Part 10 (1/2)

The Great Fire probably destroyed any other traces whichold preaching-cross The foundations alone have been preserved These were discovered by the late Mr C F Penrose, the surveyor to the cathedral, in the year 1879, and they are now indicated by an octagonal outline of stones on the ground-level close to the north-east corner of the present cathedral church

Steps are now being taken to build another cross on the site of Paul's Cross, a legacy of five thousand pounds having been left for that purpose by the late H C Richards, MP

[Illustration]

FOOTNOTES:

[71] See introduction to the _Catalogue of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition_, 1887

[72] See Coote's _The Romans of Britain_ and Gomme's _The Governance of London_

THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE

BY THE EDITOR

A study of contemporary documents enables us to picture to ourselves the appearance of Old London in limpse of the manners and custoulations of the city authorities, the letter-books, journals, and repertories preserved in the Record Room at Guildhall, which show an unbroken record of all events and transactions--social, political, ecclesiastical, legal,over a period of six centuries; the invaluable _Liber Albus_ of the city of London; the history and regulations of the Guilds; the descriptions of Stow, Fitzstephen, and others--all help to enable us to es, which differs very widely froers of sieges and ere not yet over, and the walls of Old London were carefully preserved and guarded The barons in John's ti them They broke into the Jews'

houses, ransacked their coffers, and then repaired the walls and gates with stones taken from their broken houses This repair was afterwards done in es of the city Sorants of a toll upon all wares sold by land or by water for the repair of the wall Edward IV paid much attention to the walls, and ordered Moorfields to be searched for clay in order to ht from Kent for this purpose The executors of Sir John Crosby, the wealthy ood service, and placed the knight's arms on the parts that they repaired The City Coood order

[Illustration: SOUTH VIEW OF OLD ST PAUL'S WHEN THE SPIRE WAS STANDING

_From an old print_]

Within these walls the pulse of the city life beat fast The area enclosed was not large, only about the size of Hyde Park, but it must have been the busiest spot on earth; there was life and animation in every corner In the city the chief noblereat buildings capable of housing a large retinue We read of Richard, Duke of York, coed in Baynard's Castle; of the Earl of Salisbury with five hundred ate belonging to the Earl of Warwick, who himself stayed with six hundred men at his inn in Warwick Lane, where, says Stow, ”there were oftentiht hundred ht by the Dukes of Exeter and Somerset, and one thousand five hundred by the Earl of Northuremont, and the Lord Clifford The houses of these noble owners have long since disappeared, but the memory of them is recorded by the names of streets, as we shall attempt to show in a subsequent chapter Even in Stow's time, rote in 1598, they were ruinous, or had been diverted froinal uses The frequent visits of these noble persons must have caused considerable excitement in the city, and provided abundant ereat merchants, too, were very important people who had their fine houses, of which the last surviving one was Crosby Hall, which we shall describe presently, a house that has beenthe present year Stow says that there were many other houses of the same class of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and that they were ”builded with stone and ti over the door, the h table in the great hall, his 'prentices and servants sitting in the rush-strewn ”marsh,” as the lower portion of the hall was anciently named These apprentices played an important part in the old city life They had to serve for a ter ”been sworn of the freedom” and enrolled on the books of the city, they were allowed to set up their shop or follow their trade They were a lively, turbulent class of young men, ever ready to take to their weapons and shout ”Clubs! Clubs!” whereat those who lived in one ether and attack the apprentices of a rival ners”--_ie_, those who presumed to trade and had not been adh spirits, they were ever ready to join in a fight, to partake in sports and gaed in questionable a alleys, played dice and other unlawful gaood flogging from their masters and other punished with the fashi+ons, and at the close of theblue cloaks in su of white broadcloth ”sewed close up to their round slops or breeches, as if they were all but of one piece” Later on, none were allowed to wear ”any girdle, point, garters, shoe-strings, or any kind of silk or ribbon, but stockings only of woollen yarn or kersey; nor Spanish shoes; nor hair with any tuft or lock, but cut short in decent and coed in dancing oralley, cock-fighting, etc, or having without hisor fighting-cock,”

he was liable to i picture of the fondness of the city apprentices for ”ridings”--_ie_, for the processions and pageants which took place when a king or queen entered the city in state, and such like joyful occasions--and for similar diversions:

