posed to have been founded by Henry I., and inhabited, according to Stow, by King Stephen. It does not appear to have been called royal until the reign of Henry III., who occasionally lodged in it. It had been given to the college of St. Stephen, Westminster; but having again reverted to the crown in the time of Richard II., it was called the Queen's Wardrobe. It must have been a place of great strength; for when the rebels, under Wat Tyler, had made themselves master of the Tower, and forced from thence the Archbishop of Canterbury and every other victim to their barbarity, this place remained secure. Hither the Princess Joan, the royal mother, retired during the time the rebels were committing every excess in all parts of the town; and here the youthful monarch found her, after he had, by his wonderful calmness and prudence, put an end to this pestilential insurrection.

In this tower Richard, in 1386, lodged, when his royal guest, Leon III., King of Armenia, who had been expelled his kingdom by the Turks, took refuge in England. Richard treated him with the utmost munificence, loaded him with gifts, and settled on the unfortunate prince a thousand pounds a-year for life. After two months' stay, he returned into France, where he also met with a reception suitable to his rank; and dying at Paris, in 1393, was interred in the Celestins, where his tomb is still to be

seen.

Such was the insignificance to which this once famous place was at length reduced, that long before the great fire of London, its remains had been converted into warehouses and stables. The fire, however, swept away every vestige above ground, though since that period the remains of arches, foundations, &c., are to be seen in several cellars in that neighbourhood.

The original name of Queen Hithe was Edred's Hithe. This was one of the places for large boats and even ships to discharge their lading, as there was a drawbridge on one part of London Bridge occasionally pulled up to admit the passage of large vessels. This hithe or wharf had been in King Stephen's hands, who gave it to William de Ypres ; he transferred it to the Convent of the Holy Trinity, without Aldgate; however, in Henry III. it came again to the crown, and obtained its name of Queen's Hithe. That monarch compelled the ships of the Cinque Ports to bring their corn here, and to no other place. This, Pennant thinks, was part of her majesty's pin-money.

Cannon Street is a corruption of Canwick or Candlewick Street, as taking its name from being the residence of candle. makers. In this street, also, many weavers of woollen-cloth

were settled in business, having been brought from Flanders by Edward III., and their meetings were held in the churchyard of St. Lawrence Poultney. Those of Brabant met in St. Mary Somerset's churchyard in Thames Street. There were then in Cannon Street, says Stow, weavers of drapery, tapery, and napery."

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Lydgate, in his ballad of "London Lackpenny," has the following allusion to this street:

"Then went I forth by London Stone,

Throughout all Canwicke Street;

Drapers much cloth offered me anone,

Then comes me one, cried 'hot sheepes feete.'

One cried 'mackrel,' 'ryster grene,' another gan grete;
One bad me buy a hood to cover my head,

But for want of money I might not speed.”

The London Stone mentioned in these verses is still to be seen in the wall of St. Swithin's church. The stone is supposed to have been a Roman milliarium in the line of the great road of Watling Street. It has been, and still continues to be, preserved with great care. It is now cased with another stone, cut hollow; so that the ancient one may be open to the inspection of the curious without being exposed to injury.

In Parquill and Marfarius, in 1589, we read: "Set up this bill at London Stone. Let it be doone sollemnly, with drom and trumpet, and looke you advance my cullour, on the top of the steeple right over against it." Also, "If it please them these dark winter nights, to sticke uppe their papers uppon London Stone." Hence it is presumed it was customary to affix papers against this stone, as an official place for public reading. The most remarkable incident connected with it is that Jack Cade, on his triumphal march from his inn in Southwark through London, struck his hand upon the sword, exclaiming, "Now is Mortimer Lord of London," and then sat down upon it, as if taking possession. Shakspeare relates the event in the 2nd part of "Henry VI.," act 4, scene 6. Jack Cade enters and strikes his staff, not his sword, as the old chroniclers say, and exclaims, "Now is Mortimer lord of this city. And here, sitting upon London Stone, I charge and command that of the city's cost, the priory conduit run nothing but claret wine, this first year of our reign; and now henceforward it shall be treason for any that calls me other than Lord Mortimer." We have already seen that it was customary on great occasions, for the conduits to run with red wine, at the cost of the city and hence Jack's allusion.

CHAPTER XII.

Injustice of historians to Jack Cade; passport granted by him; progress of his insurrection-St. Alban, Wood Street-Company of Parish Clerks; their privileges-Silver Street, formerly the resort of silversmiths-Guildhall, money subscribed for building this edifice-The late improvements in it-Courts held here-Seat of the Municipal Government of LondonThe Lord Mayor, his duties, &c.-The Aldermen, Governors of the Wards-The Common Council-Common Hall-The Sheriffs-Office of Recorder-The Chamberlain-The Common Sergeant, and other officersLondon Companies-Gog and Magog-Cenotaphs in Guildhall-Royal visits to the City-Banquet to the Allied Sovereigns in 1814-Statue in Stock's Market-Some account of the Mansion House-St. Stephen's Walbrook-Lombard Street; Sir Thomas Gresham resided there-Pope born there-Roman Antiquities found there-Birchin Lane; mansion there of William de la Pole-The King's Merchant-Royal jewels pawned -Quaker Meeting-John Moore, compounder of the Worm-powderFortington Inn-Residences of Empson and Dudley-Their Trial and Execution-Roman Antiquities discovered-St. Michael's, Crooked Lane; panic during a Sermon there-The Boar's Head, reminiscences of this celebrated Tavern.

