they skated. And they hunted with hawk and hound in the Forest
of Middlesex, which belonged to the City.

[Illustration: COSTUME OF SHEPHERDS IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY.]

The City, he tells us, is governed by the same laws as those of Rome.
Like Rome, London is divided into wards: like Rome the City has annually
elected magistrates who are called Sheriffs instead of Consuls: like
Rome it has senatorial and inferior magistrates: like Rome it has
separate Courts and proper places for law suits, and like Rome the City
holds assemblies on ordered days. The writer is carried away by his
enthusiasm for Rome. As we have seen, the government, laws, and customs
of London owed nothing at all, in any single respect, to Rome.
Everything grew out of the Anglo-Saxon laws and customs.

[Illustration: ECCLESIASTICAL COSTUME IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY.]

By his loud praise of the great plenty of food of every kind which could
be found in London, FitzStephen reminds us that he has lived in other
towns, and especially in Canterbury, when he was in the service of the
Archbishop. We see, though he does not mention it, the comparison in his
mind between the plentiful market of London and the meagre market of
Canterbury. Everything, he says, was on sale. All the roasted meats and
boiled that one can ask for; all the fish, poultry, and game in season,
could every day be bought in London: there were cookshops where dinners
and suppers could be had by paying for them. He dwells at length upon
this abundance. Now in the country towns and the villages the supplies
were a matter of uncertainty and anxiety: a housewife had to keep her
pantry and her larder well victualled in advance: salt meat and salt
fish were the staple of food. Beef and mutton were scarce: game there
was in plenty if it could be taken; but game laws were strict; very
little venison would find its way into Canterbury market. To this cleric
who knew the country markets, the profusion of everything in London was
amazing.

Another thing he notices--'Nearly all the Bishops, Abbots, and Magnates
of England are, as it were, citizens and freemen of London; having their
own splendid houses to which they resort, where they spend largely when
summoned to great Councils by the King, or by their Metropolitan, or
drawn thither by their own private affairs.'

In another century or two London will become, as you shall see, a City
of Palaces. Observe that the palaces are already beginning. Observe