the way between those two bridges with gravel: and as Sir Richard Baker records, gave certain manors and a mill, called Wyggon Mill, to keep the said way and bridges in due repair.

The reign of Stephen was peculiarly calamitous to London, for, besides feeling the miseries of a turbulent and unsettled government, the city was nearly consumed by fire, taxed by her usurping prince, threatened with destruction by his haughty competitor, the empress Maud, and alike the prey of the contending parties, to which at last was added all the horrors of famine. Providence at length mitigated her distress, and terminated his inauspicious reign at Dover in the fiftieth year of his age.

Henry II. the son of the empress, having assumed the government in A.D. 1154, endeavoured by his mild and equitable conduct, to heal the wounds which the struggle for his succession had occasioned. London once again assumed a degree of opulence which she had not lately witnessed; her buildings increased, and she improved in arts and commerce so far, as to enable her citizens to rebuild their bridge of stone, that of wood having been often out of repair, and constantly incurring vast expence. To defray the charge, a tax was laid on wool, whence arose the vulgar proverb that "London bridge was built on woolpacks *"

Madox

* The manner of laying the foundation of this stone bridge has been variously represented. Stowe, in his Survey, gives it as his opinion, that on this occasion, the river, in this part, was left entirely dry, by turning the current of the Thames, in a channel cut from Rotherhithe to Battersea. But this conjecture is so vague, and liable to so many and extraordinary objections, both as to the expence of such a work, and the difficulties in point of the many properties it would break in upon, that we must dismiss it, and shew from the construction itself, that there was no necessity for such a channel.

By subsequent alterations, and especially the taking away the pier to widen the centre arch, as it now appears, it was found that the stone piers or pillars, are founded upon mighty frames of piles: whose exterior parts consist of huge piles, drove as close as art can effect: on the top of these are laid long planks or beans of timber, ten inches thick, strongly bolted. Upon this platform is laid the base of the stone pier, nine feet

Madox has stated the value of commodities at this time. The price of an ox was 4s. the same for a labouring horse; a sow 1s.; a sheep with fine wool 10d.; ditto with coarse wool 6d. It appears also that in the thirtieth of Henry II. thirtythree cows and two bulls were sold for 81. 7s. of the money of those times; five hundred sheep sold for 221. 10s.; sixtysix oxen for 187. 3s.; fifteen brood mares for 27. 12s. 6d.; and twenty-two hogs for 11. 2s. The interest of money was at the rate of 10 per cent. ; but the Jews exacted an interest still more exorbitant.-This may in some degree account for the rancour of the vulgar against that people whenever occasion offered.

Despising the precepts of his wise father, Richard I. was regardless of the public welfare, or of his own credit, he shamefully alienated the crown lands, and bargained for additional liberties to cities and towns. An improvement in London however took place during this reign. The houses had been hitherto built of wood and thatched with straw or reeds; the danger of such construction had been often experienced by the many conflagrations which the city had suffered; to remedy as much as possible such calamities in future, an order was made by the court of mayor and aldermen, in 1192, that "all houses thereafter to be erected in London, or within the liberties thereof, should be built of stone, with party-walls of the same, and covered either with slates or tiles." This order, from whatever motive, not

above the bed of the river, and three below the sterlings: and for the preservation of the whole bottom, there are drove on the outside of this wooden foundation, other piles called the sterlings. And it further appears, that the foundation stones on the wooden work, and all the outside stones as high as the sterlings, were laid in pitch instead of mortar, to prevent the water damaging the work: which could not be gone upon, but only at tide of ebb, till raised above high water mark. But we are not to look upon the present to be the identical bridge built or begun by Peter of Colechurch.

This bridge was so justly accounted a public good, that the king encouraged it greatly, and the archbishop of Canterbury gave ten thousand marks towards its construction. Entick.

* Formul. Anglic. p. 17.

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being sufficiently regarded, it was further provided appease contentions that might arise among neighbours, upon enclosure between land and land, that twelve aldermen of the city should be chosen in full husting, and these swore to attend the mayor in making the proposed regulations.” By these magistrates the dimensions of the walls were to be regulated, which were to be at least three feet in thickness, and sixteen feet in height.

The citizens at this period had arisen to a very high degree of importance, and preponderance in the scale of politics: for when John earl of Moreton, the king's brother, during his absence in the Holy Land, had assembled the nobility and bishops to deliberate on the tyrannical exactions of William Longchamp, one of the regents, he conjoined with them the citizens, by whose unanimous vote Longchamp was disgraced +. This determination was so grateful to prince John and the rest of the regency that they swore to maintain the city in its ancient privileges. Her riches also were so profuse, that the ready compliance in raising one thousand five hundred marks towards her sovereign's ransom, during his imprisonment, on his return from the crusades, obtained

*At the commencement of Richard's reign the chief magistrate of London was denominatd bailiff; Henry Fitz Alwyn first assumed the title of mayor in the year above mentioned.

