CHAPTER IV

THE STREETS

The mediæval regulations as to the cleanliness and order of the town leave nothing to desire, for they were minute, precise, and continually repeated. If they were passed by the London County Council of to-day they could not be clearer or more satisfactory.

Thus (A.D. 1282) it was ordered that every trade in the City should present to the Mayor a list of those practising that trade; by which means the Mayor and Aldermen would have accessible a Directory of the City: those not on the list had no right to remain in the City. Aldermen, also, were to learn who were staying at the hostels, and what was their business in the City. Curfew was rung at eight every night at St. Martin le Grand, St. Laurence, and All Hallows Barking. At a later period it was rung at St. Paul’s and St. Mary le Bow. At curfew the gates were to be closed; and taverns and brewers were to shut up; and no one was to walk about the streets. In every ward six men were to watch all night: the sergeants of Queenhithe and Billingsgate were to see that all boats were moored at night: no one was to cross the river after dark: and each sergeant was to have his boat kept in readiness with a crew of four men, to guard the river. No one was to walk about the streets at night.

In 1297 a similar proclamation was made. In the same year it was ordered, in addition, that everybody was to keep the front before his own house clean; that low pentices were to be removed; and that no pig-sties were to be allowed in the streets. By this time four pig-killers had been appointed, but it is evident that little had been done to enforce the law.

In 1304 a capture of rioters had been effected. Nine men were returned to prison as common “roreres” and night-walkers.

In 1309 the condition of the streets called for another ordinance. No man was to throw ordure or refuse into the streets; it was to be carted down to the river, there to be placed in boats provided for the purpose, or to be carried out of the town to the lay-stalls beyond the walls. The fine for the first offence was 40d., for the second and subsequent offences, half a mark.

In 1311 there was renewed activity in sending to prison “roreres,” street walkers, male and female, vagabonds, beggars, dicers, and gamblers.

In 1312 it was ordered that the gates should not only be closed at curfew, but that chains should be drawn across them on either side, and that they should be guarded by twelve, or at least eight, men every night, and sixteen, or at least twelve, men every day. The warders were ordered to have a watch on the top of the gate to warn them of the approach of armed men, and to put up the chains and to lower the portcullis if armed men attempted to enter.

In the year 1321, when trouble first began between King Edward II. and his nobles, the Mayor and Aldermen were summoned before the King’s Council at Westminster, and asked whether they would be “willing to preserve the King’s City of London to the use of him and his heirs as being the heritage of them, the Mayor and citizens, and at their own peril.”

They replied that they would so preserve the City, and they drew up in writing the method which they proposed to adopt:—

“The manner in which the safe-keeping of the City ought to be performed—

“That is to say: that the Mayor and Aldermen shall be properly armed, in manner as pertains to them and all their household. And that every Alderman shall cause to assemble in his Ward, in such place as he shall think best, the most proved and most wise men of his Ward; and that they, to prevent perils that may arise to the City—the which may God forbid—shall survey all the hostels of the Ward, in which they understand any strangers or suspected persons to be lodged; and that they shall enjoin such manner of hostelers and herbergeours, that they shall not harbour or receive any persons whomsoever, if they will not be answerable for their deeds and their trespasses, if in any way they offend.

“And that every Alderman, in his own Ward, shall cause all those of the Ward to be assessed to arms; that so they may be armed according as their condition demands, for maintaining the peace of our Lord the King, and saving and preserving the same in the said City.

“And that all the Gates of the City shall be well guarded by day and by night; that is to say, every gate by day, by 12 men, strong and vigorous, and well instructed, and well armed; so as to overlook those entering and going forth, if perchance any one be suspected of coming to do mischief to the City; and by night, by 24 men: so that those who keep ward by day, come at sunrise, and remain until sunset; and those who keep watch at night, come at sunset, and remain until sunrise. And that the bedels of the Wards of those who are summoned to keep ward shall be there ready with the names of those upon whom they have made summons, before the Aldermen of their Wards.

“And that every Alderman shall come there at the hour aforesaid, to see that those who are summoned to keep ward are strong and powerful men, and well and sufficiently armed.

