Young Folks' History of London ... Illustrated

Preface

. There are many books about London, and I have used them so freely, that the preparation of this addition to thei number has been to some extent a work of abridgment and selection rather than one of research or original expression. In writing about the London of Shakespeare, I have made excerpts from the gossipy little volume by Edwin Goadby ; in referring to Sir Richard Whittington, I have depended on the recent concise and excellent life of that worthy by Mr. Walter Besant, — a biography which has transformed the great Lord Mayor from a shadow of tradition into a definite personage ; in endeavoring to picture the old 'Prentice boys, I have quoted from the " Fortunes of Nigel," believing that as far as the background is concerned, Scott's story is more graphic than any other account of these demonstrative young citizens, and at the same time historically accurate ; in speak ing of London as it was during the reigns of Charles the First and Charles the Second, I have dipped into Macaulay's splendid History ; and in relation to the Plague, I have done little more than condense the picturesque Journal of Daniel Defoe.

Portions of Mrs. Newton Crosland's " Stories of the City of London " have been used in several chapters, and I have Preface. IV supplemented a condensation of her account of the " No- Popery " Riots of Lord George Gordon with extracts from the brilliant narrative of those disturbances given by Dickens in " Barnaby Rudge." Among the works of reference which have been invaluable to me throughout my task, I must mention the six volumes of " Old and New Lon don," by Walter Thornbury and Edward Walford ; " Curi osities of London," by John Timbs ; " Walks about London," by Augustus Hare; the Dictionaries of London and of the Thames edited by the younger Dickens ; Pascoe's "■ London Directory for American Travellers," and the comprehensive description of London edited by Charles Knight. Knight's " London," and the similar work by Messrs. Thornbury and Walford, have been of greater service to me than any others.

I have also made use of " London, Past and Present," a little book issued by Blackwood * the " Story of the Lon don Parks," by Jacob Larwood ; Pauli's *' Pictures of Old England ; " the " Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham," by John William Burgon ; " Londoniana," by Edward Wal ford ; " The City," by William Gilbert * " Lombard Street," by Walter Bagehot : " Every-day Life in Our Public Schools," by C. E. Pascoe ; the " Short History of England " and tlie " Making of England," by J. R. Green ; " Banks and Bank ers," by Frederick Martin; Macaulay's "Miscellaneous Essays ; " Herbert's " History of the City Companies ; " Riley's " Memorials of London ; " the " History of London^' by Thomas Allen, and the " History and Survey of Lon don," by William Maitland. Having made these acknowledgments, I offer the little book to the reader for his kindly judgment, believing that Preface.

V if he is a student sitting by his own fireside it will give him a clear and succinct view of the history of a City which has been called " the heart, the centre of the living world ■ " and that should it be his good fortune to visit the great me tropolis, the volume will prove an interesting companion to him in his walks along the famous streets and historic by-ways. WILLIAM H. RIDEING. Bos ion, Mass. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. From the Earliest Time to the Reign of Henry the Third n II. In the Reigns of Edward the Third and Richard the Second 29 III. From 1450 to 1559 47 IV. In Shakespeare's Time . 57 V. The 'Prentice Boys of London 73 VI. London under the Stuarts 81 VII. The Plague 109 VIII. The Great Fire 121 IX. In the Reign of Queen Anne 131 X. The Gordon Riots 141 XI. Improved London 161 XII.

London Bridge 189 XIII. A Trip on the River 199 XIV, The Tower 217 XV. The Lord Mayors of London 243 XVI. Richard Whittington 265 XVII. Ihe Trade-Guilds of London 277 XVIII. The Bank of England 317 XIX. The Royal Exchange 337 XX. Temple Bar and its Neighborhood .... 355 XXI. St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. 391 XXII. The Houses of Parliament 425 XXIII. The London Parks 443 XXIV. The British Museum LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Ben Jonson at the Devil Tavern Frontispiece The London Stone 12 Norman Barrow 14 I louses on Old London Bridge 17 Norman Travelling Dress io Feet and Head Dresses . . . .' 20 Murder of Thomas a Becket 23 Women in Norman Dress 26 Knight 30 The Tabard Inn ?! Early Plantagenets .- -14 Later Plantagenets 36 Fall of Wat Tyler 4, Head Dresses of the Period 47 York and Lancaster Ladies 48 A Marriage Procession 49 Burning the Martyrs 53 Elizabeth 59 Shakespeare 61 The Old Globe Theatre 6-, A Play in an Inn-yard 67 The Globe Theatre 71 Beginning of the Riots 75 Guy Fawkes Discovered 83 Guy Fawkes and Conspirators 87 Charles the First 89 Execution of Charles the First 91 Burial of Charles the First 93 Roasting the Rump 95 Falconer to James the First 9S List of Illustrations.

