Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years: 600 - 1600: King Aethelbert - Queen ElizabethReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years: 600 - 1600: King Aethelbert - Queen Elizabeth
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
London extended about a mile along the river and about half a
mile inland. Most of its houses were two stories, the ground
floor having booths and workshops, and the upper floor living
space. Most of the houses were wooden structures. The richer
merchants' and knights' houses were built of stone. Walls between
houses had to be stone and thatched roofs were banned because
there had been many fires. So roofs were tiled with red-brick
tiles. There were over a hundred churches in the city, which
celebrated feast days, gave alms and hospitality to strangers,
confirmed betrothals, contracted marriages, celebrated weddings,
conducted funerals, and buried the dead. Fish and no meat was
eaten on Fridays and during lent. There was dark rye bread and
expensive white wheat bread. Vegetables included onions, leeks,
and cabbage. Fruits included apples, pears, plums, cherries, and
strawberries. Water was obtained from streams running through
the town to the river and from springs. There were craft guilds
of bakers, butchers, clothworkers, and saddlers, as well as of
weavers. Vendors, craftsmen, and laborers had their customary
places, which they took up every morning. Some vendors walked
the streets announcing their wares for sale.
In London, bells heralded the start and finish of all organized
business. At sunset, the gates of the town were closed for the
night. Only the rich could afford wax candles; others had
home-made tallow or fat lights which smelled and gave off smoke.
Most people washed their bodies. Few babies survived childhood.
If a man reached 30, he could expect to live until age 50. The
sellers of merchandise and hirers of labor were distributed
every morning into their several localities according to their
trade. Outside one of the gates, a horse market was held every
week. They wore horseshoes made of iron or of a crude steel. In
other fields, countryfolk sold pigs, cows, oxen and sheep. London
Bridge was built of stone for the first time. It was supported by
a series of stone arches standing on small man-made islands. It
had such a width that a row of wood houses and a chapel was
built on top of it. In the spring it was impassable by ships
because the flow of water under it varied in height on either
side of the bridge by several feet at half tide.
Men began weaving cloth, which formerly had been done by women.
Some of the cloth was exported.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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