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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13046-0.txt b/13046-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ff66f5 --- /dev/null +++ b/13046-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5772 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13046 *** + +THE WAYFARER'S LIBRARY + + + + +THE HISTORIC THAMES + + +Hilaire Belloc + + +O.M. DENT & SONS Ltd. + +LONDON + + + + +THE HISTORIC THAMES + + +England has been built up upon the framework of her rivers, and, in +that pattern, the principal line has been the line of the Thames. + +Partly because it was the main highway of Southern England, partly +because it looked eastward towards the Continent from which the +national life has been drawn, partly because it was better served by +the tide than any other channel, but mainly because it was the chief +among a great number of closely connected river basins, the Thames +Valley has in the past supported the government and the wealth of +England. + +Among the most favoured of our rivals some one river system has +developed a province or a series of provinces; the Rhine has done so, +the Seine and the Garonne. But the great Continental river systems--at +least the navigable ones--stand far apart from one another: in this +small, and especially narrow, country of Britain navigable river +systems are not only numerous, but packed close together. It is +perhaps on this account that we have been under less necessity in the +past to develop our canals; and anyone who has explored the English +rivers in a light boat knows how short are the portages between one +basin and another. + +Now not only are we favoured with a multitude of navigable +waterways--the tide makes even our small coastal rivers navigable +right inland--but also we are quite exceptionally favoured in them +when we consider that the country is an island. + +If an island, especially an island in a tidal sea, has a good river +system, that system is bound to be of more benefit to it than would be +a similar system to a Continental country. For it must mean that the +tide will penetrate everywhere into the heart of the plains, carrying +the burden of their wealth backward and forward, mixing their peoples, +and filling the whole national life with its energy; and this will be +especially the case in an island which is narrow in proportion to its +length and in which the rivers are distributed transversely to its +axis. + +When we consider the river systems of the other great islands of +Europe we find that none besides our own enjoys this advantage. Sicily +and Crete, apart from the fact that they do not stand in tidal water, +have no navigable rivers. Iceland, standing in a tidal sea, too far +north indeed for successful commerce, but not too far north for the +growth of a civilisation, is at a similar disadvantage. Great Britain +and Ireland alone--Great Britain south of the Scottish Mountains, that +is--enjoy this peculiar advantage; and there are few things more +instructive when one is engaged upon the history of England than to +take a map and mark upon it the head of each navigable piece of water +and the head of its tideway, for when this has been done all England, +with the exception of the Welsh Hills and the Pennines, seems to be +penetrated by the influence of the sea. + +The conditions which give a river this great historic importance, the +fundamental character, therefore, which has lent to the Thames its +meaning in English history, is twofold: a river affords a permanent +means of travel, and a river also forms an obstacle and a boundary. +Men are known to have agglomerated in the beginning of society in two +ways: as nomadic hordes and as fixed inhabitants of settlements. + +There has arisen a profitless discussion as to which of these two +phases came first. No evidence can possibly exist upon either side, +but one may take it that with the first traditions and records, as at +the present time, the two systems existed side by side, and that +either was determined by geographical conditions. A river is an +advantage to both groups, but to the second it is of more consequence +than to the first; and in South England, if we go back to the origins +of our history, it is in fixed settlements that we find the first +evidence of man. With every year of research the extreme antiquity of +our inhabited sites becomes more apparent. And indeed the geographical +nature of Southern England should make us certain of the antiquity of +village life in it, even were there no archæological evidence to +support that antiquity. + +South England is everywhere fertile, everywhere well watered, and +nowhere divided, as is the North, by long districts of bare country, +or of hills snowbound in winter, or of morass. Its forests, though +numerous, have never formed one continuous belt; even the largest of +them, the Forest of the Weald, between the downs of Surrey and Kent +and those of Sussex, was but twenty miles across--large enough to +nourish a string of hunting villages upon the north and the south +edges of it; but not large enough to isolate the Thames Valley from +the southern coast. + +From the beginning of human activity in this island the whole length +of the river has been set with human settlements never far removed one +from the other; for the Thames ran through the heart of South England, +and wherever its banks were secure from recurrent floods it furnished +those who settled on them with three main things which every early +village requires: good water, defence, and communication. + +The importance of the first lessens as men learn to dig wells and to +canalise springs; the two last, defence and communication, remain +attached to river settlements to a much later date, and are apparent +in all the history of the Thames. + +The problem of communication under early conditions is serious. Even +in a high civilisation the maintenance of roads is of greater moment, +and imposes a greater burden, than most of the citizens who support it +know; but before the means or the knowledge exist to survey and to +harden roads, with their causeways over marshes and their bridges over +rivers, the supply of food in time of scarcity or of succour in time +of danger is never secure: a little narrow path kept up by nothing but +the continual passage of men and animals is all the channel a +community of men have for communicating with their neighbours by land. +And it must be remembered that upon such communication depend not only +the present existence, but the future development of the society, +which cannot proceed except by that fertilisation, as it were, which +comes from the mixture of varied experiences and of varied traditions: +every great change in history has necessarily been accompanied by some +new activity of travel. + +Under the primitive conditions of which we speak a river of moderate +depth, not too rapid in its current and perennial in its supply, is +much the best means by which men may communicate. It will easily +carry, by the exertions of a couple of men, some hundred times the +weight the same men could have carried as porters by land. It +furnishes, if it is broad, a certain security from attack during the +journey; it will permit the rapid passage of a large number abreast +where the wood tracks and paths of the land compel a long procession; +and it furnishes the first of the necessities of life continually as +the journey proceeds. + +Upon all these accounts a river, during the natural centuries which +precede and follow the epochs of high civilisation, is as much more +important than the road or the path as, let us say, a railway to-day +is more important than a turnpike. + +What is equally interesting, when a high civilisation after its little +effort begins to decline into one of those long periods of repose into +which all such periods of energy do at last decline, the river +reassumes its importance. There is a very interesting example of this +in the history of France. Before Roman civilisation reached the north +of Gaul the Seine and its tributary streams were evidently the chief +economic factor in the life of the people: this may be seen in the +sites of their strongholds and in the relation of the tribes to one +another, as for instance, the dependence of the Parisians upon Sens. +The five centuries of active Roman civilisation saw the river replaced +by the system of Roman roads; the great artificial track from north to +south, for instance, takes on a peculiar importance; but when the end +of that period has come, and the energies of the Roman state are +beginning to drag, when the money cannot be collected to repair the +great highways, and these fall into decay--then the Seine and its +tributaries reassume their old importance. Paris, the junction of the +various waterways, becomes the capital of a new state, and the +influence of its kings leads out upon every side along the river +valleys which fall into the main valley of the Seine. + +There are but two considerable modifications to the use for habitation +of slow and constant rivers: their value is lessened or interrupted by +precipitous banks or they are rendered unapproachable by marshes. The +first of these causes, for instance, has singularly cut off one from +the other the groups of population residing upon the upper and the +lower Meuse, as it has also, to quote another example, cut off even in +language the upper from the lower Elbe. + +From this first species of interruption the Thames is, of course, +singularly free. There is no river in England, with the exception of +the Trent, whose banks interfere so little with the settlement of men +in any place on account of their steepness. + +As to the second, the Thames presents a somewhat rare character. + +The upper part of the river, which is in lowland valleys the most +easily inhabited, and the part in which, once the river is navigable, +will be found the largest number of small settlements, is in the case +of the Thames the most marshy. From its source to beyond Cricklade the +river runs entirely over clay; thenceforward the valley is a flat mass +of alluvium, in which the stream swings from one side to the other, +and even where it touches higher soil, touches nothing better than the +continuation of this clay. In spite, therefore, of the shallowness and +narrowness of the upper river there always existed this impediment +which an insecure soil would present to the formation of any +considerable settlements. The loneliness of the stretch below +Kelmscott is due to an original difficulty of this kind, and the one +considerable settlement upon the upper river at Lechlade stands upon +the only place where firm ground approaches the bank of the river. + +This formation endures well below Oxford until one reaches the gap at +Sandford, where the stream passes between two beds of gravel which +very nearly approach either bank. + +Above this point the Thames is everywhere, upon one side or the other, +guarded by flat river meadows, which must in early times have been +morass; and nowhere were these more difficult of passage than in the +last network of streams between Witham Hill and Sandford, to the west +of the gravel bank upon which Oxford is built. + +Below Sandford, and on all the way to London Bridge, the character of +the river in this respect changes. You have everywhere gravel or +flinty chalk, with but a narrow bed of alluvial soil, upon either bank +to represent the original overflow of the river. + +At the crossing places (as we shall see later), notably at Long +Wittenham, at Wallingford, at Streatley, at Pangbourne, and, still +lower, at Maidenhead and at Ealing, this hard soil came right down to +the bank upon either side. + +On all this lower half of the Thames marsh was rare, and was to be +found even in early times only in isolated patches, which are still +clearly defined. These are never found facing each other upon opposite +banks of the stream. Thus there was a bad bit on the left bank above +Abingdon, but the large marsh below Abingdon, where the Ock came in, +was on the right bank, with firm soil opposite it. There was a large +bay, as it were, of drowned land on the right bank, from below Reading +to a point opposite Shiplake, the last wide morass before the marshes +of the tidal portion of the river; and another at the mouth of the +Coln, above Staines, on the left bank, which was the last before one +came to the mud of the tidal estuary; and even the tidal marshes were +fairly firm above London. From Staines eastward down as far as Chelsea +the superficial soil upon either side is of gravels, and the long list +of ancient inhabited sites upon either bank show how little the +overflow of the river interfered with its usefulness to men. + +The river, then, from Sandford downward has afforded upon either bank +innumerable sites upon which a settlement could be formed. Above +Sandford these sites are not to be found indifferently upon either +bank, but now on one, now on the other. There is no case on the upper +river of two villages facing each other on either side of the stream. +But though the soil of this upper part was in general less suited to +the establishment of settlements, a certain number of firmer stretches +could be found, and advantage was taken of them to build. + +There thus arose along the whole course of the Thames from its source +to London a series of villages and towns, increasing in importance as +the stream deepened and gave greater facilities to traffic, and bound +together by the common life of the river. It was their _highway_, and +it is as a highway that it must first be regarded. + +Of the way in which the Thames was a necessary great road in early +times, perhaps the best proof is the manner in which various parishes +manage to get their water front at the expense of a somewhat unnatural +shape to their boundaries. Thus Fawley in Buckinghamshire has a +curious and interesting arrangement of this sort thrusting down from +the hills a tongue of land which ends in a sort of wharfage on the +river just opposite Remenham church. In Berkshire there are also +several examples of this. On the upper river Dractmoor and Kingston +Bagpuise are both very narrow and long, a shape forced upon them by +the necessity of having this outlet upon the river in days when the +life of a parish was a real one and the village was a true and +self-sufficing unit. Next to them Fyfield does the same thing. Lower +down, near Wallingford, the parish of Brightwell has added on a +similar eccentric edge to the north and east so that it may share in +the bank; but perhaps the best example of all in this connection is +the curious extension below Reading. Here land which is of no use for +human habitation--water meadows continually liable to floods--runs out +from the parish northward for a good mile. These lands are separated +from the river during the whole of this extension until at last a bend +of the stream gives the parish the opportunity it has evidently sought +in thus extending its boundaries. On the Oxford bank Standlake and +Brighthampton do the same thing upon the Upper Thames and to some +extent Eynsham; for when one thinks how far back Eynsham stands from +the river it is somewhat remarkable that it should have claimed the +right to get at the stream. Below Oxford there is another most +interesting instance of the same thing in the case of Littlemore. +Littlemore stands on high and dry land up above the river somewhat set +back from it. Sandford evidently interfered with its access to the +water, and Littlemore has therefore claimed an obviously artificial +extension for all the world like a great foot added on to the bulk of +the parish. This "foot" includes Kennington Island, and runs up the +meadows to the foot of that eyot. + +The long and narrow parishes in the reaches below Benson, Nuneham +Morren, Mongewell, and Ipsden and South Stoke are not, however, +examples of this tendency. + +They owe their construction to the same causes as have produced the +similar long parishes of the Surrey and the Sussex Weald. The life of +the parish was in each case right on the river or very close to it, +and the extension is not the attempt of the parish to reach the river, +but the claim of the parish upon the hunting lands which lay up behind +it upon the Chiltern Hills. The truth of this will be apparent to +anyone who notes upon the map the way in which parishes are thus +lengthened, not only on the western side of the hills, but also upon +the farther eastern side, where there was no connection with the +river. + +There are many other proofs remaining of the chief function which the +Thames fulfilled in the early part of our history as a means of +communication. + +We shall see later in these pages how united all that line of the +stream has been; how the great monasteries founded upon the Thames +were supported by possessions stretched all along the valleys; how +much of it, and what important parts, were held by the Crown; and how +strong was the architectural influence of towns upon one another up +and down the water, as also how the place names upon the banks are +everywhere drawn from the river; but before dealing with these it is +best to establish the main portions into which the Thames falls and to +see what would naturally be their limits. + +It may be said, generally, that every river which is tidal, and whose +stream is so slow as to be easily navigable in either direction, +divides itself naturally, when one is regarding it as a means of +communication, into three main divisions. + +There will first of all be the tidal portion which the tide usually +scours into an estuary. As a general rule, this portion is not +considerably inhabited in the early periods of history, for it is not +until a large international commerce arises that vessels have much +occasion to stop as they pass up and down the maritime part of the +stream; and even so, settlements upon its banks must come +comparatively late in the development of the history of the river, +because a landing upon such flooded banks is not easily to be +effected. + +This is true of the Dutch marshes at the mouths of the Rhine, whose +civilisation (one exclusively due to the energy of man) came centuries +after the establishment of the great Roman towns of the Rhine; it is +true of the estuary of the Seine, whose principal harbour of Havre is +almost modern, and whose difficulties are still formidable for +ocean-going craft; and it is true of the Thames. + +The estuary of the Thames plays little or no part in the very early +history of England. Invaders, when they landed, landed on the +sea-coast at the very mouth, or appear to have sailed right up into +the heart of the country. + +It is, nevertheless, true that the last few miles of tidal water, in +Western Europe at least, are not to be included in this first division +of a great river. + +The swish of the tide continues up beyond the broad estuary, the +sand-banks, and the marshes, and there are reaches more or less long +(rather less than twenty miles perhaps originally in the case of the +Thames, rather more perhaps originally in the case of the lower Seine) +which for the purposes of habitation are inland reaches. They have the +advantage of a current moving in either direction twice a day and yet +not the disadvantage of greatly varying levels of water. Thus one may +say of the Seine in the old days that from about Caudebec to Point de +L'Arche it enjoyed such inland tidal conditions; and of the Thames +from Greenwich to Teddington that similar advantages existed. + +The true point of division which separates, so far as human history is +concerned, the lower from the upper part of such rivers is the first +bridge, and, what almost always accompanies the first bridge, the +first great town. To repeat the obvious parallel, Rouen was this point +upon the Seine; upon the Thames this point was the Bridge of London. +It is with the habitable and historic Thames Valley above the bridge +that this book has to deal, and it will later be to the reader's +purpose to consider why London Bridge crossed the stream just where it +did, and of what moment that site has been in the history of the +Thames and of England. + +The second division in a great European tidal river, considered as a +means of communication, is the navigable but non-tidal portion. + +The word navigable is so vague that it requires some definition before +we can apply it to any particular stream. It does not, of course, mean +in this connection "navigable by sea-going boats." One may take a +constant depth of so little as three feet to be sufficient for the +purpose of carrying merchandise even in considerable bulk. + +The legislatures of various countries have established varying gauges +to determine where the navigability of a river may be said to cease. +In practice these gauges have always been arbitrary. The upper reaches +of a river may present sufficient depth but too fast a current, or +they may be too narrow, or the curves may be too rapid, or the +obstruction of rocks too common, for any sort of navigation, although +the depth of water be sufficient. + +Conversely, in some streams of peculiar breadth and constancy very +shallow upper reaches may have early been converted to the use of man. +The matter is only to be determined by the experience of what the +inhabitants of a river valley have actually been able to do under the +local circumstances, and when we examine this we shall usually be +astonished to see how far inland a river was used until the history of +internal navigation was transformed by the development of canals or +partially destroyed by the development of railways. Thus it is certain +that so small a stream as the Adur in Sussex floated barges up to the +boundaries of Shipley Parish; that the Stour was habitually used +beyond Canterbury; that so tiny a tributary as the Ant in Norfolk was +followed up from its parent Bure to the neighbourhood of Worsted. + +In this connection the Thames is of an especial interest, for it had, +in proportion to its length, the greatest section of navigable +non-tidal water of any of the shorter rivers in Europe. Until the +digging of the Thames and Severn Canal at the end of last century it +was possible, and even common, for boats to reach Cricklade, or at any +rate the mouth of the Churn. And even now, in spite of the pumping +that is necessary at Thames head and the consequent diminution of the +volume of water in the upper reaches, the Thames, were water carriage +to come again into general use, would be a busy commercial stream as +high up as Lechlade. + +This exceptional sector of non-tidal navigable water cutting right +across England from east to west, and that in what used to be the most +productive and is still the most fertile portion of the island, is the +chief factor in the historic importance of the Thames. + +From Cricklade to the navigable waters of the Severn Valley is but a +long day's walk; and one may say that even in the earliest times there +was thus provided a great highway right across what then was by far +the most thickly populated and the most important part of the island. + +A third section in all such rivers (and, from what we have said above, +a short and insignificant one in the case of the Thames) may be called +the _head-waters_ of the river: where the stream is so shallow or so +uncertain as to be no longer navigable. In the case of the Thames +these head-waters cover no more than ten to fifteen miles of country. +With the exception of rivers that run through mountain districts this +section of a river's course is nearly always small in proportion to +the rest; but the Thames, just as it has the longest proportion of +navigable water, has also by far the shortest proportion of useless +head-water of all the shorter European rivers. + +There is a further discussion as to what is the true source of the +Thames, and which streams may properly be regarded as its head-waters: +the Churn, especially since the digging of the canal, having a larger +flow than the stream from Thames head; but whichever is chosen, the +non-navigable portion starts at the same point, and is the third of +the divisions into which the valley ranges itself when it is +considered in its length, as a highway from the west to the east of +England. The two limits, then, are at London Bridge and at Cricklade, +or rather at some point between Lechlade and Cricklade, and nearer to +the latter. + +But a river has a second topographical and historic function. It +cannot only be considered longitudinally as a highway, it can also be +considered in relation to transverse forces and regarded as an +obstacle, a defence, and a boundary. + +This function has, of course, been of the highest importance in the +history of all great rivers, not perhaps so much so in the case of the +Thames as in the case of swifter or deeper streams, but, still, more +than has been the case with so considerable and so rapid a river as +the Po in Lombardy or the uncertain but dangerous Loire in its passage +through the centre of France. For the Thames Valley was that which +divided the vague Mercian land from which we get our weights, our +measures, and the worst of our national accent, and cut it off from +that belt of the south country which was the head and the heart of +England until the last industrial revolution of our history. + +The Thames also has entered to a large, though hardly to a +determining, extent into the military history of the country; to an +extent which is greater in earlier than in later times, because with +every new bridge the military obstacle afforded by the stream +diminished. And finally, the Thames, regarded as an obstacle, was the +cause that London Bridge concentrated upon itself so much of the life +of the nation, and that the town which that bridge served, always the +largest commercial city, became at last the capital of the island. + +We have already said that the establishment of the site of London +Bridge was a capital point in the history of the river and the +principal line of division in its course. What were the topographical +conditions which caused the river to be crossed at this point rather +than at another? + +It is always of the greatest moment to men to find some crossing for a +great river as low down as may be towards the mouth. For the higher +the bridge the longer the detour between, at the least, _two_ +provinces of the country which the river traverses. It is especially +important to find such a crossing as low down as possible when the +river is tidal and when it is flanked upon either side by great +flooded marshes, as was and is the Thames. For under such conditions +it is difficult, especially in primitive times, to cross habitually +from one side to the other in boats. + +Now it is a universal rule of early topography, and one which can be +proved upon twenty of the old trackways of England, that the wild path +which the earliest men used, when it approaches a river, seeks out a +spur of higher and drier land, and if possible one directly facing +another similar spur upon the far side of the water. It is a feature +which the present writer continually observed in the exploration of +the old British trackway between Winchester and Canterbury; it is +similarly observable in the presumably British track between Chester +and Manchester; and it is the feature which determined the site of +London Bridge. + +From the sea for sixty miles is a succession of what was once +entirely, and is now still in great part, marshy land; or at least if +there are no marshes upon one bank there will be marshes upon the +other. In the rare places down stream where there is a fairly rapid +rise upon either side of the river the stream is far too wide for +bridging; and these marshes were to be found right up the valley until +one struck the gravel at Chelsea: even here there were bad marshes on +the farther shore. + +There is in the whole or the upper stretch of the tidal water but one +place where a bluff of high and dry land faces, not indeed land +equally dry immediately upon the farther bank, but at least a spur of +dry land which approaches fairly near to the main stream. If the +modern contour lines be taken and laid out upon a map of London this +spur will be found to project from Southwark northward directly +towards the river, and immediately opposite it is the dry hill, +surrounded upon three sides by river or by marsh, upon which grew up +the settlement of London. Here, then, the first crossing of the Thames +was certain to be made. + +It is not known whether a permanent bridge existed before the Roman +Conquest. It may be urged in favour of the negative argument that +Cæsar had no knowledge of such a bridge, or at least did not march +towards it, but crossed the river with difficulty in the higher +reaches by a ford. And it may also be urged that a bridge across the +Rhine was equally unknown in that time. But, the bridge once +established, it could not fail to become the main point of convergence +for the commerce of Southern England, and indeed for much of that +which proceeded from the North upon its way to the Continent. Such an +obstacle would oppose itself to every invasion, and did, in fact, +oppose itself to more than one historical invasion from the North Sea. +It would further prevent sea-going vessels whose masts were securely +stepped and could not lower from proceeding farther up stream, and +would thereupon become the boundary of the seaport of the Thames. Such +a bridge would, again, concentrate upon itself the traffic of all that +important and formerly wealthy part of the island which bulges out to +the east between the estuary of the Thames and the Wash, and which +must necessarily have desired communication both with the still +wealthier southern portion and with the Continent. But, more important +than this, London Bridge also concentrated upon itself all the +up-country traffic in men and in goods which came in by the natural +gate of the country at the Straits of Dover, except that small portion +which happened to be proceeding to the south-west of England: and this +exception to the early commerce of England was the smaller from the +comparative ease with which the Channel could be crossed between +Brittany and Cornwall. + +Finally, the Bridge, as it formed the limit for sea-going vessels, +formed also if not the limit at least a convenient terminus for craft +coming from inland down the stream. It would form the place of +transhipment between the sea-going and the inland trade. + +Everything then conspired to make this first crossing of the Thames +the chief commercial point in Britain; and, since we are considering +in particular the history of the river, it must be noted that these +conditions also made of London Bridge what we have remarked it to be, +the chief division in the whole course of the stream. This character +it still maintains, and the life of the river from the bridge to the +Nore is a totally different thing, with a different literature and a +different accompanying art, from the life of the river above bridges. + +We have seen that the river when it is regarded as an avenue of access +to men for commerce or for travel is, especially in early times, and +with boats of light draught, of one piece from Lechlade to London +Bridge. There was in this section always sufficient water even in a +dry summer to float some sort of a boat. But the river, regarded as a +barrier or obstacle for human beings in their movement up and down +Britain, did not form one such united section. On the contrary, it +divided itself, as all such rivers do, into two very clearly defined +parts: there was that upper part which could be crossed at frequent +intervals by an army, that lower part in which fords are rare. + +In most rivers one has nothing more to do in describing those two +sections than to show how gradually they merge into one another. In +most rivers the passage of the upper waters is perfectly easy, and as +one descends the fords get rarer and rarer, until at last they cease. + +With the Thames this is not the case. The two portions of the river +are sharply divided in the vicinity of Oxford, and that for reasons +which we have already seen when we were speaking of the suitability of +its banks for habitation. The upper Thames is indeed shallow and +narrow, and there are innumerable places above Oxford where it could +be crossed, so far as the volume of its waters was concerned. It was +crossed by husbandmen wherever a village or a farm stood upon its +banks. Perhaps the highest point at which it had to be crossed at one +chosen spot is to be discovered in the word Somer_ford_ Keynes, but +the ease with which the water itself could be traversed is apparent +rather in the absence than in the presence of names of this sort upon +the upper Thames. Shifford, for instance, which used to be spelt +Siford, may just as well have been named from the crossing of the +Great Brook as from the crossing of the Thames. The only other is +Duxford. + +While, however, the upper Thames was thus easy to cross where +individuals only or small groups of cattle were concerned, the marshes +on either side always made it difficult for an army. The records of +early fighting are meagre, and often legendary, but such as they are +you do not find the upper Thames crossed and recrossed as are the +upper Severn or the upper Trent. There are two points of passage: +Cricklade and Oxford, nor can the passage from Oxford be made westward +over the marshes. It is confined to the ford going north and south. + +Below Oxford, after the entry of the Cherwell, and from thence down to +a point not very easily determined, but which is perhaps best fixed at +Wallingford, the Thames is only passable at fixed crossings in +ordinary weather, as at Sandford, where the hard gravels approach the +bank upon either side, and at other places, each distant from the next +by long stretches of river. + +It is not easy, now that the river has been locked, to determine +precisely where all these original crossings are to be found. + +The records of Abingdon and its bridge make it certain that a +difficult ford existed here; the name "Burford" attached to the bridge +points to the ancient ford at this spot. It is a name to be discovered +in several other parts of England where there has been some ancient +crossing of a river, as, for instance, the crossing of the Mole in +Surrey by the Roman military road. + +The next place below Abingdon may have been at Appleford, but was more +likely between the high cliff at Clifton-Hampden and the high and dry +spit of Long Wittenham. Below this again for miles there was no easy +crossing of the river. + +The Thames was certainly impassable at Dorchester. The whole +importance of Dorchester indeed in history lies in its being a strong +fortified position, and it depends for its defence upon the depth of +the river, which swirls round the peninsula occupied by the camp. + +It has been conjectured that there was a Roman ford or ferry at the +east end of Little Wittenham Wood, where it touches the river. The +conjecture is ill supported. No track leads to this spot from the +south, and close by is an undoubted ford where now stands Shillingford +Bridge. + +Below this again there was no crossing until one got to Wallingford; +and here we reach a point of the greatest importance in the history of +the Thames and of England. + +Wallingford was not the lowest point at which the Thames could ever be +crossed. So far was this from being the case that the _tidal_ Thames +could be crossed in several places on the ebb, notably at the passage +between Ealing and Kew, where Kew Bridge now stands; and, as we shall +see, the Thames was passable at many other places. But the special +character of the passage at Wallingford lay in the fact that it was a +ford upon which one could always depend. Below Wallingford the +crossings were either only to be effected in very dry seasons or, +though normally usable, might be interrupted by rain. + +It is at Wallingford, therefore, that the main lowest passage of the +Thames was effected, and it was through Wallingford that Berkshire +communicated with the Chilterns. Wallingford is, then, the second +point of division upon the Thames when one is regarding that river as +a defence or a boundary. Below Wallingford there was perhaps a regular +crossing at Pangbourne; there was certainly a ford of great importance +between Streatley and Goring; and all the way down the river at +intervals were difficult but practicable passages--notably at Cowey +Stakes between the Surrey and the Middlesex shore, a place which is +the traditional crossing of Cæsar. The water here in normal weather +was, however, as much as five feet deep, and this ford well +illustrates the difficulties of all the lower crossings of the Thames. + +The effect of the river as a barrier must, of course, have largely +depended upon the level to which the waters rose in early times. It is +exceedingly difficult to get any evidence upon this--first, because +however far you go back in English history some sort of control seems +always to have been imposed upon the river; and secondly, because the +early overflows have left little permanent effect. + +As an example of the antiquity of the regulation of the Thames we have +the embankment round the Isle of Dogs, which is Roman or pre-Roman in +its origin, like the sea-wall of the Wash, which defends the Fenland; +and at Ealing, Staines, Abingdon, and twenty other places we have +sites probably pre-historic, and certainly at the beginnings of +history, which could never have been inhabited if the neighbouring +fields had not been drained or protected. The regularity of the stream +has therefore been somewhat artificial throughout all the centuries of +recorded history, and the banks have had ample time to acquire +consistency. + +It is certain, of course, that works of planting, of draining, or of +embankment, which required continuous energy, skill, and capital, +decayed after the coming of the Saxon pirates, and were not undertaken +again with full vigour until after the Norman Conquest. Even to-day +the work is not quite complete, though every year sees its +improvement: we are still unable to prevent regularly recurrent floods +in the flats round Oxford and below the gorge of the Chilterns; but +for the purpose of this argument the chief fact to be noted is that no +serious interruption to the approach of the river seems to have +existed in historic times. + +In pre-historic times many stretches of the river must have afforded +great difficulties of approach. The mouths of the Ock, the Coln, the +Kennet, the Mole, and the Wandle must each have been surrounded by a +marsh; all the plain between Oxford and the Hinkseys must have been +partially flooded, as must the upper reaches between Lechlade and +Witham (on one side or the other of the stream as it winds from the +southern to the northern rises of land), and as must also have been +the long stretch of the right bank below Reading. The highest spring +tides may have been felt as high up the stream as Staines, and both +the character of the surface and the contour lines permit one to +conjecture that the valley of the Wandle and several other inlets from +the lower river were flooded. Yet it is remarkable that in this +alluvium, more disturbed and dug than any other in Europe, little or +nothing of human relics, of boats, or of piles has been discovered, +and this absence of testimony also points to the remoteness of date +from which we should reckon the human control of the river. + +Here, as in many other conjectures concerning early history or +pre-history, one is convinced of that safe rule which, in Europe at +least, bids us never exaggerate the changes achieved by the last few +centuries or the contrast between recorded and unrecorded things. + +The tendency of most modern history in this country has been to +exaggerate such changes and such contrasts. In the greater part of +modern popular history care is taken to emphasise the difference +between the Middle and Dark Ages and the last few centuries. The +forests of England are represented as impassable, or nearly so; the +numbers of the population are grossly underestimated; the towns which +have had a continuous municipal existence of 1500 years are +represented as villages. + +The same spirit would tend to make of the Thames Valley in the Dark +and Middle Ages a very different landscape from that which we see +to-day. The floods were indeed more common and the passage of the +river somewhat more difficult; cultivation did not everywhere approach +the banks as it does now; and in two or three spots where there has +been a great development of modern building, notably at Reading, and, +of course, in London, the banks have been artificially strengthened. +But with these exceptions it may be confidently asserted that no belt +of densely inhabited landscape in England has changed so little in its +natural features as the Thames Valley. + +There are dozens of reaches upon the upper Thames where little is in +sight save the willows, the meadows, and a village church tower, which +present exactly the same aspect to-day as they did when that church +was first built. You might put a man of the fifteenth century on to +the water below St. John's Lock, and, until he came to Buscot Lock, he +would hardly know that he had passed into a time other than his own. +The same steeple of Lechlade would stand as a permanent landmark +beyond the fields, and, a long way off, the same church of Eaton +Hastings, which he had known, would show above the trees. + +There is another method of judging the comparative smallness of the +change, and it is a method which can be applied to many other parts of +England whose desertion or wildness in the Dark and early Middle Ages +has been too confidently asserted. That method is to note where human +settlements were and are found. With the exception of the long and +probably marshy piece between Radcot and Shifford the whole of the +upper Thames was dotted with such settlements, which, though small, +were quite close to the banks. Kelmscott is right up against the river +in what one would otherwise have imagined to be land too marshy for +building until modern times. Buscot, on the other bank, is not only +close to the river, but was a royal manor of high historical +importance in the eleventh century. Eaton Hastings is similarly placed +right against the bank; so was in its day the palace of Kempsford +above Lechlade, and so is the church of Inglesham between the two. All +the way down you have at intervals old stonework and old place names, +indicating habitation upon the upper Thames. + +A proper system of locks is comparatively modern on any European +river. The invention is even said (upon doubtful authority) to be as +late as the sixteenth century, but the method of regulating the waters +of a river by weirs is immemorial. + +We have no earlier record of weirs upon the Thames than that in Magna +Charta; but some such system must have existed from the time when men +first used the Thames in a regular manner for commerce. + +There is but one place left in which one can still reconstruct for +oneself the aspect of such weirs as were till but little more than a +century ago the universal method of canalising the river. Modern weirs +are merely adjuncts to locks, and are usually found upon a branch of +the stream other than that which leads up to the lock. But in this +weir the old fashion of crossing the whole stream is still preserved. +There is no lock, and when a boat would pass up or down the paddles of +the weir have to be lifted. It is, in a modern journey upon the upper +Thames, the one faint incident which the day affords, for if one is +going down the stream but few paddles are lifted, and the boat shoots +a small rapid, while to admit a boat going up stream the whole weir is +raised, and, even so, a great rush of water opposes the boat as it is +hauled through. Some years ago there were several of these weirs upon +the upper river. They have all been superseded by locks, and it is +probable that this last one will not long survive. + +Such weirs did certainly sufficiently regulate the stream as to make +its banks regularly habitable. If no local order, at least the +interest of villagers in their mills sufficed to the watching of the +stream. + +We have in the place names upon the Thames a further evidence of the +antiquity of its regulation, for, as will be seen in a moment, none +give proof of any important settlement later than the eleventh +century. + +These place names not only indicate a continuous and early settlement +of the banks, but also form in themselves a very interesting series, +whose etymology is a little section of the history of England. + +Of purely Celtic names very few survive in the sites of human +habitation, though the names of the waterways are almost universally +Celtic, as is the name of Thames itself. But it is probable that in +the Saxon names which line the river there are many corruptions of +Celtic words made to sound in the Saxon fashion. We cannot prove such +origins. We can surmise with justice that the "tons" and "dons" all up +and down England are Celtic terminations; they are almost unknown in +Germany. There is a somewhat pedantic guess, drawn (it is said) from +Iceland, that we got this national name ending from Scandinavia; so +universal a habit would hardly have arisen from an admixture of +Scandinavian blood received at the very close of the Dark Ages and +affecting but small patches of North England. Moreover, as against +this theory, there is the fact that quite half the Celtic place names +mentioned in our early history and in that of Gaul had a similar +termination. London itself is the best example. + +If, however, we neglect this termination, and consider the first part +of the words in which it occurs (as in Abing-don, Bensing-ton, Ea-ton, +etc.), we shall find that most of the place names are Saxon in form, +and some certainly Saxon in derivation. + +Thus Ea-ton, a name scattered all along the Thames, from its very +source to the last reaches, is the "tun" by the water or stream. +Clif-ton (as in Clifton-Hampden) is the "ton" on the cliff, a very +marked feature of the left bank of the river at this place. Of +Bensing-ton, now Benson, we know nothing, nor do we of the origin of +the word Abing-don. + +The names terminating in "ham" are, in their termination at least, +certainly Teutonic; and the same may be true of most of those--but not +all of those--ending in "ford." Ford may just as well be a Celtic as a +Teutonic ending, and in either case means a "passage," a "going." It +does not even in all cases indicate a shallow passage, though in the +great majority of cases on the Thames it does indicate a place where +one could cross the river on foot. Thus Wallingford was probably the +walled or embattled ford, and Oxford almost certainly the "ford of the +droves"--droves going north from Berkshire. One may say roughly that +all the "hams" were Teutonic save where one can put one's finger on a +probable Celtic derivation such as one has, for instance, in the case +of Witham, which should mean the settlement upon the "bend" or curve +of the river, a Celtic name with a Teutonic ending. + +One may also believe that the termination "or" or "ore" is Teutonic; +Cumnor may have meant "the wayfarers' stage," and Windsor probably +"the landing place on the winding of the river." + +Hythe also is thought to be Teutonic. One can never be quite sure with +a purely Anglo-Saxon word, that it had a German origin, but at least +Hythe is Anglo-Saxon, a wharf or stage; thus Bablock Hythe on the road +through the Roman town of Eynsham across the river to Cumnor and +Abingdon, cutting off the great bend of the river at Witham; so also +the town we now call "Maidenhead," which was perhaps the "mid-Hythe" +between Windsor and Reading. Some few certainly Celtic names do +survive: in the Sinodun Hills, for instance, above Dorchester; and the +first part of the name Dorchester itself is Celtic. At the very head +of the Thames you have Coates, reminding one of the Celtic name for +the great wood that lay along the hill; but just below, where the +water begins, to flow, Kemble and Ewen, if they are Saxon, are perhaps +drawn from the presence of a "spring." Cricklade may be all Celtic, or +may be partly Celtic and partly Saxon. London is Celtic, as we have +seen. And in the mass of places whose derivation it is impossible to +establish the primitive roots of a Celtic place name may very possibly +survive. + +The purely Roman names have quite disappeared, and, what is odd, they +disappeared more thoroughly in the Thames Valley than in any other +part of England. Dorchester alone preserves a faint reminiscence of +its Romano-Celtic name; but Bicester to the north, and the crossing of +the ways at Alchester, are probably Saxon in the first part at least. +Streatley has a Roman derivation, as have so many similar names +throughout England which stand upon a "strata" or "way" of British or +of Roman origin. But though "Spina" is still Speen, Ad Pontes, close +by, one of the most important points upon the Roman Thames, has lost +its Roman name entirely, and is known as Staines: the stones or stone +which marked the head of the jurisdiction of London upon the river. + +To return to the river regarded as a _boundary_, it is subject to this +rather interesting historical observation that it has been more of a +boundary in highly civilised than in barbaric times. + +One would expect the exact contrary to be the case. A civilised man +can cross a river more easily than a barbarian; and in civilised times +there are permanent bridges, where in barbaric times there would be +only fords or ferries. + +Nevertheless, it is true of the Thames, as of nearly every other +division in Europe, that it was much more of a boundary at the end of +the Roman Empire, and is more of a strict boundary to-day, than it was +during the Dark Ages, and presumably also before the Claudian +invasion. Thus we may conjecture with a fair accuracy that in the last +great ordering of boundaries within the Roman Empire, which was the +work of Diocletian, and so much of which still survives in our +European politics to-day (for instance, the boundary of Normandy), the +Thames formed the division between Southern and Midland Britain. It is +equally certain that it did _not_ form any exact division between +Wessex and Mercia. + +The estuary has, of course, always formed a division, and in the +barbarian period it separated the higher civilisation of Kent from +that of the East Saxons, who were possibly of a different race, and +certainly of a different culture. But the Thames above London Bridge +was not a true boundary until the civilisation of England began to +form, towards the close of the Dark Ages. It is perpetually crossed +and recrossed by contending armies, and the first result of a success +is to cause the conqueror to annex a belt from the farther bank to his +own territories. + +It is further remarkable that the one great definite boundary of the +Dark Ages in England--that which was established for a few years by +Alfred between his kingdom and the territory of the Danish +invaders--abandons the Thames above bridges altogether, and uses it as +a limitation in its estuarial part only, up to the mouth of the Lea. + +With the definition of exact frontiers for the English counties, +however, a process whose origin can hardly antedate the Norman +Conquest by many years, the Thames at once becomes of the utmost +importance as a boundary. + +Its higher and hardly navigable streams are not so used. The upper +Thames and its little tributaries for some ten miles from its source +are not only indifferent to county boundaries, but run through a +territory which has been singularly indefinite in the past. For +instance, the parish of Kemble, wherein the first waters now appear, +has been counted now in Gloucester, now in Wilts. But when these ten +miles are run, just after Castle Eaton Bridge, and not quite half way +between that bridge and the old royal palace at Kempsford, the Thames +becomes the line of division between two counties, and from there to +the sea it never loses its character of a boundary. + +It is a tribute to the great place of the river in history that there +is no other watercourse in England nor any other natural division of +which this is so universally true. + +The reason that the Thames, like so many other European boundaries, +has come late into the process of demarcation, and the reason that its +use as a limit is more apparent in civilised than in uncivilised +times, is simply the fact that limits and boundaries themselves are +never of great exactitude save in times of comparatively high +civilisation. It is when a complex system of law and a far-reaching +power of execution are present in a country that the necessity for +precise delimitation arises. In the barbaric period of England there +was no such necessity. Doubtless the men of Berkshire and the men of +Oxfordshire felt themselves to be in general divided by the stream; +but had we documents to hand (which, of course, we have not) it might +be possible to show that exceptional tracts, such as the isolated Hill +of Witham (which is much more influenced by Oxford than by Abingdon), +was treated as the land of Oxfordshire men in early times, or was +perhaps a territory in dispute; and something of the same sort may +have existed in the connection of Caversham with Reading. + +In this old age of our civilisation the exactitude of the boundary +which the Thames establishes is apparent in various survivals. Islands +now joined to the one bank and indistinguishable from the rest of the +shore are still annexed to the farther shore. Such a patch is to be +found at Streatley, geographically in Berkshire, legally in Oxford; +there is another opposite Staines, which Middlesex claims from Surrey. +In all, half-a-dozen or more such anomalous frontiers mark the course +of the old river. One arrested in process of formation may be seen at +Pentonhook. + +A boundary--that is, an obstacle to travel--has this further feature, +that the point at which it is crossed--that is, the point at which the +obstacle is surmounted--is certain to become a point of strategic and +often of commercial importance. So it is with the passes over +mountains and with the narrows of the sea, and so it is with fords and +bridges over rivers. So it is with the Thames. + +The energies both of travel and of war are driven towards and confined +in such spots. Fortresses arise and towns which they may defend. +Depots of goods are formed, the coining and the change of money are +established, secure meeting places for speculation are founded. + +Such passages over the Thames were of two sorts: there are first the +original fords, numerous and primeval; next the crossing places of the +great roads. + +Of the original fords we have already drawn up a list. Few have, +merely as fords, proved to be of strategic or commercial value. Oxford +may have been an early exception; and the difficult passage at +Abingdon founded a great monastery but no military post: the rise of +each was connected, as was Reading (which had no ford), with the +junction of a tributary. Wallingford alone, in its character of the +last easy and practicable ford down the river, had for centuries an +importance certainly due to geographical causes alone. Two principal +events of English history--the crossing of the Thames by the Conqueror +and the successful challenge of Henry II. to Stephen--depend upon the +site of this crossing. Long before their time it had been of capital +importance to the Saxon kings, so early as Offa and so late as Alfred. +If the bridges built at Abingdon in the fifteenth century had not +gradually deflected the western road, Wallingford might still count +the fourteen churches and the large population which it possessed for +so many centuries. + +Apart from Wallingford, however, the fords, as fords, did little to +build up towns or to determine the topography of English history. Of +more importance were the crossings of the great _roads_. + +When one remembers that the south of England was originally by far the +wealthiest part of the country, and when one considers the shape of +Ireland, it is evident that certain main tracks would lead from north +to south, and that most or all of these would be compelled to cross +the Thames Valley. We find four such primeval ways. + +One from the Straits of Dover in the south-east to the north-western +centres of the Welsh Marches and of Chester, the Port for Ireland, and +so up west of the Pennines. This came in Saxon times to be called the +_Watling Street_, a name common to other lesser lanes. + +Another, the converse to this, proceeded from the metal mines of the +south-west to the north-east until it struck and merged into other +roads running north and east of the Pennines. This came to be called +(as did other lesser roads) the _Fosse Way_. + +A third went more sharply west from the southern districts, and +connected them not with the Dee, but with the lower Severn. This track +ran from the open highlands of Hampshire through Newbury and the +Berkshire Hills to Gloucester, and was called (like other lesser +tracks) the _Ermine Street_. + +Finally, a fourth went in a great bend from these same highlands up +eastward to the coast of the North Sea in East Anglia. This was called +in Saxon times the _Icknield Way_. + +All these can be traced in their general direction throughout and for +most of their length minutely. All were forced to cross the Thames +Valley, which so nearly divided the whole of South England from east +to west. + +Of these four crossings the first in point of interest is that which +the _Ermine Street_ makes over the upper Thames at _Cricklade_. + +These old roads are of capital importance in the story of England, and +though historians have always recognised this there are a number of +features about them which have not been sufficiently noted--as, for +instance, that armies until perhaps the twelfth century perpetually +used them; for the great English roads, though their general track was +laid out in pre-historic times, were generally hardened, straightened, +and embanked by the Romans in a manner which permitted them to survive +right on into the early Middle Ages; and of these four all were so +hardened and strengthened, except the Icknield Way. Not one of them is +quite complete to-day, but the Ermine Street is perhaps the best +preserved. It is a good modern road all the way from Bayden to +Gloucester, with the exception of a very slight gap at this village of +Cricklade. + +It originally crossed the river half-a-mile below Cricklade Bridge, so +that the priory which stood on the left bank lay just to the south of +the old road. How and when the old bridge at Cricklade fell we have no +record, but one of the most important records of the Thames in +Anglo-Saxon history is connected with this passage of the river. + +The importance of Cricklade as a station upon the upper Thames does +not only proceed from its being the crossing place of a great road, it +is also the point when the first important tributary stream, the +Churn, joins the Thames. Above this junction the Thames nowadays is +hardly a stream; and even in the eighteenth century and earlier, +before the digging of the Severn and Thames Canal, it must have +depended on the weather whether there were any appreciable amount of +water in the upper part or not. It would probably be found, if records +could be examined, that the mills at Somerford Keynes were not +continually worked throughout the year, even when the supply of water +had been left undiminished by modern engineering. But when once the +Churn (which, as we have seen, has a larger volume of water than the +Thames) had fallen in at Cricklade the two formed a true river, with +depth in it always sufficient to support a boat, and with a fairly +strong stream, as also with a width sufficient for minor traffic; and +it is after Cricklade that you get a succession of villages and +churches dependent upon the river and standing close to its banks. + +But though this piece of hydrography has its importance the chief +meaning of Cricklade in history lay in the fact that it was the spot +where this Ermine Street on its way from the south country to the +Severn Valley got over the Thames, and the village connected with it +was entrenched certainly in Roman and probably in pre-Roman times. +This entrenchment may still be traced. + +The crossing of the Thames by the Icknield Way, unlike the crossing of +the Ermine Street at Cricklade, presents a problem. + +Cricklade, as we have seen, is a perfectly well-established site, and +we owe our certitude upon the matter to the fact that the Romans had +hardened and straightened what was probably an old British track. But +with the crossing of the Icknield Way no such complete certitude +exists, for the Icknield Way was but a vague barbarian track, often +tortuous in outline, confused by branching ways, and presenting all +the features of a savage trail. Doubtless that trail was used during +the four hundred years of the high Roman civilisation as a country +road, just as the similar trail, known as the "Pilgrims' Way" from +Winchester to Canterbury, was used in the same epoch. There are plenty +of Roman remains to be found along the track, and there is no doubt +that all such roads, even when the State was not at the expense of +hardening or straightening them, were in continual use before, as they +were in continual use after, the presence of Roman government in this +island; but the Icknield Way does not approach the river in a clear +and unmistakable manner as would a Roman or a Romanised road. It is on +this account that the exact point of its crossing has been debated. + +The problem is roughly this: the high and treeless chalk downs have +been used from the beginning of human habitation in these islands as +the principal highways, and any single traveller or tribe that desired +in early times to get from the Hampshire highlands to the east and +north of England must have begun by following the ridge of the +Berkshire Hills, and by continuing along the dry upland of the +Chiltern Hills, which continue this reach beyond the Thames. But the +spot at which the pre-historic crossing of the Thames was effected +cannot be determined by a simple survey of the place where the Thames +cuts through the chalk range. Wallingford up above this gorge has +certain claims, both because it was the lowest of the continually +practicable fords upon the river, and because its whole history points +to an immemorial antiquity. Higher still, Dorchester, on which every +historian of the Thames must dwell as perhaps the most interesting of +all the settlements upon the banks of the river, has also been +suggested. Just above Dorchester, on the Berkshire side, stands the +peculiar isolated twin height which forms so conspicuous a landmark +when one gazes over the plain from the summit of the Downs. Such +landmarks often helped to trace the old roads. And Dorchester has also +an immemorial antiquity--a pre-historic fortification upon the hills +above, and fortifications, probably historic, on the Oxford bank +below, but Dorchester has no ford. + +When all the evidence is weighed it seems more probable that the +regular crossing from the Berkshire Hills to the Chilterns was +effected at Streatley. + +Of this there are several proofs. In the first place, the name of the +place suggests the passage of some great way. Place names of this sort +are invariably found upon some one of the principal roads of England. +In the second place, a lane bearing the traditional name of the +Icknield Way can be traced to a point very near the river and the +village. Another can be recovered beyond the river. The name would +hardly have been so continued--even with considerable gaps--both upon +the Oxfordshire and the Berkshire side unless the place of regular +crossing had been here. + +Within a mile or two of Streatley this lane begins to descend the side +of the Berkshire Downs. Just before it falls into the Wantage Road and +is lost it has begun to curl round the shoulder of the steep hill; but +there is no way of telling at what precise spot it would strike the +river upon the Berkshire side, because a thousand years or so of +building, cultivation, and other changes have obliterated every trace +of it. + +Luckily, we have some indication upon the farther bank. A way can then +be traced here as a lane (and in the gaps as a right of way, as a +path, or sometimes only by its general direction) for some miles on +the Oxfordshire side as it approaches Goring and the river coming from +the Chilterns. And we know the point at which it strikes the village. +This point is at the Sloane Hotel close to the railway; the inn is +actually built upon the old road. Beyond the railway the track is +continued in the lane which leads on past the schoolhouse to the old +ferry, where there was presumably in Roman times a ford. If we accept +this track we can conjecture that the vicarage of Streatley, upon the +Berkshire bank, stands upon the continuation of the Way, and give the +place where the pre-historic road crossed the river with tolerable +certitude, though it is, I believe, impossible to recover the +half-mile or so which lies between Streatley vicarage and the point +where the Wantage Road and the Icknield Way separated upon the +hillside above. + +If the ford lay here the site was certainly well chosen, just below a +group of islands which broadened the stream and made it at once +shallower and less swift, acting somewhat as a natural weir above the +crossing. + +The third crossing place of a great pre-historic road, that of the +Watling Street, is believed to correspond with the line of that very +ugly suspension bridge which runs from Lambeth to the Horseferry Road +in Westminster. This is, according to the most probable conjecture, +the place at which the great road which ran from the Straits of Dover +to the north-western ports of the island crossed the Thames. + +Here, of course, there could be no question of a ford; there can only +have been a ferry. Such a ferry existed throughout the Middle Ages and +up to the building of Westminster Bridge, and produced a large revenue +for the Archbishop of Canterbury. The memory of it is preserved in the +name of the street upon the Middlesex shore. The Watling Street is +fairly fixed in all its journey from the coast to the Archbishop's +palace on the banks of the river. On the Middlesex shore it is lost, +but it may be conjectured to have run in a curve somewhere in the +neighbourhood of Buckingham Palace up on the higher ground west of the +Tybourne, parallel with or perhaps identical with Park Lane until we +find it certainly again at the Marble Arch, whence in the form of the +Edgware Road it begins a clear track across North-Western England. + +As for the Fosse Way, it only just touches the valley of the Thames. +It crosses the line of the river in a high embankment a mile or so +below its traditional source at Thames head, but above the point where +the first water is seen. A small culvert running under that embankment +takes the flood water in winter down the hollow, but no longer covers +a regular stream. + +Besides these four crossings of the old British ways above London +Bridge there is the crossing of the Roman Road at Staines, which may +or may not represent a passage older than the Roman occupation. We +have no proof of its being older. The river is deep, and, unless the +broken causeway on the Surrey shore is regarded as the remains of +British work, there is no trace of a pre-Roman track in the +neighbourhood. + +The crossing at Staines was the main bridge over the middle river +during the Roman occupation; no other spot on the banks (except London +Bridge) is _certainly_ the site of a Roman bridge. + +But apart from these there are two unsolved problems in connection +with the roads across the Thames Valley in Roman times. The first +concerns the passage of the upper Thames south of Eynsham; the second +concerns the road which runs south from Bicester and Alchester. + +As to the first of these, we know that the plain lying to the north of +the Thames between the Cotswolds and the Chilterns was thoroughly +occupied. We have also in the Saxon Chronicle a legendary account of +the occupation of four Roman towns in this plain by the Saxon +invaders. By what avenue did this wealthy and civilised district +communicate with the wealthy and civilised south? + +It is a question which will probably never be answered. There is no +trace remaining of Roman bridges; perhaps nothing was built save of +wood. + +The obvious short-cut from the Roman town of Eynsham across the Witham +peninsula to Abingdon bears no signs of a ford approached by Roman +work or of a bridge, nor any record of such things. + +As to the second question, the road from Bicester southward runs +straight to Dorchester. At Dorchester, as we have seen, there was no +ford, though just below it a Roman ferry has been guessed at. + +There may have been a country road running down along the left or +north bank of the river to the pre-historic crossing place at Goring +and Streatley; but if there was, no trace of it remains, save perhaps +in the two place names North Stoke and South Stoke. + +A barrier has yet another quality in history, and that quality is +perhaps the most important of all. In so far as it is an obstacle it +is also a means of defence. + +All the great rivers of Europe prove this. They are studded with lines +of strongholds standing either right upon their banks or close by; and +various as is the character of the different great rivers in their +physical conformation, few or none have been unable to furnish sites +for fortification. For instance, the slow rivers of Northern France, +running for the most part through a flat country, were able to afford +fortresses for the Gaulish clans in their numerous islands; the origin +of Melun and Paris, for instance, was of this kind. The sharp rocks +along the Rhone became platforms for castle after castle: Beaucaire, +Tarascon, Aries, Avignon, and twenty others all of this sort. + +The Thames, curiously enough, forms an exception; it is an exception +even in the list of English rivers, most of which can show a certain +number of fortifications along their banks. + +In the whole course of the great river above London there are but +three examples of fortification, or at any rate of fortification +directly dependent upon the river. Of these the first, at Lechlade, is +conjectural; the second, at Windsor, came quite late in history, and +the only one which seems to have been a primeval fortified site was +Dorchester. + +There were, of course, plenty of towns and castles susceptible of +defence. At one time or another every important settlement upon the +Thames was capable of resistance: Oxford was walled, Wallingford was a +fortress, Abingdon or Reading could be defended. But these were all, +so to speak, artificial. The settlement came first, and after the +settlement the necessity of guarding it from attack, and it was so +guarded, not by natural means, but by human construction. The castle +at Oxford, for instance, stood upon a mound of earth raised by human +work. The only considerable place in which the river itself suggested +defence from the earliest times appears to have been at Dorchester. + +The curious importance of Dorchester in the very origins of English +history and the still more curious way in which it sinks out of sight +for generations, to revive again in the tenth century, is one of the +puzzles of the history of the Thames. + +It is useless to pursue an archæological discussion as to the origin +of the place, and still more useless to try and determine why, though +certainly the most easily defended, it should originally have been the +_only_ heavily fortified spot in the whole of the valley. We know that +it was Roman: we know that it was a place of pre-historic +fortification before the Romans came: we know that a Roman road ran +northward towards Bicester from it, and we also know, or at least we +can make a very probable guess, that though it was continuously +important, and that the interest of early history is continually +returning to it, it can never have been large. + +Perhaps the best conjecture upon the origin of Dorchester is that the +stronghold grew up as an out-lier to the great fort over the river at +the top of Sinodun Hill. The exact and regular peninsula between the +bend in the Thames and the mouth of the Thames is obviously suited for +fortification: the tributary flows just to the east of this peninsula, +exactly parallel with the main river beyond, and covers the peninsula +not only with a stream on its east flank, but with a marsh at the +mouth. One can imagine that the conspicuous heights of the Sinodun +Hills were held, from the very beginning of human habitation in this +district, as a permanent fortress, into which the neighbouring tribes +could retire during war, and one can imagine that when the river was +low in summer, and perhaps fordable, the spit of land before it, which +formed an exception to the marshes round about, needed to be protected +as a sort of bastion beyond the stream. This theory will at least +account for the two great ridges of earthwork going from one water to +the other and completely cutting off the peninsula, since it is agreed +these works are earlier than the Roman invasion. Whatever its origin, +the part which Dorchester plays in the early history of England is +most remarkable. + +The conversion of England was effected by a process of which we know +far more than of any other series of national events before the Danish +invasions. That process is more exactly recorded, less legendary, and +more consecutively told because it was (to all contemporary watchers) +the capital event of the time, and to all posterity the one thing that +explained men to themselves. + +We know also that, not so much the nucleus of the conversion as the +secure vantage from which it marched outward, was the triangle of +Kent. We can believe that the civilisation of Kent was something quite +separate from the rest of the south-eastern portion of England, and +that the many customary survivals which are, to this day, native to +the county are remaining proofs of its unique character among the +petty kingdoms during the mythical period between the withdrawal of +the Romans and the arrival of St. Augustine. + +The early hold of civilisation upon Kent is explicable. But when the +influence of Rome begins to spread again over England you have +distances covered which are astounding; there occur sporadic incidents +of the highest importance in spots where they would be the least +expected. Among the very first of these is the first baptism of a +West-Saxon King. + +It was certainly at Dorchester that this baptism took place and the +choice of the site, little as we know of the village or city, has +filled every historian with conjecture. Up to the very landing of St. +Augustine we are still dependent upon what is half legendary and very +meagre record. The chief point indeed as regards this part of the +country is the tradition of a battle fought against the British at +Bedford by the West Saxons and the occupation of "four towns." This +success was put down by tradition to the year 571, but everything was +still so dark that even this success is a legend. + +Within the lifetime of a man you have the baptism of Cynegil, the king +of the West Saxons, at Dorchester, and that baptism takes place less +than forty years after the complete submission of Kent. + +The Chronicle, in mentioning this date, is no longer upon legendary +ground: it is dealing with an event which was kept on record by +civilised men who understood the art of writing, who could speak +Latin, who could bear their records to Rome, and, what is more, the +fact and the date are confirmed by the Venerable Bede. + +It is imagined by some authorities that the fulness of the story and +its apparent accuracy depend upon access to some early ecclesiastical +record preserved at Dorchester and now lost. At any rate, Dorchester, +whether because it had been, up till then, an unconquered Roman town, +or for whatever other reason, becomes at once the ecclesiastical +centre and one to which, even when this baptism takes place, the King +of Northumbria was at the pains of travelling southward to, to be +present as sponsor for the new Christian. + +The story has a special historical interest, because it shows how very +vague were the boundaries and the occupancies of the little wandering +chieftains of this period. It need hardly be pointed out that no +regular division into shires can have existed so early, and, as we +have already insisted, the Thames itself was not a permanent boundary +between any two definable societies, yet those who regard the +Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as historical would show one Penda had appeared +a few years before as the chief of a group of men with a new name, the +Mercians--probably a loose agglomeration of tribes occupying the +middle strip of England; a group whose dialect and measures of land +are, perhaps, the ancestors of the modern Midland dialect and most of +our measures. Cynegil's baptism could not have taken place in +territory controlled by Penda, for he was the champion of all the +Anti-Christian forces of the time, and though he had just defeated the +West Saxons, and (according to a later legend) pushed back their +boundary to the line of the Thames, his action, like that of all the +little kings of the barbaric age in Britain, can have been no more +than a march with a few thousands, a battle, and a retreat. In a word, +the true and verifiable story of Cynegil's baptism is one of the many +valuable instances which help to prove the unreliability of that part +of the early Chronicle which does not deal with ecclesiastical +affairs. + +The priest who received Cynegil into the Church was one Birinus, an +Italian, and perhaps a Milanese; he appears, from his first presence +in Dorchester, to have fixed the seat of a bishopric in that village. +His reasons for choosing the spot are as impossible to discover as are +the origins of any other of the characteristics of the place. It was, +in any case, as were so many of the sees of the Dark Ages, a frontier +see--a sort of ecclesiastical fortress, pushed out to the very limits +of the occupation of the enemy. + +Whether Dorchester continued to be a bishopric from this moment +onwards we cannot tell; but no less than three hundred years +afterwards--in the tenth century--it appears again, and this time as +the centre of the gigantic diocese which stretched throughout the +whole of Middle England and right up to the Humber. The Conquest came, +the diocese was cut up just afterwards, and the seat of the bishop +finally removed from the village to Lincoln, and with the Conquest the +importance of Dorchester as a fortified position, an importance which +it had held for untold centuries, began to decline in favour of +Oxford. + +The artificial chain of fortifications up the Thames Valley, which had +their origin under William the Conqueror, will call our attention to +many other spots besides Oxford as these pages proceed, but it is +interesting at this moment to consider Oxford in its early military +aspect, when it succeeded Dorchester, and came forward as the chief +stronghold of the upper Thames Valley above Wallingford. + +The gravel bank north of the ford, by which what is presumed to have +been the drovers' road from south to north crossed the river, had +supported a very considerable population, and had attained a very +considerable civil importance, long before the Conquest. It is +difficult to believe that any new, especially that any extensive, +centres of population grew up in Anglo-Saxon Britain, upon sites +chosen by the barbarians. The Romans had colonised and densely +populated every suitable spot. The ships' crews of open pirate vessels +had no qualities suitable to the founding of a town; and when there is +no direct evidence it is always safer of the two conjectures in +English topography to believe that any spot which we find inhabited +and flourishing in the Anglo-Saxon period, even at its close, was not +a town developed during the Dark Ages but one which the pirates, when +they first entered the island, had found already inhabited and +flourishing, though sometimes perhaps more British than Roman. But +though this is always the more historical way of looking at the +probable origin of an English town it must be admitted that there is +no direct evidence of any town upon the site of Oxford before the +Danish invasions, and the first mention of the place by name is as +late as eleven years after Alfred's death, when it is recorded that +Edward, his son, "took possession of London and of Oxford and of all +lands in obedience thereunto." + +This first mention, slight as it is, characterises Oxford as being the +town of the upper Thames Valley at the opening of the tenth century, +and we have what is usually a good basis for history--that is, +ecclesiastical tradition and a monastic charter--to show us that a +considerable monastery had existed upon the spot for a century and a +half before this first mention in the Chronicle. + +There still exists in the modern town, to the west of it, a large +artificial mound, one of those which have been discovered here and +there up and down England, and which are characteristic of a late +Saxon method of fortification. Before the advent of the Normans these +mounds were defended by palisades only, and were used as but +occasional strongholds. It may be conjectured that this Saxon work at +Oxford dates from somewhat the same period as does the first mention +of the town in the Chronicle. Twelve years later Alfred's grandson is +mentioned as dying at Oxford. It may be presumed that his death would +indicate the presence of a royal palace. We hear nothing more of this +town during the remainder of the tenth century, but we have a long +account in what is probably an accurate record of the rising of the +townsmen against the Danes in the beginning of the eleventh. The +Scandinavians made their last stand in the church of the monastery, +and the townsmen burnt it. Five years later a new host of Danes took +and burnt the town; and four years later again, Sweyn, in his terrible +conquering march, captured it, after very little resistance, in the +same year in which he took the crown of England. The brief episode of +Edmund Ironside again brings the town into history: he slept here upon +his way to London in the late autumn of 1016, and here, very probably, +he was killed. From that moment the fortress (as it now certainly was) +enters continually into that last anarchy which was only cured by a +second advent of European civilisation and the success of its armies +at Hastings. + +The great national council of 1018, which may be called the settlement +of Canute, was held at Oxford, and in 1036 another national council, +of even greater importance, which was held to decide upon the +succession of Canute's heirs, was again held at Oxford, and it was at +Oxford that, four years later, the first Harold died. + +Meanwhile, in the near neighbourhood of the city, at Islip, Queen Emma +had, half a lifetime earlier, borne a son, who, after the death of all +these Danes, remained the legitimate heir to the English throne. Islip +was, most probably, not royal, but a private manor of the Queen's, +which descended to the Confessor, and it is interesting to note in +passing that it was his gift of this land and of its church to +Westminster Abbey which originated the present connection between the +two--a connection which has now, therefore, behind it nearly nine +hundred years of continuity. + +In the few hurried months before Hastings the last of the great +Anglo-Saxon meetings in the town was summoned. It was held at the end +of October, 1065, and was that in which Harold's policy was agreed to. +Within twelve months Harold himself was dead, and a victorious +invading army was marching upon Wallingford. + +In all this record it is clear that Oxford held a continually growing +place in the life of England, and especially as a stronghold of +whoever might be governing England. What battle was fought there, if +any, or how the Normans got it, we do not know, but it is presumed +that it suffered in the fighting because the number and value of its +houses is given in the subsequent Survey as having fallen very largely +indeed. + +It is always well, whenever one comes across the Domesday Survey in +history, to remember that the whole record is very imperfectly +understood. We do not know quite what was being measured: we do not +know, for instance, in the case of a town like Oxford, whether all the +inhabited houses were counted; or whether only those who by custom +gave taxes were counted; nor can we be certain of the meaning of the +word _vastus_, save that it has some connection either with +destruction or dilapidation, or lack of occupation, or, possibly, even +remission of taxation. But the theory of a sack is not without +foundation, for we know that in the case of York (which was certainly +sacked by Tostig in 1065 and then again by William in 1068) what is +probably a destruction of a similar kind, though a rather greater one, +is expressed in similar words. + +Whether, however, the number given in the town list of the Conqueror +is or is not due to the destruction wrought by the Conquest we must be +very careful not to estimate the population of that time upon the +basis to-day such a list would afford. The figures of Domesday stand +for a much larger population than most historians have hitherto been +inclined to grant, as may be shown by considerations to which I shall +only allude here, as I shall have to repeat them more fully upon a +later page when I speak of urban life upon the Thames. The nomadic +element in the life of the early Middle Ages; the smallness of the +space allotted for sleeping; the large amount of time spent out of +doors; the great proportion of collegiate institutions, not only +monastic but military; the life in common which spread as a habit to +so many parts of society beyond the monastic; the large families which +(from genealogy) we can trust to be as much a character of the early +Middle Ages as they, were not the character of the later Middle Ages, +the crowd of semi-servile dependants which would be discovered in any +large house--all these make us perfectly safe in multiplying by at +least ten the number of households counted in the Survey if we would +get at the population of those households, and it must be remembered +that the houses counted, even in those parts of England which were +fairly thoroughly surveyed, can only represent a _minimum_ number, +whatever was the method of counting. The lists may in some instances +include every single household in a place, though from what we know of +the diversity of local custom this is unlikely. In most places it is +far more likely that the list covered but some portion that by custom +owed a public tax, and this is especially true of the towns. + +After Dorchester, which was the first of the fortresses of the Thames, +so far as we have any knowledge, and after Oxford, which came next, +and appears to have been founded since the beginning of recorded +history in these islands, there remain to be considered the other +strongholds which held the line of the valley. + +It would be easy to multiply these if one were to consider all +fortifications whatsoever connected with the general strategic line +formed by the Thames, but such a catalogue would exceed the boundaries +set to this book. It is proposed to consider only those which were +strictly connected with the passage of the stream, and of such there +are but three besides Dorchester and Oxford, for that at Cricklade is +doubtful, and in any case determines a passage which could be always +outflanked upon either side, while the great fortress of the Tower, +lying as it does upon the estuarial Thames below bridges, does +directly protect a highway. + +These three strongholds directly connected with the inland river are +Wallingford, Reading and Windsor, and of the three Wallingford and +Windsor were more directly military: the last, Reading, appears to +have been but an adjunct to a large and civil population; the fourfold +quality of Reading in the history of the Thames, as a civil +settlement, as a religious centre, as a stronghold, and as one of the +very few examples of modern industrial development in the valley, will +be considered later. We will take each of the three strongholds in +their order down stream. + +What determined the importance of Wallingford is not easy to fix +nowadays. The explanation more usually given to the great part which +this crossing of the Thames played in the early history of Britain is +the double one that it was the lowest continuously practicable ford +over the river, and that it held the passage of the great road going +from London to the west. + +Now it is true that any traveller making from London to Bath, or the +Mendip Hills, and the lower Severn would, on the whole, find his most +direct road to be along the Vale of the White Horse, but the +convenience of this line through Wallingford may easily be +exaggerated, especially its convenience for men in early times before +the valleys were properly drained. Though the ford at Abingdon was +more difficult than the ford at Wallingford, yet the line through +Abingdon westward along the Farringdon road was certainly shorter than +the line through Wantage. Whether the old habit, inherited from +pre-historic times, of following the chalk ridge had produced a +parallel road just at the foot of that ridge and so had made +Wallingford, Wantage, and all the southern edge of the Vale of the +White Horse the natural road to the west, or whether it was that the +great run of travel ran, when once the Thames had been crossed at +Wallingford, slightly south-west towards Bath, it is certain that the +Wallingford and Wantage line is the line of travel in early history. + +There is no record, and but very little basis for conjecture, as to +the origin of the fortifications at Wallingford. Not much is left of +them, and though there is some Roman work in the place it is work +which has evidently been handled over and over again. It is certainly +somewhat late in English history that this "Walled Ford" is heard +of--with the tenth century. Its first castle is, of course, Norman, +and contemporary with that of Oxford--or rather a year later than that +at Oxford, and from the Conquest onward it remains royal. From that +time, also, it is perpetually appearing in English history. It was the +place of confinement of Edward I. when, as Prince Edward, he was the +prisoner of Leicester. It was the attempt to succour that prisoner +which led to his removal to Kenilworth, and finally to that escape +which permitted him to fight the battle of Evesham. Wallingford passed +to Gaveston in Edward the Second's reign, and, remaining continually +within the gift of the crown, to the Despenser in the succeeding +generation, and finally to Isabella, who declared her policy from +within the walls of Wallingford when she returned to the country. It +was next held by her favourite, Mortimer, and we afterwards find it, +throughout the fourteenth century, a sort of appanage of the +heir-apparent, and especially of the Duchy of Cornwall, to which it +was attached until the Reformation. It was for a moment under the +custody of Chaucer's son: it nursed the childhood of Henry VI., but +with the beginning of the next century it had already lost its +importance. After half that century had passed the castle was already +falling into disrepair; much of the masonry of the town and of the +fortress, lying squared and convenient to the river, had been moved +down stream for the new buildings at Windsor, and when, nearly a +century later again, the Civil War broke out, it was not until after +some considerable repair that the place could pretend to stand a +siege. It fell to the Parliament, and, before the Restoration, was +carefully destroyed, as were throughout England so many foundations of +her past by the orders of Oliver Cromwell. + +It has often been remarked with surprise that cities and strongholds +once densely inhabited and heavily built can disappear and leave no +material trace to posterity. That they do so disappear should give +pause to those historians who are perpetually using the negative +argument, and pretending that the lack of material evidence is +sufficient to disturb a strong and early tradition. Those who have +watched the process by which abandoned buildings become a quarry will +easily understand how all traces of habitation disappear. +Three-quarters of what was once Orford, much of what once was Worsted, +has gone, and up and down the country-sides to-day one could witness, +even in our strictly disciplined civilisation, the removal, by +purchase or theft, of abandoned material. + +The whole of Wallingford has suffered this fate--the mound, presumably +artificial, upon which the first keep stood, and which was, probably, +a palisade mound of Anglo-Saxon times, remains, but there is upon it +no remaining masonry. + +Next down stream of the points with a strategic importance in English +history comes Reading. But the strategic importance of Reading was not +produced by the town's possessing a site of national moment: it was +produced only by local topography. Reading was never (to use a modern +term) a "nodal point" in the communications of England. + +It may be generally laid down that mere strength of position is noted +and greedily seized in barbaric times alone. For mere strength of +position is a mere refuge. A strong position (I do not speak, of +course, of tactical and temporary, but of permanent, positions), +chosen only because it is strong, will save you during a critical +short period from the attack of a fierce, unthoughtful, and easily +wearied enemy--such as are all barbarians; but it cannot _of itself_ +fall into a general scheme of defence, nor, _simply because it is +strong_, intercept the advance of an adversary or support a line of +opposition and resistance. Position is always of _advantage_ to a +fortress, and, in all but highly civilised times, a _necessity_--as we +shall see when we come to discuss Windsor--but it is not sufficient. A +fortress, when society is organised, and when the feud of one small +tribe or family against another is not to be feared, derives its +principal value from a command of established communications, and +established aggregations of power--especially of economic power. Towns +alone can feed and house armies; by roads and railways alone can +armies proceed. + +There are, indeed, examples of a chain of positions so striking that, +from their strength alone, a strategic line imposes itself; but these +are very rare. Another, and much commoner, exception to the rule I +have stated is the growth of what was once a barbaric stronghold, +chosen merely for its position, into a larger centre of population, +through which communications necessarily lead, and in which stores and +other opportunities for armies can be provided. Such places often +preserve a continuity of strategic importance, from civilised, through +barbaric, to civilised times again. Laon is an excellent instance of +this, and so is Constantine another, and so is Luxembourg a +third--indeed they are numerous. + +But, in spite of--or, rather, as is proved by--these exceptions the +fortresses of an organised people are found at the conjunction of +their communications, or at places (such as straits or passes) which +have the monopoly of communication, or they are identical with great +aggregations of population and opportunity, or at least they are +situated in spots from which such aggregations can be commanded. +Position is always of value, but only as an adjunct. + +Now Reading, save, perhaps, in barbaric times, when the Thames was the +main highway of Southern England, occupied no such vantage until the +nineteenth century. To-day, with its large population, its provision +of steam and electrical power, and above all, its command of the main +junction between the southern and middle railways, Reading would again +prove of primary strategic importance if we still considered warfare +with our equals as a possibility. But during all previous centuries, +since the Dark Ages, Reading was potentially, as it is still actually, +civilian; and, indeed, it is as the typical great town of the Thames +Valley that it will be treated later in these pages. + +The long and narrow peninsula between the Kennet and the Thames was an +ideal place for defence. It needed but a trench from the one marsh to +the other to secure the stronghold. But though this was evident to +every fighter, though it is as such a stronghold that Reading is +mentioned first in history, yet the advantage was never permanently +held. Armies hold Reading, fall back on the town, fight near it, and +raid it: but it is never a great fortress in the intervals of wars, +because, while Oxford commanded the Drovers' Road, Wallingford the +western road, and Windsor (as we shall see in a moment) London itself, +Reading neither held a line of supply nor an accumulation of supply, +and was, therefore, civilian, though it was nearly as easy to hold as +Windsor, as easy as Dorchester, its parallel, easier than Oxford, and +far easier than Wallingford, which had, indeed, no natural defences +whatsoever. + +Proceeding with the stream, there is no further stronghold till we +come to Windsor. + +Even to-day, and in an England that has lost hold of her past more +than has any rival nation, Windsor seems to the passer-by to possess a +meaning. That hill of stones, sharp though most of its modern outlines +are, set upon another hill for a pedestal, gives, even to a modern +patriot, a hint of history; and when it is seen from up-stream, +showing its only noble part, where the Middle Ages still linger, it +has an aspect almost approaching majesty. + +The creator of Windsor was the Conqueror. The artificial mound on +which the Round Tower stands may or may not be pre-historic. The +slopes of the hill were inhabited, like nearly all our English sites, +by the Romans, and by the savages before and after the Romans; but the +welter of the Saxon dark ages did not use this abrupt elevation for a +stronghold. What military reasoning led William of Falaise to discern +it at once and there to build his keep? + +In order to answer that question let us consider what other points in +the valley were at his disposal. + +Reading we have discussed. The chalk spurs in the gorge by Goring and +Pangbourne are not isolated (as is that of Chateau Gaillard, for +instance), and are dominated by the neighbouring heights. The +escarpment opposite Henley offered a good site for an eleventh-century +castle--but the steep cliff of Windsor had this advantage beyond all +the others--that it was at exactly the right distance from London. +Windsor is the warden of the capital. + +If the reader will look at a modern geological map, he will see from +Wallingford to Bray a great belt of chalk in which the trench of the +Thames is carved. Alluvials and gravels naturally flank the stream, +but chalk is the ground rock of the whole. To the west and to the east +of this belt he will notice two curious isolated patches, detached +from the main body of the chalk. That to the west forms the twin +height of the Sinodun Hills, rising abruptly out of the green sand; +that to the east is the knoll of Windsor, rising abruptly out of the +thick and damp clay. It is a singular and unique patch, almost exactly +round, and as a result of some process at which geology can hardly +guess the circle is bisected by the river. If ever the chalk of the +north bank rose high it has, in some manner, been worn down. That on +the south bank remains in a steep cliff with which everyone who uses +the river is familiar. It was the summit of this chalk hill piercing +through the clays that the Conqueror noted for his purpose, and he +was, to repeat, determined (we must presume) by the distance from +London. + +The command of a great town, especially a metropolis, is but partially +effected by a fortress situated within its limits. In case of a +popular revolt, and still more in case the resources of the town are +held by an enemy, such a fortress will be penned in and find itself +suffering a siege far more rigorous than any that could be laid in an +open country-side. On this account the urban fortresses of the Middle +Ages are to be found (at least in large cities) lying upon an extreme +edge of the walls and reposing, as far as possible, upon uninhabited +land or upon water, or both. The two classic examples of this rule +are, of course, the Tower and the Louvre, each standing down stream, +just outside the wall, and each reposing on the river. + +But in an active time even this precaution fails, and that for two +reasons. First, the growth of the town makes any possible garrison of +the fortress too small for the force with which it might have to cope; +and, secondly, this same growth physically overlaps the exterior +fortress; suburbs grow up beyond the wall, and the castle finds itself +at last embedded in the town. Thus within a hundred and fifty years of +its completion the Louvre was but a residence, wholly surrounded, save +upon the water front, by the packed houses within the new wall of +Marcel. + +A tendency therefore arises, more or less early according to local +circumstance, to establish a fortified base within striking distance +of the civilian centre which it is proposed to command; and striking +distance is a day's march. The strict alliance between Paris and the +Crown forbade such an experiment to the Capetian Monarchy, but, even +in that case, the truth of the general military proposition involved +is proved by the power which Montlhéry possessed until the middle of +the twelfth century of doing mischief to Paris. In the case of London, +and of a population the wealthier of whom were probably for some years +hostile to the Conqueror, the immediate necessity for an exterior base +presented itself, and though the distance from London was indeed +considerable, Windsor, under the circumstances of that moment, proved +the most suitable point at which to establish the fortress. + +Some centuries earlier or later the exact point for fortification +would have lain at _Staines_, and Windsor may be properly regarded as +a sort of second best to Staines. + +The great Roman roads continued until the twelfth century to be the +main highways of the barbaric and mediæval armies. We know, for +instance, from a charter of Westminster's, that Oxford Street was +called, in the last years of the Saxon Dynasty, "Via Militaria," and +it was this road which was still in its continuation the marching road +upon London from the south and west: from Winchester, which was still +in a fashion the capital of England and the seat of the Treasury. Now +Staines marks the spot where this road crossed the river. It was a +"nodal point," commanding at once the main approach to London by land +and the main approach by water. + +But there is more than this in favour of Staines. I have already said +that a fortress commanding a civilian population--an ancient fortress, +at least--can do so with the best effect at the distance of an easy +march. Now Staines is not seventeen miles from Tyburn, and a good road +all the way: Windsor is over twenty, and for the last miles there was +no good, hard road in the time of its foundation. + +But, though Staines had all these advantages, it was rejected from a +lack of position. Position was still of first importance, and remained +so till the seventeenth century. The new Castle, like so many hundred +others built by the genius of the same race, must stand on a steep +hill even if the choice of such a site involved a long, instead of a +reasonable, day's march. Windsor alone offered that opportunity, and, +standing isolated upon the chalk, beyond the tide, accessible by water +and by road, became to London what, a hundred years later, Chateau +Gaillard was to become for a brief space to Rouen. + +The choice was made immediately after the Conquest. In the course of +the Dark Ages whatever Roman farms clustered here had dwindled, the +Roman cemetery was abandoned, the original name of the district +forgotten, and the Saxon "Winding Shore" grew up at Old Windsor, two +or three miles down stream. Old Windsor was not a borough, but it was +a very considerable village. It paid dues to its lords to the amount +of some twenty-five loads of corn and more--say 100 quarters--and it +had at least 100 houses, since that number is set down in Domesday, +and, as we have previously said, Domesday figures necessarily express +a minimum. We may take it that its population was something in the +neighbourhood of 1000. + +This considerable place was under the lordship of the abbots of +Westminster. It had been a royal manor when Edward the Confessor came +to the throne; he gave it to his new great abbey. When the Conqueror +needed the whole neighbourhood for his new purpose he exchanged it +against land in Essex, which he conveyed to the abbey, and he added +(for the manorial system was still flexible) half a hide from Clewer +on the west side of the Windsor territory. This half-hide gave him his +approach to the platform of chalk on which he designed to build. + +He began his work quickly. Within four years of Hastings, and long +before the conquest of the Saxon aristocracy was complete, he held his +Court at Windsor and summoned a synod there, and, though we do not +know when the keep was completed, we can conjecture, from the rapidity +with which all Norman work was done, that the walls were defensible +even at that time. Of his building perhaps nothing remains. The forest +to the south, with its opportunities for hunting, and the increasing +importance of London (which was rapidly becoming the capital of +England) made Windsor of greater value than ever in the eyes of his +son. Henry I. rebuilt or greatly enlarged the castle, lived in it, was +married in it, and accomplished in it the chief act of his life, when +he caused fealty to be sworn to his daughter, Matilda, and prepared +the advent of the Angevin. When the civil wars were over, and the +treaty between Henry II. and Stephen was signed, Windsor ("Mota de +Windsor"), though it does not seem to have stood a siege, was counted +the second fortress of the realm. + +Of the exact place of Windsor in mediæval strategy, of its relations +to London and to Staines, and all we have just mentioned, as also of +the great importance of cavalry in the Middle Ages, no better example +can be quoted than the connected episode of April-June 1215, which may +be called--to give it a grandiose name--the Campaign of Magna Charta. +It further illustrates points which should never be forgotten in the +reading of early English history, though they are too particular for +the general purpose of this book--to wit, the way in which London +increased in military value throughout the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries; the strategic importance of the few old national roads as +late as the reign of John, and that power of the defensive, even in +the field, which made general and strategic, as opposed to tactical, +attack so cautious, decisive action so rare, and when it _was_ +decisive, so thorough. + +This book is no place wherein to develop a theme which history will +confirm with regard to the aristocratic revolt against the vice and +the genius of the third Plantagenet. The strategy of the quarrel alone +concerns us. + +When John's admirable diplomacy had failed (as diplomacy will under +the test of arms), and when his Continental allies had been crushed at +Bouvines in the summer of 1214, the rebels in England found their +opportunity. The great lords, especially those of the north, took oath +in the autumn to combine. The accounts of this conspiracy are +imperfect, but its general truth may be accepted. John, who from this +moment lay perpetually behind walls, held a conference in the Temple +during the January of 1215--to be accurate, upon the Epiphany of that +year--and he struck a compact with the conspirators that there should +be a truce between their forces and those of the Crown until Low +Sunday--which fell that year upon the 26th of April. The great nobles, +mistrusting his faith with some justice (especially as he had taken +the Cross), gathered their army some ten days before the expiry of the +interval, but, as befitted men who claimed in especial to defend the +Catholic Church and its principles, they were scrupulous not to engage +in actual fighting before the appointed day. The size of this army we +cannot tell, but as it contained from 2000 to 3000 armed and mounted +gentlemen it must have counted at least double that tale of cavalry, +and perhaps five-, perhaps ten-fold the number of foot soldiers. A +force of 15,000 to 30,000 men in an England of some 5,000,000 (I more +than double the conventional figures) was prepared to enforce feudal +independence against the central government, even at the expense of +ceding vast territories to Scotland or of submitting to the nominal +rule of a foreign king. Against this army the King had a number of +mercenaries, mainly drawn from his Continental possessions, probably +excellent soldiers, but scattered among the numerous garrisons which +it was his titular office to defend. + +In the last days of the truce the rebels marched to Brackley and +encamped there on Low Monday--the 27th April. The choice of the site +should be noted. It lies in a nexus of several old marching roads. The +Port Way, a Roman road from Dorchester northward, the Watling Street +all lay within half-an-hour's ride. The King was at Oxford, a day's +march away. They negotiated with him, and their claims were refused, +yet they did not attack him (though his force was small), partly +because the function of government was still with him and partly +because the defensive power of Oxford was great. They wisely preferred +the nearest of his small official garrisons-that holding the castle of +Northampton. They approached it up the Roman road through Towcester. +They failed before it after two weeks of effort, and marched on to the +next royal post at Bedford, which was by far the nearest of the +national garrisons. It was betrayed to them. When they were within the +gates they received a message from the wealthier citizens of London +(who were in practice one with the Feudal Oligarchy), begging them to +enter the capital. + +What followed could only have been accomplished: by cavalry, by +cavalry in high training, by a force under excellent generalship, and +by one whose leaders appreciated the all-importance of London in the +coming struggle. The rebels left Bedford immediately, marched all that +day, all the succeeding night, and early on the Sunday morning, 24th +May, entered London, and by the northern gate. Their entry was not +even challenged. + +From Bedford to St. Paul's is--as the crow flies--between forty and +fifty miles: whatever road a man may take would make it nearer fifty +than forty. Bearing, as did this army, towards the east until it +struck the Ermine Street, the whole march must have been well over +fifty miles. + +This fine feat was not a barren one: it was well worth the effort and +loss which it must have cost. London could feed, recruit, and remount +an army of even this magnitude with ease. The Tower was held by a +royal garrison, but it could do nothing against so great a town. + +From London, as though the name of the city had a sort of national +authority, the Barons, who now felt themselves to be hardly rebels but +almost co-equals in a civil war, issued letters of mandate to others +of their class and to their inferiors. These letters were obeyed, not +perhaps without some hesitation, but at any rate with a final +obedience which turned the scale against the King. John was now in a +very distinct inferiority, and even of his personal attendants a +considerable number left the Court on learning of the defection of +London. In all this long struggle nothing but the occupation of the +capital had proved enough to make John feign a compromise. As +excellent an intriguer as he was a fighter he asked nothing better +than to hear once more the terms of the Barons. + +He proceeded to _Windsor_, asked for a parley, issued a safeguard to +the emissaries of the Barons, and despatched this document upon the +8th June, giving it a validity of three days. His enemies waited +somewhat longer, perhaps in order to collect the more distant +contingents, and named Runnymede--a pasture upon the right bank of the +Thames just above _Staines_--as the place of meeting. + +There are those who see in the derivation of the name "Runnymede" an +ancient use of the meadow as a place of council. This is, of course, +mere conjecture, but at any rate it was, at this season of the year, a +large, dry field, in which a considerable force could encamp. The +Barons marched along the old Roman military road, which is still the +high-road to Staines from London, crossed the river, and encamped on +Runnymede. Here the Charta was presented, and probably, though not +certainly, signed and sealed. The local tradition ascribes the site of +the actual signature to "Magna Charta" island--an eyot just up-stream +from the field, now called Runnymede, but neither in tradition nor in +recorded history can this detail be fixed with any exactitude. The +Charta is given as from Runnymede upon the 15th June, and for the +purpose of these pages what we have to note is that these two months +of marching and fighting had ended upon the