He

SHAKSPEARE, however, has done injustice to the character of Jack Cade, and historians have followed in the wake of the poet, exaggerating the ignorance and the faults, and suppressing the virtues of that popular leader. In an unhappy time, when the fields of England were strewed with dead, in the quarrels of contending factions, when the people had scarcely the shadow of a right, and were never thought of by the ruler of the land, except when they wanted fools to fight their battles, or when they wanted money, that could by any possibility be wrung or squeezed out of the population; this man, the despised Jack Cade, stood forward, to plead for the cause of the million. made himself the voice of the people; he understood their grievances and made a bold effort to redress them; and if that effort were a violent one, it was the fault of the age, and not of him. A list of the grievances complained of by Cade, is preserved in Stow's " Annals," and gives a high opinion of his shrewdness and moderation, and makes him appear anything but the ignorant man it has been the fashion to represent him. The city of London was long in his favour; and its merchants supplied him without murmur, with sufficient rations for his large army encamped on Blackheath. Stow has preserved the following form of a passport, granted to the citizens of London, to have free access to his presence:

"The safegaurd and sign-manual of the Captain of Kent sent to Thomas Cook, draper of London, by the Captain of the great assembly in Kent.

By this our writing ensealed, we grant and will permit truly, that Thomas Cook, of London, draper, shall come in good surety and in safegaurd to our presence without any hurt of his person, and so avoid from us again at his pleasure, with all other persons assigned to his denomination with him coming in likewise."

On Cade's entrance in the city, he made proclamations in the king's name, that no man on pain of death, should rob or take anything without paying for it. One of his men named Paris disobeyed these orders, and having been found plundering, was tried by a jury of his fellows, and sentenced to be beheaded. The sentence was carried into execution on Blackheath ; but Cade found that with all his energy he could not repress the violence of the people. He stemmed the torrent long and bravely; but it carried him away at last, and the insurrection became a lawless and bloody one, and all was lost. The Londoners drew back; the supplies they had formerly granted were withheld, and the cause fell to ruin, because each man wished to act for himself, and would not listen to the moderate counsels of him who had been the directing mind of the enterprise. The story of his hanging the clerk of Chatham, merely because he could read and write, is a calumny. Cade was not so ignorant or so brutal; and his own list of grievances and representations to the government, which are drawn up in a style of homely eloquence, show that though he could not write himself, (and no shame to him, when the first people of the land were in the same ignorance,) that he could appreciate those gifts, and employ them too.

On the other side of Cheapside, to which we must now return, are Wood Street, King Street, and the Guildhall of London, each claiming some notice. Wood Street and Whitecross Street, says a MS. note of Mr. J. T. Smith, found among his papers, were the last streets from which the signs were taken down, about the year 1773.

Before the rebuilding of London, after the fire in 1666, there was no King nor Queen Street; Queen Street, as we have already mentioned, was called Sopar Lane.

The church of St. Alban, Wood Street, is one of the most ancient foundations in London. Stow says, that the first church that stood here was at least as ancient as King Adlestan the Saxon, who began his reign about 924; and as tradition says, had his

house at the east end thereof, with a door into Adel Street, to which it gave the name; and which in all ancient evidences is written King Adell Street.

Wood Street is celebrated for the hall of the ancient Company of Parish Clerks. This company were incorporated in the 17th of Henry III., anno 1232. They formerly published the bills of mortality, a yearly bill at Christmas; and presented an account of all the christenings, diseases, casualties, &c., weekly and yearly, to the king. Their ancient hall was at the sign of the Angel in Bishopsgate Street, and here they had seven almshouses for widows. "Unto this fraternity men and women of the first quality, ecclesiastics and others, joined themselves." Among their chartered privileges are these: "to be exempt from all parish offices in the parish where they officiated; to have a printing press and a printer in their common hall; to administer an oath to their members on their admission; to be observant of, and obedient to all such wholesome rules, made, or to made, conducive to the common profit and benefit of the company or fellowship." Before this oath can be administered, a parish clerk newly chosen, must produce a licence under the seal of the Bishop of London; he may then be sworn on the following court day, and received as a brother. Sometimes a certificate under the hands of the minister and churchwarden of the parish, may be admitted, in case a licence has not been obtained. Formerly clerks attended great funerals, walking before the hearse and singing with their supplices hanging on their arms, till they arrived at the church. They had also public festivals, celebrated with music and singing. When they met, till 1560, Guildhall chapel, they had an even-song, and next a communion, whence they proceeded to dinner in Carpenters' Hall. In 1562, they dined in their own hall, after keeping communion in Guildhall chapel, and receiving seven persons into the brotherhood: after which they attended a goodly play of the children of Westminster, with waits, regals, and singing."

Silver Street, is so called on account of silversmiths residing here formerly; it also contained the church of St. Olave, the site of which, the church not having been rebuilt after the fire of London, remains now as a burial-place. In ancient records, this church is called St. Olave de Mucwell, on account of its proximity to Mucwell or Monkwell Street. One of the first objects of attention in this street was the meeting-house in Windsor Court. Dr. James Fordyce, author of the "Sermons to young Men and Women," preached here many years.

The present Guildhall for the transaction of the business of