Chapter IX: History (2)

_Greyfriars._--The Greyfriars, Minorites or Franciscans, first settled
in Cornhill, and in 1224 John Ewin made over to them an estate
situated in the ward of Farringdon Within and in the parish of St
Nicholas in the Shambles, where their friary was built. Christ Church,
Newgate Street, occupies the site of the choir of the great church of
the Greyfriars.

_Austin Friars._--The house of the Austin Friars or Friars Eremites
was founded in Broad Street ward in 1253.

_White Friars._--The Friars of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel or
Carmelites or Whitefriars came to London in 1241, and made their home
on land between Fleet Street and the Thames given by Edward I.

Besides the four chief orders of friars there were the Crutched Friars
in the parish of St Olave, Hart Street (about 1298), and the Friars
of the Sac first outside Aldersgate (about 1257) and afterwards in the
Old Jewry.

The names of places in London form valuable records of the habitations of different classes of the population. The monasteries and friaries are kept in memory by their names in various parts of London. In the same way the residences of the Jews have been marked. When Edward I. expelled the Jews from England in 1290 the district in which they had lived since William the Conqueror's day came to be called the Old Jewry. On their return after many centuries of exile most of them settled in the neighbourhood of Aldgate and Aldersgate. There is a reminder of them in the names of Jewry Street near the former and of Jewin Street near the latter place. Jewin Street was built on the site of the burying-place of the Jews before the expulsion.

Pageants.

In the middle ages there was a constant succession of pageants, processions and tournaments. The royal processions arranged in connexion with coronations were of great antiquity, but one of the earliest to be described is that of Henry III. in 1236, which was chronicled by Matthew Paris. After the marriage at Canterbury of the king with Eleanor of Provence the royal personages came to London, and were met by the mayor, aldermen and principal citizens to the number of 360, sumptuously apparelled in silken robes embroidered, riding upon stately horses. After the death of Henry III. (1272) the country had to wait for their new king, who was then in the Holy Land. Edward I. came to London on the 2nd of August 1274, when he was received with the wildest expressions of joy. The streets were hung with rich cloths of silk arras and tapestry; the aldermen and principal men of the city threw out of their windows handsful of gold and silver, to signify their gladness at the king's return; and the conduits ran with wine, both white and red.

Dr Jessopp gives a vivid picture of what occurred when King Edward III. entered London in triumph on the 14th of October 1347. He was the foremost man in Europe, and England had reached a height of power and glory such as she had never attained before. Ten years after this, one of the most famous scenes in the streets of London occurred, when Edward the Black Prince brought the French King John and other prisoners after the battle of Poitiers to England. This was a scene unequalled until Henry V. returned from the glorious field of Agincourt in 1415. The mayor and aldermen apparelled in orient-grained scarlet, and four hundred commoners in murrey, well mounted, with rich collars and chains, met the king at Blackheath. At the entrance to London Bridge the towers were adorned with banners of the royal arms, and in the front of them was inscribed _Civitas Regis Justicie_.

During the troubles of the 15th century the authorities had seen the necessity of paying more attention to the security of the gates and walls of the city, and when Thomas Nevill, son of William, Lord Fauconberg, made his attack upon London in 1471 he experienced a spirited resistance. He first attempted to land from his ships in the city, but the Thames side from Baynard's Castle to the Tower was so well fortified that he had to seek a quieter and less prepared position. He then set upon the several gates in succession, and was repulsed at all. On the 11th of May he made a desperate attack upon Aldgate, followed by 500 men. He won the bulwarks and some of his followers entered into the city, but the portcullis being let down these were cut off from their own party and were slain by the enemy. The portcullis was drawn up, and the besieged issued forth against the rebels, who were soon forced to flee.

When Richard, duke of Gloucester, laid his plans for seizing the crown, he obtained the countenance of the lord mayor, Sir Edmund Shaw, whose brother Dr Shaw praised Richard at Paul's Cross. Crosby Hall, in Bishopsgate Street, then lately built, was made the lodging of the Protector. There he acted the accessible prince in the eyes of the people, for the last of the Plantagenets was another of the usurpers who found favour in the eyes of the men of London. His day, however, was short, and with the battle of Bosworth ends Plantagenet London.

First maps of London.

5. _Tudor (1485-1603)._--It was during this period that the first maps of London were drawn. No representation of the city earlier than the middle of the 16th century has been discovered, although it seems more than probable that some plans must have been produced at an earlier period.[6] The earliest known view is the drawing of Van den Wyngaerde in the Bodleian Library (dated 1550). Braun and Hogenberg's map was published in 1572-1573, and the so-called Agas's map was probably produced soon afterwards, and was doubtless influenced by the publication of Braun and Hogenberg's excellent engraving; Norden's maps of London and Westminster are dated 1593. Some of these maps were pasted upon walls, and must have been largely destroyed by ordinary wear and tear. It is curious that the only two existing copies of Agas's map[7] were published in the reign of James I., although apparently they had not been altered from the earlier editions of Elizabeth's reign which have been lost. By the help of these maps we are able to obtain a clear notion of the extent and chief characteristics of Tudor London. Henry VII. did little to connect his name with the history of London, although the erection of the exquisite specimen of florid Gothic at Westminster Abbey has carried his memory down in its popular name of Henry VII.'s chapel. Soon after this king obtained the throne he borrowed the sum of 3000 marks from the city, and moreover founded the excellent precedent of repaying it at the appointed time. The citizens were so pleased at this unexpected occurrence that they willingly lent the king £6000 in 1488, which he required for military preparations against France. In 1497 London was threatened by the rebels favourable to Perkin Warbeck, who encamped on Blackheath on the 17th of June. At first there was a panic among the citizens, but subsequently the city was placed in a proper state of defence, and the king himself encamped in St George's Fields. On June 22 he entirely routed the rebels; and some time afterwards Perkin Warbeck gave himself up, and was conducted in triumph through London to the Tower.

