London merchants, "who had their grainaries always filled, whence all parts of the kingdom were supplied*." It was also now that the representatives of London, jointly with those of the Cinque Ports, were dignified with the title of Barons, an appellation which they at present enjoy. John is said to have been the first monarch who coined what has since been denominated sterling or easterling money; which obtained this name from the circumstance of his sending for artists from the German states to rectify and regulate the silver coinage; gold coin not having yet been appropriated as a circulating medium of commerce. It is curious to observe that an income of 10l. per annum, at the time we are describing, would have gone as far in' housekeeping as 150l. of our present currency. Wheat was 3s. per quarter, or about 9s. of our time; Rochelle wine 20s. per ton; Anjou wine 24s. and the best French wine, at about 26s 8d. or about 80s. at present. The manner of living during this Anglo-Norman period was grossly extravagant. Of the luxury of those times it will be sufficient to produce a single instance. Fitz-Stephen tells us, that an archbishop of Canterbury paid for a single dish of eels five pounds, amounting, according to the most moderate computation, to four-score pounds of our money, but, in reality, to almost double that sum. Were a prelate of the age of George III. foolish or profuse enough to lay out 1807. upon a whole supper, he would be justly paragraphed in the chronicles of the times. But the extravagance of the entertainments was compensated, it will be said, by the soberness of the hours. The time of dining, even at court, and in the families of the proudest barons, was nine in the morning, and of supping, five in the afternoon. These hours were considered not only as favourable to business, but as conducive to health. The proverbial jingle of the day gives us a picture of the division of time in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: Lever à cinq, diner à neuf, Souper à cinq, coucher à neuf, To rise at five and dine at nine, Hunter. It is indisputable that Henry III. was a weak prince in point of government, but that he was also a great encourager of the arts is fully demonstrated. Let it be remembered, that Henry's reign was the period whence parliamentary freedom dates its origin. This reign was also an æra of monastic structures. The terrors of purgatory, the influence of the saints in their intercession, and the tyranny of superstition were so powerfully impressed, that no one who had a hope of comfort in this life, or wished for salvation in the next, could be exempted from such kind of sacrifice. Among others in various parts of England, the following were erected in London: St. Mary of Bethlehem, without Bishopsgate, the Priory of St. Helen, the Carmelite or White Friars, in Fleet Street, the Franciscans or Grey Friars, in Newgate Street, the Augustine Friars, near Broad Street, the Hospital at the Savoy, besides refounding of Westminster Abbey. Although Henry was unjust in his decisions, and oppres. sive in his measures towards the capital; he was not able to curb her improvements; for like the pine which is said to increase under pressure, London, in 1237, acquired more solid benefit from a purer and more perennial source than all the smiles of court favour could furnish *. From the year 1218 is to be dated the right which the city enjoys to the lands, purchased out of the forest of Middle sex. The year 1235 also is memorable from a little city incident, which has contrived to transmit its remembrance to our times by means of an annual ceremony at swearing in the sheriffs, Sept. 30, before the Cursitor Barons of the Exchequer, which is performed with much solemnity by one of the aldermen, in presence of the Lord Mayor, who goes into and continues in the court covered. One Walter le Bruin, a farrier, obtained a grant from the crown, of a certain spot of ground in the Strand, in the parish of St. Clement Danes, whereon to erect a forge for carrying on his business. For this the city was to pay annually an acknowledgement or quit-rent of six horse-shoes, with the nails appertaining, at the king's Exchequer, Westminster. The forge and manufacture exist no longer, but the acknowledgement, after a lapse of so many ages, continues still to be paid. Hunter. The The western parts of the city and the adjacent villages, previously to this period, had been supplied with water from a reservoir called the river of Wells, so named from its forming a current occasioned by the influx of various springs in the neighbourhood, denominated Turnmill brook, and Oldbourn, or brook, rising near what is now called Middle Row, which, with the rivulet in its vicinity, formed what was afterwards called the river of Wells, and Fleet Ditch. The water to the other parts of the city had been raised from the Thames, Wallbrook, Langbourn, Sherbourn, Holywell, Clerk's-well, a fish-pond near Cripplegate, and an adjoining well, still called Crowder's-well, &c. But these conveniences, as they were then obtained, not being sufficient for her increased magnitude and population, it was judged expedient to assist the