King Edward, to the memory of his Queen Eleanor. Many is the stirring scene enacted within it. Here, as we have already mentioned, fell the brave William Longbeard, Bow Church blazing to give notice of his fate; and here, at the Standard, Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, was beheaded by the mob, in the reign of Edward II. The bishop, during the civil war excited against this unfortunate king and his equally unfortunate favourites, was appointed custos of the city, to the deposition of the lawful mayor. On the departure of the king for Bristol to raise an army for his defence against the queen and the barons, the Londoners arose, and having destroyed the palace of the bishop, seized the prelate at the door of St. Paul's, as he was dismounting from his horse, and dragged him by the hair of his head through the mud to Cheapside. Here they placed him on a scaffold at the Standard; and an artisan having read a mock proclamation that he was a traitor, appealed to the multitude to pass sentence upon him. The cry of" Off with his head!" immediately arose, and in less than five minutes the sentence was executed. One victim was not sufficient. John Marshall, a wealthy citizen, who had been on intimate terms with Spencer, the obnoxious favourite of the king, was dragged out of his house amid shouts of execration, and beheaded at the same place. The brother of the Bishop of Exeter was seized about half an hour afterwards, and underwent the same fate; and the naked bodies of the three were then dragged through the city, and buried among the rubbish in the Tower ditch.

In the following reign a great number of thieves were executed at the same place. So lawless was the state of society about the year 1328, that set fights, between bands of armed robbers and the persons they endeavoured to plunder, took place in the streets even in broad daylight. A vigorous effort was, however, made in this year to put down this evil; the citizens armed themselves for mutual defence, and succeeded in capturing some of the most notorious of the banditti, who were executed at Cheapside without trial, and with very little ceremony of any kind, and the remainder driven from their haunts on the north to the south side of the Thames.

In the following year a grand tournament took place in Cheapside, on a scale of the greatest magnificence, having been expressly ordered by the king, for the entertainment of the French ambassador and his suite, before whom his majesty was anxious to show off the splendour, the gallantry, and the bravery of his good people of London. The king, queen, and all the court

were present; and the mayor, aldermen, and common council attended with their holiday paraphernalia-their furred caps, red robes, and gold chains, to grace the ceremonies. In the midst of the sports, the scaffolding erected for the queen and her ladies suddenly gave way, and some of them were thrown to the ground. Great alarm ensued; but as the scaffolding was not very high, no serious damage was done, and the worst mischief was the soiling of some splendid dresses, and the terror of the fair wearers. The king, who was in great wrath, sent immediately for the carpenter who constructed the scaffolding, and ordered him forthwith to be hanged! The queen, tenderhearted as all ladies are, or ought to be, was much shocked at this cruel sentence, and fell down on her knees before the king, and with tears in her beautiful eyes besought him to forgive the poor man, who had meant no harm, and who was as sorry for the accident as any one present, and most likely more so. The king, as a gentleman and a husband, could of course refuse nothing to so fair a lady, and on her knees too; and the poor carpenter was forgiven. Several distinct and hearty rounds of applause from the immense assemblage greeted the queen as she arose, and she was ever afterwards exceedingly popular in London. A stone scaffolding was in consequence of this accident erected for the accommodation of the court in similar circumstances. It stood at the upper end of Queen Street, commanding a view to the east and west of Cheapside, and northwards down King Street to Guildhall.

In the year 1339, Cheapside was the scene of another event which marks the lawless character of the age. The companies of the Skinners and the Fishmongers were long on ill terms with each other, and a band of each guild meeting by chance in Cheapside, renewed their old feud in the street, and began to fight not only with sticks, but with the sharper weapons which it was then, and long after, the practice of the richer burghers to carry. A crowd collected to witness the encounter, and a great uproar ensued. Several of the combatants were carried away wounded and bleeding; and the mayor, Andrew Aubrey, then sitting in the Guildhall, collected a force and proceeded to the scene of action, to quell the disturbance. The Skinners were headed by one John le Bremer, and the Fishmongers by Thomas Hansard. These two champions, when they saw the mayor and his men-at-arms approaching, suddenly forgot their animosities, and when the mayor rode in among them, joined together with their respective forces, and, after a long struggle, drove his

