Mediæval London, Volume 1: Historical & SocialBesant, Walter
History
Mediæval London, Volume 1: Historical & Social
Besant, Walter
London (England) -- History -- To 1500; London (England) -- Social life and customs -- To 1500
Beyond the church are certain inns for the convenience of travellers;
among them the “Nuns” Inn. By this way come all the travellers and the
waggons out of Essex, the garden of England. In the broad courtyard
of the inns stand for safety the covered waggons laden and piled high,
to be driven to market in the morning. About a hundred yards beyond
the gate stands Aldgate Bar, corresponding to the later turnpike.
There are other bars which mark the bounds of the City liberties, but
the distance from each gate is not always the same. Temple Bar, for
instance, is a long way beyond Ludgate; Aldersgate Bar is near the
north end of Aldersgate Street; Bishopsgate Bar is near the Prior’s
Almshouse, Norton Folgate. Along the broad grassy track beyond Aldgate
Bar stands a small white chapel, that of St. Mary Matfelon, and there
are already a few houses, but not many. Beyond Aldgate and before
Bishopsgate the wall runs in a northwesterly direction; on the opposite
bank of the ditch there are certain small tenements. At this point
the ditch is called Houndsditch, because, it is said, “dead dogs are
thrown in here.” But dead dogs are thrown into other ditches as well.
People do not carry a dead dog to this part of the wall in order to
throw it into the ditch, so that this derivation does not ring true.
Houndsditch was probably so named from the kennels standing on the
north side—“dog-houses” they are called by the people. The breeding of
dogs for the hunt is a very important branch of trade; it can only be
carried on in the open country outside the wall of the City. A low wall
has been erected on the north side of the ditch to prevent the shooting
of rubbish into it, but, apparently, without effect. Beyond the wall
the broad stretch of fields belongs to the Priory of the Holy Trinity.
The next gate is Bishopsgate, the most stately of all the London gates.
The Bishop after whom it is named is Bishop Erkenwald (cons. 675, d.
693), perhaps because he rebuilt or repaired its predecessor. Not
exactly on this spot, but very near to this spot, on the east, stood
the Roman gate of which these are the successors. The foundations of
this original gate have been found in Camomile Street. There is a row
of Almshouses at Bishopsgate Bars for poor bedridden folk, who are
provided with a roof at least, while they beg their bread of passers-by.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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