Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/305

 LONDON IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 283 the conclusion, that they were both small and of low elevation ; the shops were generally wooden sheds erected in front of the inhabited tenements. At the present time, when the sanitary condition of the metropolis is attracting so much of public attention, it may not be uninteresting to enquire how far it Avas provided for in ancient days. We have seen that so early as 1 189 the due construction of gutters and the convenient dispersion of waste- water were objects of consideration : the cameras privatse of the citizens were not left unregulated : they were prohibited within the distance of two and a half, or three and a half feet, from a neighbouring tenement ; and the propriety of their construction was liable to the survey of a jury chosen by the authorities. The situation of London, with an easy descent towards the Thames, was favourable to a surface drainage, aided in a great degree by those natural streams which then flowed open to the river, the Wall- brook and the Fleet, the cleansing and maintenance of which in a proper state were from an early period objects of solicitude to the magistracy. It may be collected also from the perusal of ancient evidences, that narrow channels ran down the centre of many of those streets which led directly to the river side : bad as the eff'ect of these uncovered sewers must have been, they were better than no drainage whatever. The greatest source of annoyance, however, was the existence of the public shambles almost in the very heart of the city, clustered round the church of St. Nicholas, the patron of butchers as well as fishermen. From a remote time ordinance succeeded ordinance levelled at this flagrant nuisance. There being no under-drain- age, the refuse of the slaughter-houses was thrown by the butchers wher- ever they could find a place : into the streets, or the Fleet, or into the river, where, often left on the banks, the putrefying heaps oflfended the olfactory senses of the Edwards and Henries as they were rowed between Westminster and the Tower, producing impressive monitions to the mayor to repress the intolerable excesses of the flesh-mongers ; but in vain; it was a nuisance that grew with the increase of the metropolis, and for which no remedy has even yet been provided. By a regulation passed in the reign of Richard the Second, the blood and off^il of the shambles were to be boated into the mid-stream of the Thames at ebb-tide, but this and subsequent enactments were evaded or carelessly enforced, and we still groan in the nineteenth century under an infliction which our less refined ancestors tried to avoid in the thirteenth. We seek in vain for traces of any approach to an organized system of police fn the metropolis during the times under consideration. When considerable tumults arose the mayor or sheriffs appear to have summoned the townsfolk to their aid by the great bell of St. Paul's, and as the adult population was in a measure trained to arms, a tolerably efficient force was thus temporarily at their orders. Periodical musters of the citizens under arms were taken, and by the early rolls we perceive that a few individuals appeared equipped at all points on c/ievanx converts, while the majority were armed with those miscellaneous weapons of offence common to the times. The rendezvous on these occasions was Mile-end or Cheap-side. However