RILEY'S GUILDNAT.r, LLBER ALBITS.*
Ix 1857, the Master of the Rolls, who has so honourably distin- guished himself for his attention to the national records, sub-. mitted (as we stated in our review of the opening volumes of this series,) to the Treasury a matured proposal for the "publication of materials for the history of this country, from the invasion of the Romans to the reign of Henry the Eighth." All the works selected. were to be printed in one uniform size and mode, and edited on a uniform plan. A leading feature of the editing was to limit, what the learned so often run riot on,—the commentary, " no other note or comment was to be allowed, except what might be necessary to establish the correctness of the text." The edi- tor, however, was permitted to " give an account of the MSS. em- ployed by him, of their age and their peculiarities ; [to] add to the work a brief account of the life and times of the anther, and any remarks necessary to explain the chronology." After " a careful consideration of the subject" the Lords of the Treasury approved of the plan, but suggested that a biography of the au- thor, where materials existed, and an estimate of his historical credibility and value "should be prefixed to each work." They further recommended an economy m money, which they did not exemplify in words, requiring " proper attention [to] be paid to economy, in making the detailed arrangements, without unneces- sary expense." Although but two years have elapsed since the matter was de- termined on, several works were published during 1858 ; but none of them surpassed, if they equalled the very singular picture of London city from about the middle of the reign of the first Edward to the same period of the second Richard, embracing the latter quarter of the thirteenth century and the larger portion of the fourteenth, Edward beginning his reign 1272, and Richard being deposed 1399. This Liber Albus is preserved in the Record Room at Guildhall, which modern inquiry has discovered to be immensely rich in valuable muniments. According to some verses prefixed. to the volume, it would seem long since to have lost the characteristic which originally gave to it the title of Albus.
" Qui Liber Albua ' erat nuns est contrarius albo, Factus et est unctis pollicibusque niger."
The book itself is a compilation made about 1419, under the auspices of John Carpenter, the then, and for some years after- wards, Town Clerk. From a Latin poem, which contains more philosophical reflections than modern citizens are wont to make on the uncertainty of memory, and the brevity of life, the death of the experienced, and the want of knowledge in the young who succeed them, &o., the reader learns that it had for some time been in contemplation to commit to writing noteworthy matters, either not written, or written with some exuberant confusion, "inordinate diffuseque positis." He will also learn the drift and scope of the "Liber Albus" according to its compilers. " Continens in se tam laudabiles obeervautias non scriptas, in dicta civi- tate fieri solitas et approbatas, ne posterius deleat ipsas oblivio, quam nota- bilia memoranda, modo quo prndicitur sparsim at inordinate scripts; ut securius, per ea cognita, sciant tam supenores quam subditi dicta) civitatis quid in casibus rans et insolitis de netero sit agendum, etc."
The "Liber Albus" consists of four books, the fourth of which however, wan not the work of Carpenter. The documents are written in medieval Latin or Norman-Law-French; and be- • Munionenta Gildhallas .r...edoniensia; Liber Albus, Liber Custumarum, et Liber Horn. Edited by Henry Thomas Riley, M.A.. Clare Hall, Cambridge ; of the Inner Temple. Barrister-at-law. Volume I. containing Liber Albus, compiled A.D. 1419. Published by the Authority of the Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, under the direction of the' Master of the Bells. Published by Longman and Co. yond lists, their subjects are almost resolvable into laws and regu- lations, connectei with the institutions and offices of the city, its buildings and " hygiene' " as we now say, the citizens, the tem- porary dwellers within the walls, and even occasional visitors who pass the gates. The term laws and regulations must, how- ever, receive a wide construction, not merely in the modern meaning of the words, but with the recollection that form a va- riety of causes the interference in those early times of the law andpolice was incessant and minute. Everything was matter of regulation and what would now be called monopoly ; certain persons must only do so and so, or wear so and so, or sell so and so, and at such a price, &c. The editor, Mr. Riley, speaks of this minute restriction as an encroachment upon the liberty of the subject; and so it is in modern estimation. But society in those ages was a species of caste ; the habits, the ideas, the very souls of people were accustomed to these interferences ; and though burdensome they were not arbitrary ; the city magnates or their myrmidons did not generally interfere at their own pleasure, but under colour of law. So far as the regulations were cor- porate, the citizens in theory consented to the enactment, and perhaps submitted themselves that they might enforce them against " strangers."
The student who wishes to use this curious volume, for lite- rary, historical, or antiquarian purposes, as well as the " Liber Custumarum et Liber Horn "—(a man's name) which are to follow it, must have recourse to the original texts. They often look uncouth enough; but a little patient care will soon master the language ; though they will never perhaps, be perused so glibly as a leader addressed. to Sir James Stephen's Demos. For the general reader the editor's introduction will be the point of attraction, and if the rules of the records permit such a thing, we should recommend its appearance in a separate form. From the materials scattered, and often as it were buried in the original documents, as well as from other records of the first Plantagenets, Mr. Riley deduces the forms of life which they contain, and presents them to the reader in con- nection with the architectural, sanitary, business, and taxing proceedings of the corporation. To manners, or amusements, or social affairs of a more inner kind than marketing tippling, &c., the information does not rise.
The impression left upon us is that life in the middle age, though probably rude and primitive enough, was not so barbarous or de- void of conveniences as some late writers are fond of representing. People then had not the multiform luxuries and enjoyments which steam and electricity, and the application of the powers of nature and of mechanical science to the useful arts, give to us
now, though by the by only a comparative few even of the ci- vilized world yet enjoy them. London would not seem to have
been that mere collection of thatched and wooden hovels which some writers speak of. It was the frame of the house, rather than its walls, which seems to have been so slight and combus- tible. In hygienic matters the metropolis in the twelfth century appears to have been better than " artistieal" Italy when Burnet travelled there six hundred years later. The following par-
ticulars are not altogether deduced from the "Liber Albus' ; but from the regulations of Fitz-Alwyne Lord Mayor in 1189, and known as Fitz-Alwyene's Assize.
