~Portsoken~ is one of the City wards near Aldgate and the Minories.
13. FITZSTEPHEN'S ACCOUNT OF THE CITY.
PART I.
~St. Bartholomew the Great~ in Smithfield is part of St. Bartholomew's
Hospital.
~St. Ethelburga~ is in Bishopsgate Street, not far from Liverpool Street
Railway Station.
~crypt~ is a chapel or vault underground.
~St. Swithin's Church~ is near Cannon Street Railway Station. 'London
Stone,' supposed to be a Roman milestone, is let into the wall of this
church. St. Swithin, to whom the church is dedicated, was a Saxon Bishop
of Winchester, under whose care the youth of Alfred was spent at
Winchester.
~Thomas Becket~, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his own
cathedral by four knights, who thought they were executing the wishes of
Henry II. (1170 A.D.).
~conventual~: attached to convents.
~Palatine~ usually means 'held by a nobleman who has had royal powers
given him.'
~Westminster~ is named after a minster first erected there of wood about
604 A.D.: it was thus distinguished from St. Paul's, which was the 'East
Minster.' The site was a marshy spot, then called Thorney, or Thorn
Island.
~Charing Cross~ is named from the memorial cross built there by Edward
I. in 1294 in honour of his queen, Eleanor, who was brought for burial
from Lincoln to Westminster, and each place (nine) where her body rested
was marked by a similar cross. ('Charing' is a corruption of the French
_chere reine_, dear queen.)
~Cheapside~: the important street running between St. Paul's and the
Mansion House is so called because its site was the side--the south
side--of the Chepe, or old London market.
~East Chepe~, or the East Market, has given its name to Eastcheap, a
street running from the City towards the Tower.
~mercer~: a merchant selling woollens and silks.
~folkmotes~: the meetings of the folk or tribe: they met in arms in the
Saxon times, and were presided over by the alderman.
14. FITZSTEPHEN'S ACCOUNT OF THE CITY.
PART II.
~Tyburn~: a brook which gave its name to the place Tyburn, where the
Marble Arch now stands.
~Westbourne~: this brook has given its name to Westbourne Park, in
Paddington.
~Holywell~ may be remembered by Holywell Street, in the Strand.
~Clerkenwell~ is named after the Parish Clerks' Well, round which they
used to perform their 'mysteries.'
~quarterstaff~: a long staff used as a weapon of defence, and held in
the middle and also one quarter way from the end.
~tabor~: a kind of small drum beaten with one drumstick.
~consuls~: the chief magistrates of Rome: two of them with equal power
came into office every year.
~senatorial~: appointed and controlled by the senate or governing
council of Rome.
~venison~ (pronounced _ven'-zon_): the flesh of deer.
~cleric~: a clergyman.
~abbot~: the head of an abbey or monastery.
~magnate~: a great man, a man of great wealth and rank. (Latin _magnus_,
great.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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