Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 2.djvu/683

Rh LONDON. 676 LONDON. and devices, ho and the Duke of Buckingham prevailed upon the citizens to offer him the crown. offer, and took his seat as king at Westminster. During the Protectorate of Richard, Lord Hastings, who opposed him, was beheaded without any trial, after a council held at the Tower, upon a log of wood that was casually lying in the courtyard there. During this reign tho Heralds' College first became a corporation, tho king giving them the royal mansion of Cold Harbour, from whence they afterwards migrated to Doctors' Commons. With Richard ended the line of tho Yorkists, and during the 350 years which had elapsed since tho accession of the first of tho Plantagenets great changes had taken place both in the social and commercial aspect of the city. In the timo of Stephen the houses were built of wood and thatched, but in 1189 an Act was passed compelling the inhabitants to erect party walls of stone, and to roof their dwellings with wood covered with lead or tiles. Still, however, they were only one storey high, and it was not until the end of the thirteenth cen- tury that they were allowed to exceed two stories. They had also cellars and stalls, or penthouses, attached, and the windows were mostly open by day and closed by wooden shutters ut night. The streets of tho city wero kept clean by means of deeply cut kennels and gutters to cany away the sewage and filth, which was not then discharged into the river, but was collected by scaven- gers and carted away into the fields. Water was supplied to the houses by barreled carts, which brought it from tho Thames, which was then pure, and abounded with salmon and other fish, or by means of public fountains and conduits. The expenses of paving and road-making were met by a toll upon vehicles, and tho City gates were under the control of sergeants-at-arms, who kept watch at them by day and night, and took the tolls from those who used them. No one was permitted to walk in the streets after eight o'clock in the evening without special permission, and oven then wayfarers were obliged to carry lanterns. The borough of Southwark, which was a rendezvous for all the disorderly, disaffected, and felonious characters about London, was regarded with suspicion, and laboured under special disabilities. Thus, for instance, no goods or merchandise were allowed to be landed on the Southwark side of tho river ; neither were boatmen to moor any craft there, or either to embark or disembark passengers after dark. The citizens were forbidden to go marketing there for any article except wood, and a constant watch was set to prevent the keepers of public houses of entertainment from harbouring seditious persons, or rogues and vaga- Knds. The Fleet ditch, Walbrook, and in fact all ^itercoursos, were ordered by strict regulations to be kept scrupulously clean, and no one was allowed to bathe in the Thames near the City under penalty of deatli. Sometimes, however, the river occasioned great trouble and damage, as its shores were not protected by any high quays or embankments. Thus in 1242 tho water overflowed its banks to such a height that West- minster Hall was flooded, and boats plied inside for " re. Lideed so little precaution was taken even in
 * rd, after many pretended scruples, accepted the
 * i<?:tinst accidents of this kind that tho fear of

similar inundation taking place actually delayed tho coronation of George II., which was to have been cele- 1 on the 4t,h October, 1727, till the llth of that month. Tin; givat cattle market was " Smoothfield," now Sinithfield, which has only lately been disused for i both fish and meat were allowed to be sold in tlie City on Sundays. The tavern keepers', wine and al aid cooks' shops were almost all on the banks of tho Thames, and every keeper of a house of public onlt;r!;iinment was responsible for the good behaviour of any guests who stopped in his hougj over one day and one night. All alehouses and wino- taverns wero to be closed at eight o'clock, P.M., and any leaving a house of public entertainment at', r that i led to leave his arms behind him. The Citv authorities had no jurisdiction in matters of life and death, but might inflict punishment upon fraudu- lent traders, beggars, impostors, and the like, by im- prisonment, the pillory, and various methods of corporal chastisement. The reign of the house of Tudor com- menced after the overthrow of Richard at Bosworth Field in 1485. Upon his defeat his successor, Henry VII., went to London, which he entered In a closed chariot, in fear, as some historians assert, of the parti- sans of the house of York ; or, according to others, to avoid exposing himself to the plague which, under tho name of the " sweating sickness," was raging in London. The king was received by the lord mayor and corporation, attended by a procession of the trades' companies and citizens, and was crowned at- Westminster on the 30th October. His means were so small that he borrowed 2,000 from the citizens of London in order to defend himself from the rebels who were opposed to his authority, and for the purpose, as ho alleged, of going to war with France. This money, however, and other sums which he raised by fines and various methods of oppression and extortion, ho appropriated to his own uses. The king was enabled to accumulate great riches by these means on account of tho increased wealth of the citizens, for it was in his reign that tho products of the East and West Indies became regular matters of commerce, and produced enormous pronts to those who engaged in tho trade. Besides this, Henry founded tho "Star Chamber," so called from the itarra or contracts mado with tho Jews, which wero deposited there. By these he added still more to his revenue, and innocent people were constantly fined and imprisoned, and their property confiscated, either wholly or in part, in order to gratify the avaricious propensities of tho sovereign. In consequence of his rapacious pro- ceedings his subjects became discontented, and a rebellion broke out against him in a county so remote even as Cornwall. The insurgents marched up towards London, where Henry posted an army in St. George.' s Fields to oppose them. At Deptford Bridge they wero met by Lord Daubeny, and driven to Blackheath, where a battle was fought in 1497, and tho rebels were dis- persed. In 1499 tho rebellion was suppressed, and Perkin Warbeck, the ringleader, after having been con- fined in tho Tower, from which he had mado his escape with the Earl of Warwick, was led in a mock triumphal procession through tho streets. Thence, after having been placed in the stocks in Choapside and at Westminster, he was taken to Tyburn and hanged, while the Earl of War- wick was beheaded on Tower Hill. In the year 1500 tho plague again devastated the City, and the king and court removed in consequence to Calais. In the ensuing year the first lord mayor's feast was held in tho Guild- hall, and tho king, who was himself a member of tho Taylors' Company, gave to it tho title of the Merchant Taylors' Company. From this timo to the year of his death, in 1509, Henry continued his extortions, and raised such vast sums, by fines and subsidies, that at his decease he left nearly 2,000,000. He was buried in tho magnificent chapel which he built, and which still goes by his name, in Westminster Abbey. On tho 24th June, 1509, Henry VIII. was crowned at West- minster, and in the sixth year of his reign considerable commotions took place in the City owing to the hatred between the foreign and native merchants. Bands of young men paraded the streets, insulting all tho foreigners they met, and a report was spread of an intention to murder all aliens found in the City on Hay Day. The result of this was, that the aldermen forbade, any one to bo out after nine o'clock P.M. ; but as one of the members of the court was going homo, he eaw some apprentices at play after that hour. Ho ordered tlicm to desist, and upon their refusal proceeded to drag ono of thorn to prison. This was the signal for a general uprising of tho citizens, and the rioters pillaged and burnt several houses in quarters inhabited by foreigners. The next day the king's troops marched into the City, and seized 280 of the ringleaders, who wore arraigned capitally at Guildhall. Tho lord mayor and corpora- tion, who were among those who were ill-affected to the foreigners, went to the king to supplicate for mercy,