PAGE A Lord Mayor 99 A Lady Mayoress I03 Solomon Eagle "' The Great Fire in London 1-3 Queen Anne l33 Lady Mary Montague at the Kit-Kat Club ... .... 137 Hoop ... 141 The Gordon Riots M3 San-fals 146 Beards '4^ Costumes, Time of George III '5[ George III 155 Petticoat Lane i6.> India Office, from St. James's Park 167 A Rainy Day in Old London 1 73 The Opening of the Underground Railway 179 Attack on Queen Eleanor 191 Osborne's Leap 195 Pensioners at Greenwich • 201 Lambeth Palace. — Lollards' Prison ... 205 Palm-House at Kew 209 Hampton Court 213 Tower of London 219 Norman Chapel in the Tower 221 Portrait of Raleigh 223 Old London Bridge 227 Menagerie in the Tower 231 The Armory 233 The Crown Jewels 237 Lord Mayor's River Procession 245 The Old Lord Mayor's Barge 249 The Lord Mayor's Coach 251 Gog and Magog 257 Richard Whittington 267 Old Charing Cross 270 Ancient Windsor Castle 278 Court of Aldermen, Guildhall 281 Interior of Merchant Taylors' Hall 2S5 Goldsmith Hall 291 Crypt in Guildhall List of Illustrations.

IX PAGE Procession of Billmen and Archers 299 Guard Chamber, Lambeth Palace 306 Salisbury and Worcester House 310 Courtyard, Bank of England 319 Parlor, Bank of England 323 Thomas Sutton 331 First Royal Exchange 339 Thomas Gresham 343 The Royal Exchange 349 Temple Bar 357 Knight-Templar 363 St. John's Gate ; 367 Dr. Johnson's Pew 373 Gateway, Lincoln's Inn , 377 A Proclamation at Temple Bar 381 Group at Hardman's 387 Old St. Paul's 393 St. Paul's, from the River 401 Chapel of Henry VII , Westminster Abbey 4°5 Westminster Palace . 4" The Coronation Chair 4'7 St. Paul's Cathedral 4-3 The Houses of Parliament. W. E Gladstone 4-7 Old Westminster Hall 43' Queen Caroline's Drawing-Room 437 The Star Chamber 44° London Dandy, Middle of Seventeenth Century 447 Kensington Palace 455 St. James's Park 459 Playing Pall-Mali 4^3 Reading-Room, British Museum 47 ! " London, the buskined stage Of history, the archive of the past, — The heart, the centre of the living world ! " Robert Leighton.

Chapter I. From The Earliest Times To The Reign Of Henry III

Desiring to glorify their city, some of the Roman writers ascribed its origin to the gods ; and Geoffrey of Monmouth, a monkish historian, whose imagination appears to have been greater than his truthfulness, attributes the foundation of Lon don to Brutus, a descendant of Æneas of Troy : — " Brutus, considering the state of the Kingdom, form'd a Design of building a City, and in order thereunto, carefully survey'd the Country to discover a Place proper for its Situa tion. At last pitching upon a Spot of Ground on the Bank of the River Thames, very fit for his Purpose, he erected a City thereon, and dignified the same with the Appellation of New- Troy, by which Name it was known for many Ages. But the same being at length corrupted, it was called Trinovant ; and in Process of Time, when Lud, the Brother of Cassibellaun, obtain'd the Government, he incircled the same with a strong and stately Wall, adorn'd with an infinite Number of Towers of curious Workmanship, and changed the name thereof to Caer-lud or Lud's-town ; and commanding the Citizens to build Houses and Publick Structures of all Sorts, it soon equalled, if not excell'd, all Cities at Home and Abroad, to a very great Degree.

