Caput Regni
Mediaeval London. By Cordon Home. Illustrated. (Berm.
• .183.) MAJOE GORbON HOME continues the good work which he so happily initiated in his history of Roman London— namely, so to paint the history of a city, which is " in certain aspects unique among the world's great centres of human life," that it shUll live again before our eyes. In this volume he follows the development of the great city from the time when the flying eagles of Rome left it in darkness (though he indicates that a busy centre of general commerce like London could never have been entirely deserted) down to the accession of Henry VII, when, thanks to the New Learning and the era of World Discovery, mediaeval London ceased to exist, and Londoners could lift up their eyes to a- far -wider vista than ever they had dreamed of before. Then it was, when the power of the turbulent feudal lords had been curbed and armed attacks on London had ceased, that the town began to grow apace and spread outside its ancient precinct into what was then regarded as a slum area, beyond the city wall. The country roads were pestered with filthy cottages, which became nests of rogues and nurseries for spreading the plague.
In a short notice like the present it is not possible to do real justice to the comprehensive and colourful merits of Major Home's book. In broad outline there is perhaps little in it that is specially new, but its particular and very notable merit is the amount of telling and picturesque detail which it contains, gathered principally from industrious and careful search in the Letter Books of the Corporation. These are all the more priceless, for, as the author points out, if one omits the Tower, Westminster Abbey and parts of some dozen churches, the mediaeval period has left no more monuments than the first age of historic London.
Stone inscriptions are actually fewer, and in the Norman period the amount of definite history is surprisingly meagre. The Romans left behind a rich store of artefacts which shed
light on their life and culture; but the mediaevalists, com- paratively speaking, very little ; it is only towards the close of the epoch, for instance, that " one finds a few shoes and boots."
Two features are emphasized throughout the book : the continuity of London's life and its enormous strategic, financial and political importance. Of the first a striking
illustration is provided by some of-its early coinage. :Halfdene the Viking struck in London, about the year 872; coins which
bear an obvious resemblance to Roman mintage, whence it may reasonably be inferred that from Roman times onwards London had always contained moneyers who were practising their craft. So, too, Alfred struck at
London coins which were of Roman, not English, design (incidentally, these, display the King- with-..bobbed hair). The enormously important strategic value of London, whose waterway led into the heart of the West and whose admirable roads radiated all over England, was evidenced again by Alfred, who saw that the recovery of the city from the Danes was vital. He it was who repaired its crumbling walls, and in a yard to the east of Trinity Square traces of his rude patching can be seen to this day. When Cnut had to pay off his mercenaries, out of the 82,500 pounds of silver raised in; taxation for the purpose, London alone contributed 10,500 pounds. Caput est regni et leggin, says the Chronicle, and in every sense it was so, for over and over again, save in the case of the Conqueror, he whom London approved became King, and he with whom London was offended was in danger of losing his kingship, as Richard II found to his cost when Henry of Lancaster landed at Ravenspur.
Probably everyone who has had occasion to make any serious study of Late Stuart London in its social aspect has gone to Ned Ward's London Spy, which was published in monthly parts 1698-1709. That the book has never been circulated among our perhaps too squeamish modern world may be due to its particular coarseness and to the subjects with which it deals—trulls, taverns and rascals of various shades and degrees. The knaves and the harlots with whom the genial publican daily rubbed shoulders (Ward was host of the ' King's Head ' Tavern, next door to Gray's Inn), and wrote about with such relish, still remain, but their peculiar roughnesses have been duly softened off by Mr. A. L. Hayward, whose editorial work has resulted in a most entertaining book. Here is a vigorous,- living London, as Defoe knew it, in its loWer levels—a London of squalor and brutality, but still one which was back-to-back with pleasant country--in the charming village of Islington, for instance,- where the young fellows took their sweethearts " for a stroll amongst the fields, a fresh syllabub (of the renowned Islington cream) and a little duck-hunting among the ponds."
A Londoner's Own London is a pleasantly gossiping guide to many out - of - the - way and curious cornea.
Supposing we were to set a short London examination paper,- as thus : -What, where, and why so called was Exeter Hall ? Where in London is to be found an English mummified head-? Where is HOrace Street, and with what murderous conspiracy is it connected ? Can Mr. Arnold Bennett's Riceyman Steps be related to any London thoroughfare ? Does it (but here we give the answer away) surprise you that Messrs. Odhams' establish- ment in Long Acre is intimately associated with the names of Charles Dickens, J. L. Toole, and Ellen Terry ? To all these questions and many more Mr. Harper's book will supply satisfying and picturesque answers, and it will do more: it will take you by- the hand and gossip -with -knowledge and- delight all along the Strand ; it will show you that even Mile End Road has (apart from its noble and generous breadth) something fine to gaze at in the shape of Trinity Almshouses, the quaintest of the few remaining seventeenth-century relies of London ; and it will introduce you (if you have not met it) to Double X Place, where houses are obtainable at ten
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