The office of Portreeve probably goes back nearly to the first settlement of the English. Bishop Stubbs, speaking generally of town organisation, says, "The presiding magistrate was the gerefa." The king's wic-gerefa in Lundonwic is mentioned in the Saxon Laws of _c._ 685 (Thorpe).[206] The charter of the Conqueror ran, "I, King William, greet William the Bishop and Gosfregth the Portreeve," and two of the Confessor's charters were addressed to bishop and portreeve. In the _Judicia Civitatis Londoniæ_ of Athelstane a reference is found to "the bishops and gereves that to London borough belong." Norton says that these Laws show that in Athelstane's time the bishops and reeves were the chief magistrates of London, and they likewise presided at county courts with a jurisdiction precisely similar. This conjunction of the spiritual and temporal powers probably explains why it is that St. Paul's has always been linked in such a special way to the Guildhall. At St. Paul's was kept the city banner, grants of money from city funds are made for its repair, and the mayor is a trustee of the church. This dual control seems to bear the mark of Alfred's thought. The Portreeve certainly represented the king, and was responsible for the farm of the city. In the _Blickling Homilies_ Agrippa is called Nero's Burhgerefa. It would seem as if the bishop represented the collective citizens. Mr. Round has recently shown that the Portreeve disappeared in the Sheriff or Vicecomes of London and Middlesex. The Waltham Chronicle says that the Conqueror placed Geoffrey de Mandeville in the shoes of Esegar the Staller, and Mr. Round conjectures that this Geoffrey is the actual "Gosfregth Portirefan" to whom the Conqueror's charter was addressed. He also points out how the Sheriff had the custody of the Tower; and in this we may find a further suggestion as to the probability of a connection between the Portsoken of the Cnihten Gild, the Portreeve, and the pre-Conquest citadel. Mr. Round seems not to have known that his suppositions were all taken for granted by Stow, who calls the Portreeve of the Conqueror's charter Godfrey, and then writes, "In the reign of the said Conqueror, Godfrey de Magnaville was Portgrave (or Sheriff); ... these Portgraves (after the Conquest) are also called Vicecounties or Sheriffs." Mr. Round shows that the Sheriff, and by inference the Portreeve, represented London and Middlesex taken together. "The city of London was never severed from the rest of the shire. As far back as we can trace them they are one and indivisible."[207] The author just quoted accounts for this distinction between London and other county towns by the relative importance of London; but I cannot think, as before suggested, that Middlesex was not specially dependant on London, and probably Ethered's authority as commandant of the great burh extended over Middlesex. The acquisition of the farm of the county by the city may be an echo of this.