The musters and parades of the Host probably lapsed when, by the sale of
Baynard Castle, the Fitzwalters ceased to be _de facto_ Castellans of
London. This is a fair inference from the circumstance that in 1321 the
citizens complained before the Justiciars Itinerant that the Dean and
Chapter had unlawfully taken possession of the vacant spaces, enclosed
them with walls, and even erected dwelling-houses on the eastern plot.
The blazonry of the Banner of St. Paul, which would have been no longer
used, was so far forgotten that eighty or a hundred years later nothing
remained but the sword, which was supposed to stand for the dagger of
that militant mayor, Sir William Walworth, who is said to have
terminated therewith the lawlessness of Wat Tyler.
URBAN
CHAPTER XV
GOD'S PENNY
Were we obliged to sum up the difference between town and country in one
word, that word would be "trade." In mediaeval, far more than in modern,
times country places had their fairs, but London, with its markets open
Sundays and week-days, enjoyed all the benefits of a perpetual fair;
from which strangers and foreigners, though under some disadvantages
compared with freemen, were by no means excluded.
One of the great principles regulating commercial transactions in the
Middle Ages and enforced by law and custom was publicity. Bakers, as we
have seen, might not sell bread "before their oven," and to this we may
add that fishmongers might not take fish into their shops--they had to
expose it for sale outside.
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