In 658, commerce, the source of wealth to the city was also a source of woe; that dreadful scourge, the plague, ravaged and depopulated her streets. To this succeeds a solemn blank in her history; which is only renewed to our notice in 764 by that most lamentable of all catastrophes, Fire; an evil which London was doomed to feel on many mournful occasions. At this period the houses were chiefly of wood and other combustible materials; added to which, the streets and lanes were so very narrow, that we are not to wonder that a neglected spark was easily roused to a fatal conflagration.

At the establishment of the Heptarchy, under the dominion of the brave and prudent Egbert, A. D. 827, London was appointed to be the royal residence, and here a Wittenagemot, or Parliament was summoned in A. D. 833; and it can scarcely be supposed that so wise a monarch as Egbert, when he commanded fortifications to be made at every seaport should neglect the place which he had made his chief residence; in all probability he either added to the number of towns, or built some additional works on the city walls, where the Tower of London, at the south-east corner of the wall commands the river and the bridge. But strong and merciless invaders were soon to make the foundations of the island tremble to their base; London was among the unfortunate to feel the most barbarous and unrelenting outrages; and at length to be reduced to a state of the most grievous and humiliating servitude to the savage Danes. In 852, after having previously pillaged various other quarters of the kingdom, and burnt Canterbury, they forced their way to London, which they first plundered and then reduced to ashes.

But the great Alfred, to whom, even at this day, the whole realm is indebted for all the privileges which a great, an enlightened, and a cultivated mind could suggest, having shaken off the Danish yoke, and restored the kingdom to tranquility and order, gave directions for rebuilding the desolated cities. London in particular claimed his attention, and under such protection she soon arose more glorious from

Entick's London, i. 37.

her

her fall; but, as if she were doomed to suffer a succession of disastrous events, an accidental fire, in 893, again laid her glory in the dust *.

So far, however, had she recovered her greatness and opulence under so excellent a monarch, that we find in 895, when a party of Danish robbers, taking advantage of Alfred's

* Alfred, in his regulations of the common-wealth, divided the kingdom into counties, the counties into hundreds, and the hundreds into tythings, that every man might be more under the notice and jurisdiction of the government, and more certainly answerable to the law for any misbehaviour. This regulation being of so great utility to the state and government of the nation, we can scarce doubt, but that this wise legislator provided some equivalent provision to answer the same purposes in the great and opulent metropolis of the kingdom. And as we hitherto meet with no division of the city of London, there is great reason to think that so large a body of people, not divided into hundreds and tythings, were then brought under the regulation of wards and precincts, for the well ordering and governing the city. And as this king constituted the office of sheriff, the nature of the office made it necessary to have it also in London. So that here we have the glimmering of the order of magistrates afterwards settled in the city of London, in the person of the portreve or portgrave, or governor of the city, as supreme magistrate ;, in the sheriff, and in the subordinate magistrates, by what name soever then distinguished, which being at the head of each ward and precinct, were analagous to the titles of aldermen and common council men.

Alfred did not confine his talent in ship-building to men of war only; he likewise improved the invention for mercantile shipping, and contrived merchantmen that would both sail better, and carry larger burthens than in former times, to the great increase of foreign trade, and the benefit of the city of London and his royal revenue; without which it had been impossible for him to maintain his fleet, and to erect so many monuments of piety and learning.

This king, having settled affairs of greater importance after the most prudent manner, thought one thing, both necessary in itself, and ornamental to the city of London and to the whole nation, should not be neglected; which was to spirit up the English to an emulation in building their houses, for the future, in a stronger manner than they had hitherto done. At that time their houses were mostly of wood; a house built with any other materials was looked upon as a sort of wonder. But Alfred having began to raise his palaces with stone and brick, the opulent Londoners, and the resident nobility in and about London copied the example: though it did not come into general use till some ages after. Entick's London, i. 45. et seq.

4

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absence, had encamped at Beamflete, and ventured out on: plundering expeditions, under the conduct of Hastings, their general, the garrison of London apprized of the circumstance, and being joined by a body of gallant citizens, who were inflamed against the destroyers of their city, marched out with the utmost secrecy, came upon the enemy's strongly fortified camp by surprize, cut the guard to pieces, made a great number of prisoners and "spoiled their spoilers!" Among the prisoners were Hastings's wife and two sons.