strategic point of +Staines, and had clearly shown its relation to Windsor and to London. + +In the short campaign that followed, during which John so very nearly +recovered his power, the capital importance of Windsor reappears. +Louis of France, to whom the Barons were willing to hand over what was +left of order in England, had occupied all the south and west, +including even Worcester, and, of course, London. In this occupation +the exception of Dover, which the French were actively besieging, must +be regarded as an isolated point, but _Windsor_, which John's men held +against the allies, threw an angle of defence right down into the +midst of the territory lost to the Crown. Windsor was, of course, +besieged; but John's garrison, holding out as it did, saved the +position. The King was at Wallingford at one moment during the siege; +his proximity tempted the enemy to raise the siege, to leave Windsor +in the hands of the royal garrison, and to advance against him, or +rather to cut him off in his advance eastward. They marched with the +utmost rapidity to Cambridge, but John was ahead of them: and before +they could return to the capture of Windsor he was rapidly confirming +his power in the north and the east. + +It must not be forgotten in all this description that Windsor was +helped in its development as a fortress by the presence to the south +of the hill of a great space of waste lands. + +These waste lands of Western Europe, which it was impossible or +unprofitable to cultivate, were, by a sound political tradition, +vested in the common authority, which was the Crown. + +Indeed they still remain so vested in most European countries. The +Cantons of Switzerland, the Communes and the National Governments of +France, Italy, and Spain remain in possession of the waste. It is only +with us that wealthy private owners have been permitted to rob the +Commonwealth of so obvious an inheritance, a piece of theft which they +have accomplished with complete cynicism, and by specific acts whose +particular dates can be quoted, though historians are very naturally +careful to leave the process but vaguely analysed. Indeed, the last +and most valuable of these waste spaces, the New Forest itself, might +have entirely disappeared had not Charles I. (the last king in England +to attempt a repression of the landed class) so forcibly urged the +local engrosser to disgorge as to compel him, with Hampden and the +rest, to a burning zeal for political liberty. + +This great waste space to the south of Windsor Hill became, after the +Conquest, the Forest, and apart from the hunting which it afforded to +the Royal palace, served a certain purpose on the military side as +well. + +To develop a thought which has already been touched on in these pages, +mediæval fortification was dual in character: it had either a purely +strategical object, in which case the site was chosen with an eye to +its military value, whether inhabited or not, or the stronghold or +fortification was made to develop an already existing town or site of +importance. Of the second sort was Wallingford, but of the first sort, +as we have seen, was Windsor. Indeed the distinction is normal to all +fortification and exists upon the Continent to-day. For instance, the +first-class fortress Paris is an example of the second sort, the +first-class fortress Toul of the first. Again, all German fortresses, +without exception, are of the second sort, while all Swiss +fortification, what little of it exists, is of the first. + +Now where the first category is concerned a waste space is of value, +though its dimensions will vary in military importance according to +the means of communication of the time. A stronghold may be said to +repose upon that side through which communications are most difficult. + +It is true that this space lying to the south of Windsor was of no +very great dimensions, but such as it was, uninhabited and therefore +unprovided with stores of any kind, it prevented surprise from the +south. + +The next point of strategic importance on the Thames, and the last, is +the Tower. + +Though it is below bridges it must fall into the scheme of this book, +because its whole military history and connection with the story of +England is bound up with the inland and not with the estuarial river. + +It was, as has already been pointed out, one long day's march from +Windsor--a march along the old Roman road from Staines. This land +passage more than halved the distance by river, it cut off not only +the numerous large turns which the Thames begins to take between +Middlesex and Surrey, but also the general sweep southward of the +river, and it avoided, what another road might have necessitated, the +further crossing of the stream. + +Long as the march is, there was no fortification of importance between +one point and the other, and mediæval history is crammed with +instances of armies leaving the Tower to march to Windsor in one day, +or leaving Windsor to march to the Tower. + +The position of the Tower we saw in an earlier page to be due to the +same geographical causes as had built up so many of the urban +strongholds of Europe. It was situated upon the very bank of the river +which fed the capital, it was down stream from the town, and it was +just outside the walls. In a word, it was the parallel of the Louvre. + +Its remote origins are doubtful; some have imagined that they are +Roman, and that if not in the first part of the Roman occupation at +least towards the end of those wealthy and populous three centuries, +which are the foundation and the making of England, some fortification +was built on the brow of the little eminence which here slopes down to +the high-water mark. + +I will quote the evidence, such as it is, and the reader will perceive +how difficult it is to arrive at a conclusion. + +Of actual Roman remains all we have is a couple of coins of the end of +the fourth century (probably minted at Constantinople), a silver ingot +of the same period, and a funeral inscription. No indubitably Roman +work has been discovered. + +On the other hand there has been no modern investigation of those +foundations of the White Tower where, if anywhere, Roman work might be +expected. This exhausts the direct evidence. In sciences such as +geology or the criticism of Sacred Books evidence to this extent would +be ample to overset the firmest traditions or the most self-evident +conclusion of common human experience. But history is bound to a +greater caution, and it must be reluctantly admitted that the two +coins, the ingot and the bit of stone are insufficient to prove the +existence of a Roman fortress. + +Leaving such material and direct evidence we have the tradition, which +is a fairly strong one, of Roman fortification here, and we have the +analogy, so frequently occurring in space and time throughout the +history and the area of Western Europe, that Gaul reproduces Rome. +What the Conqueror saw (it might be vaguely argued) to be the +strategical position for London, that a Roman emperor would have seen. +But against this argument from tradition, which is fairly strong, and +that argument from analogy, which is weak, we have other and contrary +considerations. + +Rome even in her decline did not build her citadels outside the walls: +that was a habit which grew up in the Dark and early Middle Ages, and +was attached to the differentiation between the civic and military +aspects of the State. + +Again, Roman fortification of every kind is connected with earthworks. +So far as we can tell from recorded history the ditch round the Tower +was not dug till the end of the twelfth century. Finally, there is +this strong argument against the theory of a Roman origin to the Tower +that had such a Roman fortress existed an extension of the town would +almost certainly have gathered round it. + +One of the features of the break-up of Roman society was the enormous +expansion of the towns. We have evidence of it on every side and +nowhere more than in Northern Africa. This expansion took place +everywhere, but especially and invariably in the presence of a +garrison, and indeed the military conditions of the fourth century, +with its cosmopolitan and partially hereditary army, fixed in +permanent garrisons and forming as it were a local caste, presupposed +a large dependent civilian population at the very gates of the camp or +stronghold. Thus you have the Palatine suburb to the south of Lutetia +right up against the camp, and Verecunda just outside Lamboesis. Now +there is nothing of the sort in the neighbourhood of the Tower. It +seems certain that from the earliest times London ended here cleanly +at the wall, and that except along the Great Eastern Road the +neighbourhood of the Tower was agricultural land. + +How then could a tradition have arisen with regard to Roman +occupation? It is but a conjecture, though a plausible one, that when +the pirate raids grew in severity this knoll down stream was +fortified, while still the ruling class was Latin speaking and while +still the title of Cæsar was familiar, whether before or after the +withdrawal of the Legions. If this were the case, then, on the analogy +of other similar sites, one may imagine something like the following: +that in the Dark Ages the masonry was used as a quarry for other +constructions, that the barbarians would occasionally stockade the +site, though not permanently, and only for the purposes of their +ephemeral but constant quarrels; and one may suggest that when the +barbaric period was ended, by the landing of William's army, the place +was still, by a tradition now six hundred years old, a public area +under the control of the Crown and one such as would lend itself to +the design of a permanent fortification. William, finding it in this +condition, erected upon it the great keep which was to be the last of +his fortifications along the line of the river, and the pivot for the +control of London. + +This keep is of course the White Tower, which still impresses even our +generation with the squat and square shoulders of Norman strength. It +and Ely are the best remaining expressions of the hardy little men, +and it fills one, as does everything Norman, from the Tyne to the +Euphrates, with something of awe. This building, the White Tower, is +the Tower itself; the rest is but an accretion, partly designed for +defence, but latterly more for habitation. Its name of the "White" +Tower is probably original, though we do not actually find the term +"La Blaunche Tour" till near the middle of the fourteenth century. The +presumption that it is the original name is founded upon a much +earlier record--namely, that of 1241, in which not only is it ordered +that the tower be repainted white, but in which mention is also made +that its original colour had been "worn by the weather and by the long +process of time." Such a complaint would take one back to the twelfth +century, and quite probably to the first building of the Keep. The +object of whitening the walls of the Tower is again explicable by the +very reasonable conjecture that it would so serve as a landmark over +the long, flat stretches of the lower river. It was the last +conspicuous building against the mass of the great town, and there are +many examples of similar landmarks used at the head of estuaries or +sea passages. When these are not spires they are almost invariably +white, especially where they are so situated as to catch the southern +or the eastern sun. + +The exact date at which the plan was undertaken we do not know, but it +is obviously one with the scheme of building Windsor, and must date +from much the same period. The order to build was given by the +Conqueror to the Bishop of Rochester, Gundulph. Now Gundulph was not +promoted to the See of Rochester till 1077. Exactly twenty years +later, in 1097, the son of the Conqueror built the outer wall. The +Keep was then presumed to be completed, and at some time during those +twenty years it must have been begun, probably about 1080. That which +we have seen increasing, the military importance of Windsor, +diminished the military importance of the Tower, until, with the close +of the Middle Ages, it had become no more than a prison. It was not +indeed swamped by the growth of the town, as was its parallel the +Louvre, but the increase of wealth (and therefore of the means of +war), coupled with the correspondingly increased population, made both +urban fortresses increasingly difficult to hold as mediæval +civilisation developed. + +The whole history of the Tower is the history of military misfortune, +which grows as London expands in numbers and prosperity. It probably +held out under Mandeville when the Londoners (who were always the +allies of the aristocracy against the national government) besieged it +under the civil wars of Stephen; but even so there was bad luck +attached to it, for when Mandeville was taken prisoner he was +compelled to sign its surrender. Within a generation Longchamp again +surrendered it to the young Prince John; he was for the moment leading +the aristocracy, which, when it was his turn to reign, betrayed him. +It was surrendered to the baronial party by the King as a trust or +pledge for the execution of Magna Charta, and though it was put into +the hands of the Archbishop, who was technically neutral, it was from +that moment the symbol of a successful rebellion, as it had already +proved to be in the past and was to prove so often again. + +It was handed over to Louis of France upon his landing, and during the +next reign almost every misfortune of Henry III. is connected with the +Tower. He was perpetually taking refuge in it, holding his Court in +it: losing it again, as the rebels succeeded, and regaining it as they +failed. This long and unfortunate tenure of his is illumined only by +one or two delightful phrases which one cannot but retain as one +reads. Thus there is the little written order, which still remains to +us for the putting of painted windows into the Chapel of St John, the +northern one of which was to have for its design "some little Mary or +other, holding her Child"--"quandam Mariolam tenenten puerum suum." +There is also a very pleasing legend in the same year, 1241, when the +fall of certain new buildings was ascribed to the action of St. +Thomas, who was seen by a priest in a dream upsetting them with his +crozier and saying that he did this "as a good citizen of London, +because these new buildings were not put up for the defence of the +realm but to overawe the town," and he added this charming remark: "If +I had not undertaken the duty myself St. Edward or another would have +done it." + +Even when Henry's misfortunes were at an end, and when the Battle of +Evesham was won, the Tower was perpetually unfortunate. A body of +rebels surrounded it, and in the defence were present a great number +of Jews, who had fled from the fighting in the city only to find +themselves pressed for service in defence of the fortress. From that +moment they make no further appearance in English military history +till the South African War, unless indeed their appearance in chains +thirteen years later in this same Tower as prisoners for financial +trickery can be counted a military event. + +Upon this occasion the siege was raised by the promptitude and energy +of Prince Edward--the man who as King was to march to Cærnarvon and to +the Grampians had already in his boyhood shown the energy and the +military aptitude of his grandfather King John. He was but twenty +years old, yet he had already done all the fighting at Lewes, he had +already won Evesham, and now, at the end of spring, he made one march +from Windsor to the Tower and relieved it. It was almost the last time +that the Tower stood for the success of authority. From this time +onwards it is, as it had been before, the unfortunate symbol of +successful rebellion. Edward II. had to leave it in his fatal year of +1326, the Londoners poured in and incidentally massacred the Bishop of +Exeter, into whose hands it had been entrusted. + +In 1460 it surrendered to the House of York, and from that time +onwards becomes more and more of a prison and less and less of a +fortress. + +The preponderatingly military aspect of the Thames Valley in English +history dwindles with the dwindling of military energy in our +civilisation, and passes with the passing of a governing class that +was military rather than commercial. + +Sites which owed their importance to strategical position, and which +had hence grown into considerable towns, ceased to show any but a +civilian character, and even in the only episode of consequence +wherein fighting occurred in England since the Middle Ages--the +episode of the Civil Wars--the banks of the Thames, though perpetually +infested by either army, saw very little serious fighting, and that +although the line of the Thames was the critical line of action during +the first stage of the war. + +For the Civil Wars as a whole were but an affair upon the flank of the +general struggle in Europe: the losses were never heavy, and in the +first stages one can hardly call it fighting at all. + +The losses at the skirmish of Edge Hill were, indeed, respectable, +though most of them seem to have been incurred after the true fighting +ceased, but with that exception, and especially upon the line of the +Thames itself, the losses were extraordinarily small. + +One may say that Oxford and London were the two objective points of +the opposing forces from the close of 1642 to the spring of 1644. The +King's Government at Oxford, the Parliament in London, were the civil +bases, at least, upon which the opposing forces pivoted, and the two +intermediate points were Abingdon and Reading. To read the +contemporary, and even the modern, history of the time, one would +imagine from the terms used that these places were the theatre of +considerable military operations. We hear, with every technicality +which the Continental struggle had rendered familiar to Englishmen, of +sieges, assaults, headquarters, and even hornworks. But when one looks +at dates and figures it is not easy to treat the matter seriously. +Here, for instance, is Abingdon, within a short walk of Oxford, and +the Royalists easily allow it to be occupied by Essex in the spring of +'44. Even so Abingdon is not used as a base for doing anything more +serious than "molesting" the university town. And it was so held that +Rupert tried to recapture it, of all things in the world, with +cavalry! He was "overwhelmed" by the vastly superior forces of the +enemy, and his attempt failed. When one has thoroughly grasped this +considerable military event one next learns that the overwhelming +forces were a trifle over a thousand in number! + +Next an individual gentleman with a few followers conceives the +elementary idea of blocking the western road at Culham Bridge, and +isolating Abingdon upon this side. He begins building a "fort." A +certain proportion of the handful in Abingdon go out and kill him and +the fort is not proceeded with: and so forth. A military temper of +this sort very easily explains the cold-blooded massacre of prisoners +which the Parliament permitted, and which has given to the phrase +"Abingdon Law" the unpleasant flavour which it still retains. + +The story of Reading in the earlier part of the struggle is much the +same. Reading was held as a royal garrison and fortified in '43. +According to the garrison the fortification was contemptible, +according to the procedures it was of the most formidable kind. Indeed +they doubted whether it could be captured by an assault of less than +5000 men, a number which appeared at this stage of the campaign so +appalling that it is mentioned as a sort of standard of comparison +with the impossible. The garrison surrendered just as relief was +approaching it, and after a strain which it had endured for no less +than ten days; but the capture of Reading was not effected entirely +without bloodshed; certainly fifty men were killed (counting both +sides), possibly a few more; and the whole episode is a grotesque +little foot-note to the comic opera upon which rose the curtain of the +Civil Wars. It was not till the appearance of Cromwell, with his +highly paid and disciplined force, that the tragedy began. + +Even after Cromwell had come forward as the chief leader, in fact if +not in name, the apparent losses are largely increased by the random +massacres to which his soldiers were unfortunately addicted. Thus +after Naseby a hundred women were killed for no particular reason +except that killing was in the air, and similarly after Philiphaugh +the conscience of the Puritans forbade them to keep their word to the +prisoners they had taken, who were put to the sword in cold blood: the +women, however, on this occasion, were drowned. + +After the Civil Wars all the military meaning of the Thames +disappears. Nor is it likely to revive short of a national disaster; +but that disaster would at once teach us the strategical meaning of +this great highway running through the south of England with its +attendant railways, it would re-create the strategical value of the +point where the Thames turns northward and where its main railways +bifurcate; it would provide in several conceivable cases, as it +provided to Charles I. and to William III., the line of approach on +London. + + * * * * * + +So far as we have considered the Thames, first as a line of +pre-historic settlements, passing successively into the Roman, the +barbaric and the Norman phases of our history; and secondly, as a +field on which one can plot out certain strategical points and show +how these points created the original importance of the towns which +grew about them. + +In the next part of these notes I propose to consider the economic or +civil development of the Thames above London, and to show how the +foundations of its permanent prosperity was laid. That economic +phenomenon has at its roots the action of the Benedictine Order. It +was the great monasteries which bridged the transition between Rome +and the Dark Ages throughout North-Western Europe; it was they that +recovered land wasted by the barbarian invasions, and that developed +heaths and fens which the Empire even in its maturity had never +attempted to exploit. + +The effect of the barbarian invasions was different in different +provinces of the Roman Empire, though roughly speaking it increased in +intensity with the distance from Rome. It is probable that the actual +numbers of the barbarian invaders was small even in Britain, as it +certainly was in Northern Gaul, but we must not judge of the effect +produced upon civilisation by this catastrophe, as though it were a +mere question of numbers. So large a proportion of the population was +servile, and so fixed had the imagination of everyone become in the +idea that the social order was eternal; so entirely had the army +become a professional thing, and probably a thing of routine divorced +from the civilian life round it, that at the close of the fourth +century a little shock from without was enough to produce a very +considerable result. In Eastern Britain, small as the number of the +invaders must necessarily have been, religion itself was almost, if +not entirely, destroyed, and the whole fabric of Roman civilisation +appears to have dissolved--with the exception, of course, of such +irremovable things as the agricultural system, the elements of +municipal life, and the simpler arts. Even the language very probably +changed in the eastern part of the island, and passed from what we may +conceive to have been Low Latin in the towns and Celtic dialects in +the country-sides, with possibly Teutonic settlements here and there +along the eastern shore, to a generally confused mass of Teutonic +dialects scattered throughout the eastern and northern half of the +island and enclosing but isolated fragments of Celtic speech. + +So far as we can judge the disaster was complete, but it was destined +that Britain should be recivilised. + +St Augustine landed, and after the struggle of the seventh century +between those petty chieftains who sympathised with, and those who +opposed, the order of cultivated European life, the battle was won in +favour of that civilisation which we still enjoy. It would have been +impossible to re-create a sound agriculture and to refound the arts +and learning; especially would it have been impossible to refound the +study of letters, upon which all material civilisation depends, had it +not been for the monastic institution. This institution did more work +in Britain than in any other province of the Empire. And it had far +more to do. It found a district utterly wrecked, perhaps half +depopulated, and having lost all but a vague memory of the old Roman +order; it had to remake, if it could, of all this part of a Europe. No +other instrument was fitted for the purpose. + +The chief difficulty of starting again the machine of civilisation +when its parts have been distorted by a barbarian interlude, whether +external or internal in origin, is the accumulation of capital. The +next difficulty is the preservation of such capital in the midst of +continual petty feuds and raids, and the third is that general +continuity of effort, and that treasuring up of proved experience, to +which a barbaric time, succeeding upon the decline of a civilisation, +is particularly unfitted. For the surmounting of all these +difficulties the monks of Western Europe were suited to a high degree. +Fixed wealth could be accumulated in the hands of communities whose +whole temptation was to gather, and who had no opportunity for +spending in waste. The religious atmosphere in which they grew up +forbade their spoliation, at least in the internal wars of a Christian +people, and each of the great foundations provided a community of +learning and treasuring up of experience which single families, +especially families of barbaric chieftains, could never have achieved. +They provided leisure for literary effort, and a strict disciplinary +rule enforcing regular, continuous, and assiduous labour, and they +provided these in a society from which exact application of such a +kind had all but disappeared. + +The monastic institution, so far as Western Europe was concerned, was +comparatively young when the work in Britain was begun. The fifth +century had seen its inception; it was still embryonic in the sixth; +the seventh, which was the date of its great conquest of the English +country-sides, was for it a period of youth and of vigour as fresh as +was, let us say, the thirteenth century for the renaissance of civil +learning. We must not think of these early foundations as we think of +the complicated, wealthy, somewhat restricted and privileged bodies of +the later Middle Ages. They were all more or less of one type, and +that type a simple one. They all sprang from the same Benedictine +stem. It was the quality of all to be somewhat independent in +management, and especially to work in large units, and out of the very +many which sprang, up all over the island three particularly concern +the Thames Valley. Each of them dates from the very beginnings of +Anglo-Saxon history, each of them has its roots in legend, and each of +them continued for close upon a thousand years to be a capital +economic centre of English life. These three great Benedictine +foundations are WESTMINSTER, CHERTSEY, and ABINGDON. + +When civilisation returned in fulness with the Norman Conquest, +another great house of the first importance was founded--at Reading; +and, much later, a fourth at Sheen. To these we shall turn in their +place, as also to the string of dependent houses and small foundations +which line the river almost from its source right down to London: +indeed the only type of religious foundation which historic notes such +as these can afford to neglect is the monastery or nunnery built in a +town, and for the purposes of a town, after the civic life of a town +had developed. These very numerous houses (most numerous, of course, +in Oxford), such as the Observants of Richmond and a host of others, +do not properly enter into the scheme we are considering. They are not +causes but effects of the development of civilisation in the Thames +Valley. + +Abingdon, Westminster, and Chertsey are all ascribed by tradition, and +each by a very vital and well-documented tradition, to the seventh +century: Abingdon and Chertsey to its close; Westminster, with less +assurance, to its beginning. All three, we may take it, did arise in +that period which was for the eastern part of this island a time when +all the work of Europe had to be begun again. Though we know nothing +of the progress of the Saxon pirates in the province of Britain, and +though history is silent for the hundred and fifty years covered by +the disaster, yet on the analogy of other and later raids from the +North Sea we may imagine that no inland part of the country suffered +more than the valley of the Thames. All that was left of the Roman +order, wealth and right living, must have appeared at the close of +that sixth century, when the Papal Mission landed, something as +appears the wrecked and desolate land upon the retirement of a flood. +To cope with such conditions, to reintroduce into the ravaged and +desecrated province, which had lost its language in the storm, all its +culture, and even its religion, a new beginning of energy and of +production, came, with the peculiar advantages we have seen it to +possess for such a work, the monastic institution. For two centuries +the great houses were founded all over England: their attachment to +Continental learning, their exactitude, their corporate power of +action, were all in violent contrast to, and most powerfully +educational for, the barbarians in the midst of whom they grew. It may +be truly said that if we regard the life of England as beginning anew +with the Saxon invasion, if that disaster of the pirate raids be +considered as so great that it offers a breach of continuity in the +history of Britain, then the new country which sprang up, speaking +Teutonic dialects, and calling itself by its present name of England, +was actually created by the Benedictine monks. + +It was within a very few years of St. Augustine's landing that +Westminster must have been begun. There are several versions of the +story: the most detailed statement we have ascribes it to the +particular year 604, but varied as are the forms in which the history, +or rather the legend, is preserved, the truth common to all is the +foundation quite early in the seventh century. It was very probably +supported by what barbaric Government there was in London at the time +and initiated, moreover, according to one form of the legend, and that +not the least plausible, by the first bishop of the see. The site was +at the moment typical of all those which the great monasteries of the +West were to turn from desert places to gardens: it was a waste tract +of ground called "Thorney," lying low, triangular in shape, bounded by +the two reedy streams that descended through the depression which now +runs across the Green Park and Mayfair, and emptied themselves into +the Thames, the one just above, the other 100 or 200 yards below, the +site of the Houses of Parliament. + +The moment the foundation was established a stream of wealth tended +towards it: it was at the very gate of the largest commercial city in +the kingdom and it was increasingly associated, as the Anglo-Saxon +monarchy developed, with the power of the Central Government. This +process culminated in the great donation and rebuilding of Edward the +Confessor. + +The period of this new endowment was one well chosen to launch the +future glory of Westminster. England was all prepared to be permeated +with the Norman energy, and when immediately after the Conquest came, +the great shrine inherited all the glamour of a lost period, while it +established itself with the new power as a sort of symbol of the +continuity of the Crown. There William was anointed, there was his +palace and that of his son. When, with the next century, the seat of +Government became fixed, and London was finally established as the +capital, Westminster had already become the seat of the monarchy. + +Chertsey, next up the river, took on the work. Like +Westminster--though, by tradition, a few years later than +Westminster--its foundation goes back to the birth of England. Its +history is known in some detail, and is full of incident, so that it +may be called the pivot upon which, presumably, turned the development +of the Thames Valley above London for two hundred years. Its site is +worth noting. The rich, but at first probably swampy, pasturage upon +the Surrey side was just such a position as one foundation after +another up and down England settled on. To reclaim land of this kind +was one of the special functions of the great abbeys, and Chertsey may +be compared in this particular to Hyde, for instance, or to the Vale +of the Cross, to Fountains, to Ripon, to Melrose, and to many others. +It was in the new order of monastic development what Staines, its +neighbour, had been in the old Roman order--the mark of the first +stage up-river from London. + +The pagan storm which all but repeated in Britain the disaster of the +Saxon invasions, which all but overcame the mystic tenacity of Alfred +and the positive mission of the town of Paris, swept it completely. +Its abbot and its ninety monks were massacred, and it was not till +late in the next century, about 950, that it arose again from its +ruins. It was deliberately re-colonised again from Abingdon, and from +that moment onwards it grew again into power. Donations poured upon +it; one of them, not the least curious, was of land in Cardiganshire. +It came from those Welsh princes who were perpetually at war with the +English Crown: for religion was in those days what money is now--a +thing without frontiers--and it seemed no more wonderful to the Middle +Ages that an English monastery should collect its rents in an enemy's +land than it seems strange to us that the modern financier should draw +interest upon money lent for armament against the country of his +domicile. Here also was first buried (and lay until it was removed to +Windsor) the body of Henry VI. + +The third of the great early foundations is Abingdon, and in a way it +is the greatest, for, without direct connection with the Crown, by the +mere vitality of its tradition, it became something more even than +Chertsey was, wielding an immense revenue, more than half that of +Westminster itself, and situated, as it was, in a small up-valley +town, ruling with almost monarchical power. There could be even less +doubt in the case of Abingdon than there was in the case of Chertsey +that it was the creator of its own district of the Thames. It stood +right in the marshy and waste spaces of the middle upper river, +commanding a difficult but an important ford, and holding the gate of +what was to be one of the most fruitful and famous of English vales. +It can only have been from Abingdon that the culture and energy +proceeded which was to build up Northern Berkshire and Oxfordshire +between the Saxon and the Danish invasions. There only was established +a sufficient concentration of capital for the work and of knowledge +for the application of that wealth. + +Like its two peers at Chertsey and at Westminster, Abingdon begins +with legend. We are fairly sure of its date, 675, but the anchorite of +the fifth century, "Aben," is as suspicious as the early Anglo-Saxon +Chronicle itself, and still wilder are the fine and striking stories +of its British origin, of its destruction under the persecution of +Diocletian and of its harbouring the youth of Constantine. But the +stories are at least enough to show with what violence the pomp and +grandeur of the place struck the imagination of its historians. + +Abingdon was, moreover, probably on account of its distance from +London, more of a local centre, and, to repeat a word already used, +more of a "monarchy" than the other great monasteries of the Thames +Valley. This is sufficiently proved by a glance at the ecclesiastic +map, such as, for instance, that published in "The Victoria History of +the County of Berkshire," where one sees the manors belonging to +Abingdon at the time of the Conquest all clustered together and +occupying one full division of the county, that, namely, included in +the great bend of the Thames which has its cusp at Witham Hill. +Abingdon was the life of Northern Berkshire, and it is not fantastic +to compare its religious aspect in Saxon times over against the King's +towns of Wantage and Wallingford to the larger national aspect of +Canterbury over against Winchester and London. + +Even in its purely civic character, it acquired a position which no +one of the greater northern monasteries could pretend to, through the +building of its bridge in the early fifteenth century. The twin fords +crossing this bend of the river were, though direct and important, +difficult; when they were once bridged and the bridges joined by the +long causeway which still runs across Andersey Island between the old +and the new branches of the Thames, travel was easily diverted from +the bridge of Wallingford to that at Abingdon, and the great western +road running through Farringdon towards the Cotswolds and the valley +of the Severn had Abingdon for its sort of midway market town. + +These three great Benedictine monasteries form, as it were, the three +nurseries or seed plots from which civilisation spread out along the +Thames Valley after the destruction wrought by the first and worst +barbarian invasions. All three, as we have seen, go back to the very +beginning of the Christian phase of English history; the origins of +all three merge in those legends which make a twilight between the +fantastic stories of the earlier paganism and the clear records of the +Christian epoch after the re-Latinisation of England. An outpost +beyond these three is the institution of St Frideswides at Oxford. +Beyond that point the upper river, gradually narrowing, losing its +importance for commerce and as a highway, supported no great +monastery, and felt but tardily the economic change wrought by the +foundations lower down the stream. + +Chertsey and Westminster certainly, and Abingdon very probably, were +destroyed, or at least sacked, in the Danish invasions, but their +roots lay too deep to allow them to disappear: they re-arose, and a +generation before the Conquest were again by far the principal centres +of production and government in the Thames Valley. Indeed, with the +exception of the string of royal estates upon the banks of the river, +and of the town of Oxford, Chertsey, Westminster and Abingdon were the +only considerable seats of regulation and government upon the Thames, +when the Conquest came to reorganise the whole of English life. + +With that revolution it was evident that a great extension not only of +the numbers, but especially of the organisation and power, of the +monastic system would appear: that gaps left uninfluenced by it in the +line of the Thames would be filled up, and all the old foundations +themselves would be reconstructed and become new things. + +The Conquest is in its way almost as sharp a division in the history +of England as is the landing of St Augustine. In some externals it +made an even greater difference to this island than did the advent of +the Roman Missionaries, though of course, in the fundamental things +upon which the national life is built, the re-entry of England into +European civilisation in the seventh century must count as a far +greater and more decisive event than its first experience of united +and regular government under the Normans in the eleventh. Moreover +although the Conquest largely changed the language of the island, +introduced a conception of law in civil affairs with which the +Anglo-Saxon aristocracy were quite unfamiliar, and began to flood +England with a Gallic admixture which flowed .uninterruptedly for +three hundred years, yet it did not change the intimate philosophy of +the people, and it is only the change of the intimate philosophy of a +people which can have a revolutionary consequence. The Conquest found +England Catholic, vaguely feudal, and, though in rather an isolated +way, thoroughly European. The Normans organised that feudality, +extirpated whatever was unorthodox, or slack in the machinery of the +religious system, and let in the full light of European civilisation +through a wide-open door, which had hitherto been half-closed. + +The effect, therefore, of the Conquest was exercised upon the visible +and mutable things of the country rather than upon the nourishing +inward things: but it was very great, and in nothing was it greater +than in its inception of new buildings and the use everywhere of +stone. Under the Normans very nearly all the great religious +foundations of England re-arose, and that within a generation. New +houses also arose, and the mark of that time (which was a second +spring throughout Europe: full of the spirit of the Crusades, and a +complete regeneration of social life) was the rigour of new religious +orders, and especially the transformation of the old Benedictine +monotony. + +Chief, of course, of these religious movements, and the pioneer of +them all, was the institution of Cluny in Burgundy. + +Cluny did not rise by design. It was one of those spontaneous growths +which are characteristic of vigorous and creative times. Those who are +acquainted with the Burgundian blood will not think it fantastic to +imagine the vast reputation of Cluny to have been based upon rhetoric. +It was perhaps the sonorous Burgundian facility for expression and the +inheritance of oratory which belonged to Burgundian soil till +Bossuet's birth, and which still belongs to it, that gave Cluny a sort +of spell over the mind of Western Europe, and which made Cluny a +master in the century which preceded the great change of the Crusades. +From Cluny as a mother house proceeded communities instinct with the +discipline and new life of the reformed order, and though it has been +remarked that these communities were not numerous, in comparison to +the vigour of the movement, yet it should also be noted that they were +nearly always very large and wealthy, that they were in a particular +and close relation to the civil government of the district in which +each was planted, and that their absolute dependence upon the mother +house, and their close observance of one rule, lent the whole order +something of the force of an army. + +The Cluniac influence came early into the Thames Valley. By the +beginning of the twelfth century, and within fifty years of the +Conquest, this new influence was found interpolated with and imposed +upon the five centuries that had hitherto been wholly dependent upon +the three great Benedictine posts. This Cluniac foundation, the first +of the new houses on the Thames, was fixed upon the peninsula of +Reading. + +It was in 1121 that the son of the Conqueror brought the Cluniac order +to the little town. From the moment of the foundation of the abbey it +attracted, in part by its geographical position, in part by the fact +that it was the first great new foundation upon the Thames, and in +part by the accident which lent a special devotion or power to one +particular house and which was in this case largely due to the +discipline and character of the Cluniac order, Reading took on a very +high position in England. It had about it, if one may so express +oneself, something more modern, something more direct and political +than was to be found in the old Benedictine houses that had preceded +it. The work it had to do was less material: the fields were already +drained, the life and wealth of the new civilisation had begun, and +throughout the four hundred years of its existence the function of +Reading was rather to entertain the Court, to assist at parliaments, +and to be, throughout, the support of the monarchy. It sprang at once +into this position, and its architecture symbolised to some extent the +rapid command which it acquired, for it preserved to the end the +characteristics of the early century in which it was erected: the +Norman arch, the dog-tooth ornaments, the thick walls, the barbaric +capitals of the early twelfth century. + +Before the thirteenth it was in wealth equal to, and in public repute +the superior of, any foundation upon the banks of the Thames with the +exception of Westminster itself, and it forms, with the three +Benedictine foundations, and with the later foundation of Osney, the +last link in the chain of abbeys which ran unbroken from stage to +stage throughout the whole length of the river. And with it ends the +story of those first foundations which completed the recivilisation of +the Valley. + +Reading was not the only Cluniac establishment upon the Thames. +Another, and earlier one, was to be found at Bermondsey; but its +proximity to London and its distance down river forbid it having any +place in these pages. It was founded immediately after the Conquest; +Lanfranc colonised it with French monks; it became an abbacy at the +very end of the fourteenth century, and was remarkable for its +continual accretion of wealth, an accretion in some part due to the +growing importance of London throughout its existence. At the end of +the thirteenth century it stands worth £280. At the time of its +dissolution, on the first of January 1538, in spite of the much higher +value of money in the sixteenth century as compared with the +thirteenth, it stands worth over £500: £10,000 a year. + +A relic of its building remained (but only a gatehouse) till 1805. + +Osney also dated from the early twelfth century, and was almost +contemporary with Reading. + +It stood just outside the walls of Oxford Castle to the west, and upon +the bank of the main stream of the Thames, and owed its foundation to +the Conqueror's local governing family of Oilei. Though at the moment +of its suppression it hardly counted a fifth of the revenues of +Westminster (which must be our standard throughout all this +examination), yet its magnificence profoundly affected contemporaries, +and has left a great tradition. It must always be remembered that +these great monasteries were not only receivers of revenue as are our +modern rich, but were also producers or, rather, could be producers +when they chose, and that therefore the actual economic power of any +one foundation might always be higher, and often was very considerably +higher, than the nominal revenue, the dead income, which passed to the +spoliators of the sixteenth century. When a town is sacked the army +gets a considerable loot, but nothing like what the value was of the +city as it flourished before the siege. + +At any rate, whether Osney owed its magnificence to internal industry, +to a wise expenditure, or to a severity of life which left a large +surplus for ornament and extension, it was for 400 years the principal +building upon the upper river, catching the eye from miles away up by +Eynsham meadows and forming a noble gate to the University town for +those who approached it from the west by the packway, of which traces +still remain, and over the bridges which the Conqueror had built. So +deep was the impress of Osney upon the locality, and even upon the +national Government, that Henry proposed, as in the case of +Westminster, to make of the building one of his new cathedrals, and to +establish there his new See of Oxford. The determination, however, +lasted but for a very short time. In a few years the financial +pressure was too much for him; he transferred the see to the old +Church of St Frideswides, where it still remains, and gave up Osney to +loot. It was looted very thoroughly. + +The smaller monasteries need hardly a mention. At the head of them +comes Eynsham, worth more than half as much as Osney, and a very +considerable place. Founded as a colony or adjunct to Stow, in +Lincolnshire, it outlived the importance of the parent house, and was +at the height of its prosperity immediately before the Dissolution. + +Eynsham affords a very good instance of the way in which the fabric in +these superb temples disappeared. As late as the early eighteenth +century there was still standing the whole of the west front; the two +high towers, the splendid west window, and the sculptured doorways +were complete, though they remained but as a fragment of a ruined +building. A century and a half passed and the whole had disappeared, +carted away to build walls and stables for the local squires, or sold +by the local squires for rubble. + +Of the little priory at Lechlade very little is known, save that it +was founded in the thirteenth century and had disappeared long before +the Reformation, while of that at Cricklade we know even less, save +that it humbly survived and was counted in the "bag" at only four +pounds a year. + +With Dorchester, which had existed from the twelfth century, and which +was worth almost half as much as Eynsham, and with the considerable +Cell of Hurley which attached to Westminster, the list is complete. It +is interesting to know that the church at Dorchester was saved by the +local patriotism of one man, who left half his fortune for the +purchase of it, and that not in order to ruin it and to sell the +stones of it, but in order to preserve it: a singular man. + +In a general survey of monastic influence in the Valley of the Thames, +it would be natural to omit the foundations which belonged to the +later Middle Ages. It was in the Dark Ages that the great Benedictine +work was done, the pastures drained, the woods planted, the +settlements established. It was in the early Middle Ages, in the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries and in the first half of the +fourteenth--in a word, before the Black Death--that the work of the +new and vigorous foundations, and the revived energy of the older +ones, spread Gothic architecture, scholastic learning, and the whole +reinvigorated social system of the time, from Oxford to Westminster; +and the historian who notes the social and economic effects of +monasticism in Western Europe, however enthusiastic he may be in +defence of that force, cannot with truth lend it between the Black +Death and the Reformation a vigour which it did not possess. It had +tended to become, in the fifteenth century, a fixed social institution +like any other, one might almost say a bundle of proprietary rights +like any other. And though it is easy now to perceive what ruin was +caused by the sudden destruction, the contemporaries of the last age +of Great Houses were perpetually considering their privilege and their +immovable tradition rather than the remaining functions which the +monasteries fulfilled in the State. + +On this account historical notes dealing with the development of the +Thames Valley would naturally omit a reference to foundations existing +only from the close of the Middle Ages. But an exception must be made +to this rule in the case of Sheen. + +Sheen was a Charterhouse, and it merits observation not only from the +peculiar characteristics of the Carthusian Order, but also from its +considerable position so near to Westminster and not yet overshadowed +by the greatness either of that abbey or of Chertsey. It received, +from its land in England alone, a revenue of close upon two-thirds of +that which Westminster enjoyed. Recent in its origin (it had existed +for only just over 100 years when Henry VIII. attacked it), not +without that foreign flavour which, rightly or wrongly, was ascribed +in this island to the Carthusian Order, rigid in doctrine, and of a +magnificent temper in the defence of religion, these Carthusians, like +their brethren in London, formed a very natural target for the King's +attack. I include them only because notes upon the mediæval +foundations, would be quite imperfect were there no mention of Sheen, +late as the origin of the community was, and little as it had to do +with the historic development of the valley. + +This completes the list of the greater foundations; with the lesser +ones it would only be possible to deal in pages devoted to the +Monastic Institution alone. The very numerous communities of friars, +and the hospitals in the towns upon the Thames, cannot be mentioned, +the little nunneries of Ankerwick, Burnham, and Little Marlow, the +communities, early and late, of Medmenham and Cholsey, the priories of +Lechlade and of Cricklade (which might have occupied a larger space +than was available), must be passed over. Even Godstow, famous as it +is from the early legend of Rosamond, and considerable as was its +function both of education and of retreat, cannot be included in the +list of those principal foundations which alone take rank as +originators of the prosperity of the valley. + +Several of these smaller houses went in the dissolution to swell the +revenues of Bisham, the new community which Henry, as he said, +intended to take the place of much that he had destroyed; and Bisham +would be very well worth a considerable attention from the reader had +it survived. But it did not survive. Hardly was it founded when Henry +himself immediately destroyed it, and, as we shall see later, Bisham +affords one of the most curious and instructive examples of the way in +which that large monastic revenue, which it was certainly intended to +keep in the hands of the Crown, and which, had it been so kept, would +have given to England the strongest Central Government in Europe, +drifted into the hands of the squires, multiplied perhaps by ten the +wealth of their class, and transformed the Government of England into +that oligarchy which was completed in the seventeenth century, and +which, though permeated and transformed by Jewish finance, is standing +in a precarious strength to this day. + +Westminster, Chertsey, Sheen, Reading, Abingdon, and Osney +disappeared. + +One writes the list straight off without considering, taking it for +granted that everything which could have roused the cupidity of that +generation necessarily disappeared: and as one writes it one remembers +that, after all, Westminster survived. Its survival was an accident, +which will be further considered. But that survival, so far from +redeeming, emphasises and throws into relief the destruction of the +rest. + +Of these enduring monuments of human energy and, what is more +important still in the control of energy, human certitude, what +besides Westminster survived? Of Chertsey there is perhaps a gateway +and part of a wall; of Sheen nothing; of Reading a few flints built +into modern work; of Abingdon a gateway, and a buttress or two that +long served to support a brewhouse; of Osney nothing, contrariwise, +electric works and the slums of a modern town. All these were +Westminsters. In all of these was to be discovered that patient +process of production which argues the continuity, and therefore the +dignity, of human civilisation. Each had the glass which we can no +longer paint, the vivid, living, and happy grotesque in sculpture +which only the best of us can so much as understand; each had a +thousand and another thousand details of careful work in stone meant +to endure, if not for ever, at least into such further centuries as +might have the added faith and added knowledge to restore them in +greater plenitude. The whole thing has gone. It has gone to no +purpose. Nothing has been built upon it save a wandering host of rich +and careworn men. + +Suppose a man to have gone down the Thames when the new discussions +were beginning in London and (as was customary even at the close of +the Middle Ages) were spreading from town to town with a rapidity that +we, who have ceased to debate ideas, can never understand. Let such a +traveller or bargeman have gone down from Cricklade to the Tower, how +would the Great Houses have appeared to him? + +The upper river would have been much the same, but as he came to that +part of it which was wealthy and populous, as he turned the corner of +Witham Hill, he would already have seen far off, larger and a little +nearer than the many spires of Oxford, a building such as to-day we +never see save in our rare and half-deserted cathedral country towns. +It was the Abbey of Osney. It would have been his landmark, as +Hereford is the landmark for a man to-day rowing up to Wye, or the new +spire of Chichester for a man that makes harbour out of the channel +past Bisham upon a rising tide. And as he passed beneath it (for, of +the many branches here, the main stream took him that way) he would +have seen a great and populous place with nothing ruinous in it, all +well ordered, busy with men and splendid; here again that which we now +look upon as a relic and a circumstance of repose was once alive and +strong. + +Upon his way beneath the old stone bridge which crossed the ford, and +shooting between the lifted paddles of the weirs, he would, once below +Oxford, have seen much the same pastures that we