Suppression of religious houses.

As the chief feature of Norman London was the foundation of monasteries, and that of Plantagenet London was the establishment of friaries, so Tudor London was specially characterized by the suppression of the whole of these religious houses, and also of the almost numberless religious gilds and brotherhoods. When we remember that more than half of the area of London was occupied by these establishments, and that about a third of the inhabitants were monks, nuns and friars, it is easy to imagine how great must have been the disorganization caused by this root and branch reform. One of the earliest of the religious houses to be suppressed was the hospital of St Thomas of Acon (or Acre) on the north side of Cheapside, the site of which is now occupied by Mercers' Hall. The larger houses soon followed, and the Black, the White and the Grey Friars, with the Carthusians and many others, were all condemned in November 1538.

Love of show was so marked a characteristic of Henry VIII. that we are not surprised to find him encouraging the citizens in the same expensive taste. On the occasion of his marriage with Catherine of Aragon the city was gorgeously ornamented with rich silks and tapestry, and Goldsmiths' Row (Cheapside) and part of Cornhill were hung with golden brocades. When on the eve of St John's Day, 1510, the king in the habit of a yeoman of his own guard saw the famous march of the city watch, he was so delighted that on the following St Peter's Eve he again attended in Cheapside to see the march, but this time he was accompanied by the queen and the principal nobility. The cost of these two marches in the year was very considerable, and, having been suspended in 1528 on account of the prevalence of the sweating sickness, they were soon afterwards forbidden by the king, and discontinued during the remainder of his reign. Sir John Gresham, mayor in 1548, revived the march of the city watch, which was made more splendid by the addition of three hundred light horsemen raised by the citizens for the king's service.

The best mode of utilizing the buildings of the suppressed religious houses was a difficult question left unsolved by Henry VIII. That king, shortly before his death, refounded Rahere's St Bartholomew's Hospital, "for the continual relief and help of an hundred sore and diseased," but most of the large buildings were left unoccupied to be filled by his successor. The first parliament of Edward's reign gave all the lands and possessions of colleges, chantries, &c., to the king, when the different companies of London redeemed those which they had held for the payment of priests' wages, obits and lights at the price of £20,000, and applied the rents arising from them to charitable purposes. In 1550 the citizens purchased the manor of Southwark, and with it they became possessed of the monastery of St Thomas, which was enlarged and prepared for the reception of "poor, sick and helpless objects." Thus was refounded St Thomas's Hospital, which was moved to Lambeth in 1870-1871. Shortly before his death Edward founded Christ's Hospital in the Grey Friars, and gave the old palace of Bridewell to the city "for the lodging of poor wayfaring people, the correction of vagabonds and disorderly persons, and for finding them work." On the death of Edward VI. Lady Jane Grey was received at the Tower as queen, she having gone there by water from Durham House in the Strand. The citizens, however, soon found out their mistake, and the lord mayor, aldermen and recorder proclaimed Queen Mary at Cheapside. London was then gay with pageants, but when the queen made known her intention of marrying Philip of Spain the discontent of the country found vent in the rising of Sir Thomas Wyat, and the city had to prepare itself against attack. Wyat took possession of Southwark, and expected to have been admitted into London; but finding the gates shut against him and the drawbridge cut down he marched to Kingston, the bridge at which place had been destroyed. This he restored, and then proceeded towards London. In consequence of the breakdown of some of his guns he imprudently halted at Turnham Green. Had he not done so it is probable that he might have obtained possession of the city. He planted his ordnance on Hay Hill, and then marched by St James's Palace to Charing Cross. Here he was attacked by Sir John Gage with a thousand men, but he repulsed them and reached Ludgate without further opposition. He was disappointed at the resistance which was made, and after musing a while "upon a stall over against the Bell Savadge Gate" he turned back. His retreat was cut off, and he surrendered to Sir Maurice Berkeley, we have somewhat fully described this historical incident here because it has an important bearing on the history of London, and shows also the small importance of the districts outside the walls at that period.

Tudor London.