”A prentis whilom dwelt in our Citie, And of a craft of vitaillers was he; At every bridale would he sing and hoppe; He loved bet the taverne than the shoppe

For whan ther any riding was in chepe, Out of the shoppe thither would he lepe, And till that he all the sight ysein, And danced well, he would not coathered hi, and e companies of these somewhat boisterous youths must have added considerable life and animation to the town

We have seen the noble in his town house, theLet us visit the artizan and small tradesman The earliest historian of London, Fitzstephen, tells us that the two great evils of his ti of foolish persons and the frequent fires” In early times the houses were built of wood, roofed with straw or stubble thatch Hence when a single house caught fire, the conflagration spread, as in the reign of Stephen, when a fire broke out at London Bridge; it spread rapidly, destroyed St Paul's, and extended as far as St Clement Danes Hence in the first year of Richard I it was enacted that the lower story of all houses in the city should be built with stone, and the roof covered with thick tiles The tradesman or artizan had a small house with a door, and a ith a double shutter arrange a penthouse, and the lower a stall Minute regulations were passed as to the height of the penthouse, which was not to be less than nine feet, so as to enable ”folks on horseback to ride beneath them,”

and the stall was not to project more than two and a half feet In this little house the shoemaker, founder, or tailor lived and worked; and as you passed down the narrow street, which was very narrow and very unsavoury, with an open drain running down the centre, you would see these busy townsfolk plying their trades andsketch of the appearance of London at this period, and of the ate's _London's Lickpenny_ A poor countryrievances The street thieves were very active, for as soon as he entered Westminster his hood was snatched froht In the streets of West to and fro, like , ”What will you buy?”

At Westry hour of mid-day, there were bread, ale, wine, ribs of beef, and tables set out for such as had ith to pay He proceeded on his way by the Strand, at that ti the two cities, though studded on each side by the houses of noble with the cries of peascods, strawberries, cherries, and the more costly articles of pepper, saffron, and spices, all hawked about the streets Having cleared his way through the press, and arrived at Cheapside, he found a crowd er than he had as yet encountered, and shopkeepers plying before their shops or booths, offering velvet, silk, lawn, and Paris thread, and seizing hiht turn in and buy At London-stone were the linendrapers, equally clahtened by itinerant vendors crying ”hot sheep's feet, mackerel,” and other such articles of food Our Lickpenny now passed through Eastcheap, which Shakespeare later on associates with a rich supply of sack and fat capons, and there he found ribs of beef, pies, and pewter pots, inter, and the old street carols of Julian and Jenkin At Cornhill, which at that time seeoods, he saw his own hood, stolen at West himself with a pint of wine, for which he paid the taverner one penny, he hastened to Billingsgate, where the watered hi him across the river

Bewildered and oppressed, Master Lickpenny was delighted to pay the heavy charge, and to reat city, resolving never again to enter its portals or to have anything to do with London litigation

Then there was the active Church life of the city During the mediaeval period, ecclesiastical, social, and secular life were so blended together that religion entered into all the customs of the people, and could not be separated therefrom In our chapter upon the City Coious basis of the Guilds The same spirit pervaded all the functions of the city The Lord Mayor was elected with solemn ecclesiastical functions The holidays of the citizens were the Church festivals and saints' days In Fitzstephen's time there were no less than one hundred and twenty-six parish churches, besides thirteen great conventual churches The bells of the churches were continually sounding, their doors were ever open, and the market women, hucksters, artizans, 'prentices, merchants, and their families had continual resort to them for mass and prayer Strict laere in force to preventon saints' days and festivals, and if the wardens or searchers of a company discovered one of their trade, a carpenter, or cobbler, or shoearret, they would soon haul him up before the court of the company, where he would be fined heavily

The life of the streets was full of anis in the Cheap, the coay apparel, the stands croith the city daly devised, besides which even Mr Louis Parker's display at the last Lord Mayor's procession would have appeared mean and tawdry; while the conduits floine, and all was rand procession through the streets, which stirs the anger of Master Googe, who thus wrote of what he saw:

Then doth ensue the solemne feast Of Corpus Christi Day, Who then can shewe their wicked use And fond and foolish play

The hallowed bread orshi+p great In silver pix they beare About the Churche or in the citie, Passing here and theare