But some time after, the new Appellation being corrupted, it was changed into Caer-London ; and when the Kingdom was afterwards conquered and brought into Subjection by Foreigners, they chang'd the Name thereof to Londres." Geoffrey has been severely scolded by other chroniclers for publishing this fanciful story, and one of them angrily and comprehensively describes it as " a great, coarse, thick, heavy, long, and most impudent Lye." If London existed before the invasion of the Romans it probably was like most British towns, a rude stockaded settle ment, unacquainted with any more imposing architecture than windowless, chimneyless, and doorless huts, shaped of reeds and branches after the manner of hur dles. The inhabitants went naked or dressed in the hides of animals, and they tattooed and painted their arms and faces with various figures.

The situation of the town was a vast mo rass, or lagoon, in which were many islands that are now united in the wonderful chain of London suburbs. Out of the waters also rose dark masses of tangled forest, through the london which the boar, the deer, the wolf, and the stone. wild ox wandered unmolested. But with the coming of the Romans the solitude passed away, and a few years afterwards London had become a flourishing port. Though York was the official capital, Lon don was the actual centre, for it was the point from which the roads of the conquerors radiated over the island. It rapidly surpassed all other British towns in population and wealth, though the scarcity of stone and the abundance of clay in its neighborhood did not encourage the erection of fine buildings, and it was little more than a mass of brick 764-801.

Roman London. 13 houses and red-tiled roofs, pierced by a network of narrow alleys, and cleft by two wider roads from the bridge which at this early period spanned the marshy Thames. Roman London was the real beginning of the great city, and a part of it lies buried eighteen feet below the level of Cheapside. The Romans left deep footprints wherever they trod, and many of the existing streets follow the lines which they beat out. The river bank was the site of their palaces, and a stone imbedded in the walls of one of the churches marks the starting-point of the roads which they designed. In a lane out of the Strand may still be seen a deep, cool bath in which they bathed after the chariot races at P'insbury. Fragments of the pavements trodden by Hadrian and Con stantine are occasionally unearthed, and the ramparts which the legionaries guarded have not yet wholly crumbled to dust.

The city was thrice burned down between the years 764 and 801. It was plundered by the Danes, taken and repaired by King Alfred, and afterwards it became the residence of King Canute, who will be remembered for his dramatic rebuke of the flattery of his courtiers. Its progress was rapid, and in Canute's time it had already become famous for its magnificence, being then possessed of the seventh part of the wealth of the whole kingdom. Many privileges were conferred upon it : it became the seat of parliament, and the centre of all political, literary, and fashionable society. In the time of the Saxons it was not unlike a small German town, such as may be seen to-day, clasped by a sturdy wall, with corner turrets for archers, and loops whence the bow men could drive their arrows. The buildings were fortresses, convents, and huts.

If restored, the streets would resemble those of Moscow, says Mr. Walter Thornbury, where, behind citadel, palace, and church, you come upon rows of wooden sheds. On the river would be a few fishermen's boats, and lower down, perhaps, would be a hundred larger vessels bringing furs, wines, and other luxuries in exchange for the wool and other products of the island. The persons one would meet in the streets would be the chieftain, with a bearded retinue of spearmen ; the priest, with a train of acolytes ; and a boorish crowd of half-savage churls, plodding along with rough carts, laden with timber from the Essex forests, or driving herds of swine from the glades of Epping. Should we climb upon the walls, and look beyond them in the direction from which these country folk have come, we should see wild woodland and pasture, a landscape similar to that which the emigrant of these NORMAN BARROW. times finds in the unsettled parts of our Western States and Territories ; and if we should accost one of them we should probably find him a strong, hearty fellow, with a red face and yellow locks, fond of strong ale and quite ready for a brawl.