The loyalty of a patriot city must have been highly gratifying to a beneficent king; and we find his exertions for the public welfare highly according with his generous feel-ings; for when the Danish marauders had sailed up the Lea to Ware, between which and Hertford they had strongly fortified themselves, Alfred, at the head of his grateful and powerful citizens, took the field in 896, and boldly attacked the enemy in their intrenchments. Unappalled by the check which they received, they forced the Danes to decamp, by cutting off their supplies, diverted the course of the river and 'diminished its depth. The Danes finding their ships rendered useless, and themselves threatened with famine, hastily broke up their camp, and left it as well as their stranded shipping a prey to the Londoners and their auxiliaries, who immediately demolished the fortifications, and, by restoring the river to its accustomed channel easily towed the most valuable of the piratical vessels and stores to London; the rest they necessarily destroyed. Fragments of this spoil,. it is said, have recently been found at Stanstead, A very observable circumstance occurs in this part of our subject, the spot then occupied by the enemies of the country, and which spread such an alarm to the city, is now the source of one of her principal comforts-the New River here has its spring.

The many heroic acts in which the citizens of London were principally engaged form part of a very dignified history; but as they are very honourably detailed in works of greater bulk than the limits we have prescribed, we pass them over and speak more immediately of civic improvements.

A

A brilliant æra of glory and prosperity seems to have been the blessing of the capital during the reign of Athelstan, and we find it in A. D. 939 receiving the distinguished privilege of coinage. This monarch resided in the heart of London, in a place which still retains his name: for from Athelstan or Adlestan, the name of Addle Street is taken, and it is noticed in an ancient record as King Addle Street. This prince is also said to have founded the neighbouring church of St. Alban, Wood Street. Edmund I. the brother and successor of Athelstan convoked a Wittena-gemot in London, A. D. 945, for the settlement of ecclesiastical affairs*.

In 958, the church which Sebert had erected, and which had been destroyed by the Danes, was,. at the instance of Dunstan, bishop of London, rebuilt by Edgar the peaceable, who also erected it into a monastic establishment. But London was not exempted from calamity; the Cathedral of St. Paul was destroyed by fire in A. D. 961, whilst a malignant fever carried off a prodigious number of the inhabitants.

The zenith of Saxon London seems at this period to have passed its meridian; the inglorious reign of Ethelred II. who had found his way to the throne by means of the murder of his brother, was peculiarly unfortunate to the city. In the fourth year of his reign it was again almost intirely consumed by fire, and had scarcely recovered from this desolation when another Danish invasion threatened the whole country. After various pusillanimous means to stem the

"This monarch gave to the cathedral Church of St. Paul, London, the manor and lordship of Cadington Major, now called Astonbury in Bedfordshire, together with the manor of Sandon in Hertfordshire. The prebendary of Cadington-minor in the same cathedral, which bears the name of the manor or farm of Provender in Bedfordshire, was part of the donation of Cadington, given by the same king. About the same time when stone buildings began to be encouraged, we may date the founda tion of the parochial church of Allhallows Staining, otherwise stane or stone-church, to distinguish it from other churches of the same name in the city, which were built in those days of timber; stane in the saxón tongue signifying stone." Entick. i. 48.

violence

violence and rapacity of the invaders had proved ineffectual, Ethelred awoke from his timid indolence, and in a general council of the principal persons of the kingdom, it was resolved to collect the whole naval force of the country to the port of London, and either give battle to the enemy or block them up in the harbours which they had occupied; but the treachery of Ealfric duke of Mercia, rendered this wise and vigorous measure abortive; for he not only informed the Danes of these proceedings, but traiterously joined them against his country.

The golden harvests which the northern pirates had reap. ed from the English spoils were so vast and frequent, that a more important predatory invasion was suggested by Swein their king, and Olave, king of Norway; these sovereigns entered the Humber with a numerous fleet and army, and ravaged the country on both sides of that river. Encouraged by success, they, in 994, again put to sea, boldly advanced up the Thames and invested London, by such means probably to secure the conquest of the whole kingdom. But to the valour of her own undaunted citizens, to their unshaken loyalty, did London, at this important crisis, owe her preservation. By the paternal care of the great Alfred, the city had been fortified on every side; and his foresight was of essential service to her on the present occasion; for these walls secured her buildings, and were bravely defended by her intrepid sons. The Danes were continually repelled with loss, and obliged to raise the siege. Had Ethelred exerted any thing like energy, in assistance to his faithful citizens at' this time, the Danes might have been totally driven to their own inhospitable shores discomfited and dismayed; but on the contrary, he had recourse to his usual wretched expedient of purchasing respite, and ultimately imposed upon his devoted dominions the odious tax called Danegelt, of which London bore a very large proportion; it was not repealed till the reign of Henry II*.

The

*As we have certain information respecting the nature, quantity, and proportional assessment of this ancient tax, it may be acceptable to detail

a few