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page ii note * In a list of all the iters from the time between Henry II. and Edward I. London is only twice or thrice mentioned. (Madox. Hist. Excheq.)
page iii note * Catalogue of the Arundel MSS. in the College of Arms, privately printed by Sir Charles Young, Garter King of Arms, p. 27.
page iii note † Fabyan, p. 7. Matth. Paris, passim.
page iv note * Fabyan. Liber de Antiquis Legibus. Hist. Excheq. p. 711.
page iv note † Matth. Paris. Flor. Wigorn. Hist. Wike's Chron.
page iv note ‡ See Chron. p. 10, and note.
page iv note § Fabyan.
page iv note || See Chronicle, pp. 19, 20.
page iv note ¶ Liber Niger, f. 24.
page v note * Municipal Report, p. 8.
page v note † Tho. Walsingham.
page v note ‡ Rot. Cart. 1 Edw. III. m. 5. See Chronicle, p. 59.
page vi note * Strictly speaking, London is still confined within its ancient bounds, and the limits of the corporate jurisdiction of the city; but, as a continuity of buildings has connected it with all the neighbouring villages and hamlets, the name is, in common usage, given to them all collectively, their respective proper names being no more than subdivisions of one great metropolis.
page vi note † By act of common council, passed 28th May, 4 Edw. VI.
page vii note * It is said that the lord mayor of London, representing the common law portreeve, was anciently considered as a member of Parliament, by virtue of his office, and without any special election. (Edinburgh Review, vol. xxxvi. p. 331.)
page vii note * When King John, by the charter abovementioned, granted a mayor to the city of London, it was stipulated that he should be presented for approval either to the king or his justice; but, this condition having occasioned great expense and inconvenience, the citizens in 37 Henry III. obtained a new charter, empowering them to present their mayor to the “Barons of the Exchequer at Westminster,” when the king should not be there; and before those judges he is still sworn. From this originated the procession to Westminster, where the king's palace was situated. As the judges sat within the royal house, the citizens had alike to repair thither, whether they presented their chief magistrate to the king in person, or to his representative in the Exchequer. To fulfil this duty, they were accustomed to take their way on horseback, until Sir John Norman, the mayor in 1452, resolved to go by water. For this purpose a stately barge was built at his private expense, and the twelve principal companies imitated his example. This alteration, says Fabyan, proving highly advantageous to the watermen, they made a ballad in praise of the mayor, beginning, “Row the boat, Norman, row to thy lemman.” The water pageant has, with few exceptions, been ever since continued.
page vii note † See Chronicle, p. 34, note, 41, 47.
page vii note ‡ Ibid. p. 8.
page vii note § Ibid. p. 9, note.
page ix note * The custos sometimes had extraordinary powers over the city to chastise it. When Sir John Breton, abovementioned, was appointed to that office he had the power of amercing and chastising the aldermen and sheriffs of the city and their servants if they were disobedient. (Rot. Pat. 25 Edw. I. pt. 2, m. 9.)
page ix note † See Chron. p. 19. et seq.
page ix note ‡ Ibid. p. 25–27.
page ix note § Rot. Cart. 1 Edw. III. m. 5.
page ix note || In the year 1451 or 1452 Godfrey Fielding, mercer, the then lord mayor, was made a privy councillor by Henry VI.; this is the earliest instance of a person of his rank being advanced to such an honour.
page x note * Liber B. f. 3, 9, et seq. in Archiv. Civit. London.
page x note † When the term wards was first used they were not called by their present names, but as the ward of such and such an alderman, in the same way as the gilds were denominated. In the time of Edward I. they began to be called by their present district names. (Records in Madox's Hist. Exch. pp. 562,708, 709, 738, 739, 741. Madox's Firma Burgi. Hundred Rolls, 1 Edw. I. See Chronicle, p. 6, n. §.)
page x note ‡ A gild was an association of men who contributed for political purposes to a joint stock: from the Saxon “Gildan,” to pay. (Spelman's Glossary, 1687. “Geldum.”)