“And that every night all the great gates shall be closed at sunset by the Warders thereunto assigned; that is to say, by two of the loyal and most powerful men of all the Ward, and sworn thereunto; and that the wickets of the gates shall be kept open until curfew rung out at St. Martin le Grand; and that then, all the wickets shall be closed, for all the night through, that so no one enter until Prime rung at St. Thomas of Acon: and then all the wickets shall be opened until sunrise, at which time the great gates shall be first opened.

“And that above the gates, and upon the walls between the gates of the City, there shall be placed sufficient people for watch and ward, that so no men-at-arms or other persons approach the walls or the gates, for doing mischief to the City. And if any one shall approach there in manner aforesaid, then the horn is to be sounded, that the nearest guards may be warned to come to such spot in defence of the City.

“And that those who are assigned to a certain guard, shall not, for any noise, for any cry, or for any affray, elsewhere in the City, in any manner depart from their guard; unless by the Mayor or by the Aldermen they be commanded so to do.

“And that every night there shall be ordained 200 men, well armed, or more, according as need demands, to go throughout the City to keep the peace, and to aid those who keep watch at the gates, if need be.

“And that no ship or boat shall moor or lie to at night, elsewhere than in the hythes of Billyngesgate and Queen Hythe, from sunset, namely, to sunrise. And that two good and strong boats shall be provided on the Thames at night, with armed men, on the one side of London Bridge, towards the West, and two boats on the other side, towards the East; so as to guard the water by night, and watch that no one may enter this part of the City to do mischief; and, if they see peril, to warn the people of those Wards which are keeping guard upon the water.”

In 1334 another proclamation was made to the same effect as those of 1282, 1297, 1309, 1312, and 1334. In this case an additional prohibition was made. No one was to wear a “false face,” meaning a mask.

In 1353 the old proclamation is issued with additions. Hostelers shall not allow their guests to go around with arms or armour; strangers were not to carry weapons of any kind; every citizen was to aid the officers of the City in keeping order; no one was to harbour criminals; no one was to make “covin, confederacy, or alliance.”

In 1356 the bad roads just outside the Gates were taken into consideration, and a toll was ordered; for every cart, one penny, for every horse, one farthing.

In 1357 the King called the attention of the Mayor to the disgusting condition of the river banks, and ordered them to be cleansed. In consequence a Proclamation was made that no one was to throw refuse into the streets or on the river banks.

In 1367 it was ordered that lay-stalls should not be placed near the water beside the Tower. A lay-stall was a large shallow depression, generally a pond, into which ordure and filth of all kinds were thrown.

In 1371 the King himself ordered that there should be no killing of cattle, sheep, and pigs at the shambles, but that the _abattoirs_ of the City should be at Stratford le Bow on one side of the town, and at Knightsbridge at the other. I am not aware that any record exists to show obedience to this order. But in the same year the Mayor established a tax at Smithfield of one penny for a horse, a halfpenny for an ox, a penny for eight sheep, and a penny for four pigs, the tax to be paid both by the vendor and the purchaser, and the proceeds to be devoted to cleansing Smithfield.

In 1372 another Royal Proclamation was issued against the defilement of the bank. This kind of proclamation always proved futile, because no one could enforce it.

In 1379 another order of the Common Council was made about keeping the streets clean. This time the Corporation seems to have recognised the absurdity of prohibiting what they could not prevent. They no longer forbid the citizens the throwing of “ordure, filth, rubbish and shavings” into the kennels, but they say that they must not throw those things into the kennels except in the time of rain so that they will be washed away, and they give the Officers of the Wards power to use loam, sand, and gravel carts for the purpose of carrying off the refuse and cleaning the kennels.

The result of many centuries’ conversion of the streets into sewers was of course the saturation of the soil with poisonous matter, which powerfully assisted the spread of plague.

These are the principal regulations as to the cleaning of the streets during a hundred years, all of the same tenor, thirteen proclamations and orders—that is to say, one in every eight years—and no effect produced.

I have made one or two notes from Riley’s _Memorials_ on other points connected with the government of the City. Thus, in 1288 it was ordered that the course of Walbrook was to be kept clean. In 1374 a lease was granted of the Moor to a certain person coupled with the duty of keeping the Walbrook reasonably clean. Along the Walbrook every house had its latrine built out over the bed of the stream, and for each, at one time, a rent of 12d. was paid yearly. The now greatly narrowed bed of the stream was constantly becoming choked with the accumulation of filth of all kinds thrown into it: the slender stream was not strong enough as of old, before the wall was built, to carry things down to its mouth.

