The Fleet: Its Rivers, Prison, and MarriagesAshton, John
History
The Fleet: Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages
Ashton, John
Fleet Prison (London, England); Fleet, River (England)
[Footnote 5: I cannot find this quotation in "Boedoe Historia
Ecclesiastica," &c., in any edition I have seen, but in 1.33.
I do find Amfleet, and in John Smith's edition (Cambridge,
1722) as a note to Amj-leor he says "Vulgo Ambleteau or
Ambleteuse, about 2 miles north of Boulogne"]
[Footnote 6: The Records were kept in the Tower, and at the
Rolls Office, in a very neglected state, until they were
removed to the present Record Office in Fetter Lane.]
[Footnote 7: This is the only one left whose position is a
matter of certainty.]
[Footnote 8: Afterwards known as "Peerless Pool," an unmeaning
cognomen.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER II.
London, for its size, was indeed very well supplied with water,
although, of course, it was not laid on to every house, as now, but,
with the exception of those houses provided with wells, it had to be
fetched from fixed public places, which were fairly numerous. When the
waters of the Fleet, and Wallbrook, in the process of time, became
contaminated, Henry III., in the 21st year of his reign (1236), granted
to the Citizens of London the privilege of conveying the waters of the
Tye-bourne through leaden pipes to the City, "for the poore to drinke,
and the rich to dresse their meate." And it is only a few years since,
that close by what is now called "Sedley Place," Oxford Street, but
which used to be the old hunting lodge of bygone Lord Mayors, some of
these very pipes were unearthed, a fine cistern being uncovered at the
same time.
For public use there were the great Conduit in West Cheape: the Tonne
or Tun in Cornhill, fountains at Billingsgate, at Paul's Wharf, and
St. Giles', Cripplegate, and conduits at Aldermanbury, the Standard
in Fleet Street, Gracechurch Street, Holborn Cross (afterwards Lamb's
Conduit), at the Stocks Market (where the Mansion House now stands),
Bishopsgate, London Wall, Aldgate, Lothbury--and this without reckoning
the supply furnished from the Thames by the enterprising German, or
Dutchman, Pieter Moritz, who in 1582 started the famous waterworks
close to where Fishmongers' Hall now stands.
The Fleet river (I prefer that title to the other cognomen, "Ditch"),
flowing through London, naturally became somewhat befouled, and in
Henry the VII.'s time, _circa_ 1502, it was cleansed, so that, as
aforesaid, "boats with fish and fewel were rowed to Fleete bridge,
and to Oldburne bridge." We also know, as Stow records, that more
springs were introduced into the stream from Hampstead, without effect,
either as to deepening or purifying the river, which had an evil
reputation even in the time of Edward I., as we see in Ryley's "Placita
Parliamentaria" (ed. 1661), p. 340--
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