remitted." On hearing this, the citizens departed to their homes, sorrowful and unsatisfied. A NORMAN PICTURE OF LONDON (_circa_ 1173). William Fitz-Stephen was a native of London, and lived there much of his life. This description of his birthplace is prefixed to his "Life of Thomas Becket," perhaps because he did not wish Canterbury to eclipse London in his narrative. This account of the capital city is clearly a fanciful picture, containing much exaggeration; but apart from its quaintness, it is interesting as showing how a medieval writer treated a subject which would now be discussed precisely and minutely, with accurate details and statistics. =Source.=—William Fitz-Stephen's _Descriptio Nobilissimæ Civitatis Londonæ_. _Of the Site Thereof._ Among the noble cities of the world that Fame celebrates the City of London, of the Kingdom of the English, is the one seat that pours out its fame more widely, sends to farther lands its wealth and trade, lifts its head higher than the rest. It is happy in the healthiness of its air, in the Christian religion, in the strength of its defences, the nature of its site, the honour of its citizens, the modesty of its matrons; pleasant in sports; fruitful of noble men. Let us look into these things separately.... _Of Religion._ There is in the church there the Episcopal Seat of St. Paul; once it was Metropolitan, and it is thought will again become so if the citizens return into the island, unless perhaps the archiepiscopal title of St. Thomas the Martyr, and his bodily presence, preserve to Canterbury, where it is now, a perpetual dignity. But as Saint Thomas has made both cities illustrious, London by his rising, Canterbury by his setting, in regard of that saint, with admitted justice, each can claim advantage of the other. There are also, as regards the cultivation of the Christian faith, in London and the suburbs, thirteen larger conventual churches, besides lesser parish churches one hundred and twenty-six. _Of the Strength of the City._ It has on the east the Palatine Castle, very great and strong, of which the ground plan and the walls rise from a very deep foundation, fixed with a mortar tempered by the blood of animals. On the west are two towers very strongly fortified, with the high and great wall of the city having seven double gates, and towered to the north at intervals. London was walled and towered in like manner on the south, but the great fish-bearing Thames river which there glides, with ebb and flow from the sea, by course of time has washed against, loosened, and thrown down those walls. Also upwards to the west the royal palace is conspicuous above the same river, an incomparable building with ramparts and bulwarks, two miles from the city, joined to it by a populous suburb.