London

by Walter Besant

We have seen London from age to age. It has changed indeed. Yet in one thing it has shown no change. London has always been a city looking forward, pressing forward, fighting for the future, using up the present ruthlessly for the sake of the future, trampling on the past. As it has been, so it is. The City may have reached its highest point; it may be about to decline; but as yet it shows no sign, it has sounded no note of decay, or of decline, or of growing age. The City, which began with the East Saxon settlement among the forsaken streets thirteen hundred years ago, is still in the full strength and lustihood of manhood—perhaps as yet it is only early manhood. For which, as in private duty bound, let us laud, praise, and magnify the Providence which has so guided the steps of the citizens, and so filled their hearts, from generation to generation, with the spirit of self-reliance, hope, and courage.

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INDEX

• Abergavenny House, [177]
• "Abram Man," the, [416]
• Agas, Ralph, map of, [274]
• Ale-houses, number of, in 1736, [476]
• Alfune, founder of Church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, [63]
• Alien priories suppressed, [240]
• Alleyn, [364]
• All Hallows the Great, Church of, Thames Street, [441]
• Almshouses in the City, [238]
• Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, [85]
• Alsatia, [120]
• Amusements in Saxon and Norman times, [90]
• Anderida destroyed, [29]
• "Angler," the, [416]
• Angliæ Metropolis, or, The Present State of London, 1690, quoted, [400]
• Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, [1], [8], [13];
  • London not mentioned in, [13]
• Antwerp at commencement of Elizabeth's reign, [293]
• Apothecaries, [474]
• Apprentices, London, [334]
• Assessment of London in 1397, [184]
• Augusta, fate of, after the Romans left, [8]
• Aulaf and Swegen, [85]
• Austin Friars Monastery, [112];
  • distinguished persons buried there, [264]

• Bagnigge Wells, [492]
• Baltic Coffee-house, [477]
• Bank Side, [356]
• Barber-surgeons, [474]
• Barnard's Castle, [288]
• Bartholomew's Fair, [457]
• Bassing Hall, [83]
• Bath, ruins of Roman temples at, [6]
• Baynard's Castle, history of, [163]
• Bean tansy, [476]
• Bede's Ecclesiastical History, [1]
• Beer-drinking, [419]
• Beer the national drink, [83], [481]
• Bermondsey, Abbey of, [134], [267]
• — Spa Gardens, [496]
• Bethlehem Hospital, [131]
• Black Friars Church destroyed, [267]
• Blackfriars Theatre, [308]
• Blackwell Hall, [83]
• Blakeney, William, story of, [249]
• Blue-coat School, [115], [303]
• Bonvici, Antonio, [170]
• Bow Church, Mile End Road, [135]
• Bowyers' Company, [454]
• Bradford-on-Avon, description of Church of St. Laurence at, [71]
• Bread a luxury in time of Charles II., [421]
• Brewer, Dr., and his estimate of mediæval London, [155]
• Breweries along the river, [50]
• Bridewell Palace, [83]
• Briset, Jordan, and Muriel, his wife, [65], [128]
• Buildings small and mean until long after the Norman conquest, [47]
• Bull-baiting, [356], [361], [408]
• "Bully," the, in the Georgian period, [489]
• Burghley House, [286]
• Butcher Row, [446]