His dress would be a simple tunic or frock such as is still worn in a few of the rural parts of England. The chieftains, however, had a great taste for finery. They wore gold collars and precious stones round the neck, and costly bracelets and rings. The fabrics used were silk, linen, and woollens, which were often bedecked with jewels. The shops of the primitive city were small and dark, and all the wares were exhibited 'on a shelf projecting from the Charter confirmed by William. io66. 15 front of the merchant's dwelling. The interior furniture was of the simplest kind, often consisting of nothing more than a few rude benches and tables and cooking utensils. Besides the chieftains, priests, and churls, we might also have met in the streets the seafaring men of the old Saxon brotherland, " the pioneers of the mighty Hansa of the North, which was in days to come to knit together London and Novgorod in one bond of commerce, and to dictate laws and distribute crowns among the nations."

After the battle of Hastings London surrendered to the conqueror somewhat ingloriously, but it was rewarded for its submission by one of the many charters granted to it and jealously guarded by it, which preserved its liberties and privileges. The charter was written in the language of the citizens, " a mighty Favour at that Time," says Maitland, " when the French Tongue began to prevail over all." It covered a slip of parchment six inches long and one inch wide, and it read in English thus : — " William the King friendly salutes William the Bishop, and Godfrey the Portreve, and all the Burgesses within London, both French and English. And I declare, that I grant you to be all Lawworthy, as you were in the Days of King Ed ward; and I grant that every Child shall be his Father's Heir, after his Father's Days; and I will not suffer any person to do you wrong.

God keep you." This charter, simple as it was, confirmed the citizens in their liberties, and relieved them from the tyrannical vassalage which was common elsewhere in the kingdom. Eighteen years after the Conquest William began the erection of the Tower of London, and, though the uses to which it was put soon made it a menace to the champions of pop ular liberty, it was designed to fortify the river approaches to the city. It was built on a site which had been a Ro man stronghold more than a thousand years before the Norman king, and the mistake has been made by some writers, even Shakespeare, of attributing it to Julius Cæsar. ■ King William summoned Gundulf, the weeping monk of Bee, in Normandy, who, though familiar as an architect, was chiefly known in his convent as a weeper. No monk at Bee could cry so often and so much as Gundulf.

He could weep with those who wept, and he could weep with those who sported. His tears rolled forth from what seemed to be an unfailing source. William made him Bishop of Rochester, and put him to work on the famous Tower. So Gundulf wept and built, and Ralph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, found the money, little imagining that he was robbing the people to erect a prison for himself. Probably the earliest description of the Tower of London is that by Fitzstephen, who lived in the twelfth century : " The city of London hath in the east a very great and most strong palatine tower, whose turrets and walls do rise from a deep foundation, the mortar thereof being tempered with the blood of beasts." Perhaps Gundulf pounded up the old red tiles and bricks of the Romans to mix his mortar, and the people, only too ready to surround with new glamour the great threatening tower that was springing up in their midst, accounted for the color of the mortar in this way.

Gundulf lived to the age of eighty, and saw the completion of his work. William Rufus then made additions to the building, and, as an old chronicle states, " he pilled and shaved the people with tribute, to spend about the Tower of London and the Great Hall at Westminster." Upon the death of Rufus the citizens seized Ralph Flam bard, the aforesaid Bishop of Durham ; and this man, who had taxed them for the building of the fortress, was imprisoned in one of his own dungeons. One fine day he sent for a OLD LONDON BRIDGE Westminster Hall. "35- 19 number of kegs of wine, and gave a great feast to his jailers, who got helplessly drunk. In one of the kegs was concealed a rope, by which the burly bishop let himself down out of a window, and although the rope was too short, and he had an awkward drop to brave, Flambard, fat as he was, took no hurt, and made good his escape to France.

Westminster Hall, still one of the most notable buildings in London, was built also by the second of the Norman kings ; and when his brother, Henry I., succeeded him on the throne, the latter granted a charter, wliich seems to have been the first step toward making that city an independent corporation. When Henry I. died, the citizens were instru mental in putting the usurper Stephen on the throne. Henry's daugh ter was the heiress, but no sooner had that king breathed his last than NORMAN TRAVELLING DRESS. his nephew Stephen, insensible to all ties of gratitude, hastened over to England from France, and stopped not till he arrived at London. No noble had as yet ventured to join him, nor had any town espoused his cause ; but London poured out to meet him with an uproarious welcome.' The voice of her citizens had long been accepted, says Mr. J. R. Green, as representative of the popular assent in the choice of a king, and they now claimed the right of elec tion.

