PREFACE.
It is a fact usually forgotten that throughout the middle ages London
was one of the most beautiful towns in Christendom. A combination
of circumstances brought about this happy result. In those days the
tidal river (to which, indeed, it owed its existence), just broad enough
for the finest aërial effects, was spanned by a bridge more picturesque
than the Ponte Vecchio at Florence or the Rialto. On the banks of the
Thames were stately buildings, and along the river there must have been
a constant passing and repassing of decorated barges owned by great
people, of craft laden with merchandize, and of boats innumerable plying
for hire. From time to time sports of various kinds and water pageants
gave brightness to the scene. It had its dark side, too, when some unfortunate being was hurried to Traitor's Gate, the entrance by water to the
Tower of London, which still survives to show us what a great Norman
fortress of rare character was like.
The City, standing for the most part on low hills, was richly furnished
with ecclesiastical buildings both within and without the defensive walls,
these latter a legacy of the Romans, which existed in good condition,
being thoroughly repaired as late as the year 1476, in the mayoralty of
Sir Ralph Joceline. On about the highest point within this boundary
stood old St. Paul's Cathedral, its steeple with lofty spire crowning and
dominating the whole. Of the hundred and thirteen parish churches
mentioned by Fabyan, the chronicler, we still have eight: to these may
be added part of Austin Friars' church, the Norman crypt of St.Mary-le-Bow, and a few other fragments, for the most part drastically restored.
The Guildhall was early the centre of civic life. By the first quarter of
the 15th century it had already been to a large extent "new edyfied and
of an olde lytell cottage made into a fayre and goodly house." Of this
rebuilding the fine crypt and porch and part of the walls still remain,
but the many halls of the City Companies almost without exception
perished in the Great Fire, or in process of time have been replaced by
modern structures, the only traces of mediæval work in them spared to
us being portions of Merchant Taylors' Hall, Threadneedle Street.
Thus ancient public buildings in the City are few and far between, while,
owing to a variety of causes, the private houses of citizens will soon altogether have disappeared. These were chiefly of timber or half-timbered
construction. Stow, writing in 1598, records the existence of stone mansions, but as of something remarkable and uncommon. Of such mansions
none seems to have roused his admiration more than "the great house
called Crosby Place," the finest of its time in London, of which the hall,
now, alas! delivered over to the tender mercies of the housebreaker, was
one of the best examples we possessed of the domestic architecture of
England in the 15th century. The building was also of extreme interest
in connection with past events and personages. Shakespeare must
have known it well, and it had been in the hands of royalty, of famous
citizens, of high nobles, of many foreign ministers and envoys, and of
at least one belonging to the first rank of Englishmen. The following historical account is supplemented by a description of the building
from the pen of Mr. W.D. Caröe, F.S.A., who has made great efforts
to save it from destruction. For the notes on the various records that
furnish material for its architectural and topographical history we are
chiefly indebted to Mr. Walter H. Godfrey.
PHILIP NORMAN.
45, Evelyn Gardens, South Kensington, S. W.