We have here a remarkable group of men--Longchamp himself, whose fall, in 1191, was so closely connected with the birth of the _commune_, but who is here seen, in the hour of his pride, speaking of “our brother,” “our seneschal,” “our chamberlain,” “our chaplain,” “our almoner,” and “our clerks”; Bishop Hugh, who was next year to take the lead in expelling him from the Tower, as yet his stronghold; Henry of Cornhill and Richard Fitz Reiner, who had ceased but a few months before to be sheriffs of London, and who were to play so prominent a part at the crisis of 1191; lastly, Henry Fitz Ailwin himself, who, as the ultimate result of that crisis, was destined to become the first Mayor of the _Commune_ of London. The grantee himself also was a well-known citizen of London. In conjunction with Henry Fitz Ailwin (as Mayor) and other City magnates, he witnessed a gift of property in the City to St. Mary’s, Clerkenwell;[518] and he seems to have been the Geoffrey Blund who had, by his wife Ida de Humfraville, a son Thomas, who founded a chantry in St. Paul’s for his uncle Richard de Humfraville, and his father Geoffrey. For the London topographer also this charter has an interest, as land in St. Lawrence Jewry, and St. Mary Aldermanbury, must have closely adjoined the site of the Guildhall itself. The sum named is a large one for the time. I now pass to the two documents of which mention has been made above. The first of these[519] is of interest for its bearing on the “ward” system. At Rouen the “excubia” was in charge of the mayor;[520] in London, according to this document, he had not supplanted the sheriffs, by whom it must have been controlled before his appearance. This I attribute to its close connexion with the pre-existing system of “wards,” each, I take it, a unit for purposes of defence and ward, under its own alderman, with the sheriffs at the head of the whole system. DE EXCUBIIS IN NATALI ET PASCHA ET PENTECOST.[521] Magna custodia debet invenire xii homines sed per libitum vicecomitis abbreviata est usque ad viii homines. Mediocris custodia debet viii vigiles, sed ita abbreviata usque sex. Minor custodia debet sex, sed ita abbreviata usque ad iiij^{or}. Debent autem escavingores[522] eligi qui singulis diebus a vigilia Nat[alis] domini usque ad diem epyphanie videant illos qui debent de nocte vigilare quod sint homines defensibiles et decenter ad hoc armati. Debent autem ad vesperam in die videri et ad horam completorii exire et per totam noctem pacifice vigilare et vicum salve custodire usque pulsetur ad matutinas per capellas, quod vocatur _daibelle_. Et si aliqua defalta in custodia contigerit, escavingores debent illos inbreviare et ad primum hustingum vicecomitibus tradere. Potest eciam vicecomes, si vult, cogere eos jurare de defalta quod nulli inde deferebunt nec aliquem celabunt. DE CARTIS CIVITATIS.