Our Legal Heritage : 600-1776 King Aethelbert - King George IIIReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage : 600-1776 King Aethelbert - King George III
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
Many London houses were being made from stone and timber and even
brick and timber, instead of just timber and mud. However,
chimneys were still a luxury of the rich. They were made of stone,
tile, or plaster. There were windows of glass and a guild of
glaziers was chartered by the King. A typical merchant's house had
a cellar; a ground floor with a shop and storage space; a first
floor with a parlor to receive guests, a spacious hall for dining,
and perhaps a kitchen; and at the top, a large family bedroom and
a servant's room. Many single-roomed houses added a second-floor
room for sleeping, which was approached by a wooden or stone
staircase from the outside. Their goods were displayed on a booth
outside the door of the house or hung in the windows. They were
stored at night in the cellar. Over the booths swung huge signs,
which had to be nine feet above street level to allow a man on
horseback to ride underneath. There were no sidewalks. Street
repair work for wages was supervised by a stone master. The
streets sloped down from the middle so that the filth of the
streets would run down the sides of the road. There were many wood
chips in the streets due to cutting up of firewood before taking
it indoors. People often threw the rubbish from their houses onto
the street although they were supposed to cart it outside the city
walls and to clean the frontage of their houses once a week.
Dustmen scavenged through the rubbish on the streets. Pigs and
geese were not longer allowed to run at large in the streets, but
had to be fed at home. There were other city rules on building,
public order, the use of fountains, precautions against fire,
trading rights in various districts, closing time of taverns, and
when refuse could be thrown into the streets, e.g. nighttime.
Aldermen were constantly making rounds to test measures and
weights, wine cups, the height of tavern signs, and the mesh of
the fishing nets, which had to be at least two inches wide. They
saw that the taverns were shut when curfew was rung and arrested
anyone on the street after curfew who had a weapon, for no one
with a sword was allowed on the streets unless he was some great
lord or other substantial person of good reputation. Wards
provided citizens to guard the gates in their respective
neighborhood and keep its key.
The city was so dense that nuisance was a common action brought in
court, for instance, vegetable vendors near a church obstructing
passageway on the street or plumbers melting their solder with a
lower than usual shaft of the furnace so smoke was inhaled by
people nearby.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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