page x note § Saxon Chron. A.D. 886.
page xi note * Madox's Firma Burgi, p. 26.
page xi note † Noorthouek, pp. 84, 535. Maitland, vol. i. p. 181. Strype's Stowe, b. v. p. 81.
page xi note ‡ Strype's Stowe's Survey, ii. 89.
page xi note § It is remarkable that in the charters granted to the city of London by Henry II., Richard I. and in the first charter of King John, no mention whatever is made of the sheriffwick.
page xi note || There are many city ordinances directing and regulating in what manner the office of sheriff shall be conducted in London; and some of the regulations are ordained on pain of dismissal in case of disobedience.
page xii note * At a very early period, the Strand it appears formed a part of the banks of the Thames, and remained as a strand after all other parts in the vicinity of the growing London had lost their native character and appearance. In 1315 it is stated that the footway at the entrance of Temple Bar, and from thence to the Palace of Westminster, was so bad that the feet of horses, and rich and poor men, received constant damage, particularly in the rainy season; at the same time the footway was interrupted by thickets and bushes. The sites of two of the bridges in the line of the Strand at that period are marked out and preserved by the names given to the lanes through which their channels found way,—Ivy-bridge Lane and Strand-bridge-Lane, opposite the end of Newcastle Street. (Knight's London.)
page xii note † The Fleet has its origin in the high grounds of that most beautiful of heaths, Hampstead; nor did its waters for some centuries belie the place of their birth. From Hampstead it passed by Kentish Town, Camden Town, and the old church of St. Pancras, towards Battle Bridge, in the neighbourhood of which place an anchor is said to have been found, from which it is inferred, that vessels must have anciently passed from the Thames so far up the river. It next directed its course past Bagnigge Wells and the House of Correction, towards the valley at the back of Mount Pleasant, Warner Street, and Saffron Hill, and so to the bottom of Holborn. Here it received the waters of the Old Bourne (whence the name Holborn), which rose near Middle Row, and the channel of which forms the sewer of Holborn Hill to this day.
page xiii note * In the time of Henry III. the inquest of the Ward of Chepe present, “that from the ancient days of the kingdom, the people were accustomed to hold a market in West Chepe, as of corn, bread, fish, vegetables, flesh, and many other kinds of merchandise; but that Henry Waleis, who was mayor, ejected almost all from the fair, to the injury of the king, the city, and the whole community.” In consequence of their representation, we find that the market was soon after restored.
page xiii note † The Cheapside of the present day, and the “West-Chepe” of the 14th century, is not merely altered in name; the high footpath, supported by huge piles of wood, is replaced by a smooth pavement; the picturesque dwellings, with their acute and quaintly carved gables and overhanging stories, have made way for uninteresting lines of brickwork; “the greate cross” has been demolished; and the “great conduite” is no more. It takes its name from the Saxon word Chepe, signifying a market, and was called “West-Chepe,” to distinguish it from another market called “East-Chepe.”
page xiii note ‡ Seme's Tower, in Bucklerabury, was a royal mansion. Edward III., in the 18th year of his reign, probably from its vicinity to Lombard Street, made it his exchange for bullion. In 1358 he gave the same tower to his free chapel of St. Stephen at Westminster. (Stowe.)
page xiv note * Tower Royal, now inhabited by speculating merchants, derives its designation from being the site of a fortress of impregnable strength; but by whom built is not known. During the turbulent and eventful reign of King Stephen, it was occupied as a stronghold for himself and his Flemish mercenaries; and, although in the present day scarcely a sound of the busy metropolis can be heard, at that period it echoed with the loud neighing of the war-horse, the heavy tread of the mail-clad warrior, and the din and clash of arms. During the reign of Richard II., according to Stowe, it was called the Queen's Wardrobe.