see to-day; but in a +few hours Abingdon, the next to Osney, would have fixed his eyes as +Osney had before. + +Abingdon would have been to him what Noyon is on the Oise, or any of +our river cathedrals in Western Europe--an apse pointing up stream, +though rounded and lacking the flying buttresses of the Gothic, for it +was thick, broad, and Norman. Here also, as one may believe, from its +situation, trees would have shrouded somewhat what he saw. There are +few such riverside apses in Christian Europe that are not screened in +this manner by trees planted between the stream and them. But as he +drifted farther down, before he reached the bridge, the west front +would have burst upon him, quite new, exceedingly rich and proud, a +strict example, one may believe, of the Perpendicular, and of what was +for the first time, and for a moment only, a true English Gothic. It +would have stood out before him, catching the sun of the afternoon in +its maze of glass. It would have seemed a thing to endure; within his +lifetime it was to be utterly destroyed. + +Once more in the many reaches between Abingdon and Wallingford, the +sights would have been those which a man sees now. And though at +Wallingford he would have had before him a town of brilliant red tiles +and timberwork, and a town perhaps larger than that which we see +to-day, yet (could such a man come to life again) the contrast would +not strike him here, and still less in the fields below, so much as +when he came near to Reading. + +That everything else of age in Reading has disappeared one need not +say, but were that traveller here to-day, the thing that he would most +seek for and most lack would be the bulk of the building at the +farther end of the town. + +One can best say what it was by saying that it was like Durham. It is +true that Durham Cathedral stands upon a noble cliff overhanging a +ravine, while Reading Abbey stood upon a small and irregular hill +which hardly showed above the flat plains of the river meadows, but in +massiveness of structure and in type of architecture Reading seems to +have resembled Durham more nearly than any other of our great +monuments, and to emphasise its parallelism to Durham is perhaps the +best way to make the modern reader understand what we have lost. + +Nothing that he had seen in this journey would more have sunk into the +mind of a contemporary man, nothing that he would lack were he +resuscitated to-day would leave a want more grievous. In the +destruction of Reading the people of this country lost something which +not even their aptitude for foreign travel can replace. + +Windsor, as he passed, stood up above the right of him, not very +different from what we still admire as we come down from Bray and look +up to the jutting fore-tower which is worthy of Coucy. But down below +Windsor (after whose bridge we to-day see nothing whatever of value), +just after he had passed the wooden bridge of Staines and shot the +weir of that town, the river bent southward. + +The traveller would have found Pentonhook already forming or formed, +and when he had got round it he would have seen soaring above him down +stream the great mass of Chertsey Abbey. If Reading had the solidity +and the barbaric grandeur of Durham, Chertsey had in an ecclesiastical +way the vastness of Windsor, and must have seemed like a town to +anyone approaching it thus down the river. The enclosed area of the +abbey buildings alone covered four acres. + +This impression which such a traveller would have received of the +great religious houses was enhanced by something more than the +magnitude and splendour of the buildings. Divided as was opinion at +that moment upon their value to the State, and jealous as had become +landless men of the long traditions and privileges of the monks, these +still represented not only their own wealth but the general +accumulation of capital and the continued prosperity of the river +valley. It is true to say, in spite of the difficulty of appreciating +such a truth in the light of our knowledge of what was to follow, that +the destruction of such foundations would have seemed to the traveller +before the Dissolution inconceivable. Nevertheless it came. + +These notes are not the place in which to discuss that most difficult +of all historical problems--I mean the causes which led the nation to +abandon in a couple of generations the whole of its traditions and to +adopt, not spontaneously but at the bidding of a comparatively small +body of wealthy men, a new scheme of society. But it is of value to +consider the economic aspect of the thing, and to show what it was +that Henry desired to seize when his policy of Dissolution was +secretly formed. + +The economic function of the monastic system in the Middle Ages, and +especially in the later Middle Ages, is one to which no sufficient +attention has been given by historians. + +They collected, as does no modern agency, wealth from very various +sources, scattered up and down the whole of the kingdom, and often +farther afield, throughout Europe, and exercised the whole economic +power so drawn together in one centre, and so founded a permanent +nucleus of wealth in the place where the community resided. + +We are indeed to-day accustomed to a similar effect in the action of +our wealthy families. The rents of the London poor, a toll upon the +produce of Egypt, of the Argentine, or of India, all flow into some +country house in the provinces, where it revives in an effective +demand for production, or lends to the whole countryside a wealth +which, of itself, it could never have produced. The neighbourhood of +Aylesbury, the palaces of the larger territorials, are modern examples +of this truth, that the economic power of a district does not reside +in its productive capacity, but in its capacity for effective demand. +And it is undoubtedly true that if there were anything permanent in +modern society we should be witnessing in the wealthier quarters of +Paris and London, in the Riviera in the holiday part of Egypt, and in +certain centres of provincial luxury in England, in France, and in +Western Germany, the foundation of a permanent economic superiority. + +But nothing in modern society has any roots. Where to-day is some one +of these great territorial houses in fifty years there may be nothing +but decay. Fashion may change from the Riviera to some other part of +the Mediterranean littoral, and with fashion will go the concentration +of wealth which accompanies it. + +In the Middle, and especially in the latter Middle, Ages it was +otherwise. The great religious houses not only tended to accumulate +wealth and to perpetuate it in the same hands (they could not gamble +it away nor disperse it in luxury; they could hardly waste it by +mismanagement), but they were also permanently fixed on one spot. + +Such an institution as Reading, for example, or as Abingdon, went on +perpetually receiving its immense revenues for generation after +generation, and were under no temptation or rather had no capacity for +spending it elsewhere than in the situation where their actual +buildings were to be found. + +In this way the great monastic houses founded a tradition of local +wealth which has profoundly affected the history of the Thames Valley. +And if that valley is still to-day one of the chief districts wherein +the economic power of England is concentrated, it owes that position +mainly to the centuries during which the great foundations exercised +their power upon the banks of the river. + +The growth of great towns, one of the last phases of our national +development, one which finds its example in the Thames Valley as +elsewhere, and one to which we shall allude before closing these notes +upon the river, has somewhat obscured the quality of this original +accumulation of wealth along the Thames. But when we come to consider +the figures of the census at an earlier time, before modern +commercialism and the railway had drawn wealth and population into +fewer and larger centres, we shall see how considerable was the string +of towns which had grown up along the stream. And we shall especially +see how fairly divided among them was the population, and, it may be +presumed, the wealth and the rateable value, of the valley. + +The point just mentioned in connection with the larger monastic +foundations, and their artificial concentration of economic power, +deserves a further elaboration, for the economic importance of a +district is one of the aspects of geography which even modern analysis +has dealt with very imperfectly. + +Economists speak of the economic importance of such-and-such a spot +because material of use to man-kind is there discovered. Thus, people +commonly point to the economic importance of the valleys all round the +Pennine Range in England because they contain coal and metals, and to +the economic importance of a small district in South Wales for the +same reason. + +A further consideration has admitted that not only places where things +useful to mankind are discovered, but places naturally fitted for +their exchange have an economic importance peculiarly their own. +Indeed, the more history is studied from the point of view of +economics, the more does this kind of natural opportunity emerge, and +the less does the political importance of purely productive areas +appear. The mountain districts of Spain, the Cornish peninsula, were +centres of metallic industry of the first importance to the Romans, +but they remained poor throughout the period of Roman civilisation. +To-day the farmer in the west of America, the miner and the clerk in +Johannesburg, are perhaps more numerous, but as a political force no +wealthier for the opportunities of their sites: the economic power +which they ultimately produce is first concentrated in the centres of +exchange where the wealth they produce is handled. + +Now there is a third basis for the economic importance of a district, +and as this third basis is indefinitely more important than the other +two, it has naturally been overlooked in the analysis of the +universities. This basis is the basis of residence. Given that a +conqueror, or a seat of Government established by routine, is +established in a particular place and chooses there to remain; or +given that the pleasure attached to a particular site--its natural +pleasures or the inherited grandeur of its buildings or what not--make +it an established residence for those who control the expenditure of +wealth, then that place will acquire an economic importance which has +for its foundation nothing more material than the human will. Thither +wealth, wherever produced, will flow, and there will be discovered +that ultimate motive force of all production and of all exchange, the +effective demand of those possessors who alone can set the industrial +machine in motion. + +This has been abundantly true in every period of the world's history, +whenever commerce existed upon a considerable scale, or whenever a +military force sufficiently universal was at the command of wealthy +men. + +It is particularly true to-day. To-day not the natural centres of +exchange, still less the natural centres of production, determine what +places in the world shall be wealthy and what shall not. The surplus +of the wealth produced by the Egyptian fellaheen is carefully +collected by English officials and largely consumed in Paris; the +wealth produced by the manufacturers of North England is largely spent +in the south of England and upon the Continent; until their recent and +successful revolt, the wealth produced by the Irish peasantry was +largely spent in London and upon the Riviera. + +The economic importance, then, of the Thames Valley has not +diminished, but increased since South England ceased to be the main +field of production. + +The tradition of Government, the habitual residence of the wealthy and +directing classes of the community, have centred more and more in +London. The old establishment of luxury in the Thames Valley has +perpetually increased since the decline of its industrial and +agricultural importance, and undoubtedly, if it were possible to draw +a map indicating the proportion of economic _demand_ throughout the +country, the Valley of the Thames would appear, in proportion to its +population, by far the most concentrated district in England, although +it contains but one very large town, and although it is innocent of +any very important modern industry. + +It is interesting, in connection with this economic aspect of the +Thames Valley, to note that, alone of the great river valleys of +Europe, it has no railway system parallel to its banks. There is no +series of productive centres which could give rise to such a railway +system. The Great Western Railway follows the river now some distance +upon one side, now some distance upon the other, as far as Oxford; but +it does not depend in any way upon the stream, and where the course of +the stream is irregular it goes on its straight course, throwing out +branch lines to the smaller towns upon the banks: for the railway +depends, so far as this section is concerned, upon the industries of +the Midlands and of the west. Were you to cut off the sources of +carriage which it draws upon from beyond the Valley of the Thames it +could not exist. + +The Scheldt, the Rhine, the Rhone, the Garonne, the Seine, the Elbe, +are all different in this from the Thames. The economic power of our +main river valley is chiefly a spending power. It produces little and, +though it exchanges more of human wealth, it is the artificial +machinery of exchange rather than the physical movement of goods that +enriches it. + +Now this habit of residence, this settlement of the concentrated power +of demand upon the banks of the Thames, was the work of the monastic +houses. It may be argued that, with the commercial importance of +London, and with its attainment of the position of a capital, the +residence of such economic power would necessarily have spread up the +Thames Valley. It is doubtful whether any such necessity as this +existed. In Roman times the Thames certainly did not lead up thus in +the line of wealth from London, and though it is true that water +carriage greatly increased in importance after the breakdown of Roman +civilisation, yet the medium by which that water carriage was utilised +was the medium of the Benedictine foundations. They it was who +established that continuous line of progressive agricultural +development and who prepared the way for the later yet more continuous +line of the full monastic effort which succeeded the Conquest. + +A list of monastic institutions upon the river, if we exclude the +friars, the hospitals, and such foundations as made part of town or +university life, is as follows:--a priory at Cricklade, another at +Lechlade, the Abbey at Eynsham (sufficiently near the stream to be +regarded as riparian), the Nunnery and School of Godstow, the great +Abbeys of Osney and Rewley, the Benedictine Nunnery at Littlemore, the +great Abbey of Abingdon, the Abbey of Dorchester, Cholsey (but this +had been destroyed before the Conquest, and was never revived), the +Augustinian Nunnery at Goring, the great Cluniac Abbey at Reading, the +Cell of Westminster at Hurley, the Abbey of Medmenham, the Abbey of +Bisham just opposite Marlow, and the Nunnery of Little Marlow; the +Nunnery of Burnham, which, though nearly a mile and a half from the +stream, should count from the position of its property as a riparian +foundation, the little Nunnery of Ankerwike, the great Benedictine +Abbey of Chertsey, the Carthusians of Sheen, and the Benedictines of +Westminster, to which may be added the foundation of Bermondsey. + +When the end came the total number of those in control of such wide +possessions was small. + +Indeed it was perhaps no small cause of the unpopularity, such as it +was, into which the same monasteries had locally fallen, that so much +economic power was concentrated in so few hands. The greater +foundations throughout the country possessed but a little more than +3000 religious, and even when all the nuns, friars, and professed +religious of the towns are counted, we do not arrive at more than 8000 +in religion in an England which must have had a population of at least +4,000,000, and quite possibly a much larger number; nor could the mobs +foresee that the class which would seize upon the abbey lands would +concentrate the means of production into still fewer hands, until at +last the mass of Englishmen should have no lot in England. + +Moreover, it would be an error to consider the numbers of the +religious alone. The smaller foundations, and especially the convents +of nuns, did certainly support but small numbers, and this probably +accounts for the ease with which they were suppressed, but, on the +other hand, their possessions also were small. In the case of the +great foundations, though one can count but 3000 monks and canons, the +number of them must be multiplied many times if we are to arrive at +the total of the communities concerned. Reading, Abingdon, and the +rest were little cities, with a whole population of direct dependants +living within the walls, and a still larger number of families +without, who indirectly depended upon the revenues of the abbey for +their livelihood. + +Another and perhaps a better way of presenting to a modern reader the +overwhelming economic power of the mediæval monastic system, +especially its economic power in the Valley of the Thames, would be to +add to such a list of houses a map of that valley showing the manors +in ecclesiastical hands, the freeholds and leaseholds held by the +great abbeys, in addition to the livings that were within their gift; +in a word, a map giving all their different forms of revenue. + +Such a map would show the Valley of the Thames and its tributaries +covered with ecclesiastical influence upon every side. + +Even if we confined ourselves to the parishes upon the actual banks of +the river, the map would present a continuous stretch of possessions +upon either side from far above Eynsham down to below bridges. + +The research that would be necessary for the establishment of such a +complete list would require a leisure which is not at the disposal of +the present writer, but it is possible to give some conception of what +the monastic holdings were by drawing up a list confined to but a +small part of these holdings and showing therefore _a fortiori_ what +the total must have been. + +In this list I concern myself only with the eight largest houses in +the whole length of the river. I do not mention parishes from which +the revenues were not important (though these were numerous, for the +abbeys held a large number of small parcels of land). I do not mention +the very numerous holdings close to the river but not actually upon it +(such as Burnham or Watereaton), nor, which is most important of all, +do I count even in the riparian holdings such foundations as were not +themselves set upon the banks of the Thames. Whatever Thames land paid +rent to a monastery not actually situated upon the banks of the river, +I omit. Finally the list, curtailed as it is by all these limitations, +concerns only the land held at the moment of the Dissolution. Scores +of holdings, such as those of Lechlade, which was dissolved in +Catholic times, Windsor, which was exchanged as we have seen at the +time of the Conquest, I omit and confine myself only to the lands held +at the time of the Dissolution. + +Yet these lands--though they concern only eight monasteries, though I +mention only those actually upon the banks of the river, and though I +omit from the list all small payments--put before one a series of +names which, to those familiar with the Thames, seems almost like a +voyage along the stream and appears to cover every portion of the +landscape with which travellers upon the river are familiar. Thus we +have Shifford, Eynsham, South Stoke, Radley, Cumnor, Witham, Botley, +the Hinkseys, Sandford, Shillingford, Swinford, Medmenham, Appleford, +Sutton, Wittenham, Culham, Abingdon, Goring, Cowley, Littlemore, +Cholsey, Nuneham, Wallingford, Pangbourne, Streatley, Stanton +Harcourt; and all this crowd of names upon the upper river is arrived +at without counting such properties as attached to the great +monasteries within towns, as, for example, to the monasteries of +Oxford. It is true that not all these names represent complete +manorial ownership. In a number of cases they stand for portions of +the manor only, but even in this list ten at least, and possibly +twelve, stand for complete manorial ownership. Then one must add +Sonning, Wargreave, Tilehurst, Chertsey, Egham, Cobham, Richmond, Ham, +Mortlake, Sheen, Kew, Chiswick, Staines, etc., of which many of the +most important, such as Staines, are full manorial possessions. + +It is clearly evident, from such a very imperfect and rapidly drawn +list, what was the economic power of the great houses, and one may +conclude, even from the basis of such imperfect evidence, that the +directing force of economic effort throughout the Thames Valley was to +be found, right up to the Dissolution, in the chapter houses of +Reading, of Chertsey, and of Westminster, of Abingdon and of the +lesser houses. + +In a word, the business of Henry might be compared to what may be in +future the business of some democratic European Government when it +lays its hands upon the fortunes of the great financial houses, but +with this double difference, that the confiscation to which Henry bent +himself was a confiscation of capital whose product did not leave the +country, and could not be used for anti-national purposes, as also +that it was the confiscation of wealth which never acted secretly and +which had no interest, as have our chief moneylenders, in political +corruption. It was a vast undertaking and, in the truest sense of the +word, a revolutionary one, such as Europe had not seen until that +moment, and perhaps has not seen since. + +It was effected with ease, because there did not reside in the public +opinion of the time any strong body of resistance. + +The change of religion, in so far as a change was threatened (and upon +that the mass of the parish priests themselves, and still more the +mass of the laity, were very hazy), did not affect the mind of a +people famous throughout Europe for their intense and often +superstitious devotion; but in some odd way the segregation of the +great communities, their vast wealth, and perhaps an external +contradiction between their original office and their present +privilege, forbade any united or widespread enthusiasm in their +defence. + +Englishmen rose upon every side when they thought that the vital +mysteries of the Faith were threatened. The risings were only put down +by the use of foreign mercenaries and by the most execrable cruelty, +nor would even these means have sufficed had the rebels formed a clear +plan, or had the purpose of Henry himself in matters of religion been +definite and capable of definite attack. But the country, though ready +to fight for Dogma, was not ready to fight for the monasteries. It +might, perhaps, have fought if the attack upon them had been direct +and universal. If Henry had laid down a programme of suppressing +religious bodies in general, he probably could not have carried it +out, but he laid down no such programme. The Dissolution of the +smaller houses was imagined by the most devout to be a statesmanlike +measure. Many of them, like Medmenham, were decayed; their wealth was +not to be used for the private luxury of the King or of nobles; it was +to swell the revenues of the greater foundations or to be applied to +pious or honourable public use. But the example once given, the attack +upon the greater houses necessarily followed; and the whole episode is +a vivid lesson in the capital principle of statesmanship that men are +governed by routine and by the example of familiar things. Render +possible to the mass of men the conception that the road, they +habitually follow is not a necessity of their lives, and you may exact +of them almost any sacrifice or hope to see them witness without +disgust almost any enormity. + +Moreover, the great monasteries were each severally tricked. The one +was asked to surrender at one time, another at another; the one for +this reason, the other for that. The suppression of Chertsey, the +example perpetually recurring in these pages, was solemnly promised to +be but a transference of the community from one spot to another; then +when the transference had taken place the second community was +ruthlessly destroyed. There is ample evidence to show that each +community had its special hope of survival, and that each, until quite +the end of the process, regarded its fate, when that fate fell upon +it, as something exceptional and peculiar to itself. Some, or rather +many, purchased temporary exemption, doubtless secure in the belief +that their bribe would make that extension permanent. Their payments +were accepted, but the contracts depending upon them were never +fulfilled. + +When the Dissolution had taken place, apart from the private loot, +which was enormous, and to which we shall turn a few pages hence, a +methodical destruction took place on the part of the Crown. + +In none of the careless waste which marked the time is there a worse +example than in the case of Reading. The lead had already been +stripped from the roof and melted into pigs; the timbers of the roof +had already been rotting for nearly thirty years, when Elizabeth gave +leave for such of them as were sound to be removed. Some were used in +the repairing of a local church; a little later further leave was +given for 200 cartloads of freestone to be removed from the ruins. But +they showed an astonishing tenacity. The abbey was still a habitation +before the Civil Wars, and even at the end of the eighteenth century a +very considerable stretch of the old walls remained. + +Westminster was saved. The salvation of Westminster is the more +remarkable in that the house was extremely wealthy. + +Upon nothing has more ink been wasted in the minute research of modern +history than upon an attempted exact comparison between modern and +mediæval economics. + +It is a misfortune that those who are best fitted to appreciate the +economic problems and science of the modern world are, either by race +or religion, or both, cut off from the mediæval system, and even when +they are acquainted with the skeleton, as it were, of that body of +Christian Europe, are none the less out of sympathy with, or even +ignorant of, its living form and spirit. + +The particular department of that inquiry which concerns anyone who +touches the vast economic revolution produced by the Dissolution of +the monasteries is the comparison of values (as measured in the +precious metals) between the early sixteenth century and the early +twentieth. + +No sensible man needs to be told that such a comparison is one of the +very numerous parts of historical inquiry in which a better result is +arrived at in proportion as the matter is more generally and largely +observed. It is one in which detail is more fatal to a man even than +inaccuracy, and it is one in which hardly a single observer who has +been really soaked in his subject has avoided the most ludicrous +conclusions. + +Again, no man of common sense need be told that a rigid multiple is +absolutely impossible of discovery. The search for such a multiple is +like a search for an index number which shall apply to all the varying +economic habits of the modern world. One cannot say: "Multiply prices +by 10" or "Multiply prices by 20," and thus afford the modern reader a +sound basis; but one can say, after some observation: "Multiply by +such-and-such a multiple" (wherever very large and varied expenditure +is concerned) and you will certainly have a minimum; though how much +_more_ such expenditure may have represented in those very different +and far simpler social circumstances cannot be precisely determined. +What, then, is the rough multiple that will give us our minimum? + +The inquiry has been prosecuted by more than one authority upon the +basis of wheat. One may say that wheat in normal years in the early +sixteenth century stood at about an eighth of wheat in what I may call +the normal years of the nineteenth, before the influx of Colonial +produce began to be serious, and before the depreciation of silver +combined with other causes to disturb prices. + +Those who have taken wheat for their basis, recognising, as even they +must do, that 8 is far too low a multiple, are willing to grant 10, +and sometimes even 12, and this way of calculating, largely because it +is a ready rule, has entered into many books upon the Reformation. The +early Tudor penny is turned into the modern shilling. + +But this basis of calculation is false, because the eating of wheaten +bread was not then the universal thing it is to-day. The English +proletarian of to-day is, in comparison with the large well-to-do +class of his fellow-citizens, a far poorer man than his ancestry ever +were. Wheaten bread is, indeed, his necessity, but good fresh meat +(for example) is an exception for him. + +Now the Englishmen of earlier times made beef a necessity, and yet we +find that beef will permit a higher multiple than wheat. Beef will +give you a multiple of 12, and just as wheat, giving you a multiple of +8, permits a somewhat higher general multiple, so beef, giving you a +multiple of 12, permits a higher one. So if we were to make beef our +staple instead of wheat we should get a multiple of 13 or 14 by which +to turn the money of the first third of the sixteenth century into the +money of our own time. + +But beef, in its turn, is not a fair standard; during much of the year +pork had, under the circumstances of the time, to be eaten instead of +fresh meat. Pork is to-day almost the only meat all the year round of +many labourers on the land. Now pork gives a still higher multiple: it +gives 20. For the pound that you would now give in Chichester Market +for a breeding sow, you gave in the early years of the sixteenth +century a shilling. So here you have another article of common +consumption which gives you a multiple of 20. + +Strong ale gives you a higher multiple still--one of nearly 24. You +could then get strong ale at a penny a gallon. You will hardly get it +at two shillings a gallon to-day; and yet it is made of the same +materials. The small ale of the hayfield will give you almost any +multiple you like; it is from eightpence to ninepence a gallon now: it +was often given away in the sixteenth century as water would be. + +The consideration of but a few sets of prices such as those we have +quoted shows that the ordinary multiple might be anything between 8 +and 24, with a prejudice in favour of the higher rather than the lower +figure. But there are other lines of proof which converge upon the +matter, and which permit a greater degree of certitude. For instance, +even after the rise in prices in the early part of Elizabeth's reign, +while sixpence a week is thought low for the board and lodging of a +working man, a shilling is thought very high, and is only given in the +case of first-rate artisans; and if we consider the pre-Reformation +period, when the position of the labourer was, of course, much better +than it was under Elizabeth, or ever has been since, we find something +of the same scale. A penny a day is thought a rather mean allowance, +but twopence a day is a first-rate extra board wage. + +Again, in Henry VIII.'s first poll tax it is taken for granted that +many labourers have less than a pound a year in actual wages, and that +wages over this sum, up to two pounds, for instance, form a sort of +aristocracy of labour that can afford to pay taxation. Of course some +part of the wages so counted were paid in part board and lodging, +especially in the agricultural industries, but still, the reception of +240 pence for a year's work in money gives you a multiple of far more +than 20: you will not get a man about a house and garden for less than +thirty pounds though you feed and house him, and the unhoused outside +labourer gets, first and last, over fifty pounds at the least. + +When the Reformation was in full swing the currency was debased almost +out of recognition, and before the death of Edward VI. prices are +rendered so fictitious by inflation that they are useless for our +purpose. It is only with the currency of Elizabeth that they became +true measures of value once more. + +It is useless, therefore, to follow the inquiry after the Dissolution +of the monasteries, for not only was the currency at sixes and sevens, +but true prices were also rapidly rising with the influx of precious +metals from Spain and America. + +I have said enough in this very elementary sketch to show that a +general multiple of 20, when one considers wages as well as staple +foods, is as high as can be fixed safely, while a general multiple of +12 is certainly too low. + +But even to multiply by 20 is by no means enough if one is to +appreciate the social meaning of such-and-such a large income in the +first part of Henry VIII.'s reign. + +A brief historical essay, such as is this, is no place in which to +discuss any general theory of economics; were there space to do so, +even in an elementary fashion, it would be possible to show how the +increase of wealth in a state is, on account of the increased +elasticity in circulation of the currency, almost independent of the +movement of prices. But without going into formulæ; of this +complexity, a couple of homely comparisons will suffice to show what a +much larger thing a given income was in the early sixteenth century, +than its corresponding amount in values is to-day. + +Consider a man with some £2000 a year travelling through modern +Europe. Prices, in the competition of modern commerce and the ease of +modern travel, are levelled up very evenly throughout the area that he +traverses. Yet such a man, should he settle in a village of Spanish +peasants, would appear of almost illimitable wealth, because he would +have at his command an almost indefinite amount of those simple +necessities which form the whole category of their consumable values. +Or again, let such a man settle in a place where the variety of +consumable values is large, but where the distribution of wealth is +fairly equal, and the small income, therefore, a normal social +phenomenon--as, for instance, among the lower middle class of +Paris-there again his £2000 a year would be of much greater effect +than in a society where wealth was unequally divided, for it would +produce that effect in a medium where the satisfaction of nearly every +individual around him was easily reached upon perhaps a tenth of such +an income. + +When all this is taken into consideration we can begin to see what the +great monasteries were at the time of their dissolution. It is hardly +an exaggeration to multiply the list of mere values by 20 to bring it +into the terms of modern currency. A place worth close on £2000 a year +(as was, for instance, Ramsey Abbey) meant an income of not far short +of £40,000 a year in our money, to go by prices alone. And that +£40,000 a year was spent in an England in which nine-tenths of the +luxury of our modern rich was unknown, in which the squire was usually +but three or four times richer than one of his farmers, in which great +wealth, where it existed, attached rather to an office than to a +person. In general, the multiple of 20 must be further multiplied by a +coefficient which is not arithmetically determinable, but which we see +I to be very large by a general comparison of the small, poor, and +equable society of the early sixteenth century with the complex, huge, +wealthy, and wholly iniquitous society of our own day. + +Supposing, for instance, we take the high multiple of 20, and say that +the revenues of Westminster at its dissolution in the first days of +1540 were some £80,000 a year in our modern money, we are far +underestimating the economic position of Westminster in the State. +There are to-day many private men in London who dispose of as great an +income, and who, for all their ostentation, are not remarkable; but +the income of Westminster in the early sixteenth century, when wealth +was far more equally divided than it is now, and when the accumulation +of it was far less, was a very different matter to what we mean to-day +by £80,000 a year. It produced more of the effect which we might +to-day imagine would be produced by a million. The fortune of but very +few families could so much as compare with it, and the fortunes of +individual families, especially of wealthy families, were, during the +existence of a strong king, highly perilous, and often cut short; +nothing could pretend to equal such an economic power but the Crown, +which then was, and which remained until the victory of the +aristocracy in the Civil Wars, by far the richest legal personality in +Britain. The temptation to sack Westminster was something like the +temptation presented to our financial powers to-day to get at the +rubber of the Congo Basin or at the unexploited coal of Northern +China. + +By a miracle that temptation was withstood. For the moment Henry +intended to construct a bishopric with its cathedral out of the old +corporation and abbey. He might have done so and yet have yielded +immediately after to his cupidity, as he did with the Cathedral of +Osney. It ended in the form which it at present maintains. The greater +part of its revenues were, of course, stolen, but the fabric was +spared and enough income was retained to permit the continuous life of +Westminster to our own time. + +Men are slow to conceive what might have been--nay, what almost +_was_--in their national history; it seems difficult to our generation +to imagine Westminster Abbey absent only from the national life; yet +Abingdon is gone, all but a gateway, Reading all but a few ruined +walls, Chertsey has utterly disappeared, so has Osney, so has +Sheen--to mention the great river houses alone: Westminster alone +survives, and the only reason it survives is that it had about it at +the time of the destruction of the monasteries a royal flavour, and +that its existence helped to bolster up the Tudors. But for that it +would have been sold like the rest, the lead would have been stripped +from its roof, the glass broken and thrown aside, and a Cecil or a +Howard would have built himself a palace with the stones. It is but a +chance that the words "Westminster Abbey" mean more to us to-day than +"Woburn Abbey," "Bewley Abbey" or any one of the scores of "Abbeys," +"Priories," and the rest, which are the names of our country houses. + +Chertsey and Abingdon were less fortunate than Westminster. + +Chertsey, indeed, has so thoroughly disappeared that it might be taken +as a symbol of all that England had been for the thirty generations +since Christianity had come to her, and then, in two generations of +men, ceased suddenly to be. There is, perhaps, not one in a thousand +of the vague Colonials who regard Westminster Abbey as a sort of +inevitable centre for Britishers and Anglo-Saxons, who has so much as +heard of Chertsey. There is perhaps but one in a hundred of historical +students who could attach a definite connection to the name, and yet +Chertsey came next in the list of the great Benedictine Abbeys; +Chertsey also was coeval with England. + +Chertsey went the way of them all. The last abbot, John Cordery, +surrendered it in the July of 1537, but he and his community were not +immediately dispersed, they were taken off to fill that strange new +foundation of Bisham, of which we shall hear later in connection with +the river, and which in its turn immediately disappeared. Not a year +had passed, the June of 1538 was not over, when the new community at +Bisham was scattered as the old one at Chertsey had been. + +Of the abbey itself nothing is left but a broken piece of gateway, and +the few stones of a wall. But a relic of it remains in Black Cherry +Fair, a market granted to the abbey in the fifteenth century and +formerly held upon St. Anne's Hill and upon St. Anne's Day. + +The fate of this monastery has something about it particularly tragic, +for the abbot and the monks of Chertsey when they surrendered did so +in the full expectation of continuing their monastic life at Bisham, +and if Bisham was treacherously destroyed immediately after the fault +does not lie at their door. + +With Abingdon it was otherwise. The last prior was perhaps the least +steadfast of all the many bewildered or avaricious characters that +meet us in the story of the Dissolution. He was one Thomas Rowland, +who had watched every movement of Henry's mind, and had, if possible, +gone before. He did not even wait until the demand was made to him, +but suggested the abandonment of the trust which so many generations +of Englishmen had left in his hands, and he had a reward in the gift +not only of a very large pension but also of the Manor of Cumnor, +which had been before the destruction of the religious orders the +sanatorium or country house of the monks. He obtained it: and from his +time on Cumnor has borne an air of desolation and of murder, nor does +any part of his own palace remain. + +When any organised economic system disappears, there is nothing more +interesting in history than to watch the process of its replacement: +for example, the gradual disappearance of pagan slavery, and its +replacement by the self-governing peasantry of the Middle Ages, with +all the consequence of that change, affords some of the best reading +in Continental records. But the Dissolution of the English monasteries +has this added interest, that it was an immediate, and therefore an +overwhelming, change; there was hardly a warning, there was no delay. +Suddenly, not within the lifetime of a man, but within that of a +Parliament, from one year to another, a good quarter of the whole +economic power of the nation was utterly transformed. Nothing like it +has been known in European history. + +What filled the void so made? The answer to this question is, the +Oligarchy: the landed class which had been threatening for so long to +assume the Government of England stepped into the shoes of the great +houses, and by this addition to their already considerable power +achieved the destruction of the monarchy and within 100 years +proceeded to the ordering of the English people under a small group of +wealthy men, a form of Government which to this day England alone of +all Christian nations suffers or enjoys. + +This general statement must not be taken to mean that the oligarchic +system, whose basis lies in the ownership of land, was immediately +created by the Dissolution of the great monasteries. The development +of the territorial system of England, of which system the banks of the +Thames afford as good a picture as any in England, can be traced +certainly from Saxon, and conjecturally from Roman, times. + +The Roman estate was, presumably, the direct ancestor of the manor, +and the Saxon thegns were perhaps most of them in blood, and nearly +all of them in social constitution, descended from the owners of the +Roman Villas which had seen the petty but recurrent pirate invasions +of the fifth and sixth centuries. + +But though the manorial arrangement, with its village lords and their +dependent serfs, was common to the whole of the West, and could be +found on the Rhine, in Gaul, and even in Italy, in Saxon England it +had this peculiarity, that there was no systematic organisation by +which the local land-owner definitely recognised a feudal superior, +and through him the power of a Central Government. Or rather, though +in theory such recognition had grown up towards the end of the Saxon +period, in practice it hardly existed, and when William landed the +whole system of tenure was in disorder, in the sense that the local +lord of the village was not accustomed to the interference of a +superior, and that no groups of lords had come into existence by which +the territorial system could be bound in sheaves, as it were, and the +whole of it attached to one central point at the royal Court. + +Such a system of groups _had_ arisen in Gaul, and to that difference +ultimately we owe the French territorial system of the present day, +but William the Norman's new subjects had no comprehension of it. + +It was upon this account that even those manors which he handed over +to his French kindred and dependants were scattered, and that, though +he framed a vigorous feudal rule centring in his own hands, the +ancient customs of the populace, coupled with the lack of any bond +between scattered and locally independent units, forbade that rule to +endure. + +William's order was not a century old when the recrudescence of the +former manorial independence was felt in the reign of Henry II. Under +the personal unpopularity of his son, John, it blazed out into +successful revolt, and, in spite of the veil thrown over underlying +and permanent customs by such strong feudal kings as the first and the +third Edwards, the independence and power of the village landlord +remained the chief and growing character of English life. It expressed +itself in the quality of the local English Parliament, in the support +of the usurping Lancastrian dynasty--in twenty ways that converge and +mingle towards the close of the Middle Ages. + +But after the Dissolution of the monasteries this power of the squires +takes on quite a different complexion: the land-owning class, from a +foundation for the National Government, became, within two generations +of the Dissolution, the master of that Government. + +For many centuries previous to the sixteenth the old funded wealth of +the Crown had been gradually wasting, at the expense of the Central +National Government and to the profit of the squires. But the +alienation was never complete. There are plenty of cases in which the +Crown is found resuming the proprietorship of a manor to which it had +never abandoned the theoretical title. With the Tudors such cases +become rarer and rarer, with the Stuarts they cease. + +The cause of this rapid enfeeblement of the Crown lay largely in the +changed proportion of wealth. The King, until the middle of the +sixteenth century, had been far wealthier than any one of his +subjects. By a deliberate act, the breaking up of ecclesiastical +tenure, the Crown offered an opportunity to the wealthier of those +subjects so enormously to increase their revenues as to overshadow +itself; in a little more than a century after the throwing open of the +monastic lands the King is an embarrassed individual, with every issue +of expenditure ear-marked, every source of it controlled, and his very +person, as it were, mortgaged to a plutocracy. The squires had not +only added to their revenues the actual amounts produced by the sites +and estates of the old religious foundations, they had been able by +this sudden accession of wealth to shoot ahead in their competition +with their fellow-citizens. The _counterweight_ to the power of the +local landlord disappeared with the disappearance of the monastery. + +To show how the religious houses had furnished a powerful +counterweight by which the Central Government and the populace could +continue to oppose the growing power of the landed oligarchy, we may +take all the southern bank of the Thames from Buscot to Windsor. We +find at the time of the Conquest twelve royal manors and fifteen +religious; only the nine remaining were under private lords. Four and +a half centuries later, at the time of the Dissolution, the royal +manors have passed for the most part into private hands, but the +manors in the hands of the religious houses have actually increased in +number. + +At this point it is important to note an economic phenomenon which +appears at first sight accidental, but which, on examination, is found +to spring from calculable political causes. At the moment of the +Dissolution it was apparently in the power of the Crown to have +concentrated the revenues of all these monastic manors into its own +hands, and this typical stretch of country, the Berkshire shore, shows +how economically powerful the Central Government of England might have +become had the property surrendered to the Crown been kept in the +hands of the King. + +The modern reader will be tempted to inquire why it was not so kept. + +Most certainly Henry intended to keep, if not the whole of it (for he +must reward his servants, and he was accustomed to do things largely), +yet at least the bulk of it in the Royal Treasury, and had he been +able to do so the Central Government of England would have become by +far the strongest thing in Europe. It is conceivable, though in +consideration of the national character doubtful, that with so +powerful an instrument of government, England, instead of standing +aside from the rapid bureaucratic recasting of European civilisation +which was the work of the French Crown, might have led the way in that +chief of modern experiments. One can imagine the Stuarts, had they +possessed revenue, doing what the Bourbons did: one can imagine the +modern State developing under an English Crown wealthier than any +other European Government, and the re-birth of Europe happening just +to the north, instead of just to the south, of the Channel. + +But the speculation is vain. As a fact, the whole of the new wealth +slipped rapidly from between the fingers of the English King. + +When of three forces which still form an equilibrium two are +stationary and one is pressing upon these two, then, if either of the +stationary forces be removed, that which was pressing upon both +overwhelms the stationary force that remains. The monastic system had +been marking time for over 100 years, and in certain political aspects +of its power had perhaps slightly dwindled. The monarchy, for all its +splendour, was in actual resources no more than it had been for some +generations. Pressing upon either of these two institutions was the +rising and still rising force of the squires. It is not wonderful that +under such conditions the spoil fell to the younger and advancing +power. + +Consider, for example, the extraordinary anxiety of so apparently +powerful a king as Henry for the formal consent of the Commons to his +acts. It has been represented as part of the Tudor national policy and +what not, but those who write thus have not perhaps smiled, as has the +present writer, over the names of those who sat for the English shires +in the Parliament which assented to the Dissolution of the great +monastic houses. Here is a Ratcliffe from Northumberland, and a +Collingwood; here is a Dacre, a Musgrave, a Blenkinsop; the Constables +are there, and the Nevilles from Yorkshire; the Tailboys of Lincoln, a +Schaverell, a Throgmorton, a Ferrers, a Gascoyne; and of course, +inevitably, sitting for Bedfordshire, a hungry Russell. + +Here is a Townshend, a Wingfield, a Wentworth, an Audley--all from +East Anglia--a Butler; from Surrey a Carew, and that FitzWilliam whose +appetite for the religious spoils proved so insatiable; here is a +Blount out of Shropshire; a Lyttleton, a Talbot (and yet _another_ +Russell!), a Darrell, a Paulet, a Courtney, (to see what could be +picked up in his native county of Devon), and after him a Grenfell. +These are a few names taken at random to show what humble sort of +"Commons" it was that Henry had to consider. They are significant +names; and the "Constitution" had little to do then, and has little to +do now, with their domination. Wealth was and is their instrument of +power. + +That such men could ultimately force the Government is evident, but +what is remarkable, perhaps, is the extraordinary rapidity with which +the Crown was stripped of its new wealth by the gentry, and this can +only be explained in two ways: + +First, there was the rapid change in prices which rose from the +Spanish importation of precious metals from America, the effect of +which was now reaching England; and, secondly, the Tudor character. + +As to the first, it put the National Government, dependent as it still +largely was upon the customary and fixed payments, into a perpetual +embarrassment. Where it still received nothing but the customary +shilling, it had to pay out three for material and wages, whose price +had risen and was rising. In this embarrassment, in spite of every +subterfuge and shift, the Crown was in perpetual, urgent, and +increasing need. Rigid and novel taxes were imposed, loans were raised +and not repaid, but something far more was needed to save the +situation, with prices still rising as the years advanced. Ready money +from those already in possession of perhaps half the arable land of +England was an obvious source, and into their pockets flowed, as by +the force of gravitation, the funded wealth which had once supported +the old religion. Hardly ever at more than ten years' purchase, +sometimes at far less, the Crown turned its new rentals into ready +money, and spent that capital as though it had been income. + +The Tudor character was a second cause. + +It is a pleasing speculation to conceive that, if some character other +than a Tudor had been upon the throne, not all at least of this +national inheritance would have been dissipated. One can imagine a +character--tenacious, pure, narrow and subtle, intent upon dignity, +and with a natural suspicion of rivals--which might have saved some +part of the estates for posterity. Charles I., for example, had he +been born 100 years earlier, might very well have done the thing. + +But the Tudors, for all their violence, were fundamentally weak. There +was always some vice or passion to interrupt the continuity of their +policy--even Mary, who was not the offspring of caprice, had inherited +the mental taint of the Spanish house--and before the last of the +family had died, while still old men were living who, as children, had +seen the monasteries, nearly all this vast treasure had found its way +into the pockets of the squires. In the middle of the seventeenth +century every one of these villages is under a private landlord: +before the close of it even the theoretical link of their feudal +dependence upon the Crown is snapped: and the two centuries between +that time and our own have seen the power of the new landlords +steadily maintained and latterly vastly increased. + +Apart from the transfer of the monastic manors there was yet another +way in which the Dissolution of the religious houses helped on the +establishment of the landed oligarchy in the place of the old National +Government. The monasteries had owned not only these full manorial +rights, but also numerous parcels of land scattered up and down in +manors whose lordship was already in private hands. These parcels, +like the small lay freeholds, which they resembled, formed nuclei of +resistance to the increasing power of the squires. + +The point is of very considerable importance, though not easy to seize +for anyone unacquainted with the way in which the territorial +oligarchy has been built up or ignorant of the present conditions of +English village life. + +At the close of the Middle Ages the lord of a manor in England, though +possessed of a larger proportion of the land than were his colleagues +in other countries, but rarely could claim so much as one half of the +acreage of a parish; the rest was common, in which his rights were +strictly limited and defined, to the advantage of the poor, and also +side by side with common was to be found a number of partially and +wholly independent tenures, over which the squire had little or no +control, from copyholds which did furnish him occasional sums of +money, to freeholds which were practically independent of him. + +The monasteries possessed parcels of this sort everywhere. To give but +one example: Chertsey had twenty acres of freehold pasturage in the +Manor of Cobham; but it is useless to give examples of a thing which +was as common as the renting of a house to-day. Now these small +parcels formed a most valuable foundation upon which the independence +of similar lay parcels could repose. The squire might be tempted to +bully a four-acre man out of his land, but he could not bully the +Abbot of Abingdon, or of Reading. And so long as these small parcels +were sanctioned by the power of the great houses, so long they were +certain to endure in the hands even of the smallest and the humblest +of the tenants. To-day in a modern village where a gentleman possesses +such an island of land, better still where several do, there at once +arises a tendency and an opportunity for the smaller men to acquire +and to retain. The present writer could quote a Sussex village in the +centre of which were to be found, but thirty years ago, more than +half-a-dozen freeholds. They disappeared: in its prosperity "The +Estate" extinguished them. The next heir in his embarrassment has +handed over the whole lump to a Levantine for a loan. Had the Old +Squire