of Ancient Deeds, etc. In the last it is called Aphelingestrate in 1232.
[167]Dr. Sharpe’sCalendar of Wills.
[168]Sharon Turner,History of the Anglo-Saxons.
[169]Alfred Memorial volume, 1899.
[170]Riley’sMemorials.
[171]Issac.
[172]Godefroi’sDictionary.
[173]It is designed on the pattern of the famous monogram of Justinian, having for basis the letter N.
[174]Still more recent finds at St. Albans seem to show that here also the forum was an important building in the centre of the city.
[175]See account of Saxon Winchester in Hudson Turner’sDomestic Archr., vol. i., and ofCanterbury before the Conquest, by Geoff. Faussett.
[176]Winton Domesday mentions Fishmongers’ Street, Tanner Street, and Gold Street.
[177]The Golden Legend.
[178]Right through the Middle Ages the close of St. Paul’s is calledAtrium S. Pauli.
[179]Parentalia.
[180]Thorpes’Analecta.
[181]Cotton Charters, 11 Aug. 85.
[182]Richard of Cirencester, also Stow.
[183]See W. Maitland’sLondon, and Green’sConquest of England.
[184]London and Middlesex Archæological Society’s Trans.vol. ii.
[185]Sir H. Ellis,Introduction to Domesday.
[186]SeeEng. Hist. Rev.vol. xvi.
[187]For the last see Round,Geoffrey de Mandeville.
[188]For many other churches mentioned in the twelfth century seeCalendar of St. Paul’s Documents, Historical MSS. Reports, which I have not drawn upon in this place. Several other churches may be presumed to be ancient from their dedication, such as St. Pancras (destroyed at the great fire). Green (Conquest of England) attributes St. Augustine, St. Gregory, St. Benet, and St. Faith, to Bishop Erkenwald.
[189]For Strand churches see Sanders inArchæologia, vol. xxvi. Gibbs found work which he thought was Roman under St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields. For an early foundation at Smithfield see Malcolm.
[190]Dugdale, under Bermondsey.
[191]The “Pedlar of Swaffham” and some Welsh stories refer to the bridge in the same way. See Rhys,Celtic Folklore.
[192]Hist. MSS. Report of St. Paul’s Documents, p. 49.
[193]See T. H. Round,Commune of London.
[194]Geoffrey de Mandeville, p. 436.
[195]Thorpe, pp. 97-103.
[196]London and the Kingdom.In Winton Domesday is writtenChenictes tenebat la chenictehalla ubi potabant gildam suam.
[197]Does this mean the lost charter constituting the mayor?
[198]Camden Society.