And that it did grow here (beside the testimony of Beda,
lib. 1., cap. 1) the old notes of tithes for wine that yet remain in
the accounts of some parsons and vicars in Kent, elsewhere, besides
the records of sundry suits, commenced in divers ecclesiastical
courts, both in Kent, Surrey, etc., also the enclosed parcels almost
in every abbey yet called the vineyards, may be a notable witness, as
also the plot which we now call East Smithfield in London, given by
Canutus, sometime king of this land, with other soil thereabout, unto
certain of his knights, with the liberty of a Guild which thereof was
called Knighton Guild. The truth is (saith John Stow, our countryman
and diligent traveller in the old estate of this my native city) that
it is now named Portsoken Ward, and given in time past to the
religious house within Aldgate. Howbeit first Otwell, the archovel,
Otto, and finally Geffrey Earl of Essex, constables of the of London,
withheld that portion from the said house until the reign of King
Stephen, and thereof made a vineyard to their great commodity and
lucre.
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