_Town Bell and Folkmote._--An institution which must have dated from the time of the English occupation was the great assembly of all freemen in Folkmote, the final court which survives to-day in form at the election of a sovereign, when the Commons, who should have free access, are asked for their assent. Stephen was elected at the ordinary Folkmote of London, and the charter of Henry I. recognises the assembly as an existing institution. The place of assembly within historical times was the market of St. Paul's (_Forum Sancto Paulo_), at the east of the cathedral against Cheap, marked by St. Paul's Cross. The Chronicle of the Mayors and Sheriffs tells how Henry III. in 1257 ordered the sheriffs to convene the Folkmote "at St. Paul's Cross, to make inquiry of the commons" as to certain customs, when the populace answered "with loud shouts of Nay, nay, nay." The position held by St. Paul's Cross in civic customs in later times is thus accounted for. It was no mere adjunct to the cathedral, but the rostrum of London, the Market Cross at the end of Cheap. Just by it rose the city belfry (_Berefridam_), which contained the great town bell. Such a Beffroi is an acknowledged mark of communal liberties, and we can understand the traditional feeling which was stirred when under Edward VI. it was destroyed. Even at this day it is the Lord Mayor who orders the Great Bell of St. Paul's to be rung on such an occasion as the death of the late Queen. Probably the "mote-bell" summoned the citizens in Saxon times, as we know it did in the thirteenth century. Dugdale says the first mention he found of the bell tower was _temp._ Henry I., when the schoolmaster of St. Paul's was granted a house "at the corner of the Turret (id est the Clochier); but I suppose it was a thing of much greater antiquity, for upon a writ issued 15 Edward I., it was certified that the citizens of ancient time held the Folkmote there and rang the bell to summon the people." The _Gesta Stephani_ records how the citizens assembled at the ringing of the city bells and expelled the Empress Matilda. The _Heimskringla_ tells of Olaf the Quiet, the contemporary of Edward the Confessor, that "in his days the cheaping steads of Norway hove up much.... King Olaf let set up the Great Gild at Nidoyce and many others in the cheaping towns, but formerly there were turn-about drinkings. Then was Town-boon[203] the great bell of the turn-about drinkings in Nidoyce. The Drinking Brothers let build there Margaret's stone church." One day Olaf was merry in the Great Gild, then spake his men, "It is joy to us, lord, that thou art so merry." He answered, "Your freedom is my glee." We need a town bell in London. We might set it up to Alfred's memory. CHAPTER IX THE GOVERNMENT OF EARLY LONDON The kynges chambre of custom men this calle.--LYDGATE.