• Calleva Atrebatum destroyed, [29]
• Card-makers' Company, [454]
• Card-playing temp. Elizabeth, [310]
• Carmelites, the, [119]
• Carpenter, John, founder of the City of London School, [193]
• Carthusians, House of the, [120]
• Castellan and standard-bearer to the City of London, [164]
• Cedd, Bishop, [53]
• Champneys, Sir John, [311]
• Chapter Coffee-house, [477]
• Charing Cross, [141]
• Charles, King, deplorable morals of Court of, [371]
• Charter House, [128], [266]
• — — School, [303]
• Chaucer, [149]
• Chepe, [334], [337]
• — East, butchers in, [217]
• — of mediæval London, [185]
• — the chief market of the City, [50]
• — West, mercers and haberdashers in, [217]
• Chester, battle of, in 607, [111]
• Chichele, Sir Robert, [194]
• Christ Church, built by Wren, [115]
• Christian symbols and emblems found on site of Roman towns, [5]
• Christ's Hospital, [115]
• Church of England in time of George II., [436]
• Churches, the thirteen large conventual, [54]
• — penalties for absence from, [442]
• Cistercian Order, [123]
• City companies, formation of, [208]
• — foreign trade of, [190]
• — holidays, [236]
• — of London School founded by John Carpenter, [193]
• — residences of the nobility, [174]
• — wall, [81], [111]
• — water supply of, [83]
• — wealth of, [184]
• — worthies, [194]
• "Clapperdozen," the, [416]
• Cloth Fair, [63]
• Clubs, [477]
• Cnut, [85]
• Coals, duty on, to rebuild public buildings after the Great Fire, [400]
• Cock-fighting on Shrove Tuesday, [224]
• Cockpit Theatre, [308]
• Coffee-houses, business carried on at, [477]
• — first started temp. Charles II., [411]
• Cold Harborough, house built by Sir John Poultney, [166], [289]
• Companies, City, formation of, [208]
• Congreve's "Way of the World," [410]
• Cordwainer Street, shoemakers in, [217]
• Cornhill, drapers in, [217]
• Court of Judicature created after the Great Fire, [399]
• Craftsmen of London, [215]
• Cranmer and Waltham Abbey, [139]
• Cromwell House, [265]
• — Lord, [325]
• Crosby Hall, [170], [289]
• — Sir John, [169]
• Crutched Friars' Church turned into a carpenter's shop and tennis court, [265]
• — — Priory of, [111]
• Cuneglass, King, [3]
• Curfew bell, the, [243]
• Curtain Theatre, Shoreditch, [307]

• Daily Life, Elizabethan, [303]
• Dances in time of Elizabeth, [310]
• Danes, the, [47]
• Debtors' prison in the Georgian era, [496]
• Debts, like property, destroyed by the Great Fire, [402]
• Defoe, Daniel, and his account of the Plague, [377]
• — trades enumerated by, [380]
• Derby House, [163], [289]
• Dick's Coffee-house, [411]
• Dominicans, first settlement of, in Chancery Lane, [118]
• "Dommerer," the, [416]
• Dover, St. Mary's Church at, [75]
• Dress of the time of George II., [458]
• Drinking and fires the pests of London, [52]
• — habits in the time of George II., [475]
• — in time of Charles II., [407]
• Dryden, John, on the Great Fire, [404]
• D'Urfey, Tom, songs of, [412]
• Durovernum destroyed, [29]

• East India Company, the, [297]
• Eastland Company, the, [297]
• Eastminster, [133]
• — pulled down, [263]
• Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, founds Holywell Nunnery, [132]
• Education of girls, thorough, temp. Elizabeth, [314]
• Edward II. and the City, [205]
• Edward IV. and Baynard's Castle, [164]
• Elbing, merchants of, [296]
• Eleanor, Queen, a benefactor of St. Katherine's by the Tower, [66]
• Elizabethan Daily Life, [303]
• — house, the, [286]
• — pageants, [304]
• Elsing's Spital, founded in 1329, [144]
• Elsing, William, [197], [238]
• England, Conquest of, completed, [10]
• Epping Forest, [233]
• Erber House, history of, [169]
• Ermyn Street, [23]
• Estfield, Sir William, [197]
• Ethelbald, King, grant of, to Bishop of Rochester, [47]
• Etheling, Edmund, [85]
• Ethelwerd, [1]

• Falcon Tavern, Bank Side, [362]
• Famines in London, [240]
• Fire, Great, of London, [394]
• — — John Dryden on, [404]
• — — destruction caused by, [397]
• Fires, great, of London, [394]
• Fitz-Stephen, William, [48], [51]
• Fleet weddings, [483], [498]
• Flemings, the, [44]
• Fletchers' Company, [454]
• Flogging in the army and navy, [484]
• Food in the time of George II., [475]
• — of the citizens, [236]
• Fortune Theatre, Whitecross Street, [308]
• Foxe's Book of Martyrs, written at Waltham Abbey, [139]
• Franciscans, the, [113]
• Franklin, Benjamin, on beer-drinking in a London printing-house, [420]
• Fraternities, the, [147]
• Fratres de Saccâ, [139]
• Froissart on the Londoners, [205]
• Fuller, Thomas, wrote his Church History at Waltham Abbey, [139]
• Funerals, [484]
• Furniture in mediæval times, [181]
• Fustarers' Company, [453]