e Canons Regular of St. Augustine (of Hippo) are said to
have been founded at Avignon in or about 1061. Their first
establishment in England was at Colchester (_circa_ 1105),
where the picturesque ruins of the Priory Church, dedicated to
St. Botolph, are all that remain of the monastic buildings. The
habit consisted of a black cassock with a white rochet, over
which a black cloak and hood were worn, thus leading to their
familiar name of the Black Canons--not to be confused with the
Black _Friars_, a Dominican Order of mendicants, introduced at
St. Bartholomew's Priory under Queen Mary. From an anecdote
related by Matthew Paris (under the year 1250), and quoted in
most accounts of the Priory, it seems that the inmates, while
recognizing the authority of the Bishop of London, were
extremely jealous of outside interference. The Archbishop of
Canterbury (Boniface of Savoy) had ventured to include St.
Bartholomew's in one of his visitations. He was received with
becoming dignity by the sub-prior, but politely warned against
going beyond his jurisdiction. This so enraged his Grace that
he struck the sub-prior in the face, and, "with many oaths,"
rent in pieces the rich cope he was wearing, treading it under
his feet, and thrusting the sub-prior against a pillar of the
chancel with such violence as almost to kill him. A general
conflict followed between the Canons and the Archbishop's
attendants, which was taken up outside and set the whole city
in an uproar.

[7] _Vide_ Dr. Norman Moore's edition from the copy in the
Record Office.

[8] There had been a decline in public interest for some years
before 1691, when the abuses which had grown round the
celebration led to its reduction from fourteen to four days:
but the fair lingered on in a degenerate state till it was last
proclaimed by the Lord Mayor in 1850, and finally ceased in
1855. The live cattle market, so vividly described, with its
attendant nuisances, in the twenty-first chapter of "Oliver
Twist," was closed at the same time, and the business
transferred to the new Caledonian Market. The open pens at
Smithfield have been superseded by covered buildings, to which
the old Newgate Market has been removed, and considerably
developed, for the sale of meat, the slaughtering for the most