London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History -- 16th century -- Sources; London (England) -- Surveys
Making the vertue, that dared in the roote,
Called of clarkes the vertue vegitable,
For to transcend, most holsome and most soote,
Into the crop, this season so agreeable,
The bawmy liquor is so commendable,
That it rejoyceth with his fresh moysture,
Man, beast, and fowle, and every creature,” etc.
These great Mayings and May-games, made by the governors and masters
of this city, with the triumphant setting up of the great shaft (a
principal May-pole in Cornehill, before the parish church of St.
Andrew), therefore called Undershaft, by means of an insurrection of
youths against aliens on May-day, 1517, the 9th of Henry VIII., have
not been so freely used as afore, and therefore I leave them, and will
somewhat touch of watches, as also of shows in the night.[115]
FOOTNOTES:
[109] “As the Theater, the Curtine,” etc.--_1st edition._
[110] Matthew Paris.
[111] The Bear garden on the Bankside is not mentioned in the first
edition.
[112] Matthew Paris.
[113] In the edition of Brand’s _Popular Antiquities_, edited by Sir
Henry Ellis, vol. i. 272-278, will be found a very large and curious
collection of materials illustrative of this ancient custom.
[114] Stepney.
OF WATCHES IN THIS CITY, AND OTHER MATTERS COMMANDED, AND THE CAUSE WHY
William Conqueror commanded that in every town and village, a bell
should be nightly rung at eight o’clock, and that all people should then
put out their fire and candle, and take their rest; which order was
observed through this realm during his reign, and the reign of William
Rufus. But Henry I., restoring to his subjects the use of fire and
lights, as afore; it followeth, by reason of wars within the realm, that
many men also gave themselves to robbery and murders in the night; for
example whereof in this city Roger Hoveden writeth thus:--“In the year
1175, council was kept at Nottingham; in time of which council a brother
of the Earl Ferrers being in the night privily slain at London, and
thrown out of his inn into the dirty street, when the king understood
thereof, he swore that he would be avenged on the citizens. For it was
then (saith mine author) a common practice in the city, that a hundred
or more in a company, young and old, would make nightly invasions upon
houses of the wealthy, to the intent to rob them; and if they found any
man stirring in the city within the night that were not of their crew,
they would presently murder him, insomuch that when night was come no
man durst adventure to walk in the streets. When this had continued
long, it fortuned that as a crew of young and wealthy citizens,
assembling together in the night, assaulted a stone house of a certain
rich man, and breaking through the wall, the good man of that house,
having prepared himself with others in a corner, when he perceived one
of the thieves named Andrew Bucquint to lead the way, with a burning
brand in the one hand, and a pot of coals in the other, which he essayed
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account