Undismayed by the absence of the hereditary ad visers of the crown, the " aldermen and wise folk gathered together the folk-mote ; and these, providing at their own will for the good of the realm, unanimously resolved to choose a king." The deliberations ended in the selection of Stephen ; the citizens swore to defend the king with money and blood, and Stephen swore to devote himself wholly to the promotion of the country's welfare. The citizens kept their word, but the king broke his. The years of his reign were years of unexampled misrule, and when it ended the active agent of the reform was Theobald, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to whom Henry II. , Stephen's successor, owed his crown and England her deliverance. Theobald was greatly aided by Thomas a Becket, the son of the Portreeve of London.

Thomas grew up amid the Norman barons and clerks who frequented his father's house, and his character was at once genial and refined. He was tall, handsome, bright- FEET AND HEAD DRESSES. eyed, ready of wit and speech, and his firmness of temper showed itself in his very sports : he once plunged into a mill race to rescue his hawk, which had fallen into the water and Courage of A Becket. 1 1 70. 21 was nearly crushed to death by the wheel. Losing his for tune, he joined the clergy, and became Archbishop Theo bald's confidant in his plans for the rescue of England. The fate of Thomas a Becket is one of the saddest stories of English history. This young Londoner became the most intimate friend of Henry II. ; he and the king were nearly of an age, and it was said of them that they had but one heart and one mind ; they even romped in the streets, and were as two brothers.

The king loaded his favorite with riches and honors, and made him chancellor of the realm. The king's ambition was vaulting, however, and he was not above using his intimate friend as a tool. The latter per ceived his aims, and frankly said to him, — " You will soon hate me as much as you love me now, for you assume an authority in the affairs of the church to which I will .never assent." For some time the king succeeded in his purposes, which were intended to put the affairs of the church under his own control, and his former friend became bitterly opposed to him. Above all things Thomas a Becket was brave ; and when in one of the councils cries of " Traitor ! traitor ! " were raised against him, he turned fiercely upon his accusers, and said, " Were I a knight, my sword should answer that foul taunt."

At last he was obliged to leave England, and for six years the conflict went on between him and the king, one repre senting a claim for spiritual supremacy, and the other a claim for temporal supremacy, though both were actuated to a great extent by personal jealousy. A truce was then declared, and Thomas returned to England. But he had been there only a short time when he was murdered in his own cathe dral by four fanatic supporters of the king. It is one of the most dramatic pictures of history. The prelate is standing at the altar in the dimly lighted and silent sanctuary, with his heavily robed monks and clergy around him, their shadows falling across the stone floor and lofty pillars of the cathedral. Suddenly the four loud-voiced, spurred, and armored knights burst through one of the doors, and cry out, " Where is the traitor?

" The words are spoken again in echoes from the roof and every corner of the spacious building, " Where is the traitor? " Thomas turns on the steps of the altar, upon which a few lights are burning, showing the religious splendors behind them. " Here am I," he answers, in a voice in which there is no tremor, — " here am I, no traitor, but a priest of God." One of the knights rushes up to him and seizes him, mutter ing, " You are our prisoner ! " "Off!" cries the bishop, recognizing him, " You are my servant," throwing him down. The three others come to the aid of their companion, while the monks in terror conceal themselves behind the pillars ; and in a minute Thomas a Becket is lying dead, while the assassins steal off, one of them exclaiming, " Let us be off, he will never rise again ! " Thus died one of the most famous sons of the city whose history we are writing, — the first Englishman under the Nor man rule who rose to a great position.

