The History of Medieval London. Walter Besant

on the west side of the Cathedral rose the spire of Blackfriars, and on the east the lesser spire of St. Augustine’s, making a contrast with the lofty proportions of the great church? In front of us is the ancient port once called Edred’s Hythe after the name of a former Wharfinger or Harbour Master or Port Captain; it was afterwards called Potter’s Hythe and later Queen Hythe, because King John gave it to his mother Queen Eleanor, which name it still retains. The port is square, and open on one side to the river; there are never any storms to wreck the shipping within. It is now filled with ships, chiefly of the smaller kind, because the larger craft cannot pass through the Bridge. For this reason Billingsgate long surpassed Queenhithe in the number and importance of its ships and the magnitude of its trade. However, at Queenhithe they are busy. The cranes wheeze and grunt as they turn round; carriers with bales and sacks upon their backs toil unceasingly. All round the quay runs a kind of open cloister with an upper storey on pillars: this is the warehouse of the Harbour.

      Grove and Boulton.

      A SOUTH-EAST VIEW OF LONDON BEFORE THE DESTRUCTION OF ST. PAUL’S STEEPLE BY FIRE, A.D. 1560

      The earliest harbour, whose mouth we passed just now, is an insignificant stream; one cannot understand how it could ever be a harbour for ships. It was once, however, a full and deep stream running rapidly down its valley, and sometimes swollen by rains. It drained Moorfields, and half a dozen rivulets joined together to make the brook, but when the ditch was dug round the wall, the brook fell into the ditch, and although a culvert was cut in the wall for the surplus water to pass down the old bed, little flowed through, and the Walbrook was only kept up as a stream by two or three springs in the northern part of the City.

      There is a street in Rouen called the rue des Eaux de Robec, which suggests something of the appearance of the Walbrook before the sixteenth century. The street, which is fairly straight, contains a double row of houses, tall and ancient, projecting in three upper storeys, and decayed from former respectability. Such at the present day, were they still standing, would be the houses lining the course of the Walbrook in the fourteenth century. Along one side of the street runs a rapid stream in a deep channel; the water is black, whether from the darkness or the impurity I know not; it is partly bridged over; the bridges have been broadened until they are no longer narrow footways, but platforms on which workmen sit at their trade, and stalls are set out with things for sale. On the other side is the narrow roadway with its pavement of small uneven square blocks; there is no central gutter, because the stream carries everything off. Such was the appearance of the Walbrook. At first foot-bridges crossed it at intervals; then it was confined to a narrow channel; then other uses were made of the stream; then the footways became floors of stone or woodwork, with the stream open between them; then these openings became gradually filled up, and the stream was shut out of sight and forgotten. If you wish to understand how Walbrook appeared in our imaginary walk, go to see the rue des Eaux de Robec in Rouen.

      The stately Palace rising straight from the water’s edge with its river-gate and stairs and its lofty face is Baynard’s Castle, so called from its first founder. Within, there are two spacious courts with rooms to accommodate hundreds of followers. It was formerly the House of the Castellain, for the rights and title of Castellain at first went with the possession of the Castle. When Robert FitzWalter in 1275 parted with Baynard’s Castle he reserved, so far as he could, these rights. They were exercised only in time of war, and at such a time it was the duty of the Castellain, mounted and caparisoned, with nineteen knights and his banner borne before him, to proceed to the great Gate of St. Paul’s, where he was met by the Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriffs, all arrayed in arms, the Mayor holding the City Banner in his hand, the ground of which was bright vermilion, or gules, with a figure thereon of St. Paul in gold—the feet, hands, and head of the Saint being argent.

      At the West End of St. Paul’s was a piece of open ground upon which the citizens made muster of arms for the defence of the City under the inspection of the Lord of Baynard’s Castle. At the East End there was another piece of open ground where the citizens assembled for their folkmote and for making parade of arms for keeping the King’s peace. Here was Paul’s Cross, and here was the clochier or Campanile, the great bell of which summoned the citizens either to the folkmote or to the muster of arms. The following is the order of the ceremonies:—

      TEMPLE CHURCH, LONDON

       From an engraving by Measom.

      “And as soon as the said Robert shall see the Mayor, and the Sheriffs, and the Aldermen, coming on foot out of the said church armed, with such banner, the said Robert (or his heirs who owe this service unto the said city) shall then dismount from his horse, and shall salute the Mayor as his companion and his peer, and shall say unto him: ‘Sir Mayor, I am come to do my service that I owe unto the city’; and the Mayor, and the Sheriffs, and the Aldermen shall say: ‘We deliver unto you here, as to our Banneret in fee of this city, this banner of the city, to bear, carry, and govern, to the honour and to the profit of our city, to the best of your power.’ And the said Robert, or his heirs, shall receive the banner in his hand, and shall go on foot as far as the outside of the gate, with the banner in his hand; and the Mayor of the said city, and the Sheriffs, shall follow him to the gate, and shall bring a horse unto the said Robert, of the price of twenty pounds; and the horse shall be saddled with a saddle with the arms of the said Robert thereon, and covered with cendal with the same arms thereon. And they shall take twenty pounds sterling, and shall deliver them unto the chamberlain of the said Robert, for his expenses of that day. And the said Robert shall mount the horse which the said Mayor has presented unto him, with the banner wholly in his hand.

      And as soon as he shall be mounted he shall tell the Mayor to cause a Marshal to be chosen forthwith, of the host of the city of London. As soon as the Marshal is chosen, the said Robert shall cause the Mayor and his burgesses of the city to be commanded to have the communal bell of the said city rung; and all the community shall go to follow the banner of Saint Paul and the banner of the said Robert; the which banner of Saint Paul the self-same Robert shall carry in his own hand as far as Alegate. And when they are come to Alegate, the said Robert and the Mayor shall deliver the said banner of Saint Paul, to be borne onward from Alegate, unto such person as the said Robert and the Mayor shall agree upon, if so be that they have to make their exit out of the city. And then ought the Mayor to dismount. and the said Robert, and of each Ward two of the wisest men behind them, to provide how the city may best be guarded. And counsel to this effect shall be taken in the Priory of the Trinity, by the side of Alegate.

      And before every city or castle that the said host of London besieges, if it remains one whole year about the siege, the said Robert ought to have for each siege, from the commonalty of London, one hundred shillings for his trouble, and no more.

      And further, the said Robert and his heirs possess a great honour, which he holds as a great franchise in the said city, [and] which the Mayor of the city and the citizens of the same place are bound to do unto him as of right; that is to say, that when the Mayor wishes to hold his Great Council, he ought to invite the said Robert, or his heirs, to be present at his council and at the council of the city; and the said Robert ought to be sworn of the council of the city against all persons, save the King of England or his heirs. And when the said Robert comes to the Hustings in the Guildhall of the city, then ought the Mayor, or the person holding his place, to rise before him, and to place him near unto him; and so long as he is in the said Guildhall, all the judgments ought to be given by his mouth, according to the record of the Recorders of the Guildhall; and as to all the waifs that come so long as he is there, he ought to give them unto the bailiffs of the city, or unto such person as he shall please, by counsel of the Mayor of the said city.” (Riley, Liber Custumarum.)

      Yonder is the mouth of the Fleet: as this stream is now, so was the Walbrook of old. On its western bank stands the Palace of Bridewell over against the House of the Blackfriars with its splendid group of buildings and its tall flèche. And now is London left behind us; there is no more trade along the banks of the river save a little at Westminster. These stairs upon the bank, and these carved and painted barges belong to the Palaces of the Bishops,