worship and his retainers ignominiously from the field. The sheriff's, however, arrived with a large reinforcement, and Le Bremer and Hansard, and five others, were taken into custody. Andrew Aubrey, who seems to have been a choleric and violent man, was burning with rage at the indignity he had suffered, and caused the culprits to be immediately brought before him at Guildhall. Here, without jury or form of trial, his worship sentenced the whole seven of them to be hanged! Strange as it may appear, this sentence was carried into effect on the following day, at the Standard in Cheapside, in the presence of an immense multitude, who never seem to have questioned the power or authority of the chief magistrate to act as he had done. Aubrey himself, however, when his rage cooled, was apprehensive that he had exceeded his powers, and the blood of his seven victims lay heavy on his soul. The king, then absent in Normandy, was applied to for an indemnification, and the whole corporation, as they had supported the mayor in this stretch of power, joined in his prayer. The king appears to have approved of the conduct of the mayor, and to have thought he did the state good service by his well-timed severity. He granted a full indemnification; and expressed his own determination to treat in a similar manner all future disturbers of the public peace.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Wat Tyler and Jack Cade's riots in Cheapside-Outrage on an Italian, and riots of the London Apprentices-Execution of Walter Walker-Henry VIII.'s visit to Cheapside in disguise - The Grand Civic procession described" Evil May Day;" riots which gave rise to this term-The Standard in Cheapside; penance performed at, by the wife of the Duke of Gloucester-Execution of Margery Jourdain, the "Witch of Eye"-The Conduit in Cheapside-Manner in which the city was anciently supplied with water-The New River-The Cross in Cheapside-St. Mary-le-Bow; sanctuary there - Outrage committed there - The Sildam Romantic tradition connected with the church- Richard Whittington - Lydgate's "London Lack-penny "-The Poultry-Bucklersbury-Melancholy death of Buckle-Mercers' Hall, on the site of the Hospital of St. Thomas of Acon-The Old Jewry-Great Synagogue there-Milton's birthplace in Bread Street; Sir Thomas More's in Milk Street-Allhallows Church; quarrel of the priests there- Basing Lane-Sopar Lane; origin of the

name.

IN Cheapside, Wat Tyler's mob beheaded several persons; and Jack Cade also shed the blood of Lord Say and Sele upon the same place. The spot seems to have been marked out for deeds of violence. The famous riot of the apprentices, in the reign of Henry VI., began here. A linen-draper's apprentice, in the year 1454, set upon an Italian, to whom he owed a grudge, who was walking along Cheapside, and stabbed him with a knife. He was taken into custody immediately, and led off towards Newgate; but the other apprentices hearing of the circumstance, assembled in great numbers, rescued him from the hands of the watch, and bore him off in triumph. A cry was raised that an English apprentice should not suffer for a vile Italian-the cry spread; the Italians were wealthy, and the houses of several rich people of that country, who resided in Lombard Street, were attacked and plundered by the apprentices, who were joined, as soon as havoc began, by all the idle vagabonds of London. The mayor collected an armed force to suppress the riot. The mob were attacked, and several sons were killed, and many others wounded before the disturbance was appeased. Some of the ringleaders were taken into custody and conveyed to Newgate; but the apprentice who was the original cause of all the mischief escaped, and took refuge in the Sanctuary at Westminster.

per

The Dukes of Buckingham and Exeter were sent with a con

siderable force to assist the mayor in the trial of the offenders. On the day of trial, however, such a crowd collected in Cheapside and opposite Guildhall, threatening to take the lives of the king's commissioners, and pull down the Guildhall, if the trial was proceeded with, that it was judged advisable to postpone it to a future day. The mob were so far satisfied; and their leaders said the trial should proceed, if it were left wholly to the city authorities. This was agreed to; the lord mayor convened a court of common council, and sent orders to all the guilds of the city, praying the wardens and members of each to use, individually, every exertion to keep their respective neighbourhoods in quiet, and to furnish, privately, the names of all parties whom they knew to be implicated in the late riots. These measures had the desired effect. The trial, after the lapse of some weeks, when the angry passions of the apprentices ñad somewhat cooled down, was proceeded with. Three of the delinquents were sentenced to be hanged, and were hanged accordingly at Tyburn, and about fifty others were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, with fines or whipping.

At the very commencement of the reign of Edward IV., & man named Walter Walker, who kept a shop, the sign of the "Crown," in Cheapside, was hanged opposite his own door. His only crime, if we may believe the old historians, was his joke, "that he would make his son heir to the 'Crown,' " which was construed into a charge of high treason. Edward had only reigned eight days when this occurrence took place; and it seems very improbable that he would have allowed this man to be executed if there had not been some graver charge against him than this. The matter, however, remains in doubt.

Henry VIII., in the year 1509, went to Cheapside to witness one of the singular customs of the ancient Londoners. Having heard many tales of the splendour of the procession of the city watch on the eve of St. John, he disguised himself in the habit of a yeoman of the guard, and witnessed it from the public thoroughfare of Cheapside. He was so pleased with what he saw, that on the next procession, on the eve of St. Peter and St. Paul, he brought the queen and all the ladies of the court to Cheapside, that they also might see it. The procession on this occasion is thus described:

"The city music preceded the lord mayor's officers in particoloured liveries; then followed the sword-bearer on horseback, in beautiful armour, before the lord mayor, mounted also on a stately horse richly caparisoned, attended by a giant and two