We now come to consider the appearance of London during the reign of the last of the Tudors. At no other period were so many great men associated with its history; the latter years of Elizabeth's reign are specially interesting to us because it was then that Shakespeare lived in London, and introduced its streets and people into his plays. In those days the frequent visitation of plagues made men fear the gathering together of multitudes. This dread of pestilence, united with a puritanic hatred of plays, made the citizens do all they could to discountenance theatrical entertainments. The queen acknowledged the validity of the first reason, but she repudiated the religious objection provided ordinary care was taken to allow "such plays only as were fitted to yield honest recreation and no example of evil." On April 11, 1582, the lords of the council wrote to the lord mayor to the effect that, as "her Majesty sometimes took delight in those pastimes, it had been thought not unfit, having regard to the season of the year and the clearance of the city from infection, to allow of certain companies of players in London, partly that they might thereby attain more dexterity and perfection the better to content her Majesty" (Analytical Index to the _Remembrancia_). When theatres were established the lord mayor took care that they should not be built within the city. The "Theatre" and the "Curtain" were situated at Shoreditch; the "Globe," the "Swan," the "Rose" and the "Hope" on the Bankside; and the Blackfriars theatre, although within the walls, was without the city jurisdiction.

In 1561 St Paul's steeple and roof were destroyed by lightning, and the spire was never replaced. This circumstance allows us to test the date of certain views; thus Wyngaerde's map has the spire, but Agas's map is without it. In 1566 the first stone was laid of the "Burse," which owed its origin to Sir Thomas Gresham. In 1571 Queen Elizabeth changed its name to the Royal Exchange. The Strand was filled with noble mansions washed by the waters of the Thames, but the street, if street it could be called, was little used by pedestrians. Londoners frequented the river, which was their great highway. The banks were crowded with stairs for boats, and the watermen of that day answered to the chairmen of a later date and the cabmen of to-day. The Bankside was of old a favourite place for entertainments, but two only--the bull-baiting and the bear-baiting--were in existence when Agas's map was first planned. On Norden's map,[8] however, we find the gardens of Paris Garden, the bearhouse and the playhouse.

The settled character of the later years of Elizabeth's reign appears
to have caused a considerable change in the habits of the people. Many
of the chief citizens followed the example of the courtiers, and built
for themselves country residences in Middlesex, Essex and Surrey; thus
we learn from Norden that Alderman Roe lived at Muswell Hill, and we
know that Sir Thomas Gresham built a fine house and planned a
beautiful park at Osterley. The maps show us much that remains
somewhat the same as it was, but also much that has greatly altered.
St Giles's was literally a village in the fields; Piccadilly was "the
waye to Redinge," Oxford Street "the way to Uxbridge," Covent Garden
an open field or garden, and Leicester Fields lammas land. Moorfields
was drained and laid out in walks in Elizabeth's reign. At
Spitalfields crowds used to congregate on Easter Monday and Tuesday to
hear the Spital sermons preached from the pulpit cross. The ground was
originally a Roman Cemetery, and about the year 1576 bricks were
largely made from the clayey earth, the recollection of which is kept
alive in the name of Brick Lane. Citizens went to Holborn and
Bloomsbury for change of air, and houses were there prepared for the
reception of children, invalids and convalescents. In the north were
sprinkled the outlying villages of Islington, Hoxton and Clerkenwell.

6. _Stuart (1603-1714)._--The Stuart period, from the accession of James I. to the death of Queen Anne, extends over little more than a century, and yet greater changes occurred during those years than at any previous period. The early years of Stuart London may be said to be closely linked with the last years of Elizabethan London, for the greatest men, such as Raleigh, Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, lived on into James's reign. Much of the life of the time was then in the City, but the last years of Stuart London take us to the 18th century, when social life had permanently shifted to the west end. In the middle of the period occurred the civil wars, and then the fire which changed the whole aspect of London. When James came to the throne the term suburbs had a bad name, as all those disreputable persons who could find no shelter in the city itself settled in these outlying districts. Stubbs denounced suburban gardens and garden houses in his _Anatomy of Abuses_, and another writer observed "how happy were cities if they had no suburbs."

The preparations for the coronation of King James were interrupted by a severe visitation of the plague, which killed off as many as 30,578 persons, and it was not till March 15, 1604, that the king, the queen and Prince Henry passed triumphantly from the Tower to Westminster. The lord mayor's shows, which had been discontinued for some years, were revived by order of the king in 1609. The dissolved monastery of the Charterhouse, which had been bought and sold by the courtiers several times, was obtained from Thomas, earl of Suffolk, by Thomas Sutton for £13,000. The new hospital chapel and schoolhouse were begun in 1611, and in the same year Sutton died.

Social life.

