The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 4
"The fountaine called S. Clements well, North from the Parish
Church of S. Clements, and neare vnto an Inne of _Chancerie_,
called _Clements_ Inne, is faire curbed square with hard stone,
kept cleane for common vse, and is alwayes full.
[Sidenote: _Clarks well._]
[Sidenote: _Playes by the Parish Clarks at Clarks well._]
[Sidenote: _Players at the Skinners well._]
"The third is called Clarkes well, or Clarkenwell,[7] and is
curbed about square with hard stone, not farre from the west
ende of Clarkenwell Church, but close without the wall that
incloseth it; the sayd Church tooke the name of the Well, and
the Well tooke the name of the Parish Clarkes in London, who
of old time were accustomed there yearely to assemble, and to
play some large hystorie of holy scripture. And, for example,
of later time, to wit, in the yeare 1390, the 14 of Richard the
Second, I read the Parish Clarks of London, on the 18 of July,
playd Enterludes at _Skinners well_, neare vnto _Clarkes well_,
which play continued three dayes togither, the King, Queene, and
Nobles being present. Also the yeare 1409, the 10 of Henrie the
4. they played a play at the _Skinners well_, which lasted eight
dayes, and was of matter from the creation of the worlde. There
were to see the same, the most part of the Nobles and Gentiles
in England, &c.
[Sidenote: _Skinners well._]
[Sidenote: _Wrestling-place._]
"Other smaller welles were many neare vnto Clarkes well, namely
_Skinners well_, so called for that the Skinners of London held
there certaine playes yearely playd of holy scripture, &c. In
place whereof the wrestlings haue of later yeares beene kept,
and is in part continued at _Bartholomew tide_.
[Sidenote: _Fagges well._]
"Then was there Fagges well, neare vnto _Smithfield_ by the
_Charterhouse_, now lately dammed vp, _Tod well_, _Loders well_,
and _Rad well_, all decayed, and so filled vp, that there places
are hardly now discerned.
"Somewhat North from _Holy well_ is one other well curbed
square with stone, and is called _Dame Annis the Cleare_, and
not farre from it, but somewhat west, is also one other cleare
water called _Perillous pond_[8], because diuerse youthes by
swimming therein haue beene drowned; and thus much bee said for
Fountaines and Wels.
"_Horse poole_ in _Westsmithfield_, was sometime a great
water, and because the inhabitants in that part of the Citie
did there water their Horses, the same was, in olde Recordes,
called _Horspoole_, it is now much decayed, the springs being
stopped vp, and the land waters falling into the small bottome,
remayning inclosed, with Bricke, is called _Smithfield pond_.
[Sidenote: _Poole without Cripplegate._]
"By S. Giles Churchyard was a large water, called a _Poole_. I
read in the year 1244 that Anne of Lodburie was drowned therein;
this poole is now for the most part stopped vp, but the spring
is preserued, and was cooped about with stone by the Executors
of _Richard Wittington_."
[Footnote 1: The name of this church has been Latinized as
"Sancta Maria de Ossibus"!]
[Footnote 2: Swollen.]
[Footnote 3: The real quotation in Orosius is "þa wearð Tiber
seo eâ swa fledu."]
[Footnote 4: A bag, or purse, a fold of a garment; a bay,
bight, or gulf.]
[Footnote 5: I cannot find this quotation in "Boedoe Historia
Ecclesiastica," &c., in any edition I have seen, but in 1.33.
I do find Amfleet, and in John Smith's edition (Cambridge,
1722) as a note to Amj-leor he says "Vulgo Ambleteau or
Ambleteuse, about 2 miles north of Boulogne"]
[Footnote 6: The Records were kept in the Tower, and at the
Rolls Office, in a very neglected state, until they were
removed to the present Record Office in Fetter Lane.]
[Footnote 7: This is the only one left whose position is a
matter of certainty.]
[Footnote 8: Afterwards known as "Peerless Pool," an unmeaning
cognomen.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER II.