There were public latrines along the river bank—sometimes built out on quays, sometimes on piers, roofed. The Master of the Temple was bound to keep up one on the “Temple bridge,” _i.e._ the Temple pier, to which access was the right of the public. We hear also of a public latrine without the postern where now Moor Lane begins. It was condemned as a nuisance, A.D. 1415, and was removed. Another public latrine was at Bishopsgate just without the gate, probably built over the ditch. The City gates continued, down to the time of their removal, to have lay-stalls and heaps of filth and rubbish lying piled without them. Probably there was a public latrine outside every gate. That of Bishopsgate was also condemned, and another constructed just within the walls over the much-enduring bed of the Walbrook. In other places, the cesspool added its contamination to whatever part of the soil escaped the contamination of the street. The first construction of the cesspool was in the reign of Henry III. We shall find, presently, certain wise laws as to its isolation.

There were men in every ward appointed to be “sweepers of litter,” and they were sometimes called “rakers.”

Scavagers were officers who took custom upon the Scavage (showage) of imported goods. They also discharged various other duties, one of which was to see that precautions were taken in case of fire. Later, they kept pavements in repair and looked after streets and lanes, so that they gradually became what we now call scavengers, giving the name of an honourable occupation to a menial office. On this word Professor Skeat sends me the following remarks:—

“Another London word is _scavenger_; the solution of which, without the _Liber Albus_, would have been hopeless. It arose in a way we could never have suspected, and could never have anticipated; and it shows the futility of guessing. To begin with, the old sense was quite different, and the old form was not _scavenger_, but _scavager_. The man whom we now call a _scavenger_ was formerly called a _raker_; Langland tells us that, amongst the company in the tavern of which I have already spoken, there was ‘a raker of Cheapside,’ _i.e._ one who had to rake the filth together and keep the street clean. The inspection of streets came to be included among the duties of a _scavager_, but this was not so at first. Originally, his business was _scavage_; and _scavage_ meant the inspection of imported goods, which had to be submitted or shown to the _scavagers_, or inspectors. As to the word _scavage_ itself, it is a Norman coinage meaning ‘show-age’ or exhibition, coined in an extraordinary fashion by adding the French suffix _-age_ (as seen in _porter-age_, or _broker-age_), to the Middle-English word _schaw-en_, which we now pronounce as _show_. And the net result is, that, once upon a time, a _scavenger_ was one who was busied about the ‘inspection’ of imported goods; which is quite a recondite point of history. And it is clear to me, though the fact has never been made out before, that—when we come to consider that Chaucer was controller of the City Customs, that it was his special duty to inspect the imports of wool, and that wool was one of the commodities on which there was a duty of twelve-pence for every ‘cark’ or load—it is clear to me (as I said before) that Geoffrey Chaucer the poet was, by occupation, neither more nor less than a scavenger.”

Complaints were made in 1298 that the people took the stones from the wall and the timber from the gates, so that both wall and gates were falling into ruin.

In 1302 one Thomas Bat, being haled before the Mayor on a charge of neglecting to put tiles instead of thatch on his houses, offered to indemnify the City in case of any fire happening by reason of his thatch. The offer was accepted on the understanding that the thatch was to be removed by a certain time. The _naïveté_ of Mr. Bat in offering, and the City in accepting, an indemnity in case of fire is truly remarkable. What would Mr. Bat have done, how far would his personal estate have gone, if a quarter of the City had been burned down by reason of his thatch?

Some entries are very remarkable. In 1308 a “supervisor” of barbers was appointed. Why of barbers? In another place it is hinted that barbers allowed their shops to become places of assignation; and in another place they were ordered not to ply their trade on Sundays. Furriers are not to scour their furs in Cheapside. Turners who made the wooden measures are ordered to make no measures but those of the gallon, the potell (or half gallon), and the quart, and not to make any of the false measures called chopins and “gylles.” But why were the chopin and the gill false measures? White tawyers and megusers were not to flay horses in the City: were there, then, no knackers’ yards?

