habitants having declared for the Saxon, Edgar Atheling (in right of his hereditary descent), through the spirited efforts of the Earls of Mercia and Northumberland, he was opposed, in Southwark, by a detachment which sallied from the City. The assailants were repulsed, with considerable slaughter, by the Norman horse, and Southwark was laid in ashes. But the Londoners still refusing to open their gates, Duke William proceeded along the banks of the Thames, and took post at Wallingford, from which fortress he directed different bodies of his troops to ravage the adjoining counties, and prevent the capital from obtaining supplies.

The Earls Morcar and Edwin still laboured to animate the English people to a determined resistance; but all their endeavours were counteracted by the base counsels of the Clergy, who, with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York at their head, wrought such an effectual opposition, that the frustrated chieftains quitted the City, and retired into the north. Immediately afterwards, the leading prelates repaired to Berkhampstead, and swore fealty to the Duke, as though he had already been their sovereign; and this degrading example having been quickly imitated by many persons of rank and consequence, and, at length, even by Edgar Atheling himself, the Londoners were, at last, drawn into the vortex. A deputation of the Magistracy was appointed to meet the Duke, and to present him with the keys of the City, which he soon afterwards entered. Fearing a sudden reverse, he had a fortress constructed in

haste, and garrisoned it with Norman soldiers.* On the Christmas day following, he was solemnly crowned king of England, at the tomb of Edward the Confessor, in Westminster Abbey; the magistrates of London, conjointly with the prelates and nobility, having, according to Ingulphus, William of Malmesbury, Matthew Paris, and other historians, "invited him" to accept that title.

CHARTER GRANTED TO THE CITY BY WILLIAM THE

CONQUEROR.

This successful Chief, whom the unwary yet valiant conduct of King Harold had been a leading cause of his elevation to the throne, affected, at the commencement of his reign, to govern the kingdom by the principles of justice and clemency. This was done with a view to the consolidation of his power whilst his new subjects were yet unsettled, and unaccustomed to the feudal yoke. One of his earliest measures to conciliate the Londoners was, to grant them a new charter to secure their privileges, which he did in the following terms, in the year 1067, at the solicitation of Geoffrey, Bishop of London, who

66

On the re-building of St. Paul's Cathedral, by Maurice, Bishop of London, after its destruction by fire, with great part of the City, in the year 1088, “King William," says Stow, gave toward the building of the east end of this church, the choyce stones of his castell, standing neare to the banke of the River Thames, at the west ende of the Citie,"

was a Norman by birth, but had been promoted to this see by King Edward the Confessor.

Willm. kyng gret Willm. bisceop & Gosfregth, porterefan & ealle tha burhwaru binnan Londone Frencisce & Englisce freondlice. And ic kythe cow that ic wille, that get beon eallra thara laga weorthe the gyt weran on Eadwerdes dæge kynges. And ic wylle that alc cyld beo his father yrfnume after his father dæge. And ic nelle gewolian that ænig man eow ænig wrang beode. God eow gehealde."

In English thus: William the King greeteth William the Bishop, and Godfrey the Portreve, and all the Burgesses within London, friendly. And I acquaint you that I will that ye be all there law-worthy, as ye were in King Edward's days. And I will that. every child be his father's heir, after his father's days. And I will not suffer that any man do you wrong. God preserve you.

This charter, which is beautifully written in the Saxon character and language, is still preserved among the City archives; it consists of but little more than four lines, written on a slip of parchment, six inches long, and one broad.

OMISSION OF LONDON IN THE DOMESDAY BOOK.

It has been noticed as a remarkable fact, that the Domesday Book, which is usually so minute in respect to our principal towns and cities, should be wholly silent in regard to London. "It only mentions," says Mr. Ellis, (in the quarto work, intituled "Moderu London," p. 15,) a Vineyard in Holborn, belonging

to the crown, and ten acres of land nigh Bishopsgate (now the manor of Norton-Falgate), belonging to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, " yet certainly," he continues, no mutilation of the manuscript has taken place, since the account of Middlesex is entire, and exactly coincident with the abridged copy of the Survey, taken at the time, and now lodged in the office of the King's Remembrancer, in the Exchequer." But quære? Might not a distinct and independent survey of the City itself, have been made at the time of the general survey, although since lost or destroyed, if not yet remaining among the unexplored archives of the crown ?

MEMOIR OF WILLIAM FITZ-STEPHEN. DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF LONDON IN HENRY THE SECOND'S REIGN.*

WILLIAM FITZ-STEPHEN, called also Stephanides and Cantuariensis, was born of respectable parents in London, most probably, during the reign of Henry the First, but the exact time has not been ascertained. He was a person of excellent learning for that age;

• This article has been principally derived from the Rev. Dr. Samuel Pegge's scarce and curious tract, intituled, "Fitz-Stephen's Description of London, newly Translated from the Latin Original," &c. 4to. 1772. In general, his own words have been retained, both in the text and in the notes, but the latter have been partly abbreviated, and those only attached which had a direct reference to the subject matter.

well versed in Horace, Virgil, Sallust, Ovid, Lucan, Persius, Macrobius, with many others of the Latin classics, and had even peeped into Plato, and some of the Greeks. In short, he appears to have been as intimately acquainted with the Ancients as Peter of Blois, Saxo Grammaticus, or John of Salisbury (to whom his Life of Becket has been erroneously attributed by Tanner), in whose age there was a bright scintillation of good learning for a time, far beyond what either went before or followed after. Leland informs us, that he travelled for his education into France, and that on his return, his erudition, which was conspicuous both as a classic and a divine, recommended him to the notice of the famous Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose servant he became, and with whom he grew particularly familiar. Of this intercourse Fitz-Stephen himself has thus written in the prologue ("Authoris Prologis ") to his Life of the Archbishop.

"I was a fellow Citizen with my Lord, one of his Clerks, and an inmate in his family; and, as by express invitation I was called to his service, I became a remembrancer* in his chancery, a sub-deacon in his chapel, whenever he officiated, and when he sat to hear and determine causes, a reader of the bills and petitions ;

The word in the original is "dictator," and as this signifies both a writer and a remembrancer (vide Du Fresne), it was thought (says Dr. Pegge) proper to render it by the latter

term.

✦ It was customary for the great Prelates to officiate on all the high and principal festivals.