page xiv note † The recorded history of “London Stone” reaches beyond the Conquest. According to Stowe, it is mentioned as a land-mark in a list of rents belonging to Christ Church in Canterbury, at the end of “a fair written Gospel book,” given to that foundation by the West Saxon king Athelstane, who reigned from 925 to 941. Camden, with great probability, considers this famous Stone, which still remains within a niche placed against the south wall of St. Swithin's church in Cannon Street, as the central Milliarium, or mile-stone, similar to that in the Forum at Rome, from which the chief British high roads radiated, and the distances on them were reckoned. It stood anciently on the south side of Candlewyke Street (Cannon Street), pitched upright near the channel or kennel, according to Stowe, who adds, that it was “fixed in the ground very deep, fastened with bars of iron, and otherwise so strongly set, that if carts do run against it through negligence the wheels be broken and the stone itself unshaken.” It is now reduced, judging from what may be seen of it, to much less than its original size. We owe the preservation of this ancient and venerable relic to Mr. Thomas Maiden, of Sherbourn Lane, printer, who, it is said, when St. Swithin's Church was about to undergo a repair in 1798, prevailed on the parish officers to consent that the stone should be placed where it still remains, after it had been doomed to destruction as a nuisance. (Knight's London.)
page xv note * For many particulars relating to the Steel-yard and its merchants see Strype's Stowe's and Pennant's Account of London.
page xiv note * Baynard's Castle was built by a nobleman named Baynard, a follower of the Conqueror. In 1198 it came into the possession of Robert Fitz Walter, who played a conspicuous part in the barons’ wars in the time of King John, and was “castilian and banner bearer of London.” Castle Baynard Ward derives its name from this celebrated building. The Tower of Montfichet was built by a nobleman named “Le Sire Mountflchet,” also a follower of the Conqueror. It was totally destroyed about the year 1276.
page xiv note † The historiographers of the city of London relate, that about the close of the reign of King Edward I. the trades of that city, which required much fuel, first began to use seacoal, such as dyers, brewers, &c. against which practice several of the nobility, gentry, and others, complained to the king, as being a public nuisance, when he granted a commission of inquiry into the same: in consequence of which he issued a severe proclamation against the use of sea-coals, under the penalty of fines, &c. Those trades, however, finding the scarcity and price of wood-fuel daily increasing, found it their interest to make use of seacoal; and, notwithstanding this prohibition, they soon after were under the necessity of being supplied with that fuel from Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In the Parliament Roll of 15 and 16 Edward II. is a petition relating to this article of Richard del Hurst of London, who prays for payment of 10s. for the sea-coal (carboun de meer) ordered for the coronation feast of Edward II. (Rot. Parl. i. 405.)
page xiv note ‡ Margaret wife of Edward I., Isabella wife of Edward II., Joan queen of Scots, daughter of Edward II., and Isabella queen of Man. There was, besides, the heart of a fifth queen, Alianor, wife of Henry III. and also the heart of king Edward II. See the Register of all the inscriptions existing in this church, temp. Hen. VIII. printed in the Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. V.
page xvii note * Whitehall, or rather the palace, for that name was unknown until after Wolsey's time, was originally built by Hubert de Burgh, the eminent but persecuted Justiciary of England, during the reign of Henry III. He bequeathed it to the convent of Black Friars in Holborn, and they sold it to Walter de Grey, Archbishop of York, in 1248. From that time it was called York House, and remained for nearly three centuries the residence of the prelates of that see. The last archiepiscopal owner was Wolsey. Fiddes, in his Life of that prelate, says he built a great part of York House, and it has been supposed that among these erections a “White Hall, properly so called, was erected by Wolsey, and obtained its name from the freshness of its appearance, when compared with the ancient buildings of York House;” and hence the origin of the present appellation.
page xx note * According to Stowe, the houses possessed by the Fishmongers were at first but moveable boards or stalls, set out on market days for the sale of their fish; but, proouring licence to set up sheds, they grew to shops, and by little and little to tall houses of three or iour stories in height, whence the name of Fish Street.