This midsummer watch was thus accustomed yearly, time out of mind, until the year 1539, the 31st of Henry VIII., in which year, on the 8th of May, a great muster was made by the citizens at the Mile's End, all in bright harness, with coats of white silk; or cloth and chains of gold, in three great battels, to the number of fifteen thousand, which passed through London to Westminster, and so through the Sanctuary, and round about the Park of St. James, and returned home through Oldborne. King Henry, then considering the great charges of the citizens for the furniture of this unusual muster, forbad the Marching watch provided for at midsummer for that year; which being once laid down, was not raised again till the year 1548, the 2nd of Edward VI., Sir John Gresham then being Mayor, who caused the marching watch, both on the eve of St. John Baptist and of St. Peter the Apostle, to be revived and set forth in as comely order as it hath been accustomed, which watch was also beautified by the number of more than three hundred demilances and light horsemen, prepared by the citizens to be sent into Scotland for the rescue of the town of Haddington, and others kept by the Englishmen. DESTRUCTION OF FENCES ABOUT THE CITY (1514). It has already been noticed that the City was surrounded by ecclesiastical manors in the time of Domesday, and this was still the case at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It would appear from the following extract that the practice of enclosure, which at this time was being extensively adopted in many parts of England, was being attempted in the neighbourhood of London itself, greatly to the disgust of the Londoners, who naturally resented the proposed restrictions on their accustomed liberty. =Source.=—Hall's _Chronicle_.