In the year 1456, a Petition to Parliament from the four Ministers of Allhallows the Great, St. Peter Cornhill, St. Mary Colechurch, and St. Andrew Holborn, was productive of the foundation of a Grammar School in each of those parishes; and about nine years afterwards Winterbourn, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Kempe, Bishop of London, obtained the King's Letters Patent for the foundation of other seminaries of learning in St. Paul's Church-yard, the Collegiate Church of St. Martin's-le-Grand, St. Mary-le-Bow, St. Dunstan's in the East, and the Hospital of St. Anthony. The rents of houses in the City and Suburbs about this period seem to have run from six shillings and eightpence to three pounds and upwards per annum, as appears from a 'composition for offerings' entered into in 1457, between the Clergy of Loudon and the Laity.

In the year 1463, on the Petition of the male and female artificers of London,' &c. the Parliament prohibited, for a time to be limited by the King's pleasure, the importation or sale of woolen caps, woolen cloths, laces, corses, ribands, fringes of silk or thread, laces of thread, silk twined, silk embroidered, laces of gold, tires of silk or gold, saddles, stirrups, harness belonging to saddles, spurs, bosses of bridles, andirons, gridirons, locks, hammers, pincers, fire-tongs, dripping-pans, dice, tennis-balls, points, purses, gloves, girdles, harness for girdles of iron, latten, steel, tin or alkmine, articles made of tanned leather, tanned furs, buscans (probably buskins), shoes, galoches or corks, knives, daggers, wood-knives, bodkins, sheers for tailors, scissars, razors, sheaths, playing cards, pins, pattens, pack-needles, any painted ware, forcers, caskets, rings of copper or latten gilt. chafing-dishes, hanging candlesticks, chafing bells, scaring bells, rings for curtains, ladles, scummers, counterfeit basins, ewers, hats, brushes, cards for wool, and blanch-iron wire, commonly called white wire.' The tenants of the precinct of the Chapel of St. Martin's-le-Grand, in London, were exempted from the operation of this Act; as they were also from all Acts containing restraints upon trade made about

* Sec Strype's Stow, Vol. I.

this period. From this curious document, we not only learn the general nature of the manufactures of England in the fifteenth century, but likewise that various articles were then made here, the introduction of which into this country has been assigned to a date far subsequent.

In the seventeenth of Edward the Fourth, Sir Ralph Jocelyne, the Lord Mayor, obtained an Act of Common Council for repairing the City Wall betwixt Aldgate and Aldersgate. For the more furtherance of the worke,' also, as Stow records," he caused the Morefielde to bee searched for clay, and willed bricke to be made and brent there; and likewise caused chalke to be brought out of Kente, and to be brent into lime in the same Morefielde."† This is one of the earliest notices of the use of brick in London, that occurs; though soon afterwards the larger houses were began to be built principally with this material. Other improvements were made likewise about this time; and the increasing demand for fresh water occasioned new Conduits and Cisterns to be constructed between the years 1471 and 1478, at Aldermanbury, the Standard in Fleet Street, Fleet Bridge, Cripplegate, Holborn, and Gracechurch Street.

A very salutary Act of Parliament, for ensuring the healthfulness and convenience of the Capital, was passed in 1488, by which the slaughtering of cattle was prohibited within its precincts as an intolerable nuisance.

In the thirteenth of Henry the Seventh, "all the gardens, which had continued time out of mind without Moorgate; to wit, about and beyond the Lordship of Fensberry (Finsbury), were destroyed; and of them was made a plain field for archers to shoote

D

* And. Hist. of Com. Vol. I. p. 676. It seems probable that this exemption was claimed as a privilege annexed to the Abbey at Westminster, to which St. Martin's-le-Grand belonged, as it still does to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.

+ Stow's Lond. p. 9. Edit. 1598.

shoote in."* This was the origin of what is now called the Artillery Ground.

In the year 1502, the river Fleet was cleansed and made navigable for small craft from the Thames to Holborn Bridge; and the little stream, called Houndsditch, which had become a public nuisance from the filth and carrion cast into it, was about the same period arched and paved over. In the following year was laid the first stone of the beautiful Chapel of Henry the Seventh, at Westminster; the spot on which it stands having been previously

Stow's Lond. p. 351. Edit. 1598. In the account of historical events connected with London, given in the preceding Volume, a remarkable transaction, and one which places the importance of the Capital in a very striking point of view, as well as the high degree of credit that was attached to the signature of the Chief Magistrate, was accidentally omitted. It happened in the eleventh year of Henry the Seventh, in the second Mayoralty of Sir Henry Colet, the father of the beneficent founder of St. Paul's School. In that year, says Stow, (Surv. of Lond. p. 574. Edit. 1633), 66 was much trouble about the entercourse between England and Flanders." The particular event alluded to is thus narrated in a Manuscript preserved in the British Museum; vid. Cotton. Vitell. A. 16.

"In the month of Febr. xi. Hen. VII. was concluded an amyte and entre. course between this land and Flaunders; and for the assurance of the same, above and besyde both the seles of eyther prynces, was granted to dyverse townys of this lande to be bounde, among the whiche London was one: which sealing, when it sholde have been perfourmed, the Commons of the Citie wolde not be agreable theyr sele sholde passe: and albeit that my Lord Derby, my Lord Tresorer, the Chyef Justice of England, Maister Bray, and the Maister of the Rolls, by the King's commandment, came to Guildhall, to extorte the sayd Commons for the same; yet in no wyse they wolde not be agreable that the towne sele sholde pass, but besought the sayd lordes to grant unto thym respite of vi dayes, trustying in that season to shew in writyng soch consyderacyons unto the King's Grace and his Counsaill, that his Grace sholde be therewith well contented: which was to thym graunted, and thereupon dyvers billes were dyvysed. Albeit, that for the hasty spede of my Lord Chamberleyne, which at that tyme was redy to departe to Caleys, to kepe suche appoyntment as was before concluded, the Mayrs sele was taken only, as in the maner folowith:

"TO

viously occupied by a tavern, distinguished by the sign of the White Rose.

Early in the reign of Henry the Eighth, some further improvements were made in Moorfields, through the praise-worthy attention of Roger Acheley, Lord Mayor in 1511, who caused that waste to be better drained and levelled, and had bridges made to improve the outlets to the adjacent villages.

The Customs of the London Citizens about this period, as well as the picturesque, if that epithet may be admitted, character of one or two branches of the civic police of the Capital, have been curiously detailed by Stow, from whose more elaborate account the following particulars are derived.

"“TO ALL CHRYSTEN PEOPLE, these present Letters beholding or herying, HENRY COLET, knyght, nowe Mayor of the Citie of LONDON, in the relme of ENGLAND, helth in our Lorde everlastynge. Whereas bi twene the high and mighty prynce, my soveragne Lorde HENRY, by the grace of God, King of England and of France, and Lorde of Ireland, on that one partye, and the noble prynce Phelyp, Th'archduke of Austry, and Duke of Burgoyne on the other party; certayne treatyes of amyte and intercourse of merchandysing and other communicacyon of merchaunts concernyge the profyte of both prynces, theyr relmes and subjettes, the xxiii daye of the month of Februarye last past, at London, were finally concluded and determyned, Knowe ye me the say'd HENRY, at the requeste and commandment of my said soveragne Lorde, and at the contemplacyon of his Letters to me in that behalfe directed and delyvered, of good faythe, to have promysed and ME AND MYN HEIRS, to the sayd Prynce Phelyp, Th'archduke to his heyres and sucessours, under PLEGGE and BOND OF ALL MY GOODS PRESENT AND TO COME, to have bound and by thes presents promyse and bynde that I shall procure, instaunce, and, as moche as in me is, shall do, that the same my lord the Kyng, his heyres and successours, all the sayd entrecourse and amyte, and all and singular in the same conteyned and specyfyed, well, fully, and truly shall holde, observe, and fullfylle; and, by his subjettes and servants in that theym concerne, well and truly shall do, to be holdyn, observed, and fulfylled; and to the contrarient doers and brekers of the same, shall ministre, or doo to be ministred, justice. In witness whereof, the seale of armes of me the sayd HENRY to these presents I have put, wryten at London, the fyrst daye of the month of Maye, in the year of our Lord God, M CCCC XCVI, and the XI yere of the reygne of my said soveragne Lord Henry the VII.”

At the feast of Christmas, there was in the King's house, wheresoever he was lodged, a Lord of Misrule, or Master of Merry Disports,' and the like also, was there in the house of every Nobleman of honour or good worship, whether spiritual or temporal. Among these the Mayor and Sheriffs of London had their several Lords of Misrule, ever contending, without quarrel or offence, who should make the rarest pastimes to divert the beholders.' These Lords began their rule on Allhallows Eve, and continued the same till Candlemas Day; in which space, there were fine and subtle disguisings, masques and mummeries, with playing at cards for counters, nails, and points, in every house, more for pastime than for gain. Against this feast, the Parish Churches and every man's house, were decked with holm, ivy, bay, and whatsoever the season of the year afforded that was green; and the conduits and standards in the streets were likewise 'garnished.'

In the week before Easter, great shews were made for the ⚫ fetching in of a twisted tree, or Wyth, as they termed it, out of the woods into the King's house, and the like into every man's house of honour or worship.'

On May-day in the morning, every man, except impediment,' would walke into the sweet meadows and green woods, there to rejoice their spirits with the beauty and savour of sweet flowers, and with the harmony of birds, praysing God in their kind.' In this month, also, the Citizens of London, of all estates, lightly in every parish, or sometimes two or three parishes joyning together, had their several Mayings, and did fetch in May-poles with divers warlike shews, with good archers, morrice-dancers, and other devices, for pastime all the day long; and towards the evening,

* In an Act of Common Council, made about the year 1554, for the regulation of the City Feasts, &c. on account of the great dearth and excessive dearness of provisions, it was enacted, that from thenceforth "there shall no Wyth be fet home neither at the Mayor nor Sheriff's houses; neither shall they keep any Lord of Misrule in any of their said houses." The keeping of the Whitsun Holidays, and the dinners at Bartholomew tide were also ordered by the same Act to be laid down.'