With the death of James I. in 1625 the older history of London may be said to have closed. During the reign of his successor the great change in the relative positions of London within and without the walls had set in. Before going on to consider the chief incidents of this change it will be well to refer to some features of the social life of James's reign. Ben Jonson places one of the scenes of _Every Man in his Humour_ in Moorfields, which at the time he wrote the play had, as stated above, lately been drained and laid out in walks. Beggars frequented the place, and travellers from the village of Hoxton, who crossed it in order to get into London, did so with as much expedition as possible. Adjoining Moorfields were Finsbury Fields, a favourite practising ground for the archers. Mile End, a common on the Great Eastern Road, was long famous as a rendezvous for the troops. These places are frequently referred to by the old dramatists; Justice Shallow boasts of his doings at Mile End Green when he was Dagonet in Arthur's Show. Fleet Street was the show-place of London, in which were exhibited a constant succession of puppets, naked Indians and strange fishes. The great meeting-place of Londoners in the day-time was the nave of old St Paul's. Crowds of merchants with their hats on transacted business in the aisles, and used the font as a counter upon which to make their payments; lawyers received clients at their several pillars; and masterless serving-men waited to be engaged upon their own particular bench. Besides those who came on business there were gallants dressed in fashionable finery, so that it was worth the tailor's while to stand behind a pillar and fill his table-books with notes. The middle or Mediterranean aisle was the Paul's walk, also called the Duke's Gallery from the erroneous supposition that the tomb of Sir Guy Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, was that of the "good" Humphrey, duke of Gloucester. After the Restoration a fence was erected on the inside of the great north door to hinder a concourse of rude people, and when the cathedral was being rebuilt Sir Christopher Wren made a strict order against any profanation of the sacred building. St Paul's churchyard was from the earliest days of printing until the end of the 18th century the headquarters of the book trade, when it shifted to Paternoster Row. Another of the favourite haunts of the people was the garden of Gray's Inn, where the choicest society was to be met. There, under the shadow of the elm trees which Bacon had planted, Pepys and his wife constantly walked. Mrs Pepys went on one occasion specially to observe the fashions of the ladies because she was then "making some clothes."

Taverns.

In those days of public conviviality, and for many years afterwards, the taverns of London held a very important place. The Boar's Head in Great Eastcheap was an inn of Shakespeare's own day, and the characters he introduces into his plays are really his own contemporaries. The "Mermaid" is sometimes described as in Bread Street, and at other times in Friday Street and also in Cheapside. We are thus able to fix its exact position; for a little to the west of Bow church is Bread Street, then came a block of houses, and the next thoroughfare was Friday Street. It was in this block that the "Mermaid" was situated, and there appear to have been entrances from each street. What makes this fact still more certain is the circumstance that a haberdasher in Cheapside living "'twixt Wood Street and Milk Street," two streets on the north side opposite Bread and Friday Streets, described himself as "over against the Mermaid tavern in Cheapside." The Windmill tavern occupies a prominent position in the action of _Every Man in his Humour_.[9] The Windmill stood at the corner of the Old Jewry towards Lothbury, and the Mitre close by the Mermaid in Bread Street. The Mitre in Fleet Street, so intimately associated with Dr Johnson, also existed at this time. It is mentioned in a comedy entitled _Ram Alley_ (1611) and Lilly the astrologer frequented it in 1640. At the Mermaid Ben Jonson had such companions as Shakespeare, Raleigh, Beaumont, Fletcher, Carew, Donne, Cotton and Selden, but at the Devil in Fleet Street, where he started the Apollo Club, he was omnipotent. Herrick, in his well-known _Ode to Ben_, mentions several of the inns of the day.

Theatres.

Under James I. the theatre, which established itself so firmly in the latter years of Elizabeth, had still further increased its influence, and to the entertainments given at the many playhouses may be added the masques so expensively produced at court and by the lawyers at the inns of court. In 1613 _The Masque of Flowers_ was presented by the members of Gray's Inn in the Old Banqueting House in honour of the marriage of the infamous Carr, earl of Somerset, and the equally infamous Lady Frances, daughter of the earl of Suffolk. The entertainment was prepared by Sir Francis Bacon at a cost of about £2000.

The "West End."

It was during the reign of Charles I. that the first great exodus of the wealthy and fashionable was made to the West End. The great square or piazza of Covent Garden was formed from the designs of Inigo Jones about 1632. The neighbouring streets were built shortly afterwards, and the names of Henrietta, Charles, James, King and York Streets were given after members of the royal family. Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, was built about 1629, and named in honour of Henrietta Maria. Lincoln's Inn Fields had been planned some years before. With the Restoration the separation of fashionable from city life became complete.

When the Civil War broke out London took the side of the parliament, and an extensive system of fortification was at once projected to protect the town against the threatened attack of the royal army. A strong earthen rampart, flanked with bastions and redoubts, surrounded the City, its liberties, Westminster and Southwark, making an immense enclosure.

The Plague.

The Great Fire.

Rebuilding: Wren's scheme.