benevolence of nature by the exertions of art, the corporation therefore "obtained a grant from Gilbert de Sandford, lord of the manor of Tye-bourne, then a village at a considerable distance, of certain springs in that manor, in the vicinity of St. Mary's-bourne, whence water was to be conveyed into the city, in leaden pipes of six inches in diameter*. The water thus introduced into the city was distributed into various reservoirs of lead cased with stone. The principal and most magnificent of these was erected in an open field, denominated Crown-field, in West-cheap, from an inn at that time at the east end. It may be amusing to our readers to be informed, that this field, which continued so for many succeeding years, forms the present beautiful, spacious, and opulent street, called Cheapside. This conduit was not finished till forty-eight years afterwards; such an undertaking now could be completed in the same number of weeks. As this was a work of very considerable labour and expence, the foreign merchants, particularly those of Germany and 'Flanders, were called upon to contribute towards the charge. They were accordingly assessed in the sum of 100%. of the time; and, in considération of their paying the sum of forty marks into the city treasury annually, they acquired a pri vilege hitherto unenjoyed, of landing, housing, and vending wood and other bulky commodities: having before this been compelled to expose their goods to sale on ship-board only. This parent fountain was multiplied in various parts of the city, as necessity induced, to the number of nineteen, of various architecture, contributing at once to splendor and utility, till the singularly patriotic introduction of the New River, and a tribute extracted by the Thames water works, superseding their use, when they were ultimately removed *. . In 1246, London gradually had advanced in magnitude and opulence, several regulations respecting buildings, and the prevention of accidents by fire, were established; and the citizens was enabled to purchase from Richard, earl of Cornwall, the king's brother, his fee-farm of Queenhithe, with all the rights, customs, &c. thereunto belonging. Indeed, to such a state of wealth were the city arrived, that when Henry, through the extravagance of his court, was compelled to pawn the crown jewels, none were able to comply in furnishing his wants except the citizens of London. His oppressive measures had not been able to subdue their spirit or their resources, so that the little cash which remained in the kingdom was deposited in their coffers; and the king was so enraged at the circumstance, that he exclaimed, "Were the treasures of Augustus Cæsar exposed to sale, the city of London would buy them. Those fellows who call themselves barons, are wallowing in wealth, and in every species of luxury, whilst we labour under the want of common necessaries!" Strange that a monarch who might have been happy in the affection of his subjects fhould be reduced to such a state of distress by his criminal extravagance and unjust government †. The * Stow has preserved a list of the conduits, which we subjoin: Cheapside Conduit, erected in 1289; the Tonne in Cornhill, 1401; Bosses of water at Paul's Wharf, and Cripplegate, 1423; the little conduit in Westcheap, 1442; in Fleet Street, and Aldermanbury, 1471; another in Fleet Street and in Cripplegate, 1478; Grass Street, 1491; Holborn-cross, 1498, afterwards Lamb's Conduit, this was at the top of Snow Hill; little Conduit, Stocks Market, 1500; at Bishopsgate, 1513; London Wall, facing Coleman Street, 1528; Aldgate, 1535; Lothbury, and at St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, 1546; Dowgate, 1568; Old Fish Street, 1583; Broken Wharf, 1594; Aldersgate, 1610. + The year 1262 was remarkable for a cause tried in the Exchequer, between the citizens of London and the abbot of Westminster, by a jury consisting The following account of the duties paid to the king by the citizens half-yearly, forms a curious document: By the amount of tonnages (the king's weighhouse) and petty standages By the amount of customs of all sorts of foreign merchandizes, together with the issues of divers passages 97 13 11 75 6 10 By the metage of corn, and customs at Billingsgate 5 18 By the issue of the field and bars of Smithfield By the produce of Queenhithe By the chattels of foreigners, forfeited for trading By places and perquisites within the city 7 7 0 2 26 4 7 6 8 13 2 42 0 5 60 59 17 9 2 10 11 0 86 5 9 9 6 8 Total 364 13 2 Henry's reign is certainly reckoned among the most igno. minious in the English annals, and it has been allowed that the reign of his son Edward I. is among the most heroic and triumphant. Let us draw the comparison, and ask, "By which of the two did the nation suffer most? By sums lavished on favourites and buildings; or by sums and blood wasted in consisting of twelve knights of the county of Middlesex; when it appeared, by their verdict, that the sheriffs of London had a right to enter the town of Westminster, and all the houses in Middlesex, belonging to the abbot; and, on a proper summons, to distrain all and every of his tenants in case of non-appearance. unjust |