place in comparison of the dimensions which the Romans had marked out for it. A short time, however, previously to the Conquest it had a bridge of wood erected over the Thames- -a work which would. scarcely have been constructed in those rude times if it had not even then been a flourishing city.

The Tower of London was constructed for the purpose of subjugation by William the Conqueror. William Rufus, who had a strong passion for magnificence, enlarged this edifice, rebuilt London Bridge on a more commodious plan, and laid the foundation of Westminster Hall. London Bridge was first built of stone under Henry the Second. Edward the Confessor, who a short time before the Conquest imported some of the Norman arts into Britain, first gave existence to the City of Westminster, having built there the old palace and the venerable structure known by the name of Westminster Abbey.

London also, in the time of Chaucer, contained several royal palaces. The Tower was long a principal residence of our kings; beside which they had several smaller mansions near it. This city was, besides, adorned with various monasteries, the chief of which were the Temple, which had lately been the residence of the Knights Templars, but was now in the occupation of the students-at-law; and the monastery of St. John, a gate of which is remaining to this day. It had many other buildings, which, relatively to the times we are considering, might be styled magnificent.

The population of London is stated by Peter of

Blois at forty thousand persons in the reign of King Stephen. In the reign of Edward the First, and the year 1285, the twenty-four wards of London are enumerated in a charter of that monarch nearly as at present, so that London must then have occupied the same space of ground as the City of London now occupies. We must not, however, suppose that this space was covered with inhabitants. Cheapside, for example, we are told, was no manner of street, a fair large place, commonly called Crown Field;" and tournaments were held there in the reign of Edward the Third. Among the environs of London we find enumerated the villages of Strand, Charing, and Holborn.

Respecting the population of London in the year 1349, when Chaucer was already twenty-one years of age, we have a ground of calculation of singular authenticity. That was a period when Europe, and nearly the whole known world, was afflicted with a pestilence more terrible than perhaps any others in the records of mankind. In England, our old historians assure us that scarcely the tenth person was left alive. From the known number of interments in the City of London it is certain that the population at that period exceeded one hundred thousand.

Nor did the wealth and commerce of London fail of their due proportion to the number of its inhabitants. Of this many striking examples may be produced. The father of Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, and Lord Chancellor to King Richard the Second, was a merchant; and the first cause of the subsequent eminence of the son was the loans of

money advanced at several times by the father to Edward the Third, to assist him in the prosecution of his wars in France.

In the year next after the battle of Poictiers, Henry Picard, vintner or wine merchant, Mayor of London, gave a sumptuous entertainment to four kings-Edward, King of England; John, King of France; David, King of Scots; and the King of Cyprus.

In the second year of King Richard the Second, John Mercer, a Scotchman, having fitted out a piratical fleet against the English, John Philpot, a citizen of London, hired, with his own money, to the number of a thousand soldiers; and putting to sea, in a short time took the said John Mercer, with all his prizes, and fifteen valuable Spanish ships which he had drawn to his assistance.

In the same reign, Sir Richard Whittington, Mayor of London, of whom so many traditional and improbable stories are told, rebuilt at his own expense the jail of Newgate, the library of the Grey Friars, the hospital of Little St. Bartholomew's, and a college near St. Paul's, which was called after his own name.

The increase of the towns and the progress of commerce were the immediate causes of that great revolution in the thirteenth century, the rise of the Commons. We shall be at a loss to understand many circumstances in the history of this period if we do not recollect that the wealthy merchants of England were now enabled to enter into a sort of rivalship with the ancient barons.

GODWIN.

94. PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY

TALES.

At the Tabard Inn.

Whan that Aprillë with his schowrës swootë
The drought of March hath percëd to the rootë,
And bathed every veyne in swich licoúr,
Of which vertú engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweetë breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendrë croppës, and the yongë sonnë
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronnë,
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open ye,
So priketh hem natúre in here coráges :-
Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages,
And palmers for to seken straungë strondës,
To fernë holwës, kouthe in sondry londës;
And specially, from every schirës endë
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wendë,
The holy blisful martir for to sekë,

That hem hath holpen whan that they were seekë
Bifel that, in that sesoun on a day,

At Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay,
Redy to wenden on my pilgrimáge
To Caunterbury with ful devout coráge,
At night was come into that hostelrie
Wel nyne and twentie in a compainye,
Of sondry folk, by aventúre y-fallë
In felaweschipe, and pilgrims were they allë,
That toward Caunterbury wolden rydë;
The chambres and the stables weren wydë,
And wel we weren esed attë bestë.

And shortly, whan the sonnë was to reste,
So hadde I spoken with hem everichon
That I was of here felaweschipe anon.