III.
There are three objects so striking in this picture that attention is at once claimed by them to the exclusion of all else—the Abbey of Bermondsey, the Tower of London, and Greenwich Palace. In Bermondsey two Queens died—Katherine, consort of Henry V., and Elizabeth, consort of Edward IV. Only a year or two before this map was made had the grand old Abbey been surrendered to the King (for a full account see Mediæval London, vol. ii., p. 288).
The Tower, taken as a whole, is very much as we still know it; it is one of the oldest remaining relics of the past. Note the gruesome place of execution near by, and the guns and primitive cranes at work upon the wharf. Just beyond it eastward rise the fretted pinnacles of St. Katherine's by the Tower, on the spot now covered by St. Katherine's Docks.
Stepney Church stands far away on the horizon, cut off from the City by an ocean of green fields.
Returning to the south side, we see Says Court, Deptford, between Bermondsey and Greenwich. This was for long the home of John Evelyn, and was ruinously treated by Peter the Great, who tenanted it during his memorable stay in this country in 1698. (For Greenwich Palace or Placentia, see London in the Time of the Tudors.)
CIVITAS LONDINUM
Description.—This is the earliest map of London known to be in existence, for though Wyngaerde's survey preceded it in date, as we have seen, that is a panorama and not a map proper. The present map, which is known as that of Ralph Agas, itself has a good deal more of the panoramic nature than would be allowed in a modern one, and is on that account all the more interesting. The first to connect Agas's name with this map was Vertue (1648-1756), and he stated its date to be 1560; but, as will be seen in the description of the next plate, Vertue's claims to strict veracity have now been shaken, therefore his testimony must be accepted with caution.
Designer.—Ralph Agas, land surveyor and engraver, died in 1621, and he is described in the register as "an aged." Of course, it is possible that Agas lived to the age of eighty-five or over, in which case he might not have been too young to execute this work in 1560, and he himself says, in a document dated 1606, which has been preserved, that he had been in work as a surveyor for upwards of forty years. There are two branches into which the enquiry now resolves itself. First, did Agas really make the map? And, second, if he did, at what date did he make it? There is no conclusive evidence on either hand. There is a survey of Oxford, similar in character, signed by him, and though this is not dated, it is known to have been completed in 1578, and published ten years later. On the original copy of this, which is at the Bodleian, there are the following lines: