The citizens had their hunting rights confirmed by Henry I. "as fully as their ancestors have had, in Chiltre, Middlesex, and Surrey." Middlesex was peculiarly attached to London, and, in its modern form at least, must represent the portion of the old East Saxon kingdom cut off by Alfred's treaty with Guthrum.[134] The East Saxon kingdom, Malmesbury says, comprised the modern Essex, Middlesex, and half Hertfordshire. The Saxon Chronicle under 912 says: "This year died Æthered, and King Edward [Alfred's son] took possession of London and Oxford and of all the lands which owed obedience thereto."[135] A charter professedly dated as early as 704 names Twickenham in the province of Middlesex, but nothing is known to history of a Middle Saxon kingdom or people. Bede says London was a city of the East Saxons, and the London bishopric is coextensive with the East Saxon kingdom, including Middlesex. If we had to find a theory for an earlier origin of Middlesex, it might be suggested that when in 571 the West Saxons and East Saxons formed their common frontiers, London with some dependent land was constituted a middle region accessible to both. This might account for the peculiar circumstances whereby London passed successively under the suzerainty of one state after another. Middlesex was in fact the "country of London," as it is called by Capgrave. Besides the suburban land, there remained much common and open land in the city itself through the Middle Ages.[136] Stocks Market, for instance, "the middle of the city," as Stow says, was made in 1282 on "an open space where, the way being very large and broad, had stood a pair of stocks." This looks like the "village green" of London. In the original grant in the _Liber Custumarum_ the vacant land is described as north of Woolchurch, where the king's beam stood and the wool market was held. At the east end, near the precinct of the Tower, some ground bore the name of Romeland, whatever that may mean:[137] at the west of the city was St. Paul's Churchyard, with the areas where the folkmote met, and where the city host assembled in arms. It was not till the centuries following the Conquest that the ground just within the walls seems to have been appropriated; at least large sections remained to be occupied by the monasteries of Holy Trinity, St. Helen's, Austin Friars, and Greyfriars. The orchards and gardens of citizens are frequently mentioned. A deed of 1316 refers to a grant of land called Andovrefield and a house called Stonehouse by the Walbrook.[138] London in Saxon times indeed was a walled county, and up to the sixteenth century retained much of its character as a "garden city."