Queenhithe was the usual landing-place for wine, wool, hides, corn, firewood, fish, and all kinds of commodities. It was probably to Queenhithe that the wine fleet which brought to London the produce of the vineyards of the banks of the Moselle was bound. In the _Liber Custumarum_ there is a full account of the yearly visit of this fleet, and the regulations as to its arrival at the New Wear, in the vicinity of Yanlade (the present Yantlet Creek), at the mouth of the Medway, which was the limit of the civic jurisdiction of the Thames. Here it was the duty of the fleet of adventurous hulks and keels 'to arrange themselves in due order and raise their ensign; the crews being at liberty, if so inclined, to sing their kiriele or song of praise and thanksgiving, 'according to the old law,' until London Bridge was reached. Arrived here, and the drawbridge duly raised, they were for a certain time to lie moored off the wharf.... Here they were to remain at their moorings two ebbs and a flood; during which period the merchants were to sell no part of their cargo, it being the duty of one of the Sheriffs and the King's Chamberlain to board each vessel in the meantime.... The two ebbs and a flood expired, and the officials having duly made their purchases or declined to do so, the wine-ship was allowed to lie alongside the wharf, the tuns of wine being disposed of under certain regulations, apparently meant as a precaution against picking and choosing, to such merchants as might present themselves as customers, those of London having the priority, and those of Winchester coming next.'[70] The boats were bound to leave London by the end of forty days. Mr. Riley refers to the fondness of the merchants in the Middle Ages for music on board ship, and quotes from M. Michel (_Recherches sur les Etoffes_, etc., tome ii. p. 63) the following:-- 'En mer sempaignent, et drescerent lor voilles; Li jugleor leanz les esbanoient.' 'They put to sea, and set their sails; The jongleurs on board amused them.' Another passage from the _Roman de Tristan_, tome ii. p. 64, 1375-1378, quoted by Riley, is also very much to the point:-- 'A sun batel en va amunt, Dreit a Lundres, desuz le punt; Sa marchandise iloc descovre, Ses dras de seie pleie e ovre.' 'On board his bark he goes straight to London, beneath the bridge; his merchandise he there shows, his cloths of silk smooths and opens out.' Mr Riley gives an interesting account of the localities adjoining the northern banks of the Thames in the fourteenth century:--