London had been ravaged by plague on many former occasions, but the pestilence that began in December 1664 lives in history as "the Plague of London." On the 7th of June 1665 Samuel Pepys for the first time saw two or three houses marked with the red cross and the words "Lord, have mercy upon us," on the doors. The deaths daily increased, and business was stopped. Grass grew in the area of the Royal Exchange, at Whitehall, and in the principal streets of the city. On the 4th of September 1665 Pepys writes an interesting letter to Lady Carteret from Woolwich: "I have stayed in the city till above 7400 died in one week, and of them about 6000 of the plague, and little noise heard day or night but tolling of bells." The plague was scarcely stayed before the whole city was in flames, a calamity of the first magnitude, but one which in the end caused much good, as the seeds of disease were destroyed, and London has never since been visited by such an epidemic. On the 2nd of September 1666 the fire broke out at one o'clock in the morning at a house in Pudding Lane. A violent east wind fomented the flames, which raged during the whole of Monday and great part of Tuesday. On Tuesday night the wind fell somewhat, and on Wednesday the fire slackened. On Thursday it was extinguished, but on the evening of that day the flames again burst forth at the Temple. Some houses were at once blown up by gunpowder, and thus the fire was finally mastered. Many interesting details of the fire are given in Pepys's _Diary_. The river swarmed with vessels filled with persons carrying away such of their goods as they were able to save. Some fled to the hills of Hampstead and Highgate, but Moorfields was the chief resort of the houseless Londoner. Soon paved streets and two-storey houses were seen in that swampy place. The people bore their troubles heroically, and Henry Oldenburg, writing to the Hon. Robert Boyle on September 10, says: "The citizens, instead of complaining, discoursed almost of nothing but of a survey for rebuilding the city with bricks and large streets." Within a few days of the fire three several plans were presented to the king for the rebuilding of the city, by Christopher Wren, John Evelyn and Robert Hooke. Wren proposed to build main thoroughfares north and south, and east and west, to insulate all the churches in conspicuous positions, to form the most public places into large piazzas, to unite the halls of the twelve chief companies into one regular square annexed to Guildhall and to make a fine quay on the bank of the river from Blackfriars to the Tower. His streets were to be of three magnitudes--90 ft., 60 ft. and 30 ft. wide respectively. Evelyn's plan differed from Wren's chiefly in proposing a street from the church of St Dunstan's in the East to the cathedral, and in having no quay or terrace along the river. In spite of the best advice, however, the jealousies of the citizens prevented any systematic design from being carried out, and in consequence the old lines were in almost every case retained. But though the plans of Wren and Hooke were not adopted, it was to these two fellows of the Royal Society that the labour of rebuilding London was committed. Wren's great work was the erection of the cathedral of St Paul's, and the many churches ranged round it as satellites. Hooke's task was the humbler one of arranging as city surveyor for the building of the houses. He laid out the ground of the several proprietors in the rebuilding of the city, and had no rest early or late from persons soliciting him to set out their ground for them at once. The first great impetus of change in the configuration of London was given by the great fire, and Evelyn records and regrets that the town in his time had grown almost as large again as it was within his own memory. Although for several centuries attempts had been made in favour of building houses with brick or stone, yet the carpenters continued to be the chief house-builders. As late as the year 1650 the Carpenters' Company drew up a memorial in which they "gave their reasons that tymber buildings were more commodious for this citie than brick buildings were." The Act of Parliament "for rebuilding the city of London" passed after the great fire, gave the _coup de grâce_ to the carpenters as house-builders. After setting forth that "building with brick was not only more comely and durable, but also more safe against future perils of fire," it was enacted "that all the outsides of all buildings in and about the city should be made of brick or stone, except doorcases and window-frames, and other parts of the first story to the front between the piers," for which substantial oaken timber might be used "for conveniency of shops." In the winter of 1683-1684 a fair was held for some time upon the Thames. The frost, which began about seven weeks before Christmas and continued for six weeks after, was the greatest on record; the ice was 11 in. thick.

The revocation of the edict of Nantes in October 1685, and the consequent migration of a large number of industrious French Protestants, caused a considerable growth in the east end of London. The silk manufactories at Spitalfields were then established.

During the short reign of James II. the fortunes of the city were at their lowest, and nowhere was the arrival of the prince of Orange more welcomed.

William III. cared little for London, the smoke of which gave him asthma, and when a great part of Whitehall was burnt in 1691 he purchased Nottingham House and made it into Kensington Palace. Kensington was then an insignificant village, but the arrival of the court soon caused it to grow in importance.

Although the spiritual wants of the city were amply provided for by the churches built by Wren, the large districts outside the city and its liberties had been greatly neglected. The act passed in the reign of Queen Anne for building fifty new churches (1710) for a time supplied the wants of large districts.

7. _Eighteenth Century._--London had hitherto grown up by the side of the Thames. In the 18th century other parts of the town were more largely built upon. The inhabitants used coaches and chairs more than boats, and the banks of the river were neglected. London could no longer be seen as a whole, and became a mere collection of houses. In spite of this the 18th century produced some of the most devoted of Londoners--men who considered a day lived out of London as one lost out of their lives. Of this class Dr Johnson and Hogarth are striking examples. The exhibitions of vice and cruelty that were constantly to be seen in the capital have been reproduced by Hogarth, and had they not been set down by so truthful an observer it would have been almost impossible to believe that such enormities could have been committed in the streets of a great city. A few days after his accession George I. addressed the representatives of the city in these words: "I have lately been made sensible of what consequence the city of London is, and therefore shall be sure to take all their privileges and interests into my particular protection." On the following lord mayor's day the king witnessed the show in Cheapside and attended the banquet at Guildhall. Queen Anne and the first three Georges were all accommodated, on the occasions of their visits to the city to see the show, at the same house opposite Bow church. In the time of Queen Anne and George I. David Barclay (the son of the famous apologist for the Quakers) was an apprentice in the house, but he subsequently became master, and had the honour of receiving George II. and George III. as his guests. There was a large balcony extending along the front of the house which was fitted with a canopy and hangings of crimson damask silk. The building, then numbered 108 Cheapside, was pulled down in 1861.

Extension in the 18th century.