The paving of the City did not become general until the fourteenth century. Even then, in 1372, we find “the Pavement” before the Friars Minors in Newgate Street mentioned as if it were a distinguishing feature of that street. Perhaps the explanation is that the roadway itself was paved for the convenience of the poultry market there. Paving was required of every householder before his own house, but the middle of the street was paved by means of the tax called Pavage. By means of this tax, every cart that entered the gates paid a penny. But a cart carrying sand or clay paid 3d. a week, and a cart carrying corn and flour paid the same: a cart laden with firewood paid 1/4d., and a cart with charcoal paid 1d. But carts and horses carrying provisions for private consumption paid nothing.

In 1334 certain foreign merchants were exempted from the toll or tax of Pavage except before their own hostels. Riley thinks that the pavement for the Poultry Market in Newgate Street, and other open spaces used as markets, consisted of “rough layers of stones.” But the paviors formed a separate craft, and their pay was regulated at so much a toise (7½ feet) in length. This indicates some skill and knowledge, which certainly would not be wanted for “rough layers of stones.”

The dangers of the night were always present in the minds of the sober citizens. When the streets were without light—which was the case practically, in spite of regulations and ordinances, till the eighteenth century—and without a patrol, the way of the robbers and murderers was easy. The danger varied; sometimes, especially in time of foreign war, the streets were comparatively quiet; sometimes, especially when the soldiers returned, they were filled with violence, brawls, and robberies. A strong Alderman in a Ward suppressed disorders: indeed, it is most certain that it was easy to find out the character of every man in the Ward; a weak Alderman encouraged evil-doers: and it was always easy for a malefactor to get across the river in a boat and find safety in those parts of Southwark where the City had no jurisdiction. The worst time ever known in London for this kind of disorder was certainly towards the end of the twelfth century, unless, perhaps, it was a hundred years later, when King Edward suppressed the Mayor for twelve years.

As for the craftsman, on Saturdays work was knocked off at Vespers, that is, at 4 P.M. The shops stood open on the ground floor with wide windows, glazed at the top or not at all. The selds, of which we hear so much, were places for storage and warehousing first, and shops next. Thus North and South Shields are the north and south selds. One of the streets, as Broad Street, for example, had two kennels or gutters, the others only one. Many laws were passed about pigs, which were allowed to be kept within the house, one supposes in the garden or back-yard, but not in the streets.

The lawlessness that was continually breaking out in the streets is abundantly illustrated in the pages of Riley. Thus, there was the quarrel between the saddlers and the painters in 1327. It began with “contumelious” words between William de Karleton, saddler, and William de Stokwell, a painter: their friends arranged for the dispute between them to be settled by arbitration of six persons on either side, and a “day of love,” _i.e._ of reconciliation, was appointed to be held at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Unfortunately the painter went about making mischief and got together all the painters, joiners, loriners, and gilders in the City, so that they agreed to stand by each other, and in case of dispute or offence to close their selds until the case was adjusted. This was naturally followed by a fight in the streets, in which many were killed or wounded. The case was brought before the Mayor and Aldermen, by whom a Committee of Arbitration, consisting of six Aldermen, was appointed. The Aldermen heard the case on both sides, and chose six men of each trade, by whom articles of agreement were arrived at and a day of love was named.

The water supply of the City was in its early history abundant. There were wells, springs, and streams everywhere. Through the wall of the City flowed the Walbrook, fed by one spring at least within the City. This stream received half-a-dozen affluents before it reached the wall. Outside there were the springs of Clerkenwell, the Holy Well, Sadler’s Well, and others falling into the River of Wells or Fleet River: in the Strand there were small streams flowing down to the Thames from what is now the site of Covent Garden. And within the City there were many wells of pure water: in Broad Street, at Aldgate, at St. Antholin’s Church, at St. Paul’s Churchyard, at the Grey Friars, at Aldersgate, at many private houses; the number of these wells can never be discovered, because the Fire of London choked them, and they were built over and forgotten. When Furnival’s Inn was destroyed quite recently, old wells were found below the foundations. There was also the Thames water, which at certain periods of the ebb tide was tolerably pure, if it was taken some distance from the bank.

When the Walbrook became an open sewer, and the Fleet River defiled with every kind of refuse, it was necessary to obtain a supply of water from outside. In the reign of Henry III. (1236) a conduit of stone was erected at Marylebone for the reception of water from the Tyburn. (See p. 24.)

