And he tells us so much in a few words. What, for instance, can be more complete and more suggestive to the imagination than his description of the London matrons in one word, pithy and full of meaning? They are “Sabines!”—“Sabinae sunt!”
“Quod si pudica mulier in partem juvans,
Domum atque dulces liberos:
Sabina qualis.”—
[CHAPTER VIII]
THE STREETS AND THE PEOPLE
The City at this time occupied the same area as the Roman Augusta. The conditions of marsh and moor on all sides remained very little changed from the prehistoric days when London had not yet come into existence save for beaten paths or roads leading to north-west and east, and a causeway leading south. Right through the middle of the town flowed the Walbrook, which rose in the moor and ran into the river by means of a culvert. In the Norman time the Walbrook was one of the chief supplies of water that the town possessed. London relied for her water on the Fleet river on the west, on the Walbrook in the midst, on wells scattered here and there about the City, and upon certain springs, of which we know little. At this day, for instance, there is a spring of water under the south-west corner of the Bank of England, which still flows, as it always has done, along the channel of the ancient Walbrook. But as yet there were no conduits of water brought into the town.
Within the town there were 126 parish churches, all of which belonged to Saxon London, a fact which is proved by the patron saints to whom they are dedicated. The Norman Conquest added nothing to the list of churches. Before the Conquest the only Religious House within the walls was that of St. Martin’s le Grand, which was a College of Canons (see p. [212]). A legend describes the foundation of a small nunnery at the south end of the ferry over the river. There was also the Cathedral establishment. As yet there were no mendicant friars preaching in the street and begging in the houses, nor did any monastery rear its stately church or receive the offerings of the faithful. The parish church had no foundations or endowments of chantry, obit or day of memory. The Cathedral establishment was small and modest compared with that of the thirteenth century. The Bishop lived in his palace close to St. Paul’s. The Cathedral would be called a stately church even now; it was low with thick pillars and round arched windows, which were already filled with painted glass. The parish churches were quite small, and for the most part of wood: the name of All Hallows Staining, or All Hallows Stone, shows that it was an exceptional thing for a church to be built of stone.
REPRESENTATION OF ORION
Tib. MS., B. v. (11th cent.).