Early in the 18th century there was a considerable extension of building operations in the West End. Still, however, the north of London remained unbuilt upon. In 1756 and for some years subsequently the land behind Montague House (now the British Museum) was occupied as a farm, and when in that year a proposal was made to plan out a new road the tenant and the duke of Bedford strongly opposed it. In 1772 all beyond Portland Chapel in Great Portland Street was country. Bedford House in Bloomsbury Square had its full view of Hampstead and Highgate from the back, and Queen's Square was built open to the north in order that the inhabitants might obtain the same prospect.

In 1737 the Fleet ditch between Holborn Bridge and Fleet Bridge was covered over, and Stocks Market was removed from the site of the Mansion House to the present Farringdon Street, and called Fleet market. On October 25, 1739, the first stone of the Mansion House was laid. Previously the first magistrates lived in several different houses. A frost almost as severe as the memorable one of 1683-1684 occurred in the winter of 1739-1740, and the Thames was again the scene of a busy fair. In 1758 the houses on London Bridge were cleared away, and in 1760-1762 several of the city gates were taken down and sold. Moorgate is said to have fetched £166, Aldersgate £91, Aldgate £177, Cripplegate £90, and Ludgate £148. The statue of Queen Elizabeth which stood on the west side of Ludgate was purchased by Alderman Gosling and set up against the east end of St Dunstan's church in Fleet Street, where it still remains.

8. _Nineteenth Century._--In 1806 London saw the public funerals of three of England's greatest men. On the 8th February the body of Nelson was borne with great pomp from the Admiralty to St Paul's Cathedral, where it was interred in the presence of the prince of Wales and the royal dukes. Pitt was buried on the 22nd of February, and Fox on the 10th of October, both in Westminster Abbey.

The first exhibition of Winsor's system of lighting the streets with gas took place on the king's birthday (June 4) 1807, and was made in a row of lamps in front of the colonnade before Carlton House. Finsbury Square was the first public place in which gas lighting was actually adopted, and Grosvenor Square the last. In the winter of 1813-1814 the Thames was again frozen over. The frost began on the evening of December 27, 1813, with a thick fog. After it had lasted for a month, a thaw of four days, from the 26th to the 29th of January, took place, but this thaw was succeeded by a renewal of the frost, so severe that the river soon became one immovable sheet of ice. There was a street of tents called the City Road, which was daily thronged with visitors. In 1838 the second Royal Exchange was destroyed by fire; and on October 28, 1844, the Queen opened the new Royal Exchange, built by Mr (afterwards Sir William) Tite. The Great Exhibition of 1851 brought a larger number of visitors to London than had ever been in it before at one time. The great and continuous increase in the buildings and the enlargement of London on all sides dates from this period.

London within the walls has been almost entirely rebuilt, although in the neighbourhood of the Tower there are still many old houses which have only been refronted. From the upper rooms of the houses may be seen a large number of old tiled roofs.

Unlike many capitals of Europe which have shifted their centres the city of London in spite of all changes and the continued enlargement of the capital remains the centre and headquarters of the business of the country. The Bank of England, the Royal Exchange and the Mansion House are on the site of Ancient London.

In 1863 on the occasion of the marriage of King Edward VII. (when prince of Wales) the streets of London were illuminated as they had never been before. Among other events which made the streets gay and centred in processions to St Paul's may be specially mentioned the Thanksgiving Day on the 27th of February 1872 for the recovery of the prince of Wales after his dangerous illness; and the rejoicings at the Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887, and the Diamond Jubilee in 1897.

The first great emigration of the London merchants westward was about the middle of the 18th century, but only those who had already secured large fortunes ventured so far as Hatton Garden. At the beginning of the 19th century it had become common for the tradesmen of the city to live away from their businesses, but it was only about the middle of the 19th century that it became at all usual for those in the West End to do the same.

During the first half of the 19th century the position of the City Corporation had somewhat fallen in public esteem, and some of the most influential men in the city were unconnected with it, but a considerable change took place in the latter half of the century. Violent attacks were made upon the Livery Companies, but of late years, largely owing to the public spirit of the companies in devoting large sums of money towards the improvement of the several industries in connexion with which they were founded, and the establishment of the City and Guilds of London Technical Institute, a complete change has taken place as to the public estimation in which they are held.

GROWTH AND POPULATION

Medieval Population.

Much has been written upon the population of medieval London, but
little certainty has resulted therefrom. We know the size of London at
different periods and are able to guess to some extent as to the
number of its inhabitants, but most of the figures which have come
down to us are mere guesses. The results of the poll-tax have often
been considered as trustworthy substitutes for population returns, but
Professor Oman has shown that little trust can be placed in these
results. As an instance he states that the commissioners of the
poll-tax reported that there were only two-thirds as many
contributaries in 1381 as in 1377. The adult population of the realm
had ostensibly fallen from 1,355,201 to 896,481. These figures were
monstrous and incredible.[10]

