CHAPTER V. THE FORTRESS, PALACES, AND MANSIONS. Abbey of St. Peter-Westminster Palace-St. Stephen's Chapel-Geoffrey ChaucerWestminster Hall, its Feasts and other Solemnities-Baynard's Castle and the Fitz-Walters-The City's Banner-bearer-Whitehall-Strand Mansions of the Nobility: Essex House, Arundel House, the Savoy, Durham House-Crosby Place, Bishopsgate-The Tower of London. THE two most famous of London royal residences, the Tower of London and the Palace of Westminster, were situated respectively at the extreme west and east of the Middlesex bank of the River Thames, and there lay between them, mostly at the water-side, many another stately building honoured by royal residence. Although there is no direct evidence, there seems every probability that the foundation of the Abbey preceded that of the Palace of Westminster. The earliest documentary evidence is a charter of Edgar, which details the boundaries of the ancient Parish of St. Margaret, the great manor with which that King endowed the Abbey. The date assigned to this document by Kemble is 971. From Domesday Book we learn that Westminster comprised sixteen hides and a half, which apparently represent about eleven hundred acres, but this estimate is unreliable on account of the difficulty of determining exactly the modern value of a hide of land. The manor of the Abbot of Westminster in the eleventh and twelfth centuries extended eastwards almost to the River Fleet, and included a large part of the present Ward of Farringdon Without. Edward the Confessor resided at Westminster during the greater part of his reign, and built a monastic church, on the spot where now stands Westminster Abbey. It is quite possible that he also laid the foundations of the royal palace of Westminster. |