There were nine conduits or bosses set up in different parts of the City, but all on the western side of Walbrook. Three of these conduits were in Chepe, one opposite Honey Lane, another where Chepe becomes the Poultry, and a third, the Little Conduit, at the west end of Chepe, just east of the present statue of Sir Robert Peel. Another conduit stood in Snow Hill. It was repaired and restored in 1577 by one Lamb, who connected it with a spring on the site of the drinking fountain before the Foundling Hospital. The City on the east of Walbrook was supplied by wells, especially by a well opposite the future site of the Royal Exchange. The great conduit of Cornhill called the Standard was not set up until 1581. An earlier conduit, however, was that at Aldgate, which brought water from Hackney. The New River water was brought into the New River Head in the year 1613.

When there was no well within reach and no “boss,” water was carried about by men. Those who lived on the banks of the river used the river water for their workshops and other purposes. Southwark was supplied partly from a great pond in St. Mary Overies open to any high tide, partly from springs, and partly from streams. In the City itself there were many springs, especially in the lanes ascending from Thames Street. But water had to be fetched. Therefore, the breweries were all placed on the river bank; and also as many of the industries requiring water as could find place there. As every gallon of water had to be paid for or carried by a servant, it is obvious that personal cleanliness could only be regarded in houses where money was plentiful or the service sufficient. We must not, however, conclude that the mediæval citizen went always unwashed; there were “stews,” or places for hot baths—which became notorious places of resort; and in great houses and castles the visitor was always conducted to the bath-room on arrival. The craftsmen, one supposes, were in the fourteenth century exactly like the craftsmen of the eighteenth century in this respect, that is to say, they did not often bathe.

The scarcity of water affected the house even more than the people in it. Where was the water for the continual scrubbing of floors and stairs on which the modern housekeeper insists? There was none. The ground floors were of hard clay: and, as we have seen, they were covered with rushes, which were not too often changed: the bedrooms were strewn with flowers in the summer, and with sweet herbs of all kinds in the winter: but all the rooms, as one would expect where there was little washing and little ventilation, were pestered with vermin.

Wilkinson (_Londina Illustrata_, vol. i.) gives an account of the City conduits:—

“In addition to the Great and Little Conduits in West-Cheap, the other public reservoirs of London consisted of the following. The Tun upon Cornhill, furnished with a cistern in 1401; the Standard in West-Cheap, supplied with water 1431; the Conduit in Aldermanbury, and the Standard in Fleet-Street, made and finished by the executors of Sir William Eastfield in 1471; the Cisterns erected at the Standard in Fleet-Street, Fleet-Bridge, and without Cripplegate, in 1478; the Conduit in Grass-Street, made in 1491; the Conduit at Holborn Cross, erected about 1491, and rebuilt by William Lambe, in 1577, whence it was called Lambe’s Conduit; the Little Conduit at the Stocks Market, built about 1500; the Conduit at Bishopsgate, about 1513; the Conduit at London Wall against Coleman-Street, about 1528; the Conduit without Aldgate, supplied with water from Hackney, about 1535; the Conduit in Lothbury and Coleman-Street, near the Church, about 1546; the Conduit of Thames water at Dowgate, in 1568.” “Of the fore-mentioned conduits of fresh water that serve the city,” adds Richard Blome, in reference to their state after the Great Fire, “the greater part of them do still continue where first erected; but some, by reason of the great quantity of ground they took up, standing in the midst of the City, were a great hindrance, not only to foot-passengers, but to porters, coaches, and cars; and were therefore thought fit to be taken down and to be removed to places more convenient and not of that resort of people; so that the water is still the same. The Conduits taken away and removed with their cisterns are the Great Conduit at the east end of Cheapside; the Great Conduit called the Tun in Cornhill; the Standard in Cheapside; the Little Conduit at the west end of Cheapside; the Conduit in Fleet Street; the Great Conduit in Grass-Church Street; the Conduit without Aldgate; the Conduit at Dowgate.”[5] The final disuse of these aqueducts took place about 1701. The Conduit at the Stocks Market after its re-erection appears to have been celebrated principally for the fine statue placed over it by Sir Robert Viner, the whole of which was removed for the building of the present Mansion House in 1739.

[5] _Londina Illustrata_, vol. i.

