The magnificence of the banquet at which Whittington made a gift to the King, astonished both the King and his bride; probably there was not, in all England and France together, another man who could have provided such a banquet. Among the great nobles, with a vast territory and many thousands of vassals, there was not certainly, outside the City of London, any one who could command the rich and splendid things which were ready to the hand of a great merchant. Even the fires were fed with cedar and perfumed wood. When Katherine spoke of it, the Mayor proposed to feed the flames with something still more costly and valuable, and, in fact, he threw into the fire the King’s own bonds, to the amount of £60,000. Among the bonds were some, to the amount of 10,000 marks, due to the Mercers’ Company; one of 1500 marks, due to the Chamber of London; one of 2000 marks, belonging to the Grocers; and all Whittington’s private loans and advances. It is probable that in burning these bonds the Mayor acted by previous agreement of the City; but if not—if he took on himself the loans due to the Companies—he made a most splendid and princely gift. The sum of £60,000 advanced by one man would, even in these days, be considered enormous; in those days it can hardly be reckoned as less than a million and a quarter of our present money. Or again, we may take Whittington’s will. He gave a library, and a house for it, to the Grey Friars; he founded a College of Priests and an almshouse; he rebuilt his Parish Church; he rebuilt Newgate Prison, because most of the prisoners there died “by reason of the fœtid and corrupt atmosphere.” And we may illustrate the wealth of London by the rich benefactions made by the Mayors about the same time. Sevenoke, who founded the grammar school in his native place of that name; Chichele, Mayor, and his brother the Sheriff, who rebuilt, with their greater brother, the Archbishop, the Church of their native place at Higham Ferrers and endowed it with a school, an almshouse, and a College of Priests; the Sheriff also left a large sum of money to feast every year 2400 householders of the City on his “mind” day. There was Sir John Rainwell, who gave lands and houses to discharge the tax called the Fifteenth for three parishes—with what gratitude should we regard the memory of a man who would pay our rates for us! There was Wells, who brought water from Tyburn, and Estfield, who made a conduit of water from Highbury to Cripplegate. And we may remember the ridings, the pageants, the processions in which the City showed its wealth to Kings and Princes; the loans which it granted to the King; and the taxes which it paid without a murmur, until one King, at least, deemed its treasures inexhaustible. All these things show that there was a vast amount of money and lavish generosity in the mediæval City. CHAPTER VIII MANNERS AND CUSTOMS