The Bills of Mortality of the 16th and 17th centuries are of more
value, and they have been considered and revised by such able
statisticians as John Graunt and Sir William Petty. It was not,
however, before the 19th century that accurate figures were
obtainable. The circuit of the walls of London which were left by the
Romans was never afterwards enlarged, and the population did not
overflow into the suburbs to any extent until the Tudor period.
Population was practically stationary for centuries owing to
pestilences and the large proportion of deaths among infants. We have
no materials to judge of the number of inhabitants before the Norman
Conquest, but we can guess that there were many open spaces within the
walls that were afterwards filled up. It is scarcely worth while to
guess as to the numbers in Saxon London, but it is possible that in
the early period there were about 10,000 inhabitants, growing later to
about 20,000. During the latter part of the Saxon period the numbers
of the population of the country began to decay; this decay, however,
was arrested by the Norman Conquest. The population increased during
ten peaceful years of Henry III., and increased slowly until the death
of Edward II., and then it began to fall off, and continued to
decrease during the period of the Wars of the Roses and of the Barons
until the accession of the first Tudor monarch. The same causes that
operated to bring about these changes in the whole kingdom were of
course also at work in the case of the City of London.

One of the earliest statements as to the population of London occurs
in a letter of about the year 1199 written to Pope Innocent III. by
Peter of Blois, then archdeacon of London, and therefore a man of some
authority on the subject. He states that the City contained 120 parish
churches and 40,000 inhabitants. These numbers have been very
generally accepted as fairly correct, and Dr Creighton[11] comes to
the conclusion after careful consideration that the population of
London from the reign of Richard I. to that of Henry VII. varied
within a limit of about forty to fifty thousand inhabitants.

Plagues and Mortality.

Dr Creighton points out that the number given by certain chroniclers
of the deaths from the early pestilences in London are incredible;
such for instance as the statement that forty or fifty thousand bodies
were buried in Charterhouse churchyard at the time of the Black Death
in 1348-1349. These numbers have been taken as a basis for calculation
of population, and one statistician reasoned that if 50,000 were
buried in one churchyard 100,000 should represent the whole mortality
of London. If this were allowed the population at this time must have
been at least 200,000, an impossible amount.

Although the mortality caused by the different plagues had a great
effect upon the population of the country at large the city soon
recovered the losses by reason of the numbers who came to London from
outside in hopes of obtaining work. Although there were fluctuations
in the numbers at different periods there is evidence to show that on
the average the amount of forty to fifty thousand fixed by Dr
Creighton for the years between 1189 and 1509 is fairly correct. The
medieval period closed with the accession of the Tudor dynasty, and
from that time the population of London continued to increase, in
spite of attempts by the government to prevent it. One of the first
periods of increase was after the dissolution of the religious houses;
another period of increase was after the Restoration.

Bills of Mortality.

A proclamation was issued in 1580 prohibiting the erection within 3 m.
of the city gates of any new houses or tenements "where no former
house hath been known to have been." In a subsequent proclamation
Queen Elizabeth commanded that only one family should live in one
house, that empty houses erected within seven years were not to be let
and that unfinished buildings on new foundations were to be pulled
down. In spite of these restrictions London continued to grow. James
I. and Charles I. were filled with the same fear of the increasing
growth of London. In 1630 a similar proclamation to that of 1580 was
published. During the greater part of the 18th century there was a
serious check to the increase of population, but at the end of the
century a considerable increase occurred, and in the middle of the
19th century the enormous annual increase became particularly marked.
To return to the 16th century when the Bills of Mortality came into
existence.[12] Mention is made of these bills as early as 1517, but
the earliest series now known dates from 1532. Dr Creighton had access
to the manuscript returns of burials and christenings for five years
from 1578 to 1582 preserved in the library at Hatfield House. The
history of the Bills of Mortality which in the early years were
intermittent in their publication is of much interest, and Dr
Creighton has stated it with great clearness. The Company of Parish
Clerks is named in an ordinance of 1581 (of which there is a copy in
the Record Office) as the body responsible for the bills, and their
duties were then said to be "according to the Order in that behalf
heretofore provided." John Bell, clerk to the company, who wrote an
essay during the great plague of 1665, had no records in his office of
an earlier date than 1593, and he was not aware that his company had
been engaged in registering births and deaths before that year. The
fire of 1666 destroyed all the documents of the Parish Clerks Company,
and in its hall in Silver Street only printed tables from about the
year 1700 are to be found. There is a set of Annual Bills from 1658
(with the exception of the years 1756 to 1764) in the library of the
British Museum.[13]

These bills were not analysed and general results obtained from them
until 1662, when Captain John Graunt first published his valuable
_Natural and Political Observations upon the Bills of Mortality_. Sir
William Petty followed with his important inquiries upon the
population (_Essay on Political Arithmetic_, 1683).

It is not worth while to refer to all the wild guesses that were made
by various writers, but Dr Creighton shows the absurdity of one of
these calculations made in 1554 by Soranzo, the Venetian ambassador
for the information of the doge and senators of Venice. He estimates
the population to have been 180,000 persons, which Dr Creighton
affirms to be nearly three times the number that we obtain by a
moderate calculation from the bills of mortality in 1532 and 1535.

Population in 16th and 17th centuries.