The end of the king was scarcely less sad. His sons re volted against him, and before his death he humiliated him self before the tomb of the murdered companion of his youth. As he passed away, he slowly murmured, " Shame, shame on a conquered king." His son Richard succeeded him, and on the death of the latter, Henry's younger son, John, ascended the throne. During the reign of John, London had again an opportunity to exercise its growing power, the city being influential in procuring the Magna Charta at Runnymede, the island near Windsor, where the king and the barons met ; and in the THE MVRDER OF THOMAS A BECKET. Foreign Settlers. H99-I-7-- 25 war of the barons for constitutional liberties against King Henry III., it once more led the way in the championship of the popular cause, and provided Simon de Montfort, the Earl of Leicester, with fifteen thousand men to resist the army of that monarch.

Until the reign of Edward I. the other towns of the king dom had no liberties. They did not have any voice in the government, and had not even the privilege of electing their own local officers. Justice was administered among the in habitants by the steward of the lord owning the ground upon which the town was built. London had now become in some respects similar to New York and Boston of the present time. Foreigners were con stantly flocking into it, and for the most part they were sub stantial and industrious men, artisans from France, Holland, and Germany. Members of the great mercantile houses of Italy, and especially of Lombardy, also came to invest their fortunes in it, and they combined the business of bankers with that of advancing money at a high rate of interest. It is the coat-of-arms used by them which the pawnbrokers now display, — the three gold balls, which symbolize the poverty and improvidence of our large cities.

Great precautions were taken to protect the treasure which was stored in the city. The city gates were carefully closed when the first chime of the curfew rang out, and at the last stroke of the bell the wickets were shut. Each ward pro vided a number of watchmen, and some twenty armed men mounted guard at each of the gates. During tlie day ser geants " fluent of speech " were stationed there to examine all doubtful characters ; and all boats in the river were made fast to the Middlesex shore. While two boats filled with river police were patrolling the Thames, watchmen were pacing the streets. All taverns were closed at the curfew, and after that hour any belated citizen was picked up without Young Folks' History of London. ceremony and summarily locked up till morning in the bride well. On holidays, and when there was any prospect of unusual lawlessness, many of the citizens acted as special constables, wearing party-colored coats over their armor and carrying lances painted with different colors ; but as they were supplied at night with flaming cressets fixed in long poles, the disturbers of the peace had not much difficulty in evading them.

The community was generally very comfortable. There were no paupers, and there was little poverty. The mar- WOMEN IN NORMAN DRESS. kets were much what they are now ; the fishmongers had already chosen Billingsgate for their location, and the game and poultry sellers; Leadenhall ; but owing to the absence of conveyances the people had to live for half the year on salted meat and stock fish. There were no wagons, coaches, or canals ; the traffic was all on the backs of horses. The drivers came to town, and returned, in strong companies, for there were robbers lurking Struggles for Privileges. ■3°7- 27 near every wood. They carried or bought their own provis ions on the way, for at the inns they found nothing but sleeping accommodation. They carried their valuables to bed with them, and sometimes sat up, watching over them, all night.

On the march they looked suspiciously, weapon in hand, at every coppice of trees or clump of tangled brush wood. The Norman influence had led to the cultivation of the arts and refinements of life ; and according to one historian, who may be questioned, the title of baron was given to all the burgesses of London. But though many privileges were conferred on the metrop olis, it was not allowed to enjoy them without a struggle. The most dangerous and the most imperative duty of the mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen was to guard these privileges from the Crown and Court, and to watch for opportunities to strengthen and extend them. When the sovereign was in trouble and needed the alliance of a city which could furnish an army as great as half the barons of England could gather together, it was easy to obtain new charters and other favors from him ; but when he was secure on the throne, the citizens had to look to their coffers, and endure many affronts.

What privileges they possessed they had to pay for handsomely ; and every possible occasion was seized on by the king to increase their taxes, which during the reign of Henry III. amounted to more than six and a half per cent. " He who has once felt that love of London can never again be happy beyond the sound of Bow Bells, which can now be heard for twenty miles round and more. The greatness of the city, its history, its churchyards crowded with dead citizens, its associations, its ambi tions, its pride, its hurrying crowds, — all these things affect the imag ination and fill the heart. There is no place in all the world, and never has been, which so stirs the heart of her children with love and pride as the city of London ; not Paris even, nor Rome, nor Florence, nor Venice ; there is no city in which the people have been more steadfastly purposed to maintain their rights and fight for their free dom." — Rice and Besant.