The accounts of the “Masters” of the Great Conduit in Chepe for the year 1350 (see Riley, _Memorials of London_, pp. 264, 265) touch on many points of interest. They show that the conduit was maintained and kept in repair by a rate levied on the houses of Chepe and the Poultry, and that this rate varied from 5s. to 6s. 8d.; that the whole line of the pipes was examined, which examination led to the repair of the fountain head at Tyburn, also to bringing a branch pipe to the King’s Mews at Charing Cross, mending the pipe between the Mews and the Windmill, Haymarket, withdrawing the fountain-head twice a quarter, and mending the pipe at Fleet Bridge, etc. The pay of the workmen was 8d. a day with a penny for drink, called _none chenche_, _i.e._ non-quencher, whence our word _nuncheon_ or luncheon. The conduit as well as that at the other end of Chepe was provided with “tankards,” _i.e._ vessels shaped like a cone, narrow at the top, holding three gallons and provided with a stopper and a handle by which they could be carried. The men who took the water from the conduit to the houses were called Cobbs, or Water-leaders.

In the matter of crowding we must not exaggerate. The City was crowded even in the time of Henry V., but not nearly so crowded as it became later on. There were still fair gardens in it, extensive gardens, with fruit trees and lawns and flowers, all over the City, especially on the northern and eastern sides, where land was of less value than elsewhere. Every Monastic House had its garden, St. Paul’s Churchyard was on its south side a great garden, the Companies’ Halls had their gardens, the churchyards were spots of greenery, and there were whole streets whose houses looked out upon broad stretches of open garden ground. I have mentioned the way in which the great nobles’ and merchants’ houses stood about in the narrow streets among the tenements and workmen’s houses. These town houses were in the City until the nobles began to build palaces along the river for the sake of the open air and the pleasantness. Many of the town houses had been deserted, sold, and pulled down before the end of the sixteenth century.

In the main thoroughfares it was at some time or other found necessary to rank the houses, the stalls, and the selds, in line along both sides of the street; the earliest representation of Cheapside shows such a line. But with the bye-streets this was by no means the case. Their _raison d’être_ was the passage from one main artery to another. How did the merchandise get itself carried out of Thames Street and from the Quays? By means of the narrow ways from Thames Street north. Observe that these were for the most part straight, because the easiest way to carry a burden up a short hill is to take it with a run; the porters ran straight up the hill to Eastcheap and walked thence to London Bridge, Cheapside, the markets of London, and the high roads, north, south, east, and west. In other parts of the City the bye-streets were not always, or even generally, straight. Was it that the lane was formed by the proverbial cows following each other? Not at all. There was no cow, in other words, the cow was not consulted in forming the lane. It was for this reason. The craftsmen gathered together, each according to his own trade and with his fellows for convenience of production, price, and common furnaces and appliances; it was necessary that there should be a lane of communication from the place of work to the place of sale; the workmen, however, set up their houses, without much regard to this lane of communication, beside each other (see also p. 251), opposite to each other, at right angles, anyhow, and the lane wound its way through and among these houses; at first there were gardens behind the houses, but, when the ground became more valuable, courts and narrow streets were thrust through these gardens—Ogilby’s map of 1677 (see _London in the Time of the Stuarts_) shows in parts the very process of building through the gardens. We must again remind ourselves that in the early centuries there were no attempts to make the streets straight, except for those which were wanted for the main thoroughfares, and for convenience of carriage. Even as late as the seventeenth century, and after the fire, there were streets where the houses projected right across the roadway. In Mark Lane one house projected twelve feet. I have in some places thought that indications of the former projections may still be discovered, but cannot insist upon the theory in any single instance. Most of them, certainly, were either entirely removed or greatly reduced, and the houses were set in line after the Great Fire. Illustrations of the way in which a street wound and turned among houses, built without regard to line, may be found in many old villages; especially in Bunyan’s village of Elstow, where many of the houses are quite irregular, and the road (wider than a London bye-street) follows the houses rather than the reverse. In this way, especially, the lanes or narrow streets round the old Palace of Westminster and beside the river gradually made themselves.

I have already mentioned the houses of nobles, ecclesiastics, and merchants, which stood among these narrow lanes. Many of these had to be large enough to accommodate the immense following of the noble lord to whom they belonged—perhaps five hundred men or more; yet, since the standard of accommodation was by no means so high as our own, the number of rooms wanted would not after all be so very great. If the men-at-arms lay side by side on straw or rushes, each wrapped in the coarse blanket called hop-harlot with a log for a pillow, thirty or forty could sleep in a single room of moderate size, just as in a man-o’-war the sailors are allowed fourteen inches in width for a hammock.