"The party-walls of the houses were of freestone, three feet thick and sixteen feet high, from which the roof (whether covered with tiles or thatch) ran up to a point, with the gable towards the street. Along this wall rain- gutters were laid, to carry off the water, either on to the ground of the party to whom the house belonged or into the high road. Kennels for its recep- tion are not mentioned in the Assize, but they were very general about a hundred years later. If arches were left in the walls, for almeria' or aumbries ' (cupboards or larders), they were to be one foot in depth, and no more. The framework rising from the top of the party-wall was of course of wood, and the gable facing the street, as well as the one opposite to it, seems to have been in general made of the same material, plastered over probably by the daubers,' and perhaps whitewashed. The upper room was generally known as the 'solar,' and is also called in Fitz-Alwyne's Asaize the dotnus,' or house' : its usual height in comparison with the room be- low does not appear from the present work ; but from a deed bearing date 1217 or 1218, it appears that the corbels or joists for supporting the upper floor were inserted at a height of eight feet from the ground. Apart from the main room or rooms on the ground floor in the houses of the citizens was the 'necessary chamber '• ' in reference to which it was enacted by the Assize, that if the pit was walled with stone, the mouth of it was to be two and a half feet from the neighbour's land ; but in case it was not faced with stone, the distance was to be three and a half feet. The same regulation too held good, at a somewhat later period, in reference to sinks for receiving refuse er dirty water. "At the time of the promulgation of Fitz-Alwyne's Assize, it is evident that the houses in London consisted of but one story over the ground floor and no more. At what period more storeys were first added does not appear ; but in the early part of the 14th century we find houses in London of two or three storeys mentioned ; each of which storeys, as also the cellar beneath, occasionally formed the freehold of different individuals : a state of things which caused such multiplied disputes between the owners, that the King (Edward II) was at length obliged to interfere by mandate, directing each owner to keep his own part in due repair. The upper storeys in houses of this description were entered probably by stairs on the outside."
We have small faith in estimates as to the value of money at widely varying periods, from the multiplicity of data requisite to form a true judgment, and the extreme difficulty of procuring such data. If the received proportion of fifteen times greater, be taken as the proportion value in early Plantagenet times to money now, the following prices for table luxuries look dear, unless per- haps for eggs.
" The articles dealt in by poulterers were rabbits, game, eggs, and poul- try ; butter does not seem to have formed part of their wares. Eggs, we learn, were brought to market in baskets upon men's backs, and poultry upon horses. The proper prices of poultry were assessed by the Mayor from time to time, and duly proclaimed. In the reign of Edward I., the best hen was sold for 3d. ; the best rabbit, with the skin, for 5d. and without for 4d. ; 100 eggs (120 to the hundred) for 8d.; a partridge for 3d. ; a plover for 2d. ; and eight larks for ld. At another period, perhaps somewhat later, we find the following prices mentioned : for the best cygnet, 4d. ; goose, 6d.; capon, 6d. ; hen, 6d. ; chicken, 2d. ; river mallard, 3d. ; dung- hill mallard, 2id. ; teal, 2d. ; snipe, ld. ; woodcock, 3d. ; partridge, 44. ; plover, 3d. ; pheasant, 12d. ; curlew, 6d. ; heron, 113d. ; egret, (or dwarf heron,) 18d. ; purcell, 6d. ; bittern, 18d. ; brewe, 18d. ; four larks, Id. ; a dozen pigeons, 8d. ; a dozen thrushes, 6d. ; a dozen finches, Id. " Foreign poulterers were strictly forbidden to sell a rabbit without the skin, the value of which seems to have been Id."
The city exercised a moral supervision over its residents, and having at last contrived to banish the gay ladies to the Bishop of Winchester's houses at Southwark, the watermen were forbad to carry any one thither by night—" ne amener nul homme ne femme, pryvees nestraungeez as les Estouves, si du jour nounn ; sur peyne denprysonement." The secular power also seems to have laid irreverent hands upon the clergy in such cases.
" A priest found in company with a woman of bad character, if she was single, was taken to the Tun [a prison] in Cornhill, accompanied by musi- cians; and, if found guilty of the offence a third time, he was compelled to forswear the City for the rest of his life. The woman, in such case, was taken to one of the Sheriffs' Counters, and thence to the Tun ; there to re- main at the discretion of the Mayor and Aldermen. If, on the other hand, the offence was aggravated by the fact of the female being a married woman, she and her paramour were taken to one of the Counters, or else to New- gate, and thence to Guildhall ; after which, on being pronounced guilty, they were conducted to Newgate, where their heads were shaved like that of a thief (come un appelloure) They were then led, with music, through Cheap, and finally shut up in the Tun, there to remain at the discretion of the Mayor and Aldermen. A similar punishment was inflicted where the married woman's paramour was a layman, if a married man."
These extracts will sufficiently indicate the nature of Mr. Riley's introduction, and perhaps convey some slight idea of the scope of the " Liber .Albus " itself. The publication is a very re- markable contribution to our knowledge of the public social life of the period over which the book extends. The editor's opinion ought not always, perhaps, to be implicitly received, as for instance, the penalty of death for bathing in the Town ditch, or the Thames near the Tower, is evidently the punishment of a spy, and not a mere violation of decorum ; but, upon the whole, Mr. Riley has discharged his onerous duty with knowledge, judgment, and care- ful painstaking.
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