spared the small freeholds they would have come in as +purchasers and would have increased their number during the later +years when the principal landlord, his son, was gradually falling into +poverty and drink. + +When the monasteries were gone the disappearance of the small men +gradually began. It was hastened by the extinction of that old +tradition which made the Church a customary landlord exacting quit +rents always less than the economic value of the land, and, what with +the security of tenure and the low rental, creating a large tenant +right. This tenant right vested in the lucky dependants of the Church +did indeed create intense local jealousies that help to account for +much of the antagonism to the monastic houses. But the future showed +that the benefits conferred, though irregular and privileged, were +more than the landless men could hope to expect when they had +exchanged the monk for the squire. + +Finally, the Dissolution of the religious houses strengthened the +squires in the mere machinery of the constitution. Before that +Dissolution the House of Lords was a clerical house. Had you entered +the Council of Henry VII. when Parliament sat at Westminster you would +have seen a crowd of mitres and of croziers, bishops and abbots of the +great abbeys, among whom, here and there, were some thirty lay lords. +This clerical House of Lords, sprung largely from the populace, +possessed only of life tenure, was a very different thing from the +House of Lords that succeeded the Dissolution. _That_ immediately +became a committee, as it were, of the landed class; and a committee +of the landed class the House of Lords remained until quite the last +few years, when the practice of purchase has admitted to it brewers, +money-lenders, Colonial speculators, and, indeed, anyone who can +furnish the sum required by a woman or a secret party fund. A concrete +example is often of value in the illustration of a general process, +and at the expense of a digression I propose to lay before the reader +as excellent a picture as we have of the way in which the Dissolution +of the monasteries not only emphasised the position of the existing +territorial class, but began to recruit it with elements drawn from +every quarter, and, while it established the squires in power, taught +them to be careless of the origin or of the end of the families +admitted to their rank. + +For this purpose I can find no better example than that of the family +of Williams, which by the licence of custom we have come to call +"Cromwell"; the most famous member of this family stands out in +English history as the typical squire who led the Forces of his Order +against the impoverished Monarchy, and so reduced that emblem of +Government to the simulacrum which it still remains. + +Putney, by Thames-side, was the home of their very lowly beginnings. + +Of the descent of the Williams throughout the Middle Ages nothing is +known. Much later they claimed relationship with certain heads of the +Welsh clans, but the derivation is fantastic. At any rate a certain +Williams was keeping a public-house in Putney in the generation which +saw the first of the Reformers. His name was Morgan, and the "Ap +William" or "Williams" which he added to that name was an affix due to +the Welsh custom of calling a man by his father's name; for surnames +had not yet become a rule in the Principality. He may have come, and +probably did, from Glamorganshire, and that is all we can say about +him; though we must admit some weight in Leland's contemporary +evidence that his son, Richard, was born in the same county, at a +place called Llanishen. Anyhow, there he is, keeping his public-house +in the first years of the sixteenth century by the riverside at +Putney. + +There lived in the same hamlet (which was a dependency of the manor of +Wimbledon) a certain Cromwell or Crumwell, who was also called Smith; +but this obscure personage should most probably be known by the first +of these two names, for his humble business was the shoeing of horses, +and the second appellation was very probably a nickname arising from +that trade. He also added beer-selling to his other work, and this +common occupation may have formed a link between him and his +neighbour, Morgan ap William. + +The next stage in the story is not perfectly clear. Smith or Crumwell +had a son and two daughters, the son was called Thomas, and the +daughter that concerns us was called Katherine. It is highly probable, +according to modern research into the records of the manor, that +Morgan ap William married Katherine. But the matter is still in some +doubt. There are not a few authorities, some of them painstaking, +though all of them old, who will have it that the blacksmith's son, +Thomas, loved Morgan ap William's sister, instead of its being the +other way about. It is not easy to establish the exact relationship +between two public-house keepers who lived as neighbours in a dirty +little village 400 years ago. + +Thomas proceeded to an astonishing career; he left his father's forge, +wandered to Italy, may have been present at the sack of Rome, and was +at last established as a merchant in the city of London. When one says +"merchant" one is talking kindly. His principal business then, as +throughout his life, was that of a usurer, and he showed throughout +his incredible adventures something of that mixture of simplicity and +greed, with a strange fixity in the oddest of personal friendships, +which amuses us to-day in our company promoters and African +adventurers. His abilities recommended him to Wolsey, and when that +great genius fell, Cromwell was, as the most familiar of historical +traditions represents him, faithful to his master. + +Whether this faithfulness recommended him to the King or not, it is +difficult to say. Probably it did, for there is nothing that a careful +plotter will more narrowly watch in an agent than his record of +fidelity in the past. + +Henry fixed upon him to be his chief instrument in the suppression of +the monasteries. His lack of all fixed principle, his unusual power of +application to a particular task, his devotion to whatever orders he +chose to obey, and his quite egregious avarice, all fitted him for the +work his master ordered. + +How the witty scoundrel accomplished that business is a matter of +common history. Had he never existed the monasteries would have fallen +just the same, perhaps in the same manner, and probably with the same +despatch. But fate has chosen to associate this revolution with his +name--and to his presence in that piece of confiscation we owe the +presence in English history of the great Oliver; for Oliver, as will +be presently seen, and all his tribe were fed upon no other food than +the possessions of the Church. Cromwell, in his business of +suppressing the great houses, embezzled quite cynically--if we can +fairly call that "embezzlement" which was probably countenanced by the +King, to whom account was due. Indeed, it is plainly evident from the +whole story of that vast economic catastrophe which so completely +separates the England we know from the England of a thousand +years--the England of Alfred, of Edward I., of Chaucer, and of the +French Wars--it is evident from the whole story, that the flood of +confiscated wealth which poured into the hands of the King's agents +and squires was a torrent almost impossible to control; Henry VIII. +was glad enough to be able to retain, even for a year or two, one half +of the spoils. + +We know, for instance, that the family of Howard (which was then +already of more than a century's standing) took everything they could +lay their hands on in the particular case of Bridlington--pyxes, +chalices, crucifixes, patens, reliquaries, vestments, shrines, every +saleable or meltable thing, and the cattle and pigs into the bargain, +and never dreamt of giving account to the King. + +With Cromwell, the embezzlement was more systematic: it was a method +of keeping accounts. But our interest lies in the fact that the +process was accompanied by that curious fidelity to all with whom he +was personally connected, which forms so interesting a feature in the +sardonic character of this adventurer. It is here that we touch again +upon the family of Morgan ap William, the public-house keeper of +Putney. + +When Cromwell was at the height of his power he lifted out from the +obscurity of his native kennel a certain Richard Williams, calling him +now "cousin" and now "nephew." We may take it that the boy was a +nephew, and that the word "cousin" was used only in the sense of +general relationship which attached to it at that time. If Cromwell +had been a man of a trifle more distinction, or of tolerable honesty, +we might even be certain that this young fellow was the legitimate son +of his sister Katherine, and, indeed, it is much the more probable +conclusion at which we should arrive to-day. But Cromwell himself +obscured the matter by alluding to his relative as "Williams (alias +Cromwell)," and there must necessarily remain a suspicion as to the +birth and real status of his dependant. + +In 1538 this young Richard Williams got two foundations handed over to +him--both in Huntingdon, and together amounting in value to about £500 +a year. + +We have seen on an earlier page how extremely difficult or impossible +it is to estimate exactly in modern money the figures of the +Dissolution. We have agreed that to multiply by twenty for a maximum +is permissible, but that even then we shall not have anything like the +true relation of any particular income to the general standard of +wealth in a time when England was so much smaller than our England of +to-day, and in an England where wealth had been until that moment so +well divided, and especially in an England where the objects both of +luxury and expenditure were so utterly different to our own: where all +textile fabric was, for instance, so much dearer in proportion to food +than it is now, and where yet a man could earn in a few weeks' labour +what would with us be capital enough to stock a small farm. + +It is safe to say, however, that when Cromwell had got his young +relation--whatever that relationship was--into possession of the two +foundations in Huntingdon, he had set him up as a considerable local +gentleman, and whether it was the inheritance of the Cromwell blood +through his mother, or something equally unpleasant in the heredity of +his father, Morgan, young Williams ("alias Cromwell") did not stick +there. + +Early in 1540 he swallowed bodily the enormous revenues of Ramsey +Abbey. + +Now to appreciate what that meant we must return to the case we have +already established in the case of Westminster. Westminster almost +alone of the great foundations remains with a certain splendour +attached to it; we cannot, indeed, see all the dependencies as they +used to stand to the south of the great Abbey. We cannot see the +lively and populous community dependent upon it; still less can we +appreciate what a figure it must have cut in the days when London was +but a large country town, and when this walled monastic community +stood in its full grandeur surrounded by its gardens and farms. But +still, the object lesson afforded by the Abbey yet remains visible to +us. We can see it as it was, and we know that its income must have +represented in the England at that time infinitely more in outward +effect than do to-day the largest private incomes of our English +gentry: a Solomon Joel, for instance, or a Rothschild, does not occupy +so great a place in modern England as did Westminster, at the close of +the Middle Ages, in the very different England of its time. + +Well, Ramsey was the equivalent of half Westminster, and young +Williams swallowed it whole. He was not given it outright, but the +price at which he bought it is significant of the way in which the +monastic lands were distributed, and in which incidentally the +squirearchy of England was founded. He bought it for less than three +years' purchase. Where he got the money, or indeed whether he paid +ready money at all, we do not know. If he did furnish the sum down we +may suspect that he borrowed it from his uncle, and we may hope that +that genial financier charged but a low rate of interest to one whom +he had so signally favoured. + +Contemporaneously with this vast accession of fortune, which made +Williams the principal man in the county, Cromwell, now Earl of Essex, +fell from favour, and was executed. The barony was revived for his son +five months after his death and was not extinguished until the first +years of the eighteenth century, but with this, the direct lineage of +the King's Vicar-General, we are not concerned: our business is with +the family of Williams. + +Young Williams did not imitate his protector in showing any startling +fidelity to the fallen. He became a courtier, was permanently in +favour with the King and with the King's son, and died established in +the great territorial position which he had come into by so singular +an accident. + +His son, Henry, maintained that position, and possibly increased it. +He was four times High Sheriff of the two counties; he received +Elizabeth, his sovereign and patroness, at his seat at Hinchinbrooke +(one of the convents), and in general he played the rôle with which we +are so tediously familiar in the case of the new and monstrous +fortunes of our own times. + +He was in Parliament also for the Queen, and it was his brother who +moved the resolution of thanks to Elizabeth for the beheading of Mary +Queen of Scots. + +He died in 1603, and even to his death the alias was maintained. +"Williams (alias Cromwell)" was the legal signature which guaranteed +the validity of purchases and sales, while to the outer world CROMWELL +(alias Williams) was the formula by which the family gently thrust +itself into the tradition of another and more genteel name. The whole +thing was done, like everything else this family ever did, by a +mixture of trickery and patience; he obtained no special leave from +Chancery as the law required; he simply used the "Williams" in public +less and less and the "Cromwell" more and more. When he died, his sons +after him, Robert and Oliver, had forgotten the Williams +altogether--in public--and in the case of such powerful men it was +convenient for the neighhours to forget the lineage also; so with the +end of the sixteenth century these Williams have become Cromwells, +_pur et simple_, and Cromwells they remain. But still the old caution +clings to them where the law, and especially where money, is +concerned; even Robert's son, who grew to be the Lord Protector, signs +_Williams_ when it is a case of securing his wife's dowry. Of Robert +and Oliver, sons of Henry, and grandsons of the original Richard, +Oliver, the elder, inherited, of course, the main wealth of the +family, but Robert also was portioned, and as was invariably the case +with the Williams' (alias Cromwell), the portion took the form of +monastic lands. + +Many more estates of the Church had come into the hands of this highly +accretive family in the half century that had passed since the +destruction of the monasteries. [Thus at the very end of the century +we find Oliver telling the abbey land of Stratton to a haberdasher in +London for £3000.] + +The portion of this younger brother, Robert, consisted of religious +estates in the town of Huntingdon itself, and it is highly +characteristic of the whole tribe that the very house in which the +Lord Protector was born was monastic, and had been, before the +Dissolution, a hospital dedicated to the use of the poor. For the Lord +Protector was the son of this Robert, who by a sort of atavism had +added to the ample income derived from monastic spoil the profits of a +brewery. It was Mrs Cromwell who looked after the brewery, and some +appreciable part of the family revenues were derived from it when, in +1617, her husband died, leaving young Oliver, the future Lord +Protector, an only son of eighteen, upon her hands. + +The quarrels between young Oliver and old Oliver (the absurdly wealthy +head of the family) would furnish material for several diverting +pages, but they do not concern this, which is itself but a digression +from the general subject of my book. + +The object of that digression has been to trace the growth of but one +great territorial family, from the gutter to affluence in the course +of less than 100 years; to show how plain "Williams" gradually and +secretly became "Cromwell"--because the new name had about it a +flavour of nobility, however parvenu; to show how the whole of their +vast revenues depended upon, and was born from, the destruction of +monastic system, and to show by the example of one Thames-side family +how rapidly and from what sources was derived that economic power of +the squires which, when it came to the issue of arms, utterly +destroyed what was left of the national monarchy. + +The new _régime_ had, however, other features about it which must not +be forgotten. For instance, in this growth of a new territorial body +upon the ruins of the monastic orders, in this sudden and portentous +increase of the wealth and power of the squires of England, the +mutability of the new system is perhaps as striking as any other of +its characteristics. + +Manors or portions of manors which had been steadily fixed in the +possession and customs of these undying corporations for centuries +pass rapidly from hand to hand, and though there is sometimes a lull +in the process the uprooting reoccurs after each lull, as though +continuity and a strong tradition, which are necessarily attached for +good or for evil to a free peasantry, were as necessarily disregarded +by a landed plutocracy. There is not, perhaps, in all Europe a similar +complete carelessness for the traditions of the soil and for the +attachment of a family to an ancestral piece of land as is to be found +among these few thousand squires. The system remains, but the +individual families, the particular lineages, appear without +astonishment and are destroyed almost without regret. Aliens, +Orientals and worse, enter the ruling class, and are received without +surprise; names that recall the Elizabethans go out, and are not +mourned. + +We are accustomed to-day, when we see some village estate in our own +country pass from an impoverished gentleman to some South African Jew, +to speak of the passing of an old world and of its replacement by a +new and a worse one. But an examination of the records which follow +the Dissolution of the monasteries may temper our sorrow. The wound +that was dealt in the sixteenth century to our general national +traditions affected the love of the land as profoundly as it did +religion, and the apparent antiquity which the trees, the stones, and +a certain spurious social feeling lend to these country houses is +wholly external. + +Among the riparian manors of the Thames the fate of Bisham is very +characteristic of the general fate of monastic land. It was +surrendered, among other smaller monasteries, in 1536, though it +enjoyed an income corresponding to about £6000 a year of our money, +and of course very much more than £6000 a year in our modern way of +looking at incomes. It was thus a wealthy place, and how it came to be +included in the smaller monasteries is not quite clear. At any rate it +was restored immediately after. The monks of Chertsey were housed in +it, as we have already seen, and the revenues of several of the +smaller dissolved houses were added to it; so that it was at the +moment of its refoundation about three times as wealthy as it had been +before. The prior who had surrendered in 1536, one Barlow, was made +Bishop of St Asaphs, and in turn of St. Davids, Bath and Wells, and +Chichester; he is that famous Barlow who took the opportunity of the +Reformation to marry, and whose five daughters all in turn married the +Protestant bishops of the new Church of England. But this is by the +way. The fate of the land is what is interesting. From Anne of Cleves, +whose portion it had been, and to whom the Government of the great +nobles under Edward VI. confirmed it after Henry VIII.'s death, it +passed, upon her surrendering it in 1552, to a certain Sir Philip +Hoby. He had been of the Privy Council of Henry VIII. Upon his death +it passed to his nephew, Edward Hoby; Edward was a Parliamentarian +under Elizabeth, wrote on Divinity, and left an illegitimate son, +Peregrine, to whom he bequeathed Bisham upon his death in 1617. It +need hardly be said that before 100 years were over the son was +already legitimatised in the county traditions; his son, Edward, was +created Baron just after the Restoration, in 1666. The succession was +kept up for just 100 years more, when the last male heir of the family +died in 1766. He was not only a baron but a parson as well, and on his +death the estate went to relatives by the name of Mill, or, as we +might imagine, "Hoby" Mill. It did not long remain with them. They +died out in 1780 and the Van Sittarts bought it of the widow. + +Consider Chertsey, from which Bisham sprang. The utter dispersion of +the whole tradition of Chertsey is more violent than that perhaps of +any other historical site in England. The Crown maintained, as we have +seen to be the case elsewhere, its nominal hold upon the foundations +of the abbey and of what was left of the buildings, though that hold +was only nominal, and it maintained such a position until 1610--that +is, for a full lifetime after the community was dispersed. But the +tradition created by FitzWilliam continued, and the Crown was ready to +sell at that date, to a certain Dr. Hammond. The perpetual mobility +which seems inseparable from spoils of this kind attaches +thenceforward to the unfortunate place. The Hammonds sell after the +Restoration to Sir Nicholas Carew, and before the end of the +seventeenth century the Carews pass it on to the Orbys, and the Orbys +pass it on to the Waytes. The Waytes sell it to a brewer of London, +one Hinde. So far, contemptuous as has been the treatment of this +great national centre, it had at least remained intact. With Hinde's +son even that dignity deserted it. He found it advisable to distribute +the land in parcels as a speculation; the actual emplacement of the +building went to a certain Harwell, an East Indian, in 1753, and his +son left it by will to a private soldier called Fuller, who was +suspected of being his illegitimate brother. Fuller, as might be +expected, saw nothing but an opportunity of making money. He redivided +what was left intact of the old estate, and sold that again by lots in +1809; a stockbroker bought the remaining materials of a house whose +roots struck back to the very footings of our country, sold them for +what they were worth--and there was the end of Chertsey. + +Then there is also Radley: which begins as an exception, but fails. It +was a manor of Abingdon, and after the Dissolution it fell a prey to +that one of the Seymours who proved too dirty and too much even for +his brother and was put to death in 1549. It passed for the moment, as +we have seen several of these riverside manors do, into the hands of +Mary. But upon her death Elizabeth bestowed it upon a certain +Stonehouse, and the Stonehouses did come uncommonly near to founding a +family that should endure. Nor can their tradition be said to have +disappeared when the name changed and the manor passed to the nephew +of the last Stonehouse, by name Bowyer. But Bowyer did not retain it. +He gradually ruined himself: and it is amusing at this distance of +time to learn that the cause of his ruin was the idea that coal +underlay his property. Everyone knows what Radley since became: it was +purchased by an enthusiast, and is now a school springing from his +foundation. + +Or consider the two Hinkseys opposite Oxford, both portions of +Abingdon manors; they are granted in the general loot to two worthies +bearing the names of Owen and Bridges: a doctor. + +These were probably no more than vulgar speculators upon a +premium--"Stags," as we should say to-day--for a few years afterwards +we find a Williams in possession of one of the Hinkseys; he is +followed by the Perrots, and only quite late, and by purchase, do we +come to the somewhat more dignified name of Harcourt. The other +Hinksey, after still more varied adventures, ends up in the hands of +the Berties, obscure south-country people who date from a rich +Protestant marriage of the time. + +Cholsey, again, with its immemorial traditions of unchanging +ecclesiastical custom, receiving its priests in Saxon times from the +Mont St. Michel upon the marches of Brittany, and later holding as a +manor from the Abbot of Reading, remains with the Crown but a very few +years. In 1555 Mary handed it over to that Sir Robert Englefield who +was promptly attainted by her successor. It gets in the hands of the +Knowleses, then of the Rich's, and ends up with the family of +Edwardes-seventeenth-century Welshmen, who, by a plan of wealthy +marriages, became gentlemen, and have now for 100 years and more been +peers, under the title of Kensington. + +The mention of Sir Robert Englefield leads one to what is perhaps the +best example in the whole Thames Valley of this perpetual chop and +change in the holding of English land; that example is to be +discovered at Pangbourne. + +Pangbourne also was monastic; and the manor held, as did Cholsey, of +Reading Abbey. In the race for the spoils Dudley clutched it in 1550. +When he was beheaded, three years later, and it passed again to the +Crown, Mary handed it (as she had handed Cholsey) to Sir Robert +Englefield. His attainder followed. Within ten years it changes hands +again. Elizabeth in 1563 gave it to her cofferer, a Mr Weldon. This +personage struck no root, nor his son after him, for in 1613, while +still some were alive who could remember the old custom and immemorial +monastic lordship of the place, Weldon the younger sold it to a +certain Davis. + +Davis, one would hope--in that seventeenth century which was so +essentially the century of the squires, and in that generation also +wherein the squires wiped out what was left of the Crown and left the +King a salaried dependant of the governing class--Davis might surely +have attempted to found a family and to achieve some sort of dignity +of tradition. He probably made no such an attempt, but if he did he +failed; for only half-a-century later the unfortunate place changes +hands again, and the Davises sell it to the Breedons. + +The Breedons showed greater stability. They are actually associated +with Pangbourne for over a century, but even this experiment in +lineage broke down, through the extinction of the direct line. In +1776, by a sham continuity consonant to the whole recent story of +English land, it passes to yet another family on the condition of +their assuming the name of Breedon--which was not their own. + +All up and down England, and especially in this Thames Valley, which +is in all its phases so typical and symbolical of the rest of the +country, this stir and change of tenure is to be found, originating +with the sharp changes of 1540, and continuing to our own day. + +Anywhere along this Berkshire shore of the Thames the process may be +traced; even the poor little ruined nunnery of Ankerwike shows it. The +site of that quiet and forgotten community was seized under Edward VI. +by Smith the courtier. Then you find it in the pockets of the Salters, +after them of the Lysons. The Lysons sell it to the Lees, and finally +it passes by marriage to the Harcourts. + +The number of such examples that could be taken in the Valley of the +Thames alone would be far too cumbersome for these pages. One can +close the list with Sonning. + +Sonning, which had been very possibly the see of an early bishopric, +and which was certainly a country house of the Bishop of Salisbury, +did not pass from ecclesiastical hands by a theft, but it was none the +less doomed to the same mutability as the rest. In 1574 it was +exchanged with the Crown for lands in Dorset. The Crown kept it for an +unusually long time, considering the way in which land slipped on +every side from the control of the National Government at this period. +It is still royal under Charles I., but it passes in 1628 to Halstead +and Chamberlain. In little more than twenty years it is in the hands +of the family of Rich. Then there is a lull, just as there was in the +case of Pangbourne, and a continuity that lasts throughout the +eighteenth century. But just as a tradition began to form it was +broken, and in the first years of the nineteenth century Sonning is +sold to the Palmers. + +Parallel to the rise of the squires and their capture of English +government has gone the development of the English town system. And +this, the last historical phase with which we shall deal in these +pages, is also very well and typically illustrated in the history of +the Thames Valley. That valley contains London, which is, of course, +not only far the largest but in its way the fullest example of what is +peculiarly English in the development of town life; and it contains, +in the modern rise of Oxford and Reading, two of the very best +instances to show how the English town in its modern aspect has sprung +from the industrial system and from the introduction of railways. For +neither has any natural facilities for production, and the growth of +each in the nineteenth century has been wholly artificial. + +The most recent change of all, with which these notes will end, is, +one need hardly say, this industrial transformation. It has made a +completely new England, and it nourishes the only civilised population +in the world which is out of touch with arms, and with the physical +life and nature of the country it inhabits, and the only population in +which the vast majority are concerned with things of which they have +no actual experience, and feel most strongly upon matters dictated to +them at second or third hand by the proprietors of great journals. + +What that new England will become none of us can tell; we cannot even +tell whether the considerable problem of maintaining it as an +organised civilisation will or will not be solved. All the conditions +are so completely new, our whole machinery of government so thoroughly +presupposes a little aristocratic agricultural state, and our strong +attachment to form and ritual so hampers all attempts at +reorganisation, that the way in which we shall answer, if we do +answer, the question of this sphinx, cannot as yet even be guessed at. + +But long before the various historical causes at work had begun to +produce the great modern English town, long before the use of coal, +the development of the navy, and, above all, the active political +transformation of our rivals during the eighteenth century, had given +us that industrial supremacy which we have but recently lost, the +English town was a thing with characteristics of its own in Europe. + +In the first place, it was not municipal in the Roman sense. The sharp +distinction which the Roman Empire and the modern French Republic, +and, from the example of that republic, the whole of Western Europe, +establish between town and country, comes from the fact that European +thought, method of government, and the rest, were formed on the +Mediterranean: but the civilisation of the Mediterranean was one of +city states; the modern civilisation which has returned to Roman +traditions is, therefore, necessarily municipal. A man's first country +in antiquity was his town; he died for his town; he left his wealth to +his town; the word "civilisation," like the word "citizen," and like a +hundred words connected with the superiority of mankind, are drawn +from the word for a town. To be political, to possess a police, to +recognise boundaries--all this was to be a townsman, and the various +districts of the Empire took their proper names, at least, from the +names of their chief cities, as do to-day the French and the Italian +countrysides. + +Doubtless in Roman times the governing forces of Britain attempted a +similar system here. But it does not seem ever to have taken root in +the same way that it did beyond the Channel. The absence of a +municipal system in the fullest sense is one of the very few things +which differentiates the Roman Britain from the rest of the Empire, +others being a land frontier to the west, and the large survival of +aboriginal dialects. + +The Roman towns were not small, indeed Roman London was very large; +they were not ill connected with highroads; they were certainly +wealthy and full of commerce; but they gave their names to no +districts, and their municipal institutions have left but very faint +traces upon posterity. + +The barbarian invasions fell severely upon the Roman cities of +Britain, in some very rare cases they may have been actually +destroyed, but in the much more numerous cases where we may be +reasonably sure that municipal life continued without a break +throughout the incursions of the pirates, their decay was pitiful; and +when recorded history begins again, after a gap of two hundred years, +with the Roman missionaries of the sixth and seventh centuries, we +find thenceforward, and throughout the Saxon period, many of the towns +living the life of villages. + +The proportion that were walled was much smaller than was the case +upon the Continent, and even the most enduring emblem and the most +tenacious survival of the Roman Imperial system--namely, the Bishop +seated in the chief municipality of his district--was not universal to +English life. + +It is characteristic of Gregory the Great that he intended, or is +believed to have intended, Britain, when he had recivilised it, to be +set out upon a clear Latin model, with a Primate in the chief city and +suffragans in every other. But if he had such a plan (and it would +have been a typically Latin plan) he must have been thinking of a +Britain very different from that which his envoys actually found. When +the work was accomplished the little market town of Canterbury was the +seat of the Primate; the old traditions of York secured for it a +second archbishop, great London could not be passed over, but small +villages in some places, insignificant boroughs in others, were the +sites of cathedrals. Selsey, a rural manor or fishing hamlet, was the +episcopal centre of St. Wilfrid and his successors in their government +of Sussex; Dorchester, as we have seen, was the episcopal town, or +rather village, for something like half England. In the names of its +officers also and in the methods of their government the Anglo-Saxon +town was agricultural. + +With the advent of the Normans, as one might expect, municipal life to +some extent re-arose. But it still maintained its distinctively +English character throughout the Middle Ages. Contrast London or +Oxford, for instance, in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, +with contemporary Paris. In London and Oxford the wall is built once +for all, and when it is completed the town may grow into suburbs as +much as it likes, no new wall is built. In Paris, throughout its +history, as the town grows, the first concern of its Government is to +mark out new limits which shall sharply define it from the surrounding +country. Philip Augustus does it, a century and a half later Etienne +Marcel did it; through the seventeenth century, and the eighteenth, +the custom is continued: through the nineteenth also, and to-day new +and strict limits are about to be imposed on the expanded city. + +Again the metropolitan idea, which is consonant to, and the climax of, +a municipal system, is absent from the story of English towns. + +Until a good hundred years after the Conquest you cannot say where the +true capital of England is, and when you find it at last in London, +the King's Court is in a suburb outside the walls and the Parliament +of a century later yet meets at Westminster and not in the City. + +The English judges are not found fixed in local municipal centres, +they are itinerant. The later organisation of the Peace does not +depend upon the county towns; it is an organisation of rural squires; +and, most significant of all, no definite distinction can ever be +drawn between the English village and the English town neither in +spirit nor in legal definition. You have a town like Maidenhead, which +has a full local Government, and yet which has no mayor for centuries. +Conversely, a town having once had a mayor may dwindle down into a +village, and no one who respects English tradition bothers to +interfere with the anomaly. For instance, you may to-day in Orford +enjoy the hospitality, or incur the hostility, of a Mayor and +Corporation. + +On all these accounts the banks of the Thames, until quite the latest +part of our historical development, presented a line of settlements in +which it was often difficult to draw the distinction between the +village and the town. + +Consider also this characteristic of the English thing, that the +boroughs sending Members to Parliament first sent them quite haphazard +and then by prescription. + +Simon de Montfort gets just a few borough Members to his Parliament +because he knows they will be on his side; and right down to the +Tudors places are enfranchised--as, for example, certain Cornish +boroughs were--not because they are true towns but because they will +support the Government. Once returning Members, the place has a right +to return them, until the partial reform of 1832. It is a right like +the hereditary right of a peer, a quaint custom. It has no relation to +municipal feeling, for municipal feeling does not exist. Old Sarum may +lose every house, Gatton may retain but seven freeholders, yet each +solemnly returns its two Members to Parliament. + +From the first records that we possess until the beginning of the +nineteenth century, the line of the Thames was a string of large +villages and small towns, differing in size and wealth far less than +their descendants do to-day. In this arrangement, of course, the +valley was similar to all the rest of England, but perhaps the +prosperity of the larger villages and the frequency of the market +towns was more marked on the line of the Thames than in any other +countryside, from the permanent influx of wealth due to the royal +castles, the great monastic foundations, and the continual stream of +travel to and from London which bound the whole together. + +Cricklade, Lechlade, Oxford, Abingdon, Dorchester, Wallingford, +Reading, and Windsor--old Windsor, that is--were considerable places +from at least the period of the Danish invasions. They formed the +objective of armies, or the subject matter of treaties or important +changes. But the first standard of measure which we can apply is that +given us by the Norman Survey. + +How indecisive is that standard has already been said. We do not +accurately know what categories of wealth were registered in Domesday. +The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, barbaric in this as in most other matters, +would have it that the Survey was complete, and applied to all the +landed fortune of England. That, of course, is absurd. But we do have +a rough standard of comparison for rural manors, though it is a very +rough one. Though we cannot tell how much of the measurements and of +the numbers given are conventional and how much are real, though we do +not know whether the plough-lands referred to are real fields or +merely measures of capacity for production, though historians are +condemned to ceaseless guessing upon every term of the document, and +though the last orthodox guess is exploded every five or six +years--yet when we are told that one manor possessed so many ploughs +or paid upon so many hides, or had so many villein holdings while +another manor had but half or less in each category; and when we see +the dues, say three times as large in the first as in the second, then +we can say with certitude that the first was much more important than +the second; _how_ much more important we cannot say. We can, to repeat +an argument already advanced, affirm the inhabitants of any given +manor to be at the very least not less than five times the number of +holdings, and thus fix a _minimum_ everywhere. For instance, we can be +certain that William's rural England had not less than 2,000,000, +though we cannot say how much more they may not have been--3,000,000, +4,000,000, or 5,000,000. In agricultural life--that is, in the one +industry of the time--Domesday does afford a vague statement to the +rural conditions of England at the end of the eleventh century, and, +dark as it is, no other European nation possesses such a minute record +of its economic origins. + +But with the towns the case is different. There, except for the +minimum of population, we are quite at sea. We may presume that the +houses numbered are only the houses paying tax, or at least we may +presume this in some cases, but already the local customs of each town +were so highly differentiated that it is quite impossible to say with +certitude what the figures may mean. It is usual to take the taxable +value of the place to the Crown and to establish a comparison on that +basis, but it is perhaps wiser, though almost as inconclusive, to +consider each case, and all the elements of it separately, and to +attempt, by a co-ordination of the different factors given to arrive +at some sort of scale. + +Judged in this manner, Wallingford and Oxford are the early towns of +the Thames Valley which afford the best subjects for survey. + +Wallingford in Domesday counted, closes and cottages together, just +under 500 units of habitation. It is, of course, a matter of +conjecture how much population this would stand for. A minimum is +here, as elsewhere, easily established. We may presuppose that a +close, even of the largest kind, was but a private one; we may next +average the inhabitants of each house at five, which is about the +average of modern times, and so arrive at a population of 2500. But +this minimum of 2500 for the population of Wallingford at the time of +the Conquest is too artificial and too full of modern bias to be +received. Not even the strongest prejudice in favour of underrating +the wealth and population of early England, a prejudice which has for +it objects the emphasising of our modern perfection, would admit so +ludicrous a conclusion. But while we may be perfectly certain that the +population of Wallingford was far larger than this minimum, to obtain +a maximum is not so easy. We do not know, with absolute certainty, +whether the whole of the town has been enumerated in the Survey, +though we have a better ground for supposing it in this case than in +most others. Such numerous details are given of holdings which, though +situated in the town, counted in the property of local manors that we +are fairly safe in saying that we have here a more than commonly +complete survey. The very cottages are mentioned, as, for example, +"twenty-two cottages outside the wall," and their condition is +described in terms which, though not easy for us to understand, +clearly signify that they could be taken as paying the full tax. + +The real elements of uncertainty lie, first in the number of people +normally inhabiting one house at that time, and secondly, in the exact +meaning of the word "haga" or "close." + +As to the first point, we may take it that one household of five would +be the least, ten would be the most, to be present under the roof of +an isolated family; but we must remember that the Middle Ages +contained in their social system a conception of community which not +only appeared (and is still remembered) in connection with monastic +institutions, but which inspired the whole of military and civil life. +To put it briefly, a man at the time of the Conquest, and for +centuries later, would rather have lived as part of a community than +as an individual householder, and conversely, those indices of +importance and social position which we now estimate in furniture and +other forms of ostentation were then to be found in the number of +dependants surrounding the head of the house. A merchant, for example, +if he flourished, was the head of a very numerous community; every +parish church in a town represented a society of priests and of their +servants, and of course a garrison (such as Wallingford pre-eminently +possessed) meant a very large community indeed. We are usually safe, +at any rate in the towns, if we multiply the known number of tenements +by ten in order to arrive at the number of souls inhabiting the +borough. To give the Wallingford of the Conquest a minimum of 5000, if +we were certain that 500 (or, to speak exactly, 491) was the number of +single units of taxation within the borough, would be to set that +minimum quite low enough. + +The second difficulty is that of establishing the meaning of the word +"haga." In some cases it may represent one single large establishment. +But on the other hand we can point to six which between them covered a +whole acre, and no one with the least acquaintance of mediæval +municipal topography, no one, for instance, who knows the history of +twelfth-century Paris, would allow one-sixth of an acre to a single +average house within the walls of a town. A close would have one or +more wells, it is true; some closes certainly would have gardens, but +the labour of fortification, and the privilege of market, were each of +them causes which forbade any great extension of open spaces, save in +the case of privileged or wealthy communities or individuals. + +From what we know of closes elsewhere, it is more probable that these +at Wallingford were the "cells" as it were of the borough organism. A +man would be granted in the first growth of the town a unit of land +with definitely established boundaries, which he would probably +enclose (the word "haga" refers to such an enclosure), and though at +first there might be only one house upon it, it would be to his +interest to multiply the tenements within this unit, which unit +rendered a regular, customary and unchanging due to its various +superiors, whatever the number of inhabitants it grew to contain. + +If we turn to a comparison based upon taxation we have equal +difficulties, though difficulties of a different sort. We saw in the +case of Old Windsor that a community of perhaps 1000, probably of +more, but at any rate something more like a large village than a town +(and one moreover not rated as a town), paid in dues the equivalent of +thirty loads of wheat. Wallingford paid the equivalent of only twenty +or twenty-two. But on the other hand the total Farm of the Borough, +the globular price at which the taxes could be reckoned upon to yield +a profit, was equivalent to no less than 400 such loads. + +Judged by the number of hagæ we should have a Wallingford about five +times the size of Old Windsor. Judged by the taxable capacity we +should have an Old Wallingford of more than ten times the size of Old +Windsor. + +Here again a further element of complexity enters. It was quite out of +the spirit of the Middle Ages to estimate dues, whether to a feudal +superior or to the National Government, or even minor payments made to +a true proprietorial owner at the full capacity of the economic unit +concerned. All such payment was customary. Even where, in the later +Middle Ages, a man indubitably owned (in our modern sense of the word +"owned") a piece of freehold land, and let it (in our modern sense of +the word "let"), it would not have occurred to him or his tenant that +the very highest price obtainable for the productive capacity of the +land should be paid. The philosophy permeating the whole of society +compelled the owner and the tenant, even in this extreme case, to a +customary arrangement; for it was an arrangement intended to be +permanent, to allow for wide fluctuations of value, and therefore to +be necessarily a minimum. If this was the case in the later Middle +Ages where undoubted proprietary right was concerned, still more was +it the case in the early Middle Ages with the customary feudal dues; +these varied infinitely from place to place, rising in scale from +those of privileged communities wholly exempt to those of places such +as we believe Old Windsor to have been, which paid (and these were the +exceptions), not indeed every penny that they could pay (as they would +now have to pay a modern landlord), but half, or perhaps more than +half, such a rent. + +Where Wallingford stood in this scale it is quite impossible to say, +and we can only conclude with the very general statement that the +Wallingford of the Conquest consisted of certainly more than 5000 +souls, more probably of 10,000, and quite possibly of more than +10,000. + +Having taken Wallingford with its minute and valuable record as a sort +of unit, we can roughly compare it with other centres of populations +upon the river at the same date. + +Old Windsor we have already dealt with, and made it out from a fifth +to a tenth of Wallingford. Reading was apparently far smaller. Indeed +Reading is one of the puzzles of the early history of the Thames +Valley. We have already seen in discussing these strategical points +upon the river what advantages it had, and yet it appears only +sporadically in ancient history as a military post. The Danes hold it +on the first occasion on which we find the site recorded, in the +latter half of the ninth century: it has a castle during the anarchy +of the twelfth, but it is a castle which soon disappears. It +frequently plays a part in the Civil Wars of the seventeenth, but the +part it plays is only temporary. + +And Reading presents a similar puzzle on the civilian side. It is +situated at the junction of two waterways, one of which leads directly +from the Thames Valley to the West of England, yet it does not seem to +have been of a considerable civil importance until the establishment +of its monastery; and even then it is not a town of first-class size +or wealth, nor does it take up its present position until quite late +in the history of the country. + +At the time of the Domesday Survey it actually counts, in the number +of recorded enclosures at least, for less than a third of Old Windsor; +and we may take it, after making every allowance for possible +omissions or for some local custom which withdrew it from the taxing +power of the Crown, for little more than a village at that moment. + +The size of Oxford at the same period we have already touched upon, +but since, like every other inference founded upon Domesday, the +matter has become a subject of pretty violent discussion, it will +bear, perhaps, a repeated and more detailed examination at this place. + +Let us first remember that the latest prejudice from which our +historical school has suffered, and one which still clings to its more +orthodox section, was to belittle as far as possible the general +influence of European civilisation upon England; to exalt, for +example, the Celtic missionaries and their work at the expense of St +Augustine, to grope for shadowy political origins among the pirates of +the North Sea, to trace every possible etymology to a barbaric root, +and to make of Roman England and of early Medieval England--that is, +of the two Englands which were most fully in touch with the general +life of Europe--as small a thing as might be. + +In the light of this prejudice, which is the more bitter because it is +closely connected with religion and with the bitter theological +passions of our universities, we are always safe in taking the larger +as against the smaller modern estimates of wealth, of population and +of influence, where either of these civilisations is concerned, and, +conversely, we are always safe in taking at the lowest modern estimate +the numbers and effect of the barbaric element in our history. + +To return to the ground we have already briefly covered, and to +establish a comparison with Wallingford, the word "haga," which we saw +to be of such doubtful value in the case of Wallingford, is replaced +in Oxford by the word "mansio." The taxable units so enumerated are +just over 600, but of these much more than half are set down as +untaxable or imperfectly taxable under the epithets "Uasta," "Uastæ." +What that epithet means we do not know. It may mean anything between +"out of repair," "excused from taxation because they do not come up to +our new standard of the way in which a house in a borough should be +kept up, and because we want to give them time to put themselves in +order," down to the popular acceptation of the word as meaning +"ruined," or even "destroyed." + +We know that at the close of the eleventh century, or indeed at any +time before the thirteenth, the small man who lived under his own roof +would live in a very low house, and that, space for space of ground +area, the cubical contents of these poor dwellings would be less than +those of modern slums. On the other hand, we know that the population +would live much more in the open air, slept much more huddled, and +also that a very considerable proportion--what proportion we cannot +say, but probably quite half of a Norman borough--was connected with +the huge communal institutions--military, ecclesiastical, and for that +matter mercantile, as well--which marked the period. We know that the +occupied space stood for very much what is now enclosed by the line of +the old walls, and we know that under modern conditions this space, in +spite of our great empty public buildings, our sparsely inhabited +wealthy houses, and our college gardens, can comfortably hold some +5000 people. We can say, therefore, at a guess, but only at a guess, +that the Oxford of the Conquest must have had some 3000 people in it +at the very least, and can hardly have had 10,000 at the most. These +are wide limits, but anyone who shall pretend to make them narrower is +imposing upon his readers with an appearance of positive knowledge +which is the charlatanism of the colleges, and pretends to exact +knowledge where he possesses nothing but the vague basis of +antiquarian conjecture. + +It is sufficiently clear (and the reading of any of our most positive +modern authorities upon Domesday will make it clearer) that no sort of +statistical exactitude can be arrived at for the population of the +boroughs in the early Middle Ages. But when we consider that Reading +is certainly underestimated, and when we consider the detail in which +we are informed of Old Windsor, Wallingford, and Oxford, with the +neglect of Abingdon, Lechlade, Cricklade, and Dorchester, one can +roughly say that the Thames above London possessed in Staines, +Windsor, Cookham, probably Henley, perhaps Bensington, Dorchester, +Eynsham, and possibly Buscot, large villages varying from some +hundreds in population to a little over 1000, not defended, not +reckoned as towns, and agricultural in character. To these we may add +Chertsey, Ealing, and a few others whose proximity to London makes it +difficult for us to judge except in the vaguest way their true +importance. + +In another category, possessing a different type of communal life, +already thinking of themselves as towns, we should have Cricklade, +Lechlade, Abingdon, and Kingston among the smaller, though probably +possessing a population not much larger than that of the larger +villages; while of considerable centres there were but three: Reading +the smallest, almost a town, but one upon which we have no true or +sufficient data; Wallingford the largest, with the population of a +flourishing county town in our own days, and Oxford, a place which, +though in worse repair, ran Wallingford close. + +Henley affords an interesting study. At the time of the Conquest, +Bensington was no longer, Henley not yet, a borough. To trace the +growth of Henley is especially engrossing, because it is one of the +very rare examples of a process which earlier generations of +historians, and notably the popular historians like Freeman and the +Rev. Mr Green, took to be a common feature in the story of this +island. They were wrong, of course, and they have been widely and +deservedly ridiculed for imagining that the greater part of our +English boroughs grew up since the barbarian invasions upon waste +places. On the contrary most of our towns grew up upon Roman and +pre-Roman foundations, and are continuous with the pre-historic past. +But Henley forms a very interesting exception. + +It was a hamlet which went with the manor of Bensington, and that +point alone is instructive, for it points to the insignificance of the +place. When the lords of Bensington went hunting up on Chiltern they +found on the far side of the hill, it may be presumed, a little +clearing near the river. This was all that Henley was, and it is +probable that even the church of the place was not built until quite +late in the Christian period; there is at any rate an old tradition +that Aldeburgh is the mother of Henley, and it is imagined by those +who wrote monographs upon the locality that this tradition points to +the