Such, then, was the appearance of London in the fifteenth century; always and everywhere picturesque, whether for the courts of its stately palaces, or the topheavy gabled houses, or the carvings, paintings, and gilding of the exterior, or the tumble-down courts and lanes, or the many old churches, or the magnificence of the religious houses, or the trade and shipping on the river, or the people themselves. Of the old City houses there now remain but a portion of one, namely, Crosby Hall, and the front of another, Sir Paul Pindar’s house, which is in the South Kensington Museum.

If we consider the ancient names of streets and places in London, we find that while a great many have been lost or changed out of recognition, there still remain many which are the same to-day as they were six hundred years ago and more, I have drawn up a list of those streets which are mentioned in the books most useful for this purpose—the _Memorials_, the _Calendar of Wills_, the _Liber Custumarum_, and the _Report of the Commission_. (See Appendix IV.) The names may be divided into classes. Thus, the natural features of the City, while they were yet dimly marked and still visible, are indicated by such names as Cornhill (unless that is the name of the old family of Corenhell), Ludgate Hill, Tower Hill, Lambeth Hill, Bread Street Hill, Addle Hill. These names remind us of the time when the low cliff overhanging the river was gradually cut away till it became a short and steep hill running along the north side of Thames Street. The name River of Wells given to the Fleet commemorated the number of springs or wells which bubbled up in and round the place called Clerkenwell, so named after one of them. Walbrook is only remembered in the City by the street which covers the stream. Next, the ancient holders of City property are still remembered by many surviving names. Among the wards there is Bassieshaw, which takes its name from the family of Basing. Cornhill, as stated above, may refer to the hill or it may be the name of the family of Corenhell; Farringdon Ward retains the name of the Farringdons; Portsoken Ward marks the estate whose rents were formerly reserved for the defensive purposes of the City; Baynard’s Castle preserves the name of the first recorded owner of property in this place; Orgar (St. Martin’s Orgar), Billing, Gresham, Guthrum, _i.e._ Gutter Lane, Philpot, and others, preserve the names of old families.

Thirdly, many trades are localised by the names of streets or places. Thus there are Milk Street, Ironmonger Lane, Wood Street, Honey Lane, Bread Street, Old Fish Street, Garlick Hithe, Silver Street, Paternoster Row, Budge Row.

The great houses, which formerly stood along the river between Blackfriars and Westminster, have given their names to the streets running north and south of the Strand.

Some of the streets preserve the memory of churches long since destroyed and not rebuilt, or of Monastic Houses, such as Pancras Lane, Size Lane (where was the church of St. Osyth), Great St. Thomas Apostle, Trinity Lane, Botolph Lane (where stood the fourth church of St. Botolph at the River Gate of the City), Austin Friars, Black Friars, Crutched Friars, Minories, St. Helen’s, St. Martin le Grand, St. Mary Axe, Mincing Lane, College Street, Rood Lane, Laurence Pounteney.

The names of the Gates are preserved in the streets which run through them: Aldgate, Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, Dowgate, Ludgate, Moorgate, Newgate. Other names indicate ancient sites which would otherwise have been forgotten: London Wall, Fore Street, Galley Wharf, Fleet, Thames, Walbrook, Lombard Street, Old Bailey, Playhouse Yard, Jewry.

A great many of the names are the ancient Saxon names still unchanged, while others remain in altered forms. Thus we have the names of Watling, Portsoken, Cripplegate, Hithe, in Queenhithe and Garlickhithe, Coleman Street, Chepe, Size Lane, Aldermanbury, Addle Street, Lambeth Hill.

The old Bars or Boundaries of the City jurisdiction are now all gone and, with the exception of Temple Bar, are clean forgotten. Queen Hithe preserves the memory of Queen Eleanor its owner. The site of Paul’s Cross is carefully laid down; Bucklersbury stands on the site of the family estate of the Bukerels. Outside the City wall in the vast wilderness of streets there are a few, as at Westminster, Southwark, Whitechapel, Clerkenwell, and the part which has contained the town houses of families of position for two hundred years, where there are histories and persons commemorated in the names of streets, but, as a general rule, the names have neither any significance worthy of note, nor any historical character, and there is not any reason at all why they should be painted up at the corners of the streets.