Stow speaks of an ancient road or street running from Aldgate to Ludgate which was cut off by the enclosure of St. Paul’s Churchyard. A glance at the map will show that when West Chepe was an open market, a broad space, the way from east to west, may very well have struck across St. Paul’s Churchyard to Ludgate Hill, leaving the Cathedral, then much smaller than the Norman building, plenty of room on the south side. No traces of the Danish Conquest exist, but there are traces of Danish residence, first, in the names of the churches of St. Magnus and St. Olave, of the latter there were many; in the name of St. Clement Danes, which perhaps preserves the memory of a Danish quarter, but the subject is obscure; in the Court called the Hustings, held every Monday, the name of which is certainly derived from the Danes. The similarity, however, of Danish and Saxon institutions made the adoption of the latter easy. The absorption of the Danes by the Saxons was in a few years so complete that no memory was left to their descendants of their Scandinavian origin. In London the families of Danish descent were like those of Flemish or Norman descent: they saw no reason to remember their origin, and were English as well as London citizens.
[BOOK IV]
NORMAN LONDON
[CHAPTER I]
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR
After Hastings William advanced upon the City, and finding his entrance barred, burned Southwark.
The historians commonly attribute this act, which they consider as the burning of a large and important suburb, to a threat of what the Norman would do to London herself, unless the City surrendered. This is the general interpretation of an act which I believe to have been simply the usual practice of William’s soldiers, without orders. They fired the fishermen’s huts because they always set fire to everything. Such was the way of war.
DUKE WILLIAM COMES TO PEVENSEY
Historians, indeed, seem not to understand the position of London at this time, and the spirit of her citizens.