London, for its size, was indeed very well supplied with water,
although, of course, it was not laid on to every house, as now, but,
with the exception of those houses provided with wells, it had to be
fetched from fixed public places, which were fairly numerous. When the
waters of the Fleet, and Wallbrook, in the process of time, became
contaminated, Henry III., in the 21st year of his reign (1236), granted
to the Citizens of London the privilege of conveying the waters of the
Tye-bourne through leaden pipes to the City, "for the poore to drinke,
and the rich to dresse their meate." And it is only a few years since,
that close by what is now called "Sedley Place," Oxford Street, but
which used to be the old hunting lodge of bygone Lord Mayors, some of
these very pipes were unearthed, a fine cistern being uncovered at the
same time.
For public use there were the great Conduit in West Cheape: the Tonne
or Tun in Cornhill, fountains at Billingsgate, at Paul's Wharf, and
St. Giles', Cripplegate, and conduits at Aldermanbury, the Standard
in Fleet Street, Gracechurch Street, Holborn Cross (afterwards Lamb's
Conduit), at the Stocks Market (where the Mansion House now stands),
Bishopsgate, London Wall, Aldgate, Lothbury--and this without reckoning
the supply furnished from the Thames by the enterprising German, or
Dutchman, Pieter Moritz, who in 1582 started the famous waterworks
close to where Fishmongers' Hall now stands.
The Fleet river (I prefer that title to the other cognomen, "Ditch"),
flowing through London, naturally became somewhat befouled, and in
Henry the VII.'s time, _circa_ 1502, it was cleansed, so that, as
aforesaid, "boats with fish and fewel were rowed to Fleete bridge,
and to Oldburne bridge." We also know, as Stow records, that more
springs were introduced into the stream from Hampstead, without effect,
either as to deepening or purifying the river, which had an evil
reputation even in the time of Edward I., as we see in Ryley's "Placita
Parliamentaria" (ed. 1661), p. 340--
"_Ad peticionem Com. Lincoln._ querentis quod cum cursus aque,
que currit apud _London_ sub _Ponte_ de _Holeburn_, & _Ponte_ de
_Fleete_ usque in _Thamisiam_ solebat ita largus & latus esse,
ac profundus, quod decem Naves vel duodecim ad predictum Pontem
de _Fleete_ cum diversis rebus & mercandisis solebant venire,
& quedam illarum Navium sub illo Ponte transire, usque ad
predictum Pontem de _Holeburn_ ad predictum cursum mundanmum &
simos exinde cariand, nunc ille cursus per fordes & inundaciones
Taunatorum & p varias perturbaciones in predicta aqua, factas
& maxime per exaltationem Caye & diversionem aque quam ipsi de
_Novo Templo_ fecerunt ad Molendina sua extra Castra _Baignard_,
quod Naves predicte minime intrare possunt sicut solebant,
& facere debeant &c. unde supplicat quod _Maior de London_
assumptis secum Vice com. & discretionibus Aldermannis cursum
pre[=d]ce aque videat, & quod per visum & sacr[~m] proborum
& legalium hominum faciat omnia nocumenta predicte aque que
invinerit ammovere & reparare cursum predictum, & ipsum in
tali statu manutenere in quo antiquitus esse solebat &c. _Ita
responsum est, Assignentur Rogerus le Brabazon & Constabularius
Turris, London Maior & Vice Com. London, quod ipsi assumptit
secum discretionibus Aldermannis London, &c., inquirant per
sacramentum &c., qualiter fieri consuevit & qualis cursus. Et
necumenta que invenerint ammoveant & manueri faciant in eadem
statu quo antiquitus esse solebat._"
Latin for which a modern schoolboy would get soundly rated, or birched,
but which tells us that even as far back as Edward I. the Fleet river
was a nuisance; and as the endorsement (Patent Roll 35 Edward I.)
shows--"De cursu aquæ de Fleta supervivendo et corrigendo," _i.e._,
that the Fleet river should be looked after and amended. But the
Commission issued to perfect this work was discontinued, owing to the
death of the king. (Patent Roll 1 Edward II., pars 1. m. dorso.) "De
Cursu Aquæ Flete, &c., reducend et impedimenta removend."
And Prynne, in his edition of Cotton's "Records" (ed. 1669, p.
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