Following on his calculations from 1509, when the population may be
supposed to have been about 50,000, Dr Creighton carries on his
numbers to the Restoration in the following table:--

1532-1535 62,400 | 1605 224,275
1563 93,276 | 1622 272,207
1580 123,034 | 1634 339,824
1593-1595 152,478 | 1661 460,000

The numbers for 1661 are those arrived at by Graunt, and they are just
about half the population given authoritatively in the first census
1801 (864,845). It therefore took 140 years to double the numbers,
while in 1841 the numbers of 1801 were more than doubled.

These numbers were arrived at with much care and may be considered as
fairly accurate although some other calculations conflict with a few
of the figures. The first attempt at a census was in August 1631 when
the lord mayor returned the number of mouths in the city of London and
Liberties at 130,268, which is only about half the number given above.
This is accounted for by the larger area contained in the bills of
mortality compared with that containing only the city and its
liberties.[14] Howell's suggestion that the population of London in
1631 was a million and a half need only be mentioned as a specimen of
the wildest of guesses.

18th century.

Petty's numbers for 1682 are 670,000 and those of Gregory King for
1696, 530,000. The latter are corroborated by those of 1700, which are
given as 550,000. Maitland gives the numbers in 1737 as 725,903. with
regard to the relative size of great cities Petty affirms that before
the Restoration the people of Paris were more in number than those of
London and Dublin, whereas in 1687 the people of London were more than
those of Paris and Rome or of Paris and Rouen.

It is not necessary to give any further numbers for the population of
the 18th century, as that has been already stated to have been almost
stationary. This is proved by Gregory King's figures for 1696
(530,000) when compared with those of the first census for 1801
(864,035). A corroboration is also to be found in the report of the
first census for 1801, where a calculation is made of the probable
population of the years 1700 and 1750. These are given respectively as
674,350 and 676,250. These figures include (1) the City of London
within and (2) without the walls, (3) the City and Liberties of
Westminster, (4) the outparishes within the bills of mortality and (5)
the parishes not within the bills of mortality. No. 5 is given as 9150
in 1700, and 22,350 in 1750. It is curious to find that already in the
18th century a considerable reduction in the numbers of the city of
London is supposed to have taken place, as is seen in the following
figures:--

1700. 1750.

City of London within the walls 139,300 87,000
" " without the walls 69,000 57,300

As the increase in Westminster is not great (130,000 in 1700 and
152,000 in 1750) and there is little difference in the totals it will
be seen that the amount is chiefly made up by the increase in the
parishes without the bills of mortality. The extraordinary growth of
London did not come into existence until about the middle of the 19th
century (see § IV. above).

GOVERNMENT

Saxon Period.

We know little of the government of London during the Saxon period,
and it is only incidentally that we learn how the Londoner had become
possessed of special privileges which he continued to claim with
success through many centuries. One of the chief of these was the
claim to a separate voice in the election of the king. The citizens
did not dispute the right of election by the kingdom but they held
that that election did not necessarily include the choice of London.

An instance of this is seen in the election of Edmund Ironside,
although the Witan outside London had elected Canute. The remarkable
instance of this after the Conquest was the election of Stephen, but
William the Conqueror did not feel secure until he had the sanction of
the Londoners to his kingship, and his attitude towards London when he
hovered about the neighbourhood of the city for a time shows that he
was anxious to obtain this sanction freely rather than by compulsion.
His hopes and expectations were fulfilled when the gates of London
were opened to receive him, as already related. Athelstan's acceptance
of the London-made law for the whole kingdom, as pointed out by Mr
Gomme, is another instance of the independence of the Londoner. When
William the Conqueror granted the first charter to London he addressed
the bishop and the portreeve--the bishop as the ecclesiastical
governor and the portreeve as the representative of the civil power.

The word "port" in the title "portreeve" does not indicate the Port of
London as might naturally be supposed, for Stubbs has pointed out that
it is _porta_ not _portus_, and "although used for the city generally,
seems to refer to it specially in its character of a Mart or City of
Merchants." The Saxon title of reeve was continued during the Norman
period and the shire-reeve or sheriff has continued to our own time.
There were originally several distinct reeves, all apparently officers
appointed by the king. Some writers have supposed that a succession of
portreeves continued in London, but J. H. Round holds that this title
disappeared after the Conqueror's charter. Henry I. granted to the
city by charter the right of appointing its own sheriffs; this was a
great privilege, which, however, was recalled in the reigns of Henry
II. and Richard I., to be restored by John in 1199.

J. H. Round holds that the office of Justiciar was created by Henry
I.'s charter, and as he was the chief authority in the city this
somewhat takes off from the value of the privilege of appointing
sheriffs.

In the 12th century there was a great municipal movement over Europe.
Londoners were well informed as to what was going on abroad, and
although the rulers were always willing to wait for an opportunity of
enlarging their liberties, they remained ready to take advantage of
such circumstances as might occur. Their great opportunity occurred
while Richard I. was engaged abroad as a crusader.

In 1889 a medal was struck to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the
mayoralty which according to popular tradition was founded in 1189.
With respect to this tradition Round writes (_Commune of London_, p.
223): "The assumption that the mayoralty of London dates from the
accession of Richard I. is an absolute perversion of history," and he
adds that "there is record evidence which completely confirms the
remarkable words of Richard of Devizes, who declares that on no terms
whatever would King Richard or his father have ever assented to the
establishment of the _Communa_ in London."

The Commune.