England under the Angevin Kings, Volume INorgate, Kate
History
England under the Angevin Kings, Volume I
Norgate, Kate
Anjou, House of; England -- Civilization -- 1066-1485; Great Britain -- History -- Angevin period, 1154-1216
[128] Dugdale, _Hist. of S. Paul’s_, app. xxiv. (Ellis), p.
305. Stow (_London_, ed. Thoms, p. 26) says that this fortress
“stood, as it may seem, where now standeth the house called
Bridewell.” But this is impossible; for the later palace of
Bridewell stood on the right bank of the Fleet, separated from
S. Paul’s by the course of that river and the whole width of
the soke of Castle Baynard, so that the gift of the ditch of a
castle on its site would have been perfectly useless for the
enlargement of the precincts.
[129] Will. Malm. _Gesta Pontif._, l. ii. c. 73 (Hamilton, p.
146).
[130] Stow, _London_ (Thoms, p. 121). For the rights and duties
of the lord of Castle Baynard, see _ib._ p. 24.
[131] Stubbs, _Select Charters_, pp. 82, 83.
[132] Stubbs, _Select Charters_, p. 108.
This mass of growing life lay chiefly north-east of S. Paul’s, where
a crowd of lesser churches, conventual and parochial, rose out of a
network of close-packed streets and alleys thronged with busy craftsmen
and noisy, chaffering traders. Through the heart of it flowed the
“Wall-brook,” on whose bank there lingered, long after the stream
itself was buried and built over, a tradition of the barges laden with
merchandise which were towed up from the Thames to a landing-place
at the eastern end of the Cheap.[133] Beyond the Walbrook lay the
East-Cheap, almost busier and more crowded still; while to the
north, along the upper course of the Walbrook, was a thriving Jewish
quarter.[134] Population was spreading, too, beyond the walls. Many of
the wealthier citizens dwelt in pleasant suburban houses, surrounded
with bright gardens and shady trees.[135] Some two miles higher up the
river, the populous suburb of Westminster clustered round the famous
abbey built in honour of S. Peter by the last Old-English king, and
the palace of William Rufus, a splendid edifice with a breast-work
and bastion stretching down to the water’s edge.[136] North-west of
the city, just outside the wall, lay the plain of Smithfield, where
a great horse-fair was held every Friday.[137] Beyond was an expanse
of fruitful tillage-lands and rich pastures, watered by running
streams and made merry with the rush of countless watermills;[138]
and this tract was sheltered by a wide belt of woodland stretching
away across the northern part of Middlesex to the foot of the Chiltern
Hills. Here the stag and the fallow-deer, the boar and the wild bull,
had their coverts, beside a multitude of lesser game; all of which
the citizens were by a special privilege entitled to hunt at their
pleasure.[139] Such quasi-regal sport was doubtless only enjoyed by the
greater and wealthier among them; the mass of the young burghers were
content, in the summer evenings when their day’s work was done, with
a saunter among the shady gardens and fresh springs which enlivened
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