church of Aldeburgh as the mother church of what was at first a +chapel upon the riverside. + +When we first hear of Henley it is already called a town, and the date +of this is the first year of King John, 1199. + +It must be remembered that the river had been developed and changed in +that first century of orderly government under the Normans. Indeed one +of the reforms which the aristocracy made much of in their revolt, and +which is granted in Magna Charta, is the destruction of the King's +weirs upon the Thames. But the weirs cannot have been permanently +destroyed; though the public rights over the river were curtailed by +Magna Charta, the system of regulation was founded and endured. It is +probably this improvement on the great highway which led to the growth +of Henley, and when Reading Minster had become the great thing it was +late in the twelfth century, Henley must have felt the effect, for it +would have afforded the nearest convenient stage down the river from +the new and wealthy settlement round the Cluniac Abbey. In the +thirteenth century--that is, in the first hundred years after the +earliest mention we have of the place--Henley became rapidly more and +more important. It seems to have afforded a convenient halting place +whenever progress was made up river, especially a royal progress from +Windsor. Edward I. stayed there constantly, and we possess a record of +three dates which are very significant of this kind of journey. In the +December of 1277 the King goes up river. On the sixteenth of the month +he slept at Windsor, on the seventeenth at Henley, the next day at +Abingdon; and in his son's time Henley has grown so much that it +counts as one of the three only boroughs in the whole of Oxfordshire: +Oxford and Woodstock are the two others. + +It was in the thirteenth century also that a bridge was thrown across +the river at this point--that is, Henley possessed a bridge long +before Wallingford, and at a time when the river could be crossed by +road in but very few places. The granting of a number of indulgences, +and the promises of masses in the middle of the thirteenth century for +this object, give us the date; and, what is perhaps equally +interesting, this early bridge was of stone. + +It is usual to think of the early bridges over the Thames as wooden +bridges. Aft older generation was accustomed to many that still +remained. This was true of the later Middle Ages, and of the torpor +and neglect in building which followed the Reformation. But it was not +true of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The bridge at Henley, +like the bridge of Wallingford and the later bridge of Abingdon, was +of stone. + +It was allowed to fall into decay, and when Leland crossed the river +at this point it was upon a wooden bridge, the piers of which stood +upon the old foundation. How long that wooden bridge had existed in +1533, when Leland noticed it, we cannot tell, but it remained of wood +until 1786, when the present bridge replaced it. + +In spite of the early importance of the town, it was not regularly +incorporated for a long time, but was governed by a Warden, the first +on the list being the date of 1305, within the reign of Edward I. The +charter which gave Henley a Mayor and Corporation was granted as late +as the reign of Henry VIII. and but a few years before Leland's visit. +From that moment, however, the town ceased to expand, either in +importance or in numbers; the destruction of Reading Abbey and of the +Cell of Westminster at Hurley just over the river, very possibly +affected its prosperity. At the beginning of the nineteenth century it +had a population of less than 3000, and sixty years later it had not +added another 1000 to that number. + +Maidenhead follows, for centuries, a sort of parallel course to the +development of Henley. + +Recently, of course, it has very largely increased in population, and +in this it is an example in a minor degree of what Reading and Oxford +are in a major degree--that is, of the changes which the railway has +made in the Thames Valley. But until the effect of the railway began +to be felt Maidenhead was the younger and parallel town to Henley. + +For example, though we cannot tell exactly when Maidenhead Bridge was +built, we may suppose it to have been some few years after Henley +Bridge. It already exists and is in need of repair in 1297. Henley +Bridge is founded more than a generation earlier than that. + +"Maidenhythe," as it was called, has been thought to have been before +the building of this bridge a long timber wharf upon the river, but +that is only a guess. There must have been some local accumulation of +wealth or of traffic or it would not have been chosen as a site for +the new bridge which was somewhat to divert the western road. + +Originally, so far as we can judge, the main stream of gravel crossed +the Thames at Cookham, and again at Henley. Why this double crossing +should have been necessary it is useless to conjecture unless one +hazards the guess that the quality of the soil in very early times +gave so much better going upon the high southern bank of the river +that it was worth while carrying the main road along the bank, even at +the expense of a double crossing of the stream. If that was the case +it is difficult to see how a town of the importance of Marlow could +have grown up upon the farther shore; that Marlow was important we +know from the fact that it had a Borough representation in Parliament +in the first years of that experiment before the close of the +thirteenth century. + +At any rate, whatever the reason was, whether from some pre-historic +conditions having brought the road across the peninsula at this point, +or, as is more likely, on account of some curious arrangement of +mediæval privilege, it is fairly certain that, in the centuries before +the great development of the thirteenth, travel did come across the +river in front of Cookham, recross it in front of Henley, and so make +over the Chilterns to the great main bridge at Wallingford, which led +out to the Vale of the White Horse and the west country. + +The importance of Cookham in this section of the road is shown in +several ways. First the great market, in Domesday bringing in +customary dues to the King of twenty shillings--and what twenty +shillings means in Domesday in mere market dues one can appreciate by +considering that all the dues from Old Windsor only amounted to ten +pounds. Then again it was a royal manor which, unlike most of the +others, was never alienated; it was not even alienated during the ruin +and breakdown of the monarchy which followed the Dissolution of the +monastic orders. + +To this day traces remain of the road which joined this market to the +second crossing at Henley. + +We may presume that the importance of Cookham was maintained for some +two centuries after the Conquest, until it was outflanked and the +stream of its traffic diverted by the building of the bridge at +Maidenhead. + +Just as this bridge came later than the Bridge at Henley, so it was +inferior to it in structure; it was, as we have seen, of timber, but +such as it was, it was the cause of the growth of Maidenhead much more +than was the bridge at Henley the cause of the growth of Henley. The +first nucleus of municipal government grows up in connection with the +Bridge Guild; the Warden and the Bridge Masters remain the head of the +embryonic corporation throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries, and even when the town is incorporated (shortly before the +close of the seventeenth century), by James II., the maintenance and +guardianship of the wooden bridge remained one of the chief +occupations of the new corporation. + +It was just after the granting of the Charter that the army of William +III. marched across this bridge on its way to London, an episode which +shows how completely Maidenhead held the monopoly of the Western road. +The present stone bridge was not built to replace the old wooden one +until the last quarter of the eighteenth century, parallel in this as +in everything else to the example of Henley; and this position of +inferiority to Henley, and of parallel advance to that town, is +further seen in the statistics of population. In 1801, when Henley +already boasted nearly 2000 souls, Maidenhead counted almost exactly +half that number. The later growth of the place is quite modern. + +The antiquity of the crossing of the Thames at Cookham is supported by +a certain amount of pre-historic evidence, worth about as much as such +evidence ever is, and about as little. Two Neolithic flint knives have +been found there, a bronze dagger sheath and spear-head, a bronze +sword, and a whole collection or store of other bronze spear-heads. +Such as it is, it is a considerable collection for one spot. + +Cookham has not only these pre-historic remains; it has also fragments +of British pottery found in the relics of pile dwellings near the +river, and two Roman vases from the bed of the stream; it has further +furnished Anglo-Saxon remains, and, indeed, there are very few points +upon the river where so regular a continuity of the historic and the +pre-historic is to be discovered as in the neighbourhood of this old +ford. + +In was in the course of the Middle Ages, and after the Conquest, that +new Windsor rose to importance. It is not recognised as a borough +before the close of the thirteenth century; it is incorporated in the +fifteenth. + +Reading certainly increased considerably with the continual stream of +wealth that poured from the abbey; it possessed in practice a working +corporation before the Dissolution, was famous for its cloth long +before, and had become, in the process of years, an important town +that rivalled the great monastery which had developed it; indeed it is +probable that only the privileges, the conservatism, of the abbey +forbade it to be recognised and chartered before the Reformation. + +Abingdon also grew (but with less vigour), also had a manufactory of +cloth, though of a smaller kind, and was also worthy of incorporation +at the end of the Middle Ages. + +Staines cannot take its place with these, for in spite of its high +strategical value, of its old Roman tradition, of its proximity to +London and the rest, Staines was throughout the Middle Ages, and till +long after, rather a village than a town. Though a wealthy place it is +purely agricultural in the Domesday Survey, and the comparative +insignificance of the spot is perhaps explained by the absence of a +bridge. That absence is by no means certain. Staines after all was on +the great military highway leading from London westward, and it must +have been necessary for considerable forces to cross the river here +throughout the Dark Ages and the early Middle Ages, as did for +instance, at the very close of that period, the barons on their way to +Runnymede; and far earlier the army that marched hurriedly from London +to intercept the Danes in 1009, when the pagans were coming up the +river, and whether by the help of the tide or what not, managed to get +ahead of the intercepting force. But if a bridge existed so early as +the Conquest, we have no mention of it. The first allusion to a bridge +is in the granting of three oaks from Windsor for the repairing of it +in 1262. It may have existed long before that date, but it is +significant that in the Escheats of Edward III., and as late as the +twenty-fourth year of his reign--that is, after the middle of the +fourteenth century--it is mentioned that the bridge existed since the +reign of Henry III., which would convey the impression that in 1262 +the bridge had first needed repairing, being built, perhaps, in the +earlier years of the reign and completed, possibly, but a little after +the death of King John. + +This bridge of Staines was most unfortunate. It broke down again and +again. Even an experiment in stone at the end of the last century was +a failure, because the foundations did not go deep enough into the bed +of the river. An iron absurdity succeeded the stone, and luckily broke +down also, until at last, in the thirties of the nineteenth century, +the whole thing was rebuilt, 200 yards above the old traditional site. + +Staines is of interest in another way, because it marks one of those +boundaries between the maritime and the wholly inland part of a river +which is in so many of the English valleys associated with some +important crossing. The jurisdiction of the port of London over the +river extended as high as the little island just opposite the mouth of +the Colne. On this island can still be seen the square stone shaft +which is at least as old as the thirteenth century (though it stands +on more modern steps), and which marks this limit, as it does also the +shire mark between Middlesex and Buckingham. + +We have, after the Dissolution it is true, and when the financial +standing of most of these places had been struck a heavy blow, a +valuable estimate for many of them in the inquiry ordered by Pole in +1555. This estimate gives Abingdon less than 1500 of population, +Reading less than 3000, Windsor about 1000; and in general one may say +that with the sixteenth century, whether the population was +diminishing (as certainly contemporary witnesses believed), or whether +it had increased beyond the maximum which England had seen before the +Black Death, at any rate the relative importance of the various +centres of population had not very greatly changed during those long +five centuries of customary rule and of firm tradition. The towns and +villages which Shakespeare would have passed in a journey up the +river, though probably shrunk somewhat from what they had been in, let +us say, the days of Edward I. or of his grandson, when the Middle Ages +were in their full vigour and before the Black Death had ruined our +countrysides, were still a string of some such large villages and +small walled boroughs as his ancestry had seen for many hundred years, +disfigured only and changed by the scaffolded ruins here and there of +the great religious foundations. Windsor, Wallingford, Reading, +Abingdon, and even Oxford, were towns appearing to him much as +Lechlade to-day remains or Abingdon still. As for the riverside +villages their agricultural and native population was certainly larger +than that which they now possess; and in general the effect produced +upon such a journey was of a sort of even distribution of population +gradually increasing from the loneliness of the upper river to the +growing sites between Windsor and London, but in no part exaggerated; +larger everywhere in proportion to the importance of the stream, or of +agricultural or of strategical position, and forming together one +united countryside, bound together even in its architecture by the +common commerce of the river. + +The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries did little to disturb this +equilibrium or to destroy this even tradition. The opening up of the +waterways and the great improvement of the highroads, and the building +of bridges, and the expansion of wealth at the end of the eighteenth +century had indeed some considerable effect in increasing the +population of England as a whole, but the smaller country towns, in +the south at least, and in the Thames Valley, seem to have benefited +fairly equally from the general change. The new canals, entering at +Oxford and at Reading, gave a certain lead to both those centres, and +even the Severn Canal, entering at Lechlade, did a little for that +up-river town. The new fashion of the public schools (which had now +long been captured by the wealthier classes) also increased the +importance of Eton, and towards the close of the period the now +rapidly expanding capital had overfed the villages within reach of +London with a considerable accession of population. But it is +remarkable how evenly spread was even this industrial development. + +The twin towns of Abingdon and Reading, for instance, twin +monasteries, twin corporations, had for all these centuries preserved +their ratio of the up-country town and the larger centre that was the +neighbour of London and Windsor. In the beginning of the nineteenth +century, in spite of the general increase of population, that ratio +was still well preserved: it is about three to one. But the Railway +found one and left the other. + +The Railway came, and in our own generation that ratio began to change +out of all knowledge. It grows from four, five, six, to _seven_ to +one. After a short halt you have eight, nine and at last--after eighty +years--more than _ten_ to one. The last census (that of 1901) is still +more significant: Abingdon positively declines, and the last ratio is +_twelve_. + +It is through the Railway, and even then long after its first effect +might have been expected, that the Valley of the Thames, later than +any other wealthy district in England, loses, as all at last are +doomed to lose, its historic tradition, and suffers the social +revolution which has made modern England the unique and perilous thing +it is among the nations of the world. + + + + +INDEX + + +Abbots. See under separate monasteries. + +Aben, legend of, at Abingdon, 98. + +Abingdon, 9, 23, 37, 87, 88, 93, 97-99, 102, 139. + +Abingdon and Reading, change in ratio of population of, 198. + +Ad Pontes, Roman name of Staines, 33. + +Alfred, his boundary neglects the Thames, 34. + +Andersey Island, opposite Abingdon, 99. + +Ankerwike, nunnery of, 109, 168. + +Anne of Cleves obtains Bisham, 163. + +Barbarian invasions, 90, 91, 94, 95. + +Barlow, Prior of Bisham, becomes Bishop of St. Asaphs, 163. + +Barons give Tower to Archbishop in trust for Magna Charta, 84. + +Barwell obtains Chertsey, 165. + +Benedictine Order, 89-100. + +Bermondsey, Cluniac Abbey of, 104, 105. + +Berties obtain Hinksey, 166. + +Birinus receives Cynegil into the Church, 52. + +Bisham, dissolution of, 110, 163, 164. + +Blackcherry Fair, at Chertsey, 139. + +Bowyer obtains Radley, 165. + +Brackley, strategical importance of, 72. + +Breedons obtain Pangbourne, 167. + +Bridge, London, 17-21. + +Bridlington Priory, movables of, embezzled by Howards, 156. + +Britain, + conversion of, position of Dorchester in, 49; + first barbarian invasion of, 90, 91. + +Burford, early name of Abingdon Ford, 23. + +Burgundy, character of that province, 103. + +Burnham, nunnery of, mentioned, 109. + +Buscot, a royal manor in eleventh century, 28. + +Canal, Thames and Severn, building of, 15. + +Canterbury, Archbishop of, + holds Tower in pledge for Magna Charta, 84; + St. Thomas of (see St. Thomas). + +Canute at Oxford, 55. + +Carew obtains Chertsey, 164. + +Charterhouse, Sheen, 108. + +Chateau Gaillard compared to Windsor, 69. + +Chaucer's son custodian of Wallingford, 60. + +Chertsey, + foundation of, 96; + Abbey, sack of, 137; + fate of land of, 159-165. + +Cholsey, Priory of, 109, 166. + +Churn joins Thames at Cricklade, 39. + +Civil War, + destruction of Wallingford Castle under, 66; + of King and Parliament, 86-89. + +Cluny, 102, 103. + +Cobham, Manor of, twenty acres possessed by Chertsey in, 149. + +Commons, Dissolution House of, significant names in, 146, 147. + +Conquest, Norman, + See of Dorchester removed to Lincoln, 52, 102. + +Constantine, legend of, at Abingdon, 98. + +Conversion of Britain, position of Dorchester in, 49. + +Cookham, early importance of, 191-194. + +Cricklade, + importance of, 38-41; + small Priory of, 107; + ford at, 22. + +"Cromwell," Oliver. See Williams, his destruction of Wallingford + Castle, 61. + +Cromwell, or Smith of Putney, family of, 153-161. + +Crown, + loses its manors, 144; + British, might have led the modern period in Europe, 145-146; + cause of ruin of, weakness of Tudor character, 148. + +Culham, attempted fortification of bridge of, 87. + +Cumnor granted to Thomas Rowland, 139. + +Currency, 134. + +Cynegil, baptism of, at Dorchester, 50, 51. + +Danes at Oxford, 54, 55. + +Danish invasions destroy Chertsey, 97. + +Davis obtains Pangbourne, 167. + +Diocletian, his boundaries, 33; + legend of, at Abingdon, 98. + +Dissolution and destruction of monasteries, 110-152. + +Domesday Survey, + Oxford in, 56-58; + Survey, ambiguity of, 57; + indecision of, 176, 177. + +Dorchester, 33, 47-52, 107, 108. + +Dover, isolated defence of, 75. + +Drainage of swamps, monastic work in, 97, 98. + +Dudley obtains Pangbourne, 167. + +Durham, appearance of, before the Dissolution, compared to Reading, + 114. + +Duxford, ford at, 22. + +Ealing, tidal river passable at, 24. + +Eaton, meaning of place name, 31. + +Economic aspect of Dissolution, 115-137; + aspect of monastic system, 116-118; + of the rise of gentry, 143, 144. + +Edge Hill, battle of, 88. + +Edmund Ironside at Oxford, 55. + +Edward the Confessor, + manorial lord of Old Windsor, 70; + the Confessor rebuilds Westminster Abbey, 96. + +Edward I., + prisoner in youth at Wallingford, 60; + his march when a prince to the Tower from Windsor, 85. + +Edward II. leaves the Tower, 85. + +Edwardes obtains Cholsey, 166. + +Elizabeth restores purity of currency, 134. + +England, history of, dependent on river system, 1-3. + +Englefield, Sir Robert, + obtains Cholsey, 167; + obtains Pangbourne, 167. + +Essex occupies Abingdon, 87. + +Essex, earldom of, conferred on Thomas Cromwell, 158. + +Eynsham, 10; + monastery of, 107. + +Fawley, parish with special water front, 9. + +Fords, 22-34, 33, 99. + +Forest, Windsor, 70, 77, 78. + +Fortifications, + rareness of, along Thames, 47; + on Thames, examples of, 47; + theory of, 62, 63; + mediæval, never urban, 66, + urban, Louvre an example of, 67. + +Fosse Way, 38, 44. + +Fuller obtains Chertsey, 165. + +Fyfield, example of parish with special water front, 10. + +Gentry, territorial, their origins before Reformation, 141-143; + See Oligarchy. + +Godstow, nunnery of, mentioned, 109. + +Goring, track of Icknield Way through, 42. + +Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, 83. + +Hammond obtains Chertsey, 164. + +Harold, his council at Oxford, 56. + +Henley, growth of, 187-190. + +Henry I. enlarges Windsor, 70. + +Henry II. at Wallingford, 37. + +Henry III., his misfortunes connected with the Tower, 83. + +Henry VI., + his childhood passed at Wallingford, 61; + buried at Chertsey, 97. + +Henry VIII. loses the spoils of the Dissolution, 145. + +Hinchinbrooke, seat of the Williamses, 159. + +Hind obtains Chertsey, 165. + +Hinkseys, fate of land of, 166. + +Hoby, Edward, son of Sir Philip Hoby, 163. + +Hoby, Sir Philip, + obtains Bisham, 163; + Peregrine, son of Sir Philip Hoby, 164. + +Horseferry Road, Westminster, 44. + +Howards, noble family of, embezzled property, 155. + +Huntingdon, two foundations in, given to Richard Williams, 156. + +Icknield Way, 38, 40-44. + +Islip, + birth of the Confessor there, 55; + a private manor of Queen Emma, 55. + +Jews in Tower, 85. + +Joel, Solomon, contrasted with gentry of the Dissolution, 158. + +John, King, 71-76. + +Kelmscott, loneliness of neighbourhood of, due to nature of soil, 7. + +Knowles obtain Cholsey, 166. + +Lanfranc colonises Bermondsey Abbey, 105. + +Lechlade, small Priory of, 107. + +Lincoln succeeds Dorchester as a see, 52. + +Little Marlow, nunnery of, mentioned, 109. + +Littlemore, example of parish with special water front, 10, 11. + +London, 65-68, 73, 86, 87, 89. + +Longchamps surrenders Tower, 84. + +Long Wittenham, ford at, 23. + +Lords, House of, utterly transformed by Dissolution of monasteries, + 151. + +Louis of France called in by barons, 75. + +Magna Charta, 29, 71-76, 84. + +Maidenhead, + probable origin of name, 32; + growth of, 190-194. + +Mandeville holds Tower, 83. + +Manors, + in monastic hands in Thames Valley, 124-126; + English, probably Roman in origin, certainly Saxon, 141, 142; + royal lapse of, 144; + mutability of ownership in, after Dissolution, 161-169. + +Matilda, fealty sworn to, at Windsor, 70. + +Medmenham, Priory of, 109. + +Mill, family of, succeeds Hobys at Bisham, 164. + +Monasteries, system of, 91-93. + +Monastic foundations on Thames, list of, 122, 123. + +Monastic possessions in Thames Valley, list of, 125-126. + +Monastic system, 108, 116, 117, 127, 148, 150. + +Montlhéry, originally dominated Paris as Windsor London, 67. + +Mont St. Michel, connection with Cholsey, 166. + +Morgan, first known of the Williamses, 152. + +"Mota de Windsor," 70. + +Mortimer holds Wallingford, 60. + +Municipal system, + English, different from that of other countries, 170-175; + Roman, 171; + in Roman Britain, 172. + +Naseby, battle of, women massacred after, by Puritans, 88, 89. + +Norman Conquest, 52, 82, 93. + +Normandy, modern boundaries of, fixed by Diocletian, 33. + +Nuneham Morren, example of parish with special water front, 11. + +Observants at Richmond, 93. + +Ock, River, original marsh at mouth of, 8. + +Offa, Wallingford mentioned under, 37. + +Oilei builds Osney, 105. + +Old Windsor, 69, 70. + +Oligarchy rose on ruins of Catholicism, 140-152. + +Orby obtains Chertsey, 164. + +Osney, Abbey of, at Oxford, 105; + loot of, by Henry VIII., 106; + appearance of, before Dissolution, 112, 113. + +Owen obtains Hinksey, 166. + +Oxford, 22, 31, 53, 58, 86, 87, 106, 183-186. + +Oxford Street, Roman military road into London, 68. + +Pangbourne, ford at, 34; + held of Reading Abbey, 167; + fate of land of, 167. + +Paris, dominated by Montlhéry as London by Windsor, 67; + an example of fortification following residence, 77. + +Parishes, shape of, 8, 11. + +Penda, his opposition to Christianity, 51. + +Peregrine Hoby, 164. + +Perrots obtain Hinksey, 166. + +Philiphaugh, battle of, massacre of women after, by Puritans, 89. + +Place names, + on the Thames, 30, 32, 33; + Celtic, rare in Thames Valley, 30; + Roman, disappeared in Thames Valley, 32. + +Pole, his estimate of population, 196. + +Population, + of Abingdon and Reading, typical of change in nineteenth century, + 198; + of Oxford in early times, 56, 57. + +Prices and values at time of Dissolution compared with modern, + 130-136. + +Priory of Medmenham, 109. + +Puritans, their massacre of the women after battle of Philiphaugh, 88, + 89. + +Radley, fate of land of, 165, 166. + +Ramsey Abbey, + given to Richard Williams, 157; + value of, 158. + +Reading, 64, 88, 103, 104, 113, 114, 129, 166, 167, 182. + +Reading and Abingdon, change in ratio of population of, typical of + nineteenth century, 198. + +Religious, numbers of, at time of suppression, 122, 123. + +Richard Williams or "Cromwell" born at Llanishen, 152. + +Riches obtained Cholsey, 166. + +Rivers, importance of, + in English history, 1-3; + as early highways, 5-8; + military value of, 46, 47. + +Roads, + original, of Britain, four in connection with Thames Valley, 37; + original in Thames Valley, 38. + +Rochester, Bishop of, builds Tower for the Conqueror, 83. + +Roman, + place names disappeared in Thames Valley, 34; + occupation of Britain, thoroughness of, 45, 46; + origins of Wallingford, 60; + work, none certain in Tower, 79; + origins of Tower discussed, 79, 81, 82; + origin of English manors probable, 141, 142; + fortification, urban, 66; + occupation of Windsor, 65; + municipal system, 171. + +Roman Britain, municipal system of, 172. + +Roman roads, 68. + +Rowland, Thomas, last Abbot of Abingdon, 139. + +Royal manors, lapse of, 144. + +Runnymede, + conjectured etymology of, 75; + meeting of barons and John at, 75. + +Rupert, Prince, attempts to recapture Abingdon, 87. + +St. Augustine begins the civilisation of England, 91. + +St. Frideswides receives new Protestant bishopric of Oxford, 106. + +Saxon Chronicle, first mention of Oxford in, 54. + +Saxon origin of first part of place names on Thames, 31; + of Oxford Castle, 54; + of English manors probable, 141, 142. + +Seymour, + obtains Chertsey, 165; + obtains Radley, 165. + +Sheen, monastery of, late foundation of, 108. + +Sinodun Hills, + fortification of, 48; + geological parallel to Windsor, 66. + +Sir Philip Hoby obtains Bisham, 163. + +Somerford Keynes, ford at, 22. + +Sonning, fate of land of, 168, 169. + +Squires, English, their origins and rise before Reformation, 140-143. + +Staines, 45, 68, 69, 74, 194, 196. + +Stephen, Civil Wars under, Tower besieged during, 83. + +Stonehouse obtains Radley, 165. + +Stow, in Lincolnshire, mother house at Eynsham, 106. + +Stratton, monastic lands of, sold by Oliver Williams, 161. + +Streatley, 33, 34, 48. + +Sweyn at Oxford, 55. + +Taxes a basis for calculation of prices, 133, 134. + +Tenant right under monastic system, 150. + +Thames, + surface soil of valley of, 7-9; + estuary of, unimportant in early history, 13; + probably a boundary under Diocletian, 33; + a boundary between counties, 34; + points at which it is crossed, 36, 37; + traffic upon, begins after entry of Churn at Cricklade, 39, 40; + absence of traces of Roman bridges on, 46; + military value of, 46, 47; + imaginary voyage down, before Dissolution, 111-115. + +Thames Valley, + in Civil Wars, 86-89; + affords William III. his approach to London, 89; + affords Charles I. his approach to London, 89; + economic importance of sites therein, produced by the monastic + system, 117-121; + railway of, draws its prosperity from beyond the valley, 121; + towns of, 169-190. + +Thomas Rowland, last Abbot of Abingdon, 150. + +Thorney, original site of Westminster Abbey, 95. + +Tower, the, + its importance in campaign in Magna Charta, 74, 78-86; + compared to Louvre, 79; + White, true Tower of London, 79, 82; + military misfortunes of, 83, 84; + Jews in, 85. + +Towns of Thames Valley, 160-199. + +Van Sittarts succeed Mills at Bisham, 164. + +Wages a basis for calculation of prices, 133, 134. + +Waite obtains Chertsey, 164. + +Wallingford, 22, 24, 37, 58-62, 75, 76, 177-182. + +Waste land, social and strategical importance of, in Europe, 75, 76. + +Water front, examples of parishes seeking, 8-11. + +Watling Street, 38; + place of crossing Thames by, 44; + identical with Edgware Road, 44. + +Weldon obtains Pangbourne, 167. + +Welsh land left to Chertsey, 97. + +Westminster Abbey, 63-97, 130, 137. + +Westminster, 95, 69, 93, 95, 96, 130. + +White Tower, 79, 82, 83. + +William the Conqueror, + crosses at Wallingford, 37; + his choice of Windsor Hill, 65; + exchanges Windsor with monks of Westminster, 69; + builds Tower of London, 82; + anointed at Westminster, 96. + +William Rufus completes Tower, 82. + +William III., his approach to London afforded by Thames Valley, 89. + +Williams obtains Hinksey, 166. + +Williams, family of, rise of, 152-162. + +Williams, Henry, son of Richard, his career, 159. + +Williams, Oliver, uncle of Protector, 160. + +Williams, Richard, + is given two monastic foundations by his uncle, 156; + gets the revenues of Ramsey Abbey, 157. + +Williams, Robert, grandson of Richard, father of the Protector, 160. + +Wimbledon, manorial rolls of, evidence of William's marriage in, 153. + +Windsor, 65-78, 85. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Historic Thames, by Hilaire Belloc + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13046 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Historic Thames + +Author: Hilaire Belloc + +Release Date: July 29, 2004 [EBook #13046] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORIC THAMES *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Project Manager; Keith M. Eckrich, +Post-Processor; the PG Online Distributed Proofreaders Team + + + + + + +THE WAYFARER'S LIBRARY + + + + +THE HISTORIC THAMES + + +Hilaire Belloc + + +O.M. DENT & SONS Ltd. + +LONDON + + + + +THE HISTORIC THAMES + + +England has been built up upon the framework of her rivers, and, in +that pattern, the principal line has been the line of the Thames. + +Partly because it was the main highway of Southern England, partly +because it looked eastward towards the Continent from which the +national life has been drawn, partly because it was better served by +the tide than any other channel, but mainly because it was the chief +among a great number of closely connected river basins, the Thames +Valley has in the past supported the government and the wealth of +England. + +Among the most favoured of our rivals some one river system has +developed a province or a series of provinces; the Rhine has done so, +the Seine and the Garonne. But the great Continental river systems--at +least the navigable ones--stand far apart from one another: in this +small, and especially narrow, country of Britain navigable river +systems are not only numerous, but packed close together. It is +perhaps on this account that we have been under less necessity in the +past to develop our canals; and anyone who has explored the English +rivers in a light boat knows how short are the portages between one +basin and another. + +Now not only are we favoured with a multitude of navigable +waterways--the tide makes even our small coastal rivers navigable +right inland--but also we are quite exceptionally favoured in them +when we consider that the country is an island. + +If an island, especially an island in a tidal sea, has a good river +system, that system is bound to be of more benefit to it than would be +a similar system to a Continental country. For it must mean that the +tide will penetrate everywhere into the heart of the plains, carrying +the burden of their wealth backward and forward, mixing their peoples, +and filling the whole national life with its energy; and this will be +especially the case in an island which is narrow in proportion to its +length and in which the rivers are distributed transversely to its +axis. + +When we consider the river systems of the other great islands of +Europe we find that none besides our own enjoys this advantage. Sicily +and Crete, apart from the fact that they do not stand in tidal water, +have no navigable rivers. Iceland, standing in a tidal sea, too far +north indeed for successful commerce, but not too far north for the +growth of a civilisation, is at a similar disadvantage. Great Britain +and Ireland alone--Great Britain south of the Scottish Mountains, that +is--enjoy this peculiar advantage; and there are few things more +instructive when one is engaged upon the history of England than to +take a map and mark upon it the head of each navigable piece of water +and the head of its tideway, for when this has been done all England, +with the exception of the Welsh Hills and the Pennines, seems to be +penetrated by the influence of the sea. + +The conditions which give a river this great historic importance, the +fundamental character, therefore, which has lent to the Thames its +meaning in English history, is twofold: a river affords a permanent +means of travel, and a river also forms an obstacle and a boundary. +Men are known to have agglomerated in the beginning of society in two +ways: as nomadic hordes and as fixed inhabitants of settlements. + +There has arisen a profitless discussion as to which of these two +phases came first. No evidence can possibly exist upon either side, +but one may take it that with the first traditions and records, as at +the present time, the two systems existed side by side, and that +either was determined by geographical conditions. A river is an +advantage to both groups, but to the second it is of more consequence +than to the first; and in South England, if we go back to the origins +of our history, it is in fixed settlements that we find the first +evidence of man. With every year of research the extreme antiquity of +our inhabited sites becomes more apparent. And indeed the geographical +nature of Southern England should make us certain of the antiquity of +village life in it, even were there no archæological evidence to +support that antiquity. + +South England is everywhere fertile, everywhere well watered, and +nowhere divided, as is the North, by long districts of bare country, +or of hills snowbound in winter, or of morass. Its forests, though +numerous, have never formed one continuous belt; even the largest of +them, the Forest of the Weald, between the downs of Surrey and Kent +and those of Sussex, was but twenty miles across--large enough to +nourish a string of hunting villages upon the north and the south +edges of it; but not large enough to isolate the Thames Valley from +the southern coast. + +From the beginning of human activity in this island the whole length +of the river has been set with human settlements never far removed one +from the other; for the Thames ran through the heart of South England, +and wherever its banks were secure from recurrent floods it furnished +those who settled on them with three main things which every early +village requires: good water, defence, and communication. + +The importance of the first lessens as men learn to dig wells and to +canalise springs; the two last, defence and communication, remain +attached to river settlements to a much later date, and are apparent +in all the history of the Thames. + +The problem of communication under early conditions is serious. Even +in a high civilisation the maintenance of roads is of greater moment, +and imposes a greater burden, than most of the citizens who support it +know; but before the means or the knowledge exist to survey and to +harden roads, with their causeways over marshes and their bridges over +rivers, the supply of food in time of scarcity or of succour in time +of danger is never secure: a little narrow path kept up by nothing but +the continual passage of men and animals is all the channel a +community of men have for communicating with their neighbours by land. +And it must be remembered that upon such communication depend not only +the present existence, but the future development of the society, +which cannot proceed except by that fertilisation, as it were, which +comes from the mixture of varied experiences and of varied traditions: +every great change in history has necessarily been accompanied by some +new activity of travel. + +Under the primitive conditions of which we speak a river of moderate +depth, not too rapid in its current and perennial in its supply, is +much the best means by which men may communicate. It will easily +carry, by the exertions of a couple of men, some hundred times the +weight the same men could have carried as porters by land. It +furnishes, if it is broad, a certain security from attack during the +journey; it will permit the rapid passage of a large number abreast +where the wood tracks and paths of the land compel a long procession; +and it furnishes the first of the necessities of life continually as +the journey proceeds. + +Upon all these accounts a river, during the natural centuries which +precede and follow the epochs of high civilisation, is as much more +important than the road or the path as, let us say, a railway to-day +is more important than a turnpike. + +What is equally interesting, when a high civilisation after its little +effort begins to decline into one of those long periods of repose into +which all such periods of energy do at last decline, the river +reassumes its importance. There is a very interesting example of this +in the history of France. Before Roman civilisation reached the north +of Gaul the Seine and its tributary streams were evidently the chief +economic factor in the life of the people: this may be seen in the +sites of their strongholds and in the relation of the tribes to one +another, as for instance, the dependence of the Parisians upon Sens. +The five centuries of active Roman civilisation saw the river replaced +by the system of Roman roads; the great artificial track from north to +south, for instance, takes on a peculiar importance; but when the end +of that period has come, and the energies of the Roman state are +beginning to drag, when the money cannot be collected to repair the +great highways, and these fall into decay--then the Seine and its +tributaries reassume their old importance. Paris, the junction of the +various waterways, becomes the capital of a new state, and the +influence of its kings leads out upon every side along the river +valleys which fall into the main valley of the Seine. + +There are but two considerable modifications to the use for habitation +of slow and constant rivers: their value is lessened or interrupted by +precipitous banks or they are rendered unapproachable by marshes. The +first of these causes, for instance, has singularly cut off one from +the other the groups of population residing upon the upper and the +lower Meuse, as it has also, to quote another example, cut off even in +language the upper from the lower Elbe. + +From this first species of interruption the Thames is, of course, +singularly free. There is no river in England, with the exception of +the Trent, whose banks interfere so little with the settlement of men +in any place on account of their steepness. + +As to the second, the Thames presents a somewhat rare character. + +The upper part of the river, which is in lowland valleys the most +easily inhabited, and the part in which, once the river is navigable, +will be found the largest number of small settlements, is in the case +of the Thames the most marshy. From its source to beyond Cricklade the +river runs entirely over clay; thenceforward the valley is a flat mass +of alluvium, in which the stream swings from one side to the other, +and even where it touches higher soil, touches nothing better than the +continuation of this clay. In spite, therefore, of the shallowness and +narrowness of the upper river there always existed this impediment +which an insecure soil would present to the formation of any +considerable settlements. The loneliness of the stretch below +Kelmscott is due to an original difficulty of this kind, and the one +considerable settlement upon the upper river at Lechlade stands upon +the only place where firm ground approaches the bank of the river. + +This formation endures well below Oxford until one reaches the gap at +Sandford, where the stream passes between two beds of gravel which +very nearly approach either bank. + +Above this point the Thames is everywhere, upon one side or the other, +guarded by flat river meadows, which must in early times have been +morass; and nowhere were these more difficult of passage than in the +last network of streams between Witham Hill and Sandford, to the west +of the gravel bank upon which Oxford is built. + +Below Sandford, and on all the way to London Bridge, the character of +the river in this respect changes. You have everywhere gravel or +flinty chalk, with but a narrow bed of alluvial soil, upon either bank +to represent the original overflow of the river. + +At the crossing places (as we shall see later), notably at Long +Wittenham, at Wallingford, at Streatley, at Pangbourne, and, still +lower, at Maidenhead and at Ealing, this hard soil came right down to +the bank upon either side. + +On all this lower half of the Thames marsh was rare, and was to be +found even in early times only in isolated patches, which are still +clearly defined. These are never found facing each other upon opposite +banks of the stream. Thus there was a bad bit on the left bank above +Abingdon, but the large marsh below Abingdon, where the Ock came in, +was on the right bank, with firm soil opposite it. There was a large +bay, as it were, of drowned land on the right bank, from below Reading +to a point opposite Shiplake, the last wide morass before the marshes +of the tidal portion of the river; and another at the mouth of the +Coln, above Staines, on the left bank, which was the last before one +came to the mud of the tidal estuary; and even the tidal marshes were +fairly firm above London. From Staines eastward down as far as Chelsea +the superficial soil upon either side is of gravels, and the long list +of ancient inhabited sites upon either bank show how little the +overflow of the river interfered with its usefulness to men. + +The river, then, from Sandford downward has afforded upon either bank +innumerable sites upon which a settlement could be formed. Above +Sandford these sites are not to be found indifferently upon either +bank, but now on one, now on the other. There is no case on the upper +river of two villages facing each other on either side of the stream. +But though the soil of this upper part was in general less suited to +the establishment of settlements, a certain number of firmer stretches +could be found, and advantage was taken of them to build. + +There thus arose along the whole course of the Thames from its source +to London a series of villages and towns, increasing in importance as +the stream deepened and gave greater facilities to traffic, and bound +together by the common life of the river. It was their _highway_, and +it is as a highway that it must first be regarded. + +Of the way in which the Thames was a necessary great road in early +times, perhaps the best proof is the manner in which various parishes +manage to get their water front at the expense of a somewhat unnatural +shape to their boundaries. Thus Fawley in Buckinghamshire has a +curious and interesting arrangement of this sort thrusting down from +the hills a tongue of land which ends in a sort of wharfage on the +river just opposite Remenham church. In Berkshire there are also +several examples of this. On the upper river Dractmoor and Kingston +Bagpuise are both very narrow and long, a shape forced upon them by +the necessity of having this outlet upon the river in days when the +life of a parish was a real one and the village was a true and +self-sufficing unit. Next to them Fyfield does the same thing. Lower +down, near Wallingford, the parish of Brightwell has added on a +similar eccentric edge to the north and east so that it may share in +the bank; but perhaps the best example of all in this connection is +the curious extension below Reading. Here land which is of no use for +human habitation--water meadows continually liable to floods--runs out +from the parish northward for a good mile. These lands are separated +from the river during the whole of this extension until at last a bend +of the stream gives the parish the opportunity it has evidently sought +in thus extending its boundaries. On the Oxford bank Standlake and +Brighthampton do the same thing upon the Upper Thames and to some +extent Eynsham; for when one thinks how far back Eynsham stands from +the river it is somewhat remarkable that it should have claimed the +right to get at the stream. Below Oxford there is another most +interesting instance of the same thing in the case of Littlemore. +Littlemore stands on high and dry land up above the river somewhat set +back from it. Sandford evidently interfered with its access to the +water, and Littlemore has therefore claimed an obviously artificial +extension for all the world like a great foot added on to the bulk of +the parish. This "foot" includes Kennington Island, and runs up the +meadows to the foot of that eyot. + +The long and narrow parishes in the reaches below Benson, Nuneham +Morren, Mongewell, and Ipsden and South Stoke are not, however, +examples of this tendency. + +They owe their construction to the same causes as have produced the +similar long parishes of the Surrey and the Sussex Weald. The life of +the parish was in each case right on the river or very close to it, +and the extension is not the attempt of the parish to reach the river, +but the claim of the parish upon the hunting lands which lay up behind +it upon the Chiltern Hills. The truth of this will be apparent to +anyone who notes upon the map the way in which parishes are thus +lengthened, not only on the western side of the hills, but also upon +the farther eastern side, where there was no connection with the +river. + +There are many other proofs remaining of the chief function which the +Thames fulfilled in the early part of our history as a means of +communication. + +We shall see later in these pages how united all that line of the +stream has been; how the great monasteries founded upon the Thames +were supported by possessions stretched all along the valleys; how +much of it, and what important parts, were held by the Crown; and how +strong was the architectural influence of towns upon one another up +and down the water, as also how the place names upon the banks are +everywhere drawn from the river; but before dealing with these it is +best to establish the main portions into which the Thames falls and to +see what would naturally be their limits. + +It may be said, generally, that every river which is tidal, and whose +stream is so slow as to be easily navigable in either direction, +divides itself naturally, when one is regarding it as a means of +communication, into three main divisions. + +There will first of all be the tidal portion which the tide usually +scours into an estuary. As a general rule, this portion is not +considerably inhabited in the early periods of history, for it is not +until a large international commerce arises that vessels have much +occasion to stop as they pass up and down the maritime part of the +stream; and even so, settlements upon its banks must come +comparatively late in the development of the history of the river, +because a landing upon such flooded banks is not easily to be +effected. + +This is true of the Dutch marshes at the mouths of the Rhine, whose +civilisation (one exclusively due to the energy of man) came centuries +after the establishment of the great Roman towns of the Rhine; it is +true of the estuary of the Seine, whose principal harbour of Havre is +almost modern, and whose difficulties are still formidable for +ocean-going craft; and it is true of the Thames. + +The estuary of the Thames plays little or no part in the very early +history of England. Invaders, when they landed, landed on the +sea-coast at the very mouth, or appear to have sailed right up into +the heart of the country. + +It is, nevertheless, true that the last few miles of tidal water, in +Western Europe at least, are not to be included in this first division +of a great river. + +The swish of the tide continues up beyond the broad estuary, the +sand-banks, and the marshes, and there are reaches more or less long +(rather less than twenty miles perhaps originally in the case of the +Thames, rather more perhaps originally in the case of the lower Seine) +which for the purposes of habitation are inland reaches. They have the +advantage of a current moving in either direction twice a day and yet +not the disadvantage of greatly varying levels of water. Thus one may +say of the Seine in the old days that from about Caudebec to Point de +L'Arche it enjoyed such inland tidal conditions; and of the Thames +from Greenwich to Teddington that similar advantages existed. + +The true point of division which separates, so far as human history is +concerned, the lower from the upper part of such rivers is the first +bridge, and, what almost always accompanies the first bridge, the +first great town. To repeat the obvious parallel, Rouen was this point +upon the Seine; upon the Thames this point was the Bridge of London. +It is with the habitable and historic Thames Valley above the bridge +that this book has to deal, and it will later be to the reader's +purpose to consider why London Bridge crossed the stream just where it +did, and of what moment that site has been in the history of the +Thames and of England. + +The second division in a great European tidal river, considered as a +means of communication, is the navigable but non-tidal portion. + +The word navigable is so vague that it requires some definition before +we can apply it to any particular stream. It does not, of course, mean +in this connection "navigable by sea-going boats." One may take a +constant depth of so little as three feet to be sufficient for the +purpose of carrying merchandise even in considerable bulk. + +The legislatures of various countries have established varying gauges +to determine where the navigability of a river may be said to cease. +In practice these gauges have always been arbitrary. The upper reaches +of a river may present sufficient depth but too fast a current, or +they may be too narrow, or the curves may be too rapid, or the +obstruction of rocks too common, for any sort of navigation, although +the depth of water be sufficient. + +Conversely, in some streams of peculiar breadth and constancy very +shallow upper reaches may have early been converted to the use of man. +The matter is only to be determined by the experience of what the +inhabitants of a river valley have actually been able to do under the +local circumstances, and when we examine this we shall usually be +astonished to see how far inland a river was used until the history of +internal navigation was transformed by the development of canals or +partially destroyed by the development of railways. Thus it is certain +that so small a stream as the Adur in Sussex floated barges up to the +boundaries of Shipley Parish; that the Stour was habitually used +beyond Canterbury; that so tiny a tributary as the Ant in Norfolk was +followed up from its parent Bure to the neighbourhood of Worsted. + +In this connection the Thames is of an especial interest, for it had, +in proportion to its length, the greatest section of navigable +non-tidal water of any of the shorter rivers in Europe. Until the +digging of the Thames and Severn Canal at the end of last century it +was possible, and even common, for boats to reach Cricklade, or at any +rate the mouth of the Churn. And even now, in spite of the pumping +that is necessary at Thames head and the consequent diminution of the +volume of water in the upper reaches, the Thames, were water carriage +to come again into general use, would be a busy commercial stream as +high up as Lechlade. + +This exceptional sector of non-tidal navigable water cutting right +across England from east to west, and that in what used to be the most +productive and is still the most fertile portion of the island, is the +chief factor in the historic importance of the Thames. + +From Cricklade to the navigable waters of the Severn Valley is but a +long day's walk; and one may say that even in the earliest times there +was thus provided a great highway right across what then was by far +the most thickly populated and the most important part of the island. + +A third section in all such rivers (and, from what we have said above, +a short and insignificant one in the case of the Thames) may be called +the _head-waters_ of the river: where the stream is so shallow or so +uncertain as to be no longer navigable. In the case of the Thames +these head-waters cover no more than ten to fifteen miles of country. +With the exception of rivers that run through mountain districts this +section of a river's course is nearly always small in proportion to +the rest; but the Thames, just as it has the longest proportion of +navigable water, has also by far the shortest proportion of useless +head-water of all the shorter European rivers. + +There is a further discussion as to what is the true source of the +Thames, and which streams may properly be regarded as its head-waters: +the Churn, especially since the digging of the canal, having a larger +flow than the stream from Thames head; but whichever is chosen, the +non-navigable portion starts at the same point, and is the third of +the divisions into which the valley ranges itself when it is +considered in its length, as a highway from the west to the east of +England. The two limits, then, are at London Bridge and at Cricklade, +or rather at some point between Lechlade and Cricklade, and nearer to +the latter. + +But a river has a second topographical and historic function. It +cannot only be considered longitudinally as a highway, it can also be +considered in relation to transverse forces and regarded as an +obstacle, a defence, and a boundary. + +This function has, of course, been of the highest importance in the +history of all great rivers, not perhaps so much so in the case of the +Thames as in the case of swifter or deeper streams, but, still, more +than has been the case with so considerable and so rapid a river as +the Po in Lombardy or the uncertain but dangerous Loire in its passage +through the centre of France. For the Thames Valley was that which +divided the vague Mercian land from which we get our weights, our +measures, and the worst of our national accent, and cut it off from +that belt of the south country which was the head and the heart of +England until the last industrial revolution of our history. + +The Thames also has entered to a large, though hardly to a +determining, extent into the military history of the country; to an +extent which is greater in earlier than in later times, because with +every new bridge the military obstacle afforded by the stream +diminished. And finally, the Thames, regarded as an obstacle, was the +cause that London Bridge concentrated upon itself so much of the life +of the nation, and that the town which that bridge served, always the +largest commercial city, became at last the capital of the island. + +We have already said that the establishment of the site of London +Bridge was a capital point in the history of the river and the +principal line of division in its course. What were the topographical +conditions which caused the river to be crossed at this point rather +than at another? + +It is always of the greatest moment to men to find some crossing for a +great river as low down as may be towards the mouth. For the higher +the bridge the longer the detour between, at the least, _two_ +provinces of the country which the river traverses. It is especially +important to find such a crossing as low down as possible when the +river is tidal and when it is flanked upon either side by great +flooded marshes, as was and is the Thames. For under such conditions +it is difficult, especially in primitive times, to cross habitually +from one side to the other in boats. + +Now it is a universal rule of early topography, and one which can be +proved upon twenty of the old trackways of England, that the wild path +which the earliest men used, when it approaches a river, seeks out a +spur of higher and drier land, and if possible one directly facing +another similar spur upon the far side of the water. It is a feature +which the present writer continually observed in the exploration of +the old British trackway between Winchester and Canterbury; it is +similarly observable in the presumably British track between Chester +and Manchester; and it is the feature which determined the site of +London Bridge. + +From the sea for sixty miles is a succession of what was once +entirely, and is now still in great part, marshy land; or at least if +there are no marshes upon one bank there will be marshes upon the +other. In the rare places down stream where there is a fairly rapid +rise upon either side of the river the stream is far too wide for +bridging; and these marshes were to be found right up the valley until +one struck the gravel at Chelsea: even here there were bad marshes on +the farther shore. + +There is in the whole or the upper stretch of the tidal water but one +place where a bluff of high and dry land faces, not indeed land +equally dry immediately upon the farther bank, but at least a spur of +dry land which approaches fairly near to the main stream. If the +modern contour lines be taken and laid out upon a map of London this +spur will be found to project from Southwark northward directly +towards the river, and immediately opposite it is the dry hill, +surrounded upon three sides by river or by marsh, upon which grew up +the settlement of London. Here, then, the first crossing of the Thames +was certain to be made. + +It is not known whether a permanent bridge existed before the Roman +Conquest. It may be urged in favour of the negative argument that +Cæsar had no knowledge of such a bridge, or at least did not march +towards it, but crossed the river with difficulty in the higher +reaches by a ford. And it may also be urged that a bridge across the +Rhine was equally unknown in that time. But, the bridge once +established, it could not fail to become the main point of convergence +for the commerce of Southern England, and indeed for much of that +which proceeded from the North upon its way to the Continent. Such an +obstacle would oppose itself to every invasion, and did, in fact, +oppose itself to more than one historical invasion from the North Sea. +It would further prevent sea-going vessels whose masts were securely +stepped and could not lower from proceeding farther up stream, and +would thereupon become the boundary of the seaport of the Thames. Such +a bridge would, again, concentrate upon itself the traffic of all that +important and formerly wealthy part of the island which bulges out to +the east between the estuary of the Thames and the Wash, and which +must necessarily have desired communication both with the still +wealthier southern portion and with the Continent. But, more important +than this, London Bridge also concentrated upon itself all the +up-country traffic in men and in goods which came in by the natural +gate of the country at the Straits of Dover, except that small portion +which happened to be proceeding to the south-west of England: and this +exception to the early commerce of England was the smaller from the +comparative ease with which the Channel could be crossed between +Brittany and Cornwall. + +Finally, the Bridge, as it formed the limit for sea-going vessels, +formed also if not the limit at least a convenient terminus for craft +coming from inland down the stream. It would form the place of +transhipment between the sea-going and the inland trade. + +Everything then conspired to make this first crossing of the Thames +the chief commercial point in Britain; and, since we are considering +in particular the history of the river, it must be noted that these +conditions also made of London Bridge what we have remarked it to be, +the chief division in the whole course of the stream. This character +it still maintains, and the life of the river from the bridge to the +Nore is a totally different thing, with a different literature and a +different accompanying art, from the life of the river above bridges. + +We have seen that the river when it is regarded as an avenue of access +to men for commerce or for travel is, especially in early times, and +with boats of light draught, of one piece from Lechlade to London +Bridge. There was in this section always sufficient water even in a +dry summer to float some sort of a boat. But the river, regarded as a +barrier or obstacle for human beings in their movement up and down +Britain, did not form one such united section. On the contrary, it +divided itself, as all such rivers do, into two very clearly defined +parts: there was that upper part which could be crossed at frequent +intervals by an army, that lower part in which fords are rare. + +In most rivers one has nothing more to do in describing those two +sections than to show how gradually they merge into one another. In +most rivers the passage of the upper waters is perfectly easy, and as +one descends the fords get rarer and rarer, until at last they cease. + +With the Thames this is not the case. The two portions of the river +are sharply divided in the vicinity of Oxford, and that for reasons +which we have already seen when we were speaking of the suitability of +its banks for habitation. The upper Thames is indeed shallow and +narrow, and there are innumerable places above Oxford where it could +be crossed, so far as the volume of its waters was concerned. It was +crossed by husbandmen wherever a village or a farm stood upon its +banks. Perhaps the highest point at which it had to be crossed at one +chosen spot is to be discovered in the word Somer_ford_ Keynes, but +the ease with which the water itself could be traversed is apparent +rather in the absence than in the presence of names of this sort upon +the upper Thames. Shifford, for instance, which used to be spelt +Siford, may just as well have been named from the crossing of the +Great Brook as from the crossing of the Thames. The only other is +Duxford. + +While, however, the upper Thames was thus easy to cross where +individuals only or small groups of cattle were concerned, the marshes +on either side always made it difficult for an army. The records of +early fighting are meagre, and often legendary, but such as they are +you do not find the upper Thames crossed and recrossed as are the +upper Severn or the upper Trent. There are two points of passage: +Cricklade and Oxford, nor can the passage from Oxford be made westward +over the marshes. It is confined to the ford going north and south. + +Below Oxford, after the entry of the Cherwell, and from thence down to +a point not very easily determined, but which is perhaps best fixed at +Wallingford, the Thames is only passable at fixed crossings in +ordinary weather, as at Sandford, where the hard gravels approach the +bank upon either side, and at other places, each distant from the next +by long stretches of river. + +It is not easy, now that the river has been locked, to determine +precisely where all these original crossings are to be found. + +The records of Abingdon and its bridge make it certain that a +difficult ford existed here; the name "Burford" attached to the bridge +points to the ancient ford at this spot. It is a name to be discovered +in several other parts of England where there has been some ancient +crossing of a river, as, for instance, the crossing of the Mole in +Surrey by the Roman military road. + +The next place below Abingdon may have been at Appleford, but was more +likely between the high cliff at Clifton-Hampden and the high and dry +spit of Long Wittenham. Below this again for miles there was no easy +crossing of the river. + +The Thames was certainly impassable at Dorchester. The whole +importance of Dorchester indeed in history lies in its being a strong +fortified position, and it depends for its defence upon the depth of +the river, which swirls round the peninsula occupied by the camp. + +It has been conjectured that there was a Roman ford or ferry at the +east end of Little Wittenham Wood, where it touches the river. The +conjecture is ill supported. No track leads to this spot from the +south, and close by is an undoubted ford where now stands Shillingford +Bridge. + +Below this again there was no crossing until one got to Wallingford; +and here we reach a point of the greatest importance in the history of +the Thames and of England. + +Wallingford was not the lowest point at which the Thames could ever be +crossed. So far was this from being the case that the _tidal_ Thames +could be crossed in several places on the ebb, notably at the passage +between Ealing and Kew, where Kew Bridge now stands; and, as we shall +see, the Thames was passable at many other places. But the special +character of the passage at Wallingford lay in the fact that it was a +ford upon which one could always depend. Below Wallingford the +crossings were either only to be effected in very dry seasons or, +though normally usable, might be interrupted by rain. + +It is at Wallingford, therefore, that the main lowest passage of the +Thames was effected, and it was through Wallingford that Berkshire +communicated with the Chilterns. Wallingford is, then, the second +point of division upon the Thames when one is regarding that river as +a defence or a boundary. Below Wallingford there was perhaps a regular +crossing at Pangbourne; there was certainly a ford of great importance +between Streatley and Goring; and all the way down the river at +intervals were difficult but practicable passages--notably at Cowey +Stakes between the Surrey and the Middlesex shore, a place which is +the traditional crossing of Cæsar. The water here in normal weather +was, however, as much as five feet deep, and this ford well +illustrates the difficulties of all the lower crossings of the Thames. + +The effect of the river as a barrier must, of course, have largely +depended upon the level to which the waters rose in early times. It is +exceedingly difficult to get any evidence upon this--first, because +however far you go back in English history some sort of control seems +always to have been imposed upon the river; and secondly, because the +early overflows have left little permanent effect. + +As an example of the antiquity of the regulation of the Thames we have +the embankment round the Isle of Dogs, which is Roman or pre-Roman in +its origin, like the sea-wall of the Wash, which defends the Fenland; +and at Ealing, Staines, Abingdon, and twenty other places we have +sites probably pre-historic, and certainly at the beginnings of +history, which could never have been inhabited if the neighbouring +fields had not been drained or protected. The regularity of the stream +has therefore been somewhat artificial throughout all the centuries of +recorded history, and the banks have had ample time to acquire +consistency. + +It is certain, of course, that works of planting, of draining, or of +embankment, which required continuous energy, skill, and capital, +decayed after the coming of the Saxon pirates, and were not undertaken +again with full vigour until after the Norman Conquest. Even to-day +the work is not quite complete, though every year sees its +improvement: we are still unable to prevent regularly recurrent floods +in the flats round Oxford and below the gorge of the Chilterns; but +for the purpose of this argument the chief fact to be noted is that no +serious interruption to the approach of the river seems to have +existed in historic times. + +In pre-historic times many stretches of the river must have afforded +great difficulties of approach. The mouths of the Ock, the Coln, the +Kennet, the Mole, and the Wandle must each have been surrounded by a +marsh; all the plain between Oxford and the Hinkseys must have been +partially flooded, as must the upper reaches between Lechlade and +Witham (on one side or the other of the stream as it winds from the +southern to the northern rises of land), and as must also have been +the long stretch of the right bank below Reading. The highest spring +tides may have been felt as high up the stream as Staines, and both +the character of the surface and the contour lines permit one to +conjecture that the valley of the Wandle and several other inlets from +the lower river were flooded. Yet it is remarkable that in this +alluvium, more disturbed and dug than any other in Europe, little or +nothing of human relics, of boats, or of piles has been discovered, +and this absence of testimony also points to the remoteness of date +from which we should reckon the human control of the river. + +Here, as in many other conjectures concerning early history or +pre-history, one is convinced of that safe rule which, in Europe at +least, bids us never exaggerate the changes achieved by the last few +centuries or the contrast between recorded and unrecorded things. + +The tendency of most modern history in this country has been to +exaggerate such changes and such contrasts. In the greater part of +modern popular history care is taken to emphasise the difference +between the Middle and Dark Ages and the last few centuries. The +forests of England are represented as impassable, or nearly so; the +numbers of the population are grossly underestimated; the towns which +have had a continuous municipal existence of 1500 years are +represented as villages. + +The same spirit would tend to make of the Thames Valley in the Dark +and Middle Ages a very different landscape from that which we see +to-day. The floods were indeed more common and the passage of the +river somewhat more difficult; cultivation did not everywhere approach +the banks as it does now; and in two or three spots where there has +been a great development of modern building, notably at Reading, and, +of course, in London, the banks have been artificially strengthened. +But with these exceptions it may be confidently asserted that no belt +of densely inhabited landscape in England has changed so little in its +natural features as the Thames Valley. + +There are dozens of reaches upon the upper Thames where little is in +sight save the willows, the meadows, and a village church tower, which +present exactly the same aspect to-day as they did when that church +was first built. You might put a man of the fifteenth century on to +the water below St. John's Lock, and, until he came to Buscot Lock, he +would hardly know that he had passed into a time other than his own. +The same steeple of Lechlade would stand as a permanent landmark +beyond the fields, and, a long way off, the same church of Eaton +Hastings, which he had known, would show above the trees. + +There is another method of judging the comparative smallness of the +change, and it is a method which can be applied to many other parts of +England whose desertion or wildness in the Dark and early Middle Ages +has been too confidently asserted. That method is to note where human +settlements were and are found. With the exception of the long and +probably marshy piece between Radcot and Shifford the whole of the +upper Thames was dotted with such settlements, which, though small, +were quite close to the banks. Kelmscott is right up against the river +in what one would otherwise have imagined to be land too marshy for +building until modern times. Buscot, on the other bank, is not only +close to the river, but was a royal manor of high historical +importance in the eleventh century. Eaton Hastings is similarly placed +right against the bank; so was in its day the palace of Kempsford +above Lechlade, and so is the church of Inglesham between the two. All +the way down you have at intervals old stonework and old place names, +indicating habitation upon the upper Thames. + +A proper system of locks is comparatively modern on any European +river. The invention is even said (upon doubtful authority) to be as +late as the sixteenth century, but the method of regulating the waters +of a river by weirs is immemorial. + +We have no earlier record of weirs upon the Thames than that in Magna +Charta; but some such system must have existed from the time when men +first used the Thames in a regular manner for commerce. + +There is but one place left in which one can still reconstruct for +oneself the aspect of such weirs as were till but little more than a +century ago the universal method of canalising the river. Modern weirs +are merely adjuncts to locks, and are usually found upon a branch of +the stream other than that which leads up to the lock. But in this +weir the old fashion of crossing the whole stream is still preserved. +There is no lock, and when a boat would pass up or down the paddles of +the weir have to be lifted. It is, in a modern journey upon the upper +Thames, the one faint incident which the day affords, for if one is +going down the stream but few paddles are lifted, and the boat shoots +a small rapid, while to admit a boat going up stream the whole weir is +raised, and, even so, a great rush of water opposes the boat as it is +hauled through. Some years ago there were several of these weirs upon +the upper river. They have all been superseded by locks, and it is +probable that this last one will not long survive. + +Such weirs did certainly sufficiently regulate the stream as to make +its banks regularly habitable. If no local order, at least the +interest of villagers in their mills sufficed to the watching of the +stream. + +We have in the place names upon the Thames a further evidence of the +antiquity of its regulation, for, as will be seen in a moment, none +give proof of any important settlement later than the eleventh +century. + +These place names not only indicate a continuous and early settlement +of the banks, but also form in themselves a very interesting series, +whose etymology is a little section of the history of England. + +Of purely Celtic names very few survive in the sites of human +habitation, though the names of the waterways are almost universally +Celtic, as is the name of Thames itself. But it is probable that in +the Saxon names which line the river there are many corruptions of +Celtic words made to sound in the Saxon fashion. We cannot prove such +origins. We can surmise with justice that the "tons" and "dons" all up +and down England are Celtic terminations; they are almost unknown in +Germany. There is a somewhat pedantic guess, drawn (it is said) from +Iceland, that we got this national name ending from Scandinavia; so +universal a habit would hardly have arisen from an admixture of +Scandinavian blood received at the very close of the Dark Ages and +affecting but small patches of North England. Moreover, as against +this theory, there is the fact that quite half the Celtic place names +mentioned in our early history and in that of Gaul had a similar +termination. London itself is the best example. + +If, however, we neglect this termination, and consider the first part +of the words in which it occurs (as in Abing-don, Bensing-ton, Ea-ton, +etc.), we shall find that most of the place names are Saxon in form, +and some certainly Saxon in derivation. + +Thus Ea-ton, a name scattered all along the Thames, from its very +source to the last reaches, is the "tun" by the water or stream. +Clif-ton (as in Clifton-Hampden) is the "ton" on the cliff, a very +marked feature of the left bank of the river at this place. Of +Bensing-ton, now Benson, we know nothing, nor do we of the origin of +the word Abing-don. + +The names terminating in "ham" are, in their termination at least, +certainly Teutonic; and the same may be true of most of those--but not +all of those--ending in "ford." Ford may just as well be a Celtic as a +Teutonic ending, and in either case means a "passage," a "going." It +does not even in all cases indicate a shallow passage, though in the +great majority of cases on the Thames it does indicate a place where +one could cross the river on foot. Thus Wallingford was probably the +walled or embattled ford, and Oxford almost certainly the "ford of the +droves"--droves going north from Berkshire. One may say roughly that +all the "hams" were Teutonic save where one can put one's finger on a +probable Celtic derivation such as one has, for instance, in the case +of Witham, which should mean the settlement upon the "bend" or curve +of the river, a Celtic name with a Teutonic ending. + +One may also believe that the termination "or" or "ore" is Teutonic; +Cumnor may have meant "the wayfarers' stage," and Windsor probably +"the landing place on the winding of the river." + +Hythe also is thought to be Teutonic. One can never be quite sure with +a purely Anglo-Saxon word, that it had a German origin, but at least +Hythe is Anglo-Saxon, a wharf or stage; thus Bablock Hythe on the road +through the Roman town of Eynsham across the river to Cumnor and +Abingdon, cutting off the great bend of the river at Witham; so also +the town we now call "Maidenhead," which was perhaps the "mid-Hythe" +between Windsor and Reading. Some few certainly Celtic names do +survive: in the Sinodun Hills, for instance, above Dorchester; and the +first part of the name Dorchester itself is Celtic. At the very head +of the Thames you have Coates, reminding one of the Celtic name for +the great wood that lay along the hill; but just below, where the +water begins, to flow, Kemble and Ewen, if they are Saxon, are perhaps +drawn from the presence of a "spring." Cricklade may be all Celtic, or +may be partly Celtic and partly Saxon. London is Celtic, as we have +seen. And in the mass of places whose derivation it is impossible to +establish the primitive roots of a Celtic place name may very possibly +survive. + +The purely Roman names have quite disappeared, and, what is odd, they +disappeared more thoroughly in the Thames Valley than in any other +part of England. Dorchester alone preserves a faint reminiscence of +its Romano-Celtic name; but Bicester to the north, and the crossing of +the ways at Alchester, are probably Saxon in the first part at least. +Streatley has a Roman derivation, as have so many similar names +throughout England which stand upon a "strata" or "way" of British or +of Roman origin. But though "Spina" is still Speen, Ad Pontes, close +by, one of the most important points upon the Roman Thames, has lost +its Roman name entirely, and is known as Staines: the stones or stone +which marked the head of the jurisdiction of London upon the river. + +To return to the river regarded as a _boundary_, it is subject to this +rather interesting historical observation that it has been more of a +boundary in highly civilised than in barbaric times. + +One would expect the exact contrary to be the case. A civilised man +can cross a river more easily than a barbarian; and in civilised times +there are permanent bridges, where in barbaric times there would be +only fords or ferries. + +Nevertheless, it is true of the Thames, as of nearly every other +division in Europe, that it was much more of a boundary at the end of +the Roman Empire, and is more of a strict boundary to-day, than it was +during the Dark Ages, and presumably also before the Claudian +invasion. Thus we may conjecture with a fair accuracy that in the last +great ordering of boundaries within the Roman Empire, which was the +work of Diocletian, and so much of which still survives in our +European politics to-day (for instance, the boundary of Normandy), the +Thames formed the division between Southern and Midland Britain. It is +equally certain that it did _not_ form any exact division between +Wessex and Mercia. + +The estuary has, of course, always formed a division, and in the +barbarian period it separated the higher civilisation of Kent from +that of the East Saxons, who were possibly of a different race, and +certainly of a different culture. But the Thames above London Bridge +was not a true boundary until the civilisation of England began to +form, towards the close of the Dark Ages. It is perpetually crossed +and recrossed by contending armies, and the first result of a success +is to cause the conqueror to annex a belt from the farther bank to his +own territories. + +It is further remarkable that the one great definite boundary of the +Dark Ages in England--that which was established for a few years by +Alfred between his kingdom and the territory of the Danish +invaders--abandons the Thames above bridges altogether, and uses it as +a limitation in its estuarial part only, up to the mouth of the Lea. + +With the definition of exact frontiers for the English counties, +however, a process whose origin can hardly antedate the Norman +Conquest by many years, the Thames at once becomes of the utmost +importance as a boundary. + +Its higher and hardly navigable streams are not so used. The upper +Thames and its little tributaries for some ten miles from its source +are not only indifferent to county boundaries, but run through a +territory which has been singularly indefinite in the past. For +instance, the parish of Kemble, wherein the first waters now appear, +has been counted now in Gloucester, now in Wilts. But when these ten +miles are run, just after Castle Eaton Bridge, and not quite half way +between that bridge and the old royal palace at Kempsford, the Thames +becomes the line of division between two counties, and from there to +the sea it never loses its character of a boundary. + +It is a tribute to the great place of the river in history that there +is no other watercourse in England nor any other natural division of +which this is so universally true. + +The reason that the Thames, like so many other European boundaries, +has come late into the process of demarcation, and the reason that its +use as a limit is more apparent in civilised than in uncivilised +times, is simply the fact that limits and boundaries themselves are +never of great exactitude save in times of comparatively high +civilisation. It is when a complex system of law and a far-reaching +power of execution are present in a country that the necessity for +precise delimitation arises. In the barbaric period of England there +was no such necessity. Doubtless the men of Berkshire and the men of +Oxfordshire felt themselves to be in general divided by the stream; +but had we documents to hand (which, of course, we have not) it might +be possible to show that exceptional tracts, such as the isolated Hill +of Witham (which is much more influenced by Oxford than by Abingdon), +was treated as the land of Oxfordshire men in early times, or was +perhaps a territory in dispute; and something of the same sort may +have existed in the connection of Caversham with Reading. + +In this old age of our civilisation the exactitude of the boundary +which the Thames establishes is apparent in various survivals. Islands +now joined to the one bank and indistinguishable from the rest of the +shore are still annexed to the farther shore. Such a patch is to be +found at Streatley, geographically in Berkshire, legally in Oxford; +there is another opposite Staines, which Middlesex claims from Surrey. +In all, half-a-dozen or more such anomalous frontiers mark the course +of the old river. One arrested in process of formation may be seen at +Pentonhook. + +A boundary--that is, an obstacle to travel--has this further feature, +that the point at which it is crossed--that is, the point at which the +obstacle is surmounted--is certain to become a point of strategic and +often of commercial importance. So it is with the passes over +mountains and with the narrows of the sea, and so it is with fords and +bridges over rivers. So it is with the Thames. + +The energies both of travel and of war are driven towards and confined +in such spots. Fortresses arise and towns which they may defend. +Depots of goods are formed, the coining and the change of money are +established, secure meeting places for speculation are founded. + +Such passages over the Thames were of two sorts: there are first the +original fords, numerous and primeval; next the crossing places of the +great roads. + +Of the original fords we have already drawn up a list. Few have, +merely as fords, proved to be of strategic or commercial value. Oxford +may have been an early exception; and the difficult passage at +Abingdon founded a great monastery but no military post: the rise of +each was connected, as was Reading (which had no ford), with the +junction of a tributary. Wallingford alone, in its character of the +last easy and practicable ford down the river, had for centuries an +importance certainly due to geographical causes alone. Two principal +events of English history--the crossing of the Thames by the Conqueror +and the successful challenge of Henry II. to Stephen--depend upon the +site of this crossing. Long before their time it had been of capital +importance to the Saxon kings, so early as Offa and so late as Alfred. +If the bridges built at Abingdon in the fifteenth century had not +gradually deflected the western road, Wallingford might still count +the fourteen churches and the large population which it possessed for +so many centuries. + +Apart from Wallingford, however, the fords, as fords, did little to +build up towns or to determine the topography of English history. Of +more importance were the crossings of the great _roads_. + +When one remembers that the south of England was originally by far the +wealthiest part of the country, and when one considers the shape of +Ireland, it is evident that certain main tracks would lead from north +to south, and that most or all of these would be compelled to cross +the Thames Valley. We find four such primeval ways. + +One from the Straits of Dover in the south-east to the north-western +centres of the Welsh Marches and of Chester, the Port for Ireland, and +so up west of the Pennines. This came in Saxon times to be called the +_Watling Street_, a name common to other lesser lanes. + +Another, the converse to this, proceeded from the metal mines of the +south-west to the north-east until it struck and merged into other +roads running north and east of the Pennines. This came to be called +(as did other lesser roads) the _Fosse Way_. + +A third went more sharply west from the southern districts, and +connected them not with the Dee, but with the lower Severn. This track +ran from the open highlands of Hampshire through Newbury and the +Berkshire Hills to Gloucester, and was called (like other lesser +tracks) the _Ermine Street_. + +Finally, a fourth went in a great bend from these same highlands up +eastward to the coast of the North Sea in East Anglia. This was called +in Saxon times the _Icknield Way_. + +All these can be traced in their general direction throughout and for +most of their length minutely. All were forced to cross the Thames +Valley, which so nearly divided the whole of South England from east +to west. + +Of these four crossings the first in point of interest is that which +the _Ermine Street_ makes over the upper Thames at _Cricklade_. + +These old roads are of capital importance in the story of England, and +though historians have always recognised this there are a number of +features about them which have not been sufficiently noted--as, for +instance, that armies until perhaps the twelfth century perpetually +used them; for the great English roads, though their general track was +laid out in pre-historic times, were generally hardened, straightened, +and embanked by the Romans in a manner which permitted them to survive +right on into the early Middle Ages; and of these four all were so +hardened and strengthened, except the Icknield Way. Not one of them is +quite complete to-day, but the Ermine Street is perhaps the best +preserved. It is a good modern road all the way from Bayden to +Gloucester, with the exception of a very slight gap at this village of +Cricklade. + +It originally crossed the river half-a-mile below Cricklade Bridge, so +that the priory which stood on the left bank lay just to the south of +the old road. How and when the old bridge at Cricklade fell we have no +record, but one of the most important records of the Thames in +Anglo-Saxon history is connected with this passage of the river. + +The importance of Cricklade as a station upon the upper Thames does +not only proceed from its being the crossing place of a great road, it +is also the point when the first important tributary stream, the +Churn, joins the Thames. Above this junction the Thames nowadays is +hardly a stream; and even in the eighteenth century and earlier, +before the digging of the Severn and Thames Canal, it must have +depended on the weather whether there were any appreciable amount of +water in the upper part or not. It would probably be found, if records +could be examined, that the mills at Somerford Keynes were not +continually worked throughout the year, even when the supply of water +had been left undiminished by modern engineering. But when once the +Churn (which, as we have seen, has a larger volume of water than the +Thames) had fallen in at Cricklade the two formed a true river, with +depth in it always sufficient to support a boat, and with a fairly +strong stream, as also with a width sufficient for minor traffic; and +it is after Cricklade that you get a succession of villages and +churches dependent upon the river and standing close to its banks. + +But though this piece of hydrography has its importance the chief +meaning of Cricklade in history lay in the fact that it was the spot +where this Ermine Street on its way from the south country to the +Severn Valley got over the Thames, and the village connected with it +was entrenched certainly in Roman and probably in pre-Roman times. +This entrenchment may still be traced. + +The crossing of the Thames by the Icknield Way, unlike the crossing of +the Ermine Street at Cricklade, presents a problem. + +Cricklade, as we have seen, is a perfectly well-established site, and +we owe our certitude upon the matter to the fact that the Romans had +hardened and straightened what was probably an old British track. But +with the crossing of the Icknield Way no such complete certitude +exists, for the Icknield Way was but a vague barbarian track, often +tortuous in outline, confused by branching ways, and presenting all +the features of a savage trail. Doubtless that trail was used during +the four hundred years of the high Roman civilisation as a country +road, just as the similar trail, known as the "Pilgrims' Way" from +Winchester to Canterbury, was used in the same epoch. There are plenty +of Roman remains to be found along the track, and there is no doubt +that all such roads, even when the State was not at the expense of +hardening or straightening them, were in continual use before, as they +were in continual use after, the presence of Roman government in this +island; but the Icknield Way does not approach the river in a clear +and unmistakable manner as would a Roman or a Romanised road. It is on +this account that the exact point of its crossing has been debated. + +The problem is roughly this: the high and treeless chalk downs have +been used from the beginning of human habitation in these islands as +the principal highways, and any single traveller or tribe that desired +in early times to get from the Hampshire highlands to the east and +north of England must have begun by following the ridge of the +Berkshire Hills, and by continuing along the dry upland of the +Chiltern Hills, which continue this reach beyond the Thames. But the +spot at which the pre-historic crossing of the Thames was effected +cannot be determined by a simple survey of the place where the Thames +cuts through the chalk range. Wallingford up above this gorge has +certain claims, both because it was the lowest of the continually +practicable fords upon the river, and because its whole history points +to an immemorial antiquity. Higher still, Dorchester, on which every +historian of the Thames must dwell as perhaps the most interesting of +all the settlements upon the banks of the river, has also been +suggested. Just above Dorchester, on the Berkshire side, stands the +peculiar isolated twin height which forms so conspicuous a landmark +when one gazes over the plain from the summit of the Downs. Such +landmarks often helped to trace the old roads. And Dorchester has also +an immemorial antiquity--a pre-historic fortification upon the hills +above, and fortifications, probably historic, on the Oxford bank +below, but Dorchester has no ford. + +When all the evidence is weighed it seems more probable that the +regular crossing from the Berkshire Hills to the Chilterns was +effected at Streatley. + +Of this there are several proofs. In the first place, the name of the +place suggests the passage of some great way. Place names of this sort +are invariably found upon some one of the principal roads of England. +In the second place, a lane bearing the traditional name of the +Icknield Way can be traced to a point very near the river and the +village. Another can be recovered beyond the river. The name would +hardly have been so continued--even with considerable gaps--both upon +the Oxfordshire and the Berkshire side unless the place of regular +crossing had been here. + +Within a mile or two of Streatley this lane begins to descend the side +of the Berkshire Downs. Just before it falls into the Wantage Road and +is lost it has begun to curl round the shoulder of the steep hill; but +there is no way of telling at what precise spot it would strike the +river upon the Berkshire side, because a thousand years or so of +building, cultivation, and other changes have obliterated every trace +of it. + +Luckily, we have some indication upon the farther bank. A way can then +be traced here as a lane (and in the gaps as a right of way, as a +path, or sometimes only by its general direction) for some miles on +the Oxfordshire side as it approaches Goring and the river coming from +the Chilterns. And we know the point at which it strikes the village. +This point is at the Sloane Hotel close to the railway; the inn is +actually built upon the old road. Beyond the railway the track is +continued in the lane which leads on past the schoolhouse to the old +ferry, where there was presumably in Roman times a ford. If we accept +this track we can conjecture that the vicarage of Streatley, upon the +Berkshire bank, stands upon the continuation of the Way, and give the +place where the pre-historic road crossed the river with tolerable +certitude, though it is, I believe, impossible to recover the +half-mile or so which lies between Streatley vicarage and the point +where the Wantage Road and the Icknield Way separated upon the +hillside above. + +If the ford lay here the site was certainly well chosen, just below a +group of islands which broadened the stream and made it at once +shallower and less swift, acting somewhat as a natural weir above the +crossing. + +The third crossing place of a great pre-historic road, that of the +Watling Street, is believed to correspond with the line of that very +ugly suspension bridge which runs from Lambeth to the Horseferry Road +in Westminster. This is, according to the most probable conjecture, +the place at which the great road which ran from the Straits of Dover +to the north-western ports of the island crossed the Thames. + +Here, of course, there could be no question of a ford; there can only +have been a ferry. Such a ferry existed throughout the Middle Ages and +up to the building of Westminster Bridge, and produced a large revenue +for the Archbishop of Canterbury. The memory of it is preserved in the +name of the street upon the Middlesex shore. The Watling Street is +fairly fixed in all its journey from the coast to the Archbishop's +palace on the banks of the river. On the Middlesex shore it is lost, +but it may be conjectured to have run in a curve somewhere in the +neighbourhood of Buckingham Palace up on the higher ground west of the +Tybourne, parallel with or perhaps identical with Park Lane until we +find it certainly again at the Marble Arch, whence in the form of the +Edgware Road it begins a clear track across North-Western England. + +As for the Fosse Way, it only just touches the valley of the Thames. +It crosses the line of the river in a high embankment a mile or so +below its traditional source at Thames head, but above the point where +the first water is seen. A small culvert running under that embankment +takes the flood water in winter down the hollow, but no longer covers +a regular stream. + +Besides these four crossings of the old British ways above London +Bridge there is the crossing of the Roman Road at Staines, which may +or may not represent a passage older than the Roman occupation. We +have no proof of its being older. The river is deep, and, unless the +broken causeway on the Surrey shore is regarded as the remains of +British work, there is no trace of a pre-Roman track in the +neighbourhood. + +The crossing at Staines was the main bridge over the middle river +during the Roman occupation; no other spot on the banks (except London +Bridge) is _certainly_ the site of a Roman bridge. + +But apart from these there are two unsolved problems in connection +with the roads across the Thames Valley in Roman times. The first +concerns the passage of the upper Thames south of Eynsham; the second +concerns the road which runs south from Bicester and Alchester. + +As to the first of these, we know that the plain lying to the north of +the Thames between the Cotswolds and the Chilterns was thoroughly +occupied. We have also in the Saxon Chronicle a legendary account of +the occupation of four Roman towns in this plain by the Saxon +invaders. By what avenue did this wealthy and civilised district +communicate with the wealthy and civilised south? + +It is a question which will probably never be answered. There is no +trace remaining of Roman bridges; perhaps nothing was built save of +wood. + +The obvious short-cut from the Roman town of Eynsham across the Witham +peninsula to Abingdon bears no signs of a ford approached by Roman +work or of a bridge, nor any record of such things. + +As to the second question, the road from Bicester southward runs +straight to Dorchester. At Dorchester, as we have seen, there was no +ford, though just below it a Roman ferry has been guessed at. + +There may have been a country road running down along the left or +north bank of the river to the pre-historic crossing place at Goring +and Streatley; but if there was, no trace of it remains, save perhaps +in the two place names North Stoke and South Stoke. + +A barrier has yet another quality in history, and that quality is +perhaps the most important of all. In so far as it is an obstacle it +is also a means of defence. + +All the great rivers of Europe prove this. They are studded with lines +of strongholds standing either right upon their banks or close by; and +various as is the character of the different great rivers in their +physical conformation, few or none have been unable to furnish sites +for fortification. For instance, the slow rivers of Northern France, +running for the most part through a flat country, were able to afford +fortresses for the Gaulish clans in their numerous islands; the origin +of Melun and Paris, for instance, was of this kind. The sharp rocks +along the Rhone became platforms for castle after castle: Beaucaire, +Tarascon, Aries, Avignon, and twenty others all of this sort. + +The Thames, curiously enough, forms an exception; it is an exception +even in the list of English rivers, most of which can show a certain +number of fortifications along their banks. + +In the whole course of the great river above London there are but +three examples of fortification, or at any rate of fortification +directly dependent upon the river. Of these the first, at Lechlade, is +conjectural; the second, at Windsor, came quite late in history, and +the only one which seems to have been a primeval fortified site was +Dorchester. + +There were, of course, plenty of towns and castles susceptible of +defence. At one time or another every important settlement upon the +Thames was capable of resistance: Oxford was walled, Wallingford was a +fortress, Abingdon or Reading could be defended. But these were all, +so to speak, artificial. The settlement came first, and after the +settlement the necessity of guarding it from attack, and it was so +guarded, not by natural means, but by human construction. The castle +at Oxford, for instance, stood upon a mound of earth raised by human +work. The only considerable place in which the river itself suggested +defence from the earliest times appears to have been at Dorchester. + +The curious importance of Dorchester in the very origins of English +history and the still more curious way in which it sinks out of sight +for generations, to revive again in the tenth century, is one of the +puzzles of the history of the Thames. + +It is useless to pursue an archæological discussion as to the origin +of the place, and still more useless to try and determine why, though +certainly the most easily defended, it should originally have been the +_only_ heavily fortified spot in the whole of the valley. We know that +it was Roman: we know that it was a place of pre-historic +fortification before the Romans came: we know that a Roman road ran +northward towards Bicester from it, and we also know, or at least we +can make a very probable guess, that though it was continuously +important, and that the interest of early history is continually +returning to it, it can never have been large. + +Perhaps the best conjecture upon the origin of Dorchester is that the +stronghold grew up as an out-lier to the great fort over the river at +the top of Sinodun Hill. The exact and regular peninsula between the +bend in the Thames and the mouth of the Thames is obviously suited for +fortification: the tributary flows just to the east of this peninsula, +exactly parallel with the main river beyond, and covers the peninsula +not only with a stream on its east flank, but with a marsh at the +mouth. One can imagine that the conspicuous heights of the Sinodun +Hills were held, from the very beginning of human habitation in this +district, as a permanent fortress, into which the neighbouring tribes +could retire during war, and one can imagine that when the river was +low in summer, and perhaps fordable, the spit of land before it, which +formed an exception to the marshes round about, needed to be protected +as a sort of bastion beyond the stream. This theory will at least +account for the two great ridges of earthwork going from one water to +the other and completely cutting off the peninsula, since it is agreed +these works are earlier than the Roman invasion. Whatever its origin, +the part which Dorchester plays in the early history of England is +most remarkable. + +The conversion of England was effected by a process of which we know +far more than of any other series of national events before the Danish +invasions. That process is more exactly recorded, less legendary, and +more consecutively told because it was (to all contemporary watchers) +the capital event of the time, and to all posterity the one thing that +explained men to themselves. + +We know also that, not so much the nucleus of the conversion as the +secure vantage from which it marched outward, was the triangle of +Kent. We can believe that the civilisation of Kent was something quite +separate from the rest of the south-eastern portion of England, and +that the many customary survivals which are, to this day, native to +the county are remaining proofs of its unique character among the +petty kingdoms during the mythical period between the withdrawal of +the Romans and the arrival of St. Augustine. + +The early hold of civilisation upon Kent is explicable. But when the +influence of Rome begins to spread again over England you have +distances covered which are astounding; there occur sporadic incidents +of the highest importance in spots where they would be the least +expected. Among the very first of these is the first baptism of a +West-Saxon King. + +It was certainly at Dorchester that this baptism took place and the +choice of the site, little as we know of the village or city, has +filled every historian with conjecture. Up to the very landing of St. +Augustine we are still dependent upon what is half legendary and very +meagre record. The chief point indeed as regards this part of the +country is the tradition of a battle fought against the British at +Bedford by the West Saxons and the occupation of "four towns." This +success was put down by tradition to the year 571, but everything was +still so dark that even this success is a legend. + +Within the lifetime of a man you have the baptism of Cynegil, the king +of the West Saxons, at Dorchester, and that baptism takes place less +than forty years after the complete submission of Kent. + +The Chronicle, in mentioning this date, is no longer upon legendary +ground: it is dealing with an event which was kept on record by +civilised men who understood the art of writing, who could speak +Latin, who could bear their records to Rome, and, what is more, the +fact and the date are confirmed by the Venerable Bede. + +It is imagined by some authorities that the fulness of the story and +its apparent accuracy depend upon access to some early ecclesiastical +record preserved at Dorchester and now lost. At any rate, Dorchester, +whether because it had been, up till then, an unconquered Roman town, +or for whatever other reason, becomes at once the ecclesiastical +centre and one to which, even when this baptism takes place, the King +of Northumbria was at the pains of travelling southward to, to be +present as sponsor for the new Christian. + +The story has a special historical interest, because it shows how very +vague were the boundaries and the occupancies of the little wandering +chieftains of this period. It need hardly be pointed out that no +regular division into shires can have existed so early, and, as we +have already insisted, the Thames itself was not a permanent boundary +between any two definable societies, yet those who regard the +Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as historical would show one Penda had appeared +a few years before as the chief of a group of men with a new name, the +Mercians--probably a loose agglomeration of tribes occupying the +middle strip of England; a group whose dialect and measures of land +are, perhaps, the ancestors of the modern Midland dialect and most of +our measures. Cynegil's baptism could not have taken place in +territory controlled by Penda, for he was the champion of all the +Anti-Christian forces of the time, and though he had just defeated the +West Saxons, and (according to a later legend) pushed back their +boundary to the line of the Thames, his action, like that of all the +little kings of the barbaric age in Britain, can have been no more +than a march with a few thousands, a battle, and a retreat. In a word, +the true and verifiable story of Cynegil's baptism is one of the many +valuable instances which help to prove the unreliability of that part +of the early Chronicle which does not deal with ecclesiastical +affairs. + +The priest who received Cynegil into the Church was one Birinus, an +Italian, and perhaps a Milanese; he appears, from his first presence +in Dorchester, to have fixed the seat of a bishopric in that village. +His reasons for choosing the spot are as impossible to discover as are +the origins of any other of the characteristics of the place. It was, +in any case, as were so many of the sees of the Dark Ages, a frontier +see--a sort of ecclesiastical fortress, pushed out to the very limits +of the occupation of the enemy. + +Whether Dorchester continued to be a bishopric from this moment +onwards we cannot tell; but no less than three hundred years +afterwards--in the tenth century--it appears again, and this time as +the centre of the gigantic diocese which stretched throughout the +whole of Middle England and right up to the Humber. The Conquest came, +the diocese was cut up just afterwards, and the seat of the bishop +finally removed from the village to Lincoln, and with the Conquest the +importance of Dorchester as a fortified position, an importance which +it had held for untold centuries, began to decline in favour of +Oxford. + +The artificial chain of fortifications up the Thames Valley, which had +their origin under William the Conqueror, will call our attention to +many other spots besides Oxford as these pages proceed, but it is +interesting at this moment to consider Oxford in its early military +aspect, when it succeeded Dorchester, and came forward as the chief +stronghold of the upper Thames Valley above Wallingford. + +The gravel bank north of the ford, by which what is presumed to have +been the drovers' road from south to north crossed the river, had +supported a very considerable population, and had attained a very +considerable civil importance, long before the Conquest. It is +difficult to believe that any new, especially that any extensive, +centres of population grew up in Anglo-Saxon Britain, upon sites +chosen by the barbarians. The Romans had colonised and densely +populated every suitable spot. The ships' crews of open pirate vessels +had no qualities suitable to the founding of a town; and when there is +no direct evidence it is always safer of the two conjectures in +English topography to believe that any spot which we find inhabited +and flourishing in the Anglo-Saxon period, even at its close, was not +a town developed during the Dark Ages but one which the pirates, when +they first entered the island, had found already inhabited and +flourishing, though sometimes perhaps more British than Roman. But +though this is always the more historical way of looking at the +probable origin of an English town it must be admitted that there is +no direct evidence of any town upon the site of Oxford before the +Danish invasions, and the first mention of the place by name is as +late as eleven years after Alfred's death, when it is recorded that +Edward, his son, "took possession of London and of Oxford and of all +lands in obedience thereunto." + +This first mention, slight as it is, characterises Oxford as being the +town of the upper Thames Valley at the opening of the tenth century, +and we have what is usually a good basis for history--that is, +ecclesiastical tradition and a monastic charter--to show us that a +considerable monastery had existed upon the spot for a century and a +half before this first mention in the Chronicle. + +There still exists in the modern town, to the west of it, a large +artificial mound, one of those which have been discovered here and +there up and down England, and which are characteristic of a late +Saxon method of fortification. Before the advent of the Normans these +mounds were defended by palisades only, and were used as but +occasional strongholds. It may be conjectured that this Saxon work at +Oxford dates from somewhat the same period as does the first mention +of the town in the Chronicle. Twelve years later Alfred's grandson is +mentioned as dying at Oxford. It may be presumed that his death would +indicate the presence of a royal palace. We hear nothing more of this +town during the remainder of the tenth century, but we have a long +account in what is probably an accurate record of the rising of the +townsmen against the Danes in the beginning of the eleventh. The +Scandinavians made their last stand in the church of the monastery, +and the townsmen burnt it. Five years later a new host of Danes took +and burnt the town; and four years later again, Sweyn, in his terrible +conquering march, captured it, after very little resistance, in the +same year in which he took the crown of England. The brief episode of +Edmund Ironside again brings the town into history: he slept here upon +his way to London in the late autumn of 1016, and here, very probably, +he was killed. From that moment the fortress (as it now certainly was) +enters continually into that last anarchy which was only cured by a +second advent of European civilisation and the success of its armies +at Hastings. + +The great national council of 1018, which may be called the settlement +of Canute, was held at Oxford, and in 1036 another national council, +of even greater importance, which was held to decide upon the +succession of Canute's heirs, was again held at Oxford, and it was at +Oxford that, four years later, the first Harold died. + +Meanwhile, in the near neighbourhood of the city, at Islip, Queen Emma +had, half a lifetime earlier, borne a son, who, after the death of all +these Danes, remained the legitimate heir to the English throne. Islip +was, most probably, not royal, but a private manor of the Queen's, +which descended to the Confessor, and it is interesting to note in +passing that it was his gift of this land and of its church to +Westminster Abbey which originated the present connection between the +two--a connection which has now, therefore, behind it nearly nine +hundred years of continuity. + +In the few hurried months before Hastings the last of the great +Anglo-Saxon meetings in the town was summoned. It was held at the end +of October, 1065, and was that in which Harold's policy was agreed to. +Within twelve months Harold himself was dead, and a victorious +invading army was marching upon Wallingford. + +In all this record it is clear that Oxford held a continually growing +place in the life of England, and especially as a stronghold of +whoever might be governing England. What battle was fought there, if +any, or how the Normans got it, we do not know, but it is presumed +that it suffered in the fighting because the number and value of its +houses is given in the subsequent Survey as having fallen very largely +indeed. + +It is always well, whenever one comes across the Domesday Survey in +history, to remember that the whole record is very imperfectly +understood. We do not know quite what was being measured: we do not +know, for instance, in the case of a town like Oxford, whether all the +inhabited houses were counted; or whether only those who by custom +gave taxes were counted; nor can we be certain of the meaning of the +word _vastus_, save that it has some connection either with +destruction or dilapidation, or lack of occupation, or, possibly, even +remission of taxation. But the theory of a sack is not without +foundation, for we know that in the case of York (which was certainly +sacked by Tostig in 1065 and then again by William in 1068) what is +probably a destruction of a similar kind, though a rather greater one, +is expressed in similar words. + +Whether, however, the number given in the town list of the Conqueror +is or is not due to the destruction wrought by the Conquest we must be +very careful not to estimate the population of that time upon the +basis to-day such a list would afford. The figures of Domesday stand +for a much larger population than most historians have hitherto been +inclined to grant, as may be shown by considerations to which I shall +only allude here, as I shall have to repeat them more fully upon a +later page when I speak of urban life upon the Thames. The nomadic +element in the life of the early Middle Ages; the smallness of the +space allotted for sleeping; the large amount of time spent out of +doors; the great proportion of collegiate institutions, not only +monastic but military; the life in common which spread as a habit to +so many parts of society beyond the monastic; the large families which +(from genealogy) we can trust to be as much a character of the early +Middle Ages as they, were not the character of the later Middle Ages, +the crowd of semi-servile dependants which would be discovered in any +large house--all these make us perfectly safe in multiplying by at +least ten the number of households counted in the Survey if we would +get at the population of those households, and it must be remembered +that the houses counted, even in those parts of England which were +fairly thoroughly surveyed, can only represent a _minimum_ number, +whatever was the method of counting. The lists may in some instances +include every single household in a place, though from what we know of +the diversity of local custom this is unlikely. In most places it is +far more likely that the list covered but some portion that by custom +owed a public tax, and this is especially true of the towns. + +After Dorchester, which was the first of the fortresses of the Thames, +so far as we have any knowledge, and after Oxford, which came next, +and appears to have been founded since the beginning of recorded +history in these islands, there remain to be considered the other +strongholds which held the line of the valley. + +It would be easy to multiply these if one were to consider all +fortifications whatsoever connected with the general strategic line +formed by the Thames, but such a catalogue would exceed the boundaries +set to this book. It is proposed to consider only those which were +strictly connected with the passage of the stream, and of such there +are but three besides Dorchester and Oxford, for that at Cricklade is +doubtful, and in any case determines a passage which could be always +outflanked upon either side, while the great fortress of the Tower, +lying as it does upon the estuarial Thames below bridges, does +directly protect a highway. + +These three strongholds directly connected with the inland river are +Wallingford, Reading and Windsor, and of the three Wallingford and +Windsor were more directly military: the last, Reading, appears to +have been but an adjunct to a large and civil population; the fourfold +quality of Reading in the history of the Thames, as a civil +settlement, as a religious centre, as a stronghold, and as one of the +very few examples of modern industrial development in the valley, will +be considered later. We will take each of the three strongholds in +their order down stream. + +What determined the importance of Wallingford is not easy to fix +nowadays. The explanation more usually given to the great part which +this crossing of the Thames played in the early history of Britain is +the double one that it was the lowest continuously practicable ford +over the river, and that it held the passage of the great road going +from London to the west. + +Now it is true that any traveller making from London to Bath, or the +Mendip Hills, and the lower Severn would, on the whole, find his most +direct road to be along the Vale of the White Horse, but the +convenience of this line through Wallingford may easily be +exaggerated, especially its convenience for men in early times before +the valleys were properly drained. Though the ford at Abingdon was +more difficult than the ford at Wallingford, yet the line through +Abingdon westward along the Farringdon road was certainly shorter than +the line through Wantage. Whether the old habit, inherited from +pre-historic times, of following the chalk ridge had produced a +parallel road just at the foot of that ridge and so had made +Wallingford, Wantage, and all the southern edge of the Vale of the +White Horse the natural road to the west, or whether it was that the +great run of travel ran, when once the Thames had been crossed at +Wallingford, slightly south-west towards Bath, it is certain that the +Wallingford and Wantage line is the line of travel in early history. + +There is no record, and but very little basis for conjecture, as to +the origin of the fortifications at Wallingford. Not much is left of +them, and though there is some Roman work in the place it is work +which has evidently been handled over and over again. It is certainly +somewhat late in English history that this "Walled Ford" is heard +of--with the tenth century. Its first castle is, of course, Norman, +and contemporary with that of Oxford--or rather a year later than that +at Oxford, and from the Conquest onward it remains royal. From that +time, also, it is perpetually appearing in English history. It was the +place of confinement of Edward I. when, as Prince Edward, he was the +prisoner of Leicester. It was the attempt to succour that prisoner +which led to his removal to Kenilworth, and finally to that escape +which permitted him to fight the battle of Evesham. Wallingford passed +to Gaveston in Edward the Second's reign, and, remaining continually +within the gift of the crown, to the Despenser in the succeeding +generation, and finally to Isabella, who declared her policy from +within the walls of Wallingford when she returned to the country. It +was next held by her favourite, Mortimer, and we afterwards find it, +throughout the fourteenth century, a sort of appanage of the +heir-apparent, and especially of the Duchy of Cornwall, to which it +was attached until the Reformation. It was for a moment under the +custody of Chaucer's son: it nursed the childhood of Henry VI., but +with the beginning of the next century it had already lost its +importance. After half that century had passed the castle was already +falling into disrepair; much of the masonry of the town and of the +fortress, lying squared and convenient to the river, had been moved +down stream for the new buildings at Windsor, and when, nearly a +century later again, the Civil War broke out, it was not until after +some considerable repair that the place could pretend to stand a +siege. It fell to the Parliament, and, before the Restoration, was +carefully destroyed, as were throughout England so many foundations of +her past by the orders of Oliver Cromwell. + +It has often been remarked with surprise that cities and strongholds +once densely inhabited and heavily built can disappear and leave no +material trace to posterity. That they do so disappear should give +pause to those historians who are perpetually using the negative +argument, and pretending that the lack of material evidence is +sufficient to disturb a strong and early tradition. Those who have +watched the process by which abandoned buildings become a quarry will +easily understand how all traces of habitation disappear. +Three-quarters of what was once Orford, much of what once was Worsted, +has gone, and up and down the country-sides to-day one could witness, +even in our strictly disciplined civilisation, the removal, by +purchase or theft, of abandoned material. + +The whole of Wallingford has suffered this fate--the mound, presumably +artificial, upon which the first keep stood, and which was, probably, +a palisade mound of Anglo-Saxon times, remains, but there is upon it +no remaining masonry. + +Next down stream of the points with a strategic importance in English +history comes Reading. But the strategic importance of Reading was not +produced by the town's possessing a site of national moment: it was +produced only by local topography. Reading was never (to use a modern +term) a "nodal point" in the communications of England. + +It may be generally laid down that mere strength of position is noted +and greedily seized in barbaric times alone. For mere strength of +position is a mere refuge. A strong position (I do not speak, of +course, of tactical and temporary, but of permanent, positions), +chosen only because it is strong, will save you during a critical +short period from the attack of a fierce, unthoughtful, and easily +wearied enemy--such as are all barbarians; but it cannot _of itself_ +fall into a general scheme of defence, nor, _simply because it is +strong_, intercept the advance of an adversary or support a line of +opposition and resistance. Position is always of _advantage_ to a +fortress, and, in all but highly civilised times, a _necessity_--as we +shall see when we come to discuss Windsor--but it is not sufficient. A +fortress, when society is organised, and when the feud of one small +tribe or family against another is not to be feared, derives its +principal value from a command of established communications, and +established aggregations of power--especially of economic power. Towns +alone can feed and house armies; by roads and railways alone can +armies proceed. + +There are, indeed, examples of a chain of positions so striking that, +from their strength alone, a strategic line imposes itself; but these +are very rare. Another, and much commoner, exception to the rule I +have stated is the growth of what was once a barbaric stronghold, +chosen merely for its position, into a larger centre of population, +through which communications necessarily lead, and in which stores and +other opportunities for armies can be provided. Such places often +preserve a continuity of strategic importance, from civilised, through +barbaric, to civilised times again. Laon is an excellent instance of +this, and so is Constantine another, and so is Luxembourg a +third--indeed they are numerous. + +But, in spite of--or, rather, as is proved by--these exceptions the +fortresses of an organised people are found at the conjunction of +their communications, or at places (such as straits or passes) which +have the monopoly of communication, or they are identical with great +aggregations of population and opportunity, or at least they are +situated in spots from which such aggregations can be commanded. +Position is always of value, but only as an adjunct. + +Now Reading, save, perhaps, in barbaric times, when the Thames was the +main highway of Southern England, occupied no such vantage until the +nineteenth century. To-day, with its large population, its provision +of steam and electrical power, and above all, its command of the main +junction between the southern and middle railways, Reading would again +prove of primary strategic importance if we still considered warfare +with our equals as a possibility. But during all previous centuries, +since the Dark Ages, Reading was potentially, as it is still actually, +civilian; and, indeed, it is as the typical great town of the Thames +Valley that it will be treated later in these pages. + +The long and narrow peninsula between the Kennet and the Thames was an +ideal place for defence. It needed but a trench from the one marsh to +the other to secure the stronghold. But though this was evident to +every fighter, though it is as such a stronghold that Reading is +mentioned first in history, yet the advantage was never permanently +held. Armies hold Reading, fall back on the town, fight near it, and +raid it: but it is never a great fortress in the intervals of wars, +because, while Oxford commanded the Drovers' Road, Wallingford the +western road, and Windsor (as we shall see in a moment) London itself, +Reading neither held a line of supply nor an accumulation of supply, +and was, therefore, civilian, though it was nearly as easy to hold as +Windsor, as easy as Dorchester, its parallel, easier than Oxford, and +far easier than Wallingford, which had, indeed, no natural defences +whatsoever. + +Proceeding with the stream, there is no further stronghold till we +come to Windsor. + +Even to-day, and in an England that has lost hold of her past more +than has any rival nation, Windsor seems to the passer-by to possess a +meaning. That hill of stones, sharp though most of its modern outlines +are, set upon another hill for a pedestal, gives, even to a modern +patriot, a hint of history; and when it is seen from up-stream, +showing its only noble part, where the Middle Ages still linger, it +has an aspect almost approaching majesty. + +The creator of Windsor was the Conqueror. The artificial mound on +which the Round Tower stands may or may not be pre-historic. The +slopes of the hill were inhabited, like nearly all our English sites, +by the Romans, and by the savages before and after the Romans; but the +welter of the Saxon dark ages did not use this abrupt elevation for a +stronghold. What military reasoning led William of Falaise to discern +it at once and there to build his keep? + +In order to answer that question let us consider what other points in +the valley were at his disposal. + +Reading we have discussed. The chalk spurs in the gorge by Goring and +Pangbourne are not isolated (as is that of Chateau Gaillard, for +instance), and are dominated by the neighbouring heights. The +escarpment opposite Henley offered a good site for an eleventh-century +castle--but the steep cliff of Windsor had this advantage beyond all +the others--that it was at exactly the right distance from London. +Windsor is the warden of the capital. + +If the reader will look at a modern geological map, he will see from +Wallingford to Bray a great belt of chalk in which the trench of the +Thames is carved. Alluvials and gravels naturally flank the stream, +but chalk is the ground rock of the whole. To the west and to the east +of this belt he will notice two curious isolated patches, detached +from the main body of the chalk. That to the west forms the twin +height of the Sinodun Hills, rising abruptly out of the green sand; +that to the east is the knoll of Windsor, rising abruptly out of the +thick and damp clay. It is a singular and unique patch, almost exactly +round, and as a result of some process at which geology can hardly +guess the circle is bisected by the river. If ever the chalk of the +north bank rose high it has, in some manner, been worn down. That on +the south bank remains in a steep cliff with which everyone who uses +the river is familiar. It was the summit of this chalk hill piercing +through the clays that the Conqueror noted for his purpose, and he +was, to repeat, determined (we must presume) by the distance from +London. + +The command of a great town, especially a metropolis, is but partially +effected by a fortress situated within its limits. In case of a +popular revolt, and still more in case the resources of the town are +held by an enemy, such a fortress will be penned in and find itself +suffering a siege far more rigorous than any that could be laid in an +open country-side. On this account the urban fortresses of the Middle +Ages are to be found (at least in large cities) lying upon an extreme +edge of the walls and reposing, as far as possible, upon uninhabited +land or upon water, or both. The two classic examples of this rule +are, of course, the Tower and the Louvre, each standing down stream, +just outside the wall, and each reposing on the river. + +But in an active time even this precaution fails, and that for two +reasons. First, the growth of the town makes any possible garrison of +the fortress too small for the force with which it might have to cope; +and, secondly, this same growth physically overlaps the exterior +fortress; suburbs grow up beyond the wall, and the castle finds itself +at last embedded in the town. Thus within a hundred and fifty years of +its completion the Louvre was but a residence, wholly surrounded, save +upon the water front, by the packed houses within the new wall of +Marcel. + +A tendency therefore arises, more or less early according to local +circumstance, to establish a fortified base within striking distance +of the civilian centre which it is proposed to command; and striking +distance is a day's march. The strict alliance between Paris and the +Crown forbade such an experiment to the Capetian Monarchy, but, even +in that case, the truth of the general military proposition involved +is proved by the power which Montlhéry possessed until the middle of +the twelfth century of doing mischief to Paris. In the case of London, +and of a population the wealthier of whom were probably for some years +hostile to the Conqueror, the immediate necessity for an exterior base +presented itself, and though the distance from London was indeed +considerable, Windsor, under the circumstances of that moment, proved +the most suitable point at which to establish the fortress. + +Some centuries earlier or later the exact point for fortification +would have lain at _Staines_, and Windsor may be properly regarded as +a sort of second best to Staines. + +The great Roman roads continued until the twelfth century to be the +main highways of the barbaric and mediæval armies. We know, for +instance, from a charter of Westminster's, that Oxford Street was +called, in the last years of the Saxon Dynasty, "Via Militaria," and +it was this road which was still in its continuation the marching road +upon London from the south and west: from Winchester, which was still +in a fashion the capital of England and the seat of the Treasury. Now +Staines marks the spot where this road crossed the river. It was a +"nodal point," commanding at once the main approach to London by land +and the main approach by water. + +But there is more than this in favour of Staines. I have already said +that a fortress commanding a civilian population--an ancient fortress, +at least--can do so with the best effect at the distance of an easy +march. Now Staines is not seventeen miles from Tyburn, and a good road +all the way: Windsor is over twenty, and for the last miles there was +no good, hard road in the time of its foundation. + +But, though Staines had all these advantages, it was rejected from a +lack of position. Position was still of first importance, and remained +so till the seventeenth century. The new Castle, like so many hundred +others built by the genius of the same race, must stand on a steep +hill even if the choice of such a site involved a long, instead of a +reasonable, day's march. Windsor alone offered that opportunity, and, +standing isolated upon the chalk, beyond the tide, accessible by water +and by road, became to London what, a hundred years later, Chateau +Gaillard was to become for a brief space to Rouen. + +The choice was made immediately after the Conquest. In the course of +the Dark Ages whatever Roman farms clustered here had dwindled, the +Roman cemetery was abandoned, the original name of the district +forgotten, and the Saxon "Winding Shore" grew up at Old Windsor, two +or three miles down stream. Old Windsor was not a borough, but it was +a very considerable village. It paid dues to its lords to the amount +of some twenty-five loads of corn and more--say 100 quarters--and it +had at least 100 houses, since that number is set down in Domesday, +and, as we have previously said, Domesday figures necessarily express +a minimum. We may take it that its population was something in the +neighbourhood of 1000. + +This considerable place was under the lordship of the abbots of +Westminster. It had been a royal manor when Edward the Confessor came +to the throne; he gave it to his new great abbey. When the Conqueror +needed the whole neighbourhood for his new purpose he exchanged it +against land in Essex, which he conveyed to the abbey, and he added +(for the manorial system was still flexible) half a hide from Clewer +on the west side of the Windsor territory. This half-hide gave him his +approach to the platform of chalk on which he designed to build. + +He began his work quickly. Within four years of Hastings, and long +before the conquest of the Saxon aristocracy was complete, he held his +Court at Windsor and summoned a synod there, and, though we do not +know when the keep was completed, we can conjecture, from the rapidity +with which all Norman work was done, that the walls were defensible +even at that time. Of his building perhaps nothing remains. The forest +to the south, with its opportunities for hunting, and the increasing +importance of London (which was rapidly becoming the capital of +England) made Windsor of greater value than ever in the eyes of his +son. Henry I. rebuilt or greatly enlarged the castle, lived in it, was +married in it, and accomplished in it the chief act of his life, when +he caused fealty to be sworn to his daughter, Matilda, and prepared +the advent of the Angevin. When the civil wars were over, and the +treaty between Henry II. and Stephen was signed, Windsor ("Mota de +Windsor"), though it does not seem to have stood a siege, was counted +the second fortress of the realm. + +Of the exact place of Windsor in mediæval strategy, of its relations +to London and to Staines, and all we have just mentioned, as also of +the great importance of cavalry in the Middle Ages, no better example +can be quoted than the connected episode of April-June 1215, which may +be called--to give it a grandiose name--the Campaign of Magna Charta. +It further illustrates points which should never be forgotten in the +reading of early English history, though they are too particular for +the general purpose of this book--to wit, the way in which London +increased in military value throughout the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries; the strategic importance of the few old national roads as +late as the reign of John, and that power of the defensive, even in +the field, which made general and strategic, as opposed to tactical, +attack so cautious, decisive action so rare, and when it _was_ +decisive, so thorough. + +This book is no place wherein to develop a theme which history will +confirm with regard to the aristocratic revolt against the vice and +the genius of the third Plantagenet. The strategy of the quarrel alone +concerns us. + +When John's admirable diplomacy had failed (as diplomacy will under +the test of arms), and when his Continental allies had been crushed at +Bouvines in the summer of 1214, the rebels in England found their +opportunity. The great lords, especially those of the north, took oath +in the autumn to combine. The accounts of this conspiracy are +imperfect, but its general truth may be accepted. John, who from this +moment lay perpetually behind walls, held a conference in the Temple +during the January of 1215--to be accurate, upon the Epiphany of that +year--and he struck a compact with the conspirators that there should +be a truce between their forces and those of the Crown until Low +Sunday--which fell that year upon the 26th of April. The great nobles, +mistrusting his faith with some justice (especially as he had taken +the Cross), gathered their army some ten days before the expiry of the +interval, but, as befitted men who claimed in especial to defend the +Catholic Church and its principles, they were scrupulous not to engage +in actual fighting before the appointed day. The size of this army we +cannot tell, but as it contained from 2000 to 3000 armed and mounted +gentlemen it must have counted at least double that tale of cavalry, +and perhaps five-, perhaps ten-fold the number of foot soldiers. A +force of 15,000 to 30,000 men in an England of some 5,000,000 (I more +than double the conventional figures) was prepared to enforce feudal +independence against the central government, even at the expense of +ceding vast territories to Scotland or of submitting to the nominal +rule of a foreign king. Against this army the King had a number of +mercenaries, mainly drawn from his Continental possessions, probably +excellent soldiers, but scattered among the numerous garrisons which +it was his titular office to defend. + +In the last days of the truce the rebels marched to Brackley and +encamped there on Low Monday--the 27th April. The choice of the site +should be noted. It lies in a nexus of several old marching roads. The +Port Way, a Roman road from Dorchester northward, the Watling Street +all lay within half-an-hour's ride. The King was at Oxford, a day's +march away. They negotiated with him, and their claims were refused, +yet they did not attack him (though his force was small), partly +because the function of government was still with him and partly +because the defensive power of Oxford was great. They wisely preferred +the nearest of his small official garrisons-that holding the castle of +Northampton. They approached it up the Roman road through Towcester. +They failed before it after two weeks of effort, and marched on to the +next royal post at Bedford, which was by far the nearest of the +national garrisons. It was betrayed to them. When they were within the +gates they received a message from the wealthier citizens of London +(who were in practice one with the Feudal Oligarchy), begging them to +enter the capital. + +What followed could only have been accomplished: by cavalry, by +cavalry in high training, by a force under excellent generalship, and +by one whose leaders appreciated the all-importance of London in the +coming struggle. The rebels left Bedford immediately, marched all that +day, all the succeeding night, and early on the Sunday morning, 24th +May, entered London, and by the northern gate. Their entry was not +even challenged. + +From Bedford to St. Paul's is--as the crow flies--between forty and +fifty miles: whatever road a man may take would make it nearer fifty +than forty. Bearing, as did this army, towards the east until it +struck the Ermine Street, the whole march must have been well over +fifty miles. + +This fine feat was not a barren one: it was well worth the effort and +loss which it must have cost. London could feed, recruit, and remount +an army of even this magnitude with ease. The Tower was held by a +royal garrison, but it could do nothing against so great a town. + +From London, as though the name of the city had a sort of national +authority, the Barons, who now felt themselves to be hardly rebels but +almost co-equals in a civil war, issued letters of mandate to others +of their class and to their inferiors. These letters were obeyed, not +perhaps without some hesitation, but at any rate with a final +obedience which turned the scale against the King. John was now in a +very distinct inferiority, and even of his personal attendants a +considerable number left the Court on learning of the defection of +London. In all this long struggle nothing but the occupation of the +capital had proved enough to make John feign a compromise. As +excellent an intriguer as he was a fighter he asked nothing better +than to hear once more the terms of the Barons. + +He proceeded to _Windsor_, asked for a parley, issued a safeguard to +the emissaries of the Barons, and despatched this document upon the +8th June, giving it a validity of three days. His enemies waited +somewhat longer, perhaps in order to collect the more distant +contingents, and named Runnymede--a pasture upon the right bank of the +Thames just above _Staines_--as the place of meeting. + +There are those who see in the derivation of the name "Runnymede" an +ancient use of the meadow as a place of council. This is, of course, +mere conjecture, but at any rate it was, at this season of the year, a +large, dry field, in which a considerable force could encamp. The +Barons marched along the old Roman military road, which is still the +high-road to Staines from London, crossed the river, and encamped on +Runnymede. Here the Charta was presented, and probably, though not +certainly, signed and sealed. The local tradition ascribes the site of +the actual signature to "Magna Charta" island--an eyot just up-stream +from the field, now called Runnymede, but neither in tradition nor in +recorded history can this detail be fixed with any exactitude. The +Charta is given as from Runnymede upon the 15th June, and for the +purpose of these pages what we have to note is that these two months +of marching and fighting had ended upon the strategic point of +Staines, and had clearly shown its relation to Windsor and to London. + +In the short campaign that followed, during which John so very nearly +recovered his power, the capital importance of Windsor reappears. +Louis of France, to whom the Barons were willing to hand over what was +left of order in England, had occupied all the south and west, +including even Worcester, and, of course, London. In this occupation +the exception of Dover, which the French were actively besieging, must +be regarded as an isolated point, but _Windsor_, which John's men held +against the allies, threw an angle of defence right down into the +midst of the territory lost to the Crown. Windsor was, of course, +besieged; but John's garrison, holding out as it did, saved the +position. The King was at Wallingford at one moment during the siege; +his proximity tempted the enemy to raise the siege, to leave Windsor +in the hands of the royal garrison, and to advance against him, or +rather to cut him off in his advance eastward. They marched with the +utmost rapidity to Cambridge, but John was ahead of them: and before +they could return to the capture of Windsor he was rapidly confirming +his power in the north and the east. + +It must not be forgotten in all this description that Windsor was +helped in its development as a fortress by the presence to the south +of the hill of a great space of waste lands. + +These waste lands of Western Europe, which it was impossible or +unprofitable to cultivate, were, by a sound political tradition, +vested in the common authority, which was the Crown. + +Indeed they still remain so vested in most European countries. The +Cantons of Switzerland, the Communes and the National Governments of +France, Italy, and Spain remain in possession of the waste. It is only +with us that wealthy private owners have been permitted to rob the +Commonwealth of so obvious an inheritance, a piece of theft which they +have accomplished with complete cynicism, and by specific acts whose +particular dates can be quoted, though historians are very naturally +careful to leave the process but vaguely analysed. Indeed, the last +and most valuable of these waste spaces, the New Forest itself, might +have entirely disappeared had not Charles I. (the last king in England +to attempt a repression of the landed class) so forcibly urged the +local engrosser to disgorge as to compel him, with Hampden and the +rest, to a burning zeal for political liberty. + +This great waste space to the south of Windsor Hill became, after the +Conquest, the Forest, and apart from the hunting which it afforded to +the Royal palace, served a certain purpose on the military side as +well. + +To develop a thought which has already been touched on in these pages, +mediæval fortification was dual in character: it had either a purely +strategical object, in which case the site was chosen with an eye to +its military value, whether inhabited or not, or the stronghold or +fortification was made to develop an already existing town or site of +importance. Of the second sort was Wallingford, but of the first sort, +as we have seen, was Windsor. Indeed the distinction is normal to all +fortification and exists upon the Continent to-day. For instance, the +first-class fortress Paris is an example of the second sort, the +first-class fortress Toul of the first. Again, all German fortresses, +without exception, are of the second sort, while all Swiss +fortification, what little of it exists, is of the first. + +Now where the first category is concerned a waste space is of value, +though its dimensions will vary in military importance according to +the means of communication of the time. A stronghold may be said to +repose upon that side through which communications are most difficult. + +It is true that this space lying to the south of Windsor was of no +very great dimensions, but such as it was, uninhabited and therefore +unprovided with stores of any kind, it prevented surprise from the +south. + +The next point of strategic importance on the Thames, and the last, is +the Tower. + +Though it is below bridges it must fall into the scheme of this book, +because its whole military history and connection with the story of +England is bound up with the inland and not with the estuarial river. + +It was, as has already been pointed out, one long day's march from +Windsor--a march along the old Roman road from Staines. This land +passage more than halved the distance by river, it cut off not only +the numerous large turns which the Thames begins to take between +Middlesex and Surrey, but also the general sweep southward of the +river, and it avoided, what another road might have necessitated, the +further crossing of the stream. + +Long as the march is, there was no fortification of importance between +one point and the other, and mediæval history is crammed with +instances of armies leaving the Tower to march to Windsor in one day, +or leaving Windsor to march to the Tower. + +The position of the Tower we saw in an earlier page to be due to the +same geographical causes as had built up so many of the urban +strongholds of Europe. It was situated upon the very bank of the river +which fed the capital, it was down stream from the town, and it was +just outside the walls. In a word, it was the parallel of the Louvre. + +Its remote origins are doubtful; some have imagined that they are +Roman, and that if not in the first part of the Roman occupation at +least towards the end of those wealthy and populous three centuries, +which are the foundation and the making of England, some fortification +was built on the brow of the little eminence which here slopes down to +the high-water mark. + +I will quote the evidence, such as it is, and the reader will perceive +how difficult it is to arrive at a conclusion. + +Of actual Roman remains all we have is a couple of coins of the end of +the fourth century (probably minted at Constantinople), a silver ingot +of the same period, and a funeral inscription. No indubitably Roman +work has been discovered. + +On the other hand there has been no modern investigation of those +foundations of the White Tower where, if anywhere, Roman work might be +expected. This exhausts the direct evidence. In sciences such as +geology or the criticism of Sacred Books evidence to this extent would +be ample to overset the firmest traditions or the most self-evident +conclusion of common human experience. But history is bound to a +greater caution, and it must be reluctantly admitted that the two +coins, the ingot and the bit of stone are insufficient to prove the +existence of a Roman fortress. + +Leaving such material and direct evidence we have the tradition, which +is a fairly strong one, of Roman fortification here, and we have the +analogy, so frequently occurring in space and time throughout the +history and the area of Western Europe, that Gaul reproduces Rome. +What the Conqueror saw (it might be vaguely argued) to be the +strategical position for London, that a Roman emperor would have seen. +But against this argument from tradition, which is fairly strong, and +that argument from analogy, which is weak, we have other and contrary +considerations. + +Rome even in her decline did not build her citadels outside the walls: +that was a habit which grew up in the Dark and early Middle Ages, and +was attached to the differentiation between the civic and military +aspects of the State. + +Again, Roman fortification of every kind is connected with earthworks. +So far as we can tell from recorded history the ditch round the Tower +was not dug till the end of the twelfth century. Finally, there is +this strong argument against the theory of a Roman origin to the Tower +that had such a Roman fortress existed an extension of the town would +almost certainly have gathered round it. + +One of the features of the break-up of Roman society was the enormous +expansion of the towns. We have evidence of it on every side and +nowhere more than in Northern Africa. This expansion took place +everywhere, but especially and invariably in the presence of a +garrison, and indeed the military conditions of the fourth century, +with its cosmopolitan and partially hereditary army, fixed in +permanent garrisons and forming as it were a local caste, presupposed +a large dependent civilian population at the very gates of the camp or +stronghold. Thus you have the Palatine suburb to the south of Lutetia +right up against the camp, and Verecunda just outside Lamboesis. Now +there is nothing of the sort in the neighbourhood of the Tower. It +seems certain that from the earliest times London ended here cleanly +at the wall, and that except along the Great Eastern Road the +neighbourhood of the Tower was agricultural land. + +How then could a tradition have arisen with regard to Roman +occupation? It is but a conjecture, though a plausible one, that when +the pirate raids grew in severity this knoll down stream was +fortified, while still the ruling class was Latin speaking and while +still the title of Cæsar was familiar, whether before or after the +withdrawal of the Legions. If this were the case, then, on the analogy +of other similar sites, one may imagine something like the following: +that in the Dark Ages the masonry was used as a quarry for other +constructions, that the barbarians would occasionally stockade the +site, though not permanently, and only for the purposes of their +ephemeral but constant quarrels; and one may suggest that when the +barbaric period was ended, by the landing of William's army, the place +was still, by a tradition now six hundred years old, a public area +under the control of the Crown and one such as would lend itself to +the design of a permanent fortification. William, finding it in this +condition, erected upon it the great keep which was to be the last of +his fortifications along the line of the river, and the pivot for the +control of London. + +This keep is of course the White Tower, which still impresses even our +generation with the squat and square shoulders of Norman strength. It +and Ely are the best remaining expressions of the hardy little men, +and it fills one, as does everything Norman, from the Tyne to the +Euphrates, with something of awe. This building, the White Tower, is +the Tower itself; the rest is but an accretion, partly designed for +defence, but latterly more for habitation. Its name of the "White" +Tower is probably original, though we do not actually find the term +"La Blaunche Tour" till near the middle of the fourteenth century. The +presumption that it is the original name is founded upon a much +earlier record--namely, that of 1241, in which not only is it ordered +that the tower be repainted white, but in which mention is also made +that its original colour had been "worn by the weather and by the long +process of time." Such a complaint would take one back to the twelfth +century, and quite probably to the first building of the Keep. The +object of whitening the walls of the Tower is again explicable by the +very reasonable conjecture that it would so serve as a landmark over +the long, flat stretches of the lower river. It was the last +conspicuous building against the mass of the great town, and there are +many examples of similar landmarks used at the head of estuaries or +sea passages. When these are not spires they are almost invariably +white, especially where they are so situated as to catch the southern +or the eastern sun. + +The exact date at which the plan was undertaken we do not know, but it +is obviously one with the scheme of building Windsor, and must date +from much the same period. The order to build was given by the +Conqueror to the Bishop of Rochester, Gundulph. Now Gundulph was not +promoted to the See of Rochester till 1077. Exactly twenty years +later, in 1097, the son of the Conqueror built the outer wall. The +Keep was then presumed to be completed, and at some time during those +twenty years it must have been begun, probably about 1080. That which +we have seen increasing, the military importance of Windsor, +diminished the military importance of the Tower, until, with the close +of the Middle Ages, it had become no more than a prison. It was not +indeed swamped by the growth of the town, as was its parallel the +Louvre, but the increase of wealth (and therefore of the means of +war), coupled with the correspondingly increased population, made both +urban fortresses increasingly difficult to hold as mediæval +civilisation developed. + +The whole history of the Tower is the history of military misfortune, +which grows as London expands in numbers and prosperity. It probably +held out under Mandeville when the Londoners (who were always the +allies of the aristocracy against the national government) besieged it +under the civil wars of Stephen; but even so there was bad luck +attached to it, for when Mandeville was taken prisoner he was +compelled to sign its surrender. Within a generation Longchamp again +surrendered it to the young Prince John; he was for the moment leading +the aristocracy, which, when it was his turn to reign, betrayed him. +It was surrendered to the baronial party by the King as a trust or +pledge for the execution of Magna Charta, and though it was put into +the hands of the Archbishop, who was technically neutral, it was from +that moment the symbol of a successful rebellion, as it had already +proved to be in the past and was to prove so often again. + +It was handed over to Louis of France upon his landing, and during the +next reign almost every misfortune of Henry III. is connected with the +Tower. He was perpetually taking refuge in it, holding his Court in +it: losing it again, as the rebels succeeded, and regaining it as they +failed. This long and unfortunate tenure of his is illumined only by +one or two delightful phrases which one cannot but retain as one +reads. Thus there is the little written order, which still remains to +us for the putting of painted windows into the Chapel of St John, the +northern one of which was to have for its design "some little Mary or +other, holding her Child"--"quandam Mariolam tenenten puerum suum." +There is also a very pleasing legend in the same year, 1241, when the +fall of certain new buildings was ascribed to the action of St. +Thomas, who was seen by a priest in a dream upsetting them with his +crozier and saying that he did this "as a good citizen of London, +because these new buildings were not put up for the defence of the +realm but to overawe the town," and he added this charming remark: "If +I had not undertaken the duty myself St. Edward or another would have +done it." + +Even when Henry's misfortunes were at an end, and when the Battle of +Evesham was won, the Tower was perpetually unfortunate. A body of +rebels surrounded it, and in the defence were present a great number +of Jews, who had fled from the fighting in the city only to find +themselves pressed for service in defence of the fortress. From that +moment they make no further appearance in English military history +till the South African War, unless indeed their appearance in chains +thirteen years later in this same Tower as prisoners for financial +trickery can be counted a military event. + +Upon this occasion the siege was raised by the promptitude and energy +of Prince Edward--the man who as King was to march to Cærnarvon and to +the Grampians had already in his boyhood shown the energy and the +military aptitude of his grandfather King John. He was but twenty +years old, yet he had already done all the fighting at Lewes, he had +already won Evesham, and now, at the end of spring, he made one march +from Windsor to the Tower and relieved it. It was almost the last time +that the Tower stood for the success of authority. From this time +onwards it is, as it had been before, the unfortunate symbol of +successful rebellion. Edward II. had to leave it in his fatal year of +1326, the Londoners poured in and incidentally massacred the Bishop of +Exeter, into whose hands it had been entrusted. + +In 1460 it surrendered to the House of York, and from that time +onwards becomes more and more of a prison and less and less of a +fortress. + +The preponderatingly military aspect of the Thames Valley in English +history dwindles with the dwindling of military energy in our +civilisation, and passes with the passing of a governing class that +was military rather than commercial. + +Sites which owed their importance to strategical position, and which +had hence grown into considerable towns, ceased to show any but a +civilian character, and even in the only episode of consequence +wherein fighting occurred in England since the Middle Ages--the +episode of the Civil Wars--the banks of the Thames, though perpetually +infested by either army, saw very little serious fighting, and that +although the line of the Thames was the critical line of action during +the first stage of the war. + +For the Civil Wars as a whole were but an affair upon the flank of the +general struggle in Europe: the losses were never heavy, and in the +first stages one can hardly call it fighting at all. + +The losses at the skirmish of Edge Hill were, indeed, respectable, +though most of them seem to have been incurred after the true fighting +ceased, but with that exception, and especially upon the line of the +Thames itself, the losses were extraordinarily small. + +One may say that Oxford and London were the two objective points of +the opposing forces from the close of 1642 to the spring of 1644. The +King's Government at Oxford, the Parliament in London, were the civil +bases, at least, upon which the opposing forces pivoted, and the two +intermediate points were Abingdon and Reading. To read the +contemporary, and even the modern, history of the time, one would +imagine from the terms used that these places were the theatre of +considerable military operations. We hear, with every technicality +which the Continental struggle had rendered familiar to Englishmen, of +sieges, assaults, headquarters, and even hornworks. But when one looks +at dates and figures it is not easy to treat the matter seriously. +Here, for instance, is Abingdon, within a short walk of Oxford, and +the Royalists easily allow it to be occupied by Essex in the spring of +'44. Even so Abingdon is not used as a base for doing anything more +serious than "molesting" the university town. And it was so held that +Rupert tried to recapture it, of all things in the world, with +cavalry! He was "overwhelmed" by the vastly superior forces of the +enemy, and his attempt failed. When one has thoroughly grasped this +considerable military event one next learns that the overwhelming +forces were a trifle over a thousand in number! + +Next an individual gentleman with a few followers conceives the +elementary idea of blocking the western road at Culham Bridge, and +isolating Abingdon upon this side. He begins building a "fort." A +certain proportion of the handful in Abingdon go out and kill him and +the fort is not proceeded with: and so forth. A military temper of +this sort very easily explains the cold-blooded massacre of prisoners +which the Parliament permitted, and which has given to the phrase +"Abingdon Law" the unpleasant flavour which it still retains. + +The story of Reading in the earlier part of the struggle is much the +same. Reading was held as a royal garrison and fortified in '43. +According to the garrison the fortification was contemptible, +according to the procedures it was of the most formidable kind. Indeed +they doubted whether it could be captured by an assault of less than +5000 men, a number which appeared at this stage of the campaign so +appalling that it is mentioned as a sort of standard of comparison +with the impossible. The garrison surrendered just as relief was +approaching it, and after a strain which it had endured for no less +than ten days; but the capture of Reading was not effected entirely +without bloodshed; certainly fifty men were killed (counting both +sides), possibly a few more; and the whole episode is a grotesque +little foot-note to the comic opera upon which rose the curtain of the +Civil Wars. It was not till the appearance of Cromwell, with his +highly paid and disciplined force, that the tragedy began. + +Even after Cromwell had come forward as the chief leader, in fact if +not in name, the apparent losses are largely increased by the random +massacres to which his soldiers were unfortunately addicted. Thus +after Naseby a hundred women were killed for no particular reason +except that killing was in the air, and similarly after Philiphaugh +the conscience of the Puritans forbade them to keep their word to the +prisoners they had taken, who were put to the sword in cold blood: the +women, however, on this occasion, were drowned. + +After the Civil Wars all the military meaning of the Thames +disappears. Nor is it likely to revive short of a national disaster; +but that disaster would at once teach us the strategical meaning of +this great highway running through the south of England with its +attendant railways, it would re-create the strategical value of the +point where the Thames turns northward and where its main railways +bifurcate; it would provide in several conceivable cases, as it +provided to Charles I. and to William III., the line of approach on +London. + + * * * * * + +So far as we have considered the Thames, first as a line of +pre-historic settlements, passing successively into the Roman, the +barbaric and the Norman phases of our history; and secondly, as a +field on which one can plot out certain strategical points and show +how these points created the original importance of the towns which +grew about them. + +In the next part of these notes I propose to consider the economic or +civil development of the Thames above London, and to show how the +foundations of its permanent prosperity was laid. That economic +phenomenon has at its roots the action of the Benedictine Order. It +was the great monasteries which bridged the transition between Rome +and the Dark Ages throughout North-Western Europe; it was they that +recovered land wasted by the barbarian invasions, and that developed +heaths and fens which the Empire even in its maturity had never +attempted to exploit. + +The effect of the barbarian invasions was different in different +provinces of the Roman Empire, though roughly speaking it increased in +intensity with the distance from Rome. It is probable that the actual +numbers of the barbarian invaders was small even in Britain, as it +certainly was in Northern Gaul, but we must not judge of the effect +produced upon civilisation by this catastrophe, as though it were a +mere question of numbers. So large a proportion of the population was +servile, and so fixed had the imagination of everyone become in the +idea that the social order was eternal; so entirely had the army +become a professional thing, and probably a thing of routine divorced +from the civilian life round it, that at the close of the fourth +century a little shock from without was enough to produce a very +considerable result. In Eastern Britain, small as the number of the +invaders must necessarily have been, religion itself was almost, if +not entirely, destroyed, and the whole fabric of Roman civilisation +appears to have dissolved--with the exception, of course, of such +irremovable things as the agricultural system, the elements of +municipal life, and the simpler arts. Even the language very probably +changed in the eastern part of the island, and passed from what we may +conceive to have been Low Latin in the towns and Celtic dialects in +the country-sides, with possibly Teutonic settlements here and there +along the eastern shore, to a generally confused mass of Teutonic +dialects scattered throughout the eastern and northern half of the +island and enclosing but isolated fragments of Celtic speech. + +So far as we can judge the disaster was complete, but it was destined +that Britain should be recivilised. + +St Augustine landed, and after the struggle of the seventh century +between those petty chieftains who sympathised with, and those who +opposed, the order of cultivated European life, the battle was won in +favour of that civilisation which we still enjoy. It would have been +impossible to re-create a sound agriculture and to refound the arts +and learning; especially would it have been impossible to refound the +study of letters, upon which all material civilisation depends, had it +not been for the monastic institution. This institution did more work +in Britain than in any other province of the Empire. And it had far +more to do. It found a district utterly wrecked, perhaps half +depopulated, and having lost all but a vague memory of the old Roman +order; it had to remake, if it could, of all this part of a Europe. No +other instrument was fitted for the purpose. + +The chief difficulty of starting again the machine of civilisation +when its parts have been distorted by a barbarian interlude, whether +external or internal in origin, is the accumulation of capital. The +next difficulty is the preservation of such capital in the midst of +continual petty feuds and raids, and the third is that general +continuity of effort, and that treasuring up of proved experience, to +which a barbaric time, succeeding upon the decline of a civilisation, +is particularly unfitted. For the surmounting of all these +difficulties the monks of Western Europe were suited to a high degree. +Fixed wealth could be accumulated in the hands of communities whose +whole temptation was to gather, and who had no opportunity for +spending in waste. The religious atmosphere in which they grew up +forbade their spoliation, at least in the internal wars of a Christian +people, and each of the great foundations provided a community of +learning and treasuring up of experience which single families, +especially families of barbaric chieftains, could never have achieved. +They provided leisure for literary effort, and a strict disciplinary +rule enforcing regular, continuous, and assiduous labour, and they +provided these in