+ One reason of disgust, which the Londoners took at lord chancellor Longchamp, was, the encroachments he had made on their limits, in his works at the Tower. For, in encompassing the premises of that fortress with a wall and a ditch, he broke in and deprived both the church of the Holy Trinity, the hospital of St. Catharine, and the city of London of their properties, in an arbitrary manner. Having enclosed the square tower and the castle with an outward wall of stone embattled, he caused a deep ditch to be dug round, from the south-east point by the north side, to the south-west corner of the said wall, in order to environ it with the river Thames. In which work, the mill belonging to the hospital of St. Catharine, and standing on the place now called Irongate, was removed, and part of a garden, which they had let to the king at six marks per ann. was laid waste. And a piece of ground next Smithfield, belonging to the priory of the Holy Trinity, without Aldgate, worth half a mark per ann. was taken from it. And the city was deprived of all the ground from the White Tower to the postern gate. Entick.

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for her a charter of confirmation; and when Richard was received with civic pomp, on his return from captivity, the magnificence displayed on the occasion was so great, as to induce a German nobleman in his suite, jocosely to observe, “That had the emperor been acquainted with the affluence of Richard's subjects, he would have demanded a more exorbitant sum for his release." To show Richard's sentiments of the loyalty of the city on this and other acts of beneficence, he granted that most important charter, which establishes her authority as conservatrix of the river Thames.

Indeed, the fidelity of the citizens to Richard, joined to their general rectitude, gained his utmost confidence, so that when it was resolved to fix a standard for weights and measures for the whole realm, the king committed the execution thereof to the sheriffs of London and Middlesex; whom he commanded to provide measures, gallons, iron rods, and weights for standards, to be sent to the several counties of England.

In 1193, corn was risen to 18s. 4d. per quarter.

John, though in general defective in his government, was very liberal in his benefits to the citizens; among others the sheriffwick of Middlesex was confirmed to them; but it is evident that want of money was the king's inducement for these kindnesses; in 1215, they were obliged to subscribe two thousand marks towards liquidating the national debt; but fearful that they should be offended by such an imposi tion, John granted them the privilege of chusing their chief magistrate, who had hitherto exercised his authority by royal appointment. The apprehensions under which John laboured, on account of his usurpation of the throne, which really belonged to his nephew prince Arthur, and the attachment which the city had ever expressed to the king's person and government, must have instilled something of gratitude into the monarch's mind; and may in some measure account for the profusion of chartered privileges, which at various times he lavishly dispensed. Happy would it have been for him had he abided by his integrity, and forborne their violation. But his political intrigues, his military efforts, his VOL. I. No. 3.

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thoughtless expenditure, and his rapacity, involved the nation and city in the greatest difficulties, from which he had neither the spirit nor wisdom to relieve them. His wants were gratified by the most unjustifiable and arbitrary methods; and when these could not be supplied he had recourse to coercion; so that the blood and treasure of the kingdom were wantonly squandered in his unprofitable measures. In addition to the city's distresses during this inauspicious reign, her new bridge was destroyed by fire, and three thousand persons fell victims in their efforts to save it from destruction.

The wanton tyranny of John now arrived to such a pitch, that he demanded of the principal barons of the realm security for that allegiance which his conduct had rendered of little value; among others who had felt the hand of violence and oppression was Robert Fitzwalter, castellan and standard bearer to the city; this nobleman, rather than suffer the insults which John had frequently bestowed on his brethren, retired to France; this conduct so irritated the king, who was disappointed in not having such an opponent in his power, that he vented his fury on the noble palace in which he had resided, called Baynard's Castle, and utterly demolished it.

The consequence of these pitiful oppressions and of national resistance was the confirmation of Magna Charta, which either granted, or secured very important liberties or privileges to every rank of men in the kingdom. By the thirteenth article of this Charter it is provided, "That the city of London, and all other cities, burghs, and towns, and ports of the kingdom, should enjoy all their free customs, both by land and water."

From what has been advanced, it appears that London had made a considerable progress both in her political and commercial consequence during John's reign. Her spirit, her power, and her wealth, asserted, acquired, or purchased important privileges, the benefit of which she even now enjoys. William of Malmsbury records her at this time as "a noble city, renowned for the opulence of her citizens, and crowded with the merchants who resort thither with their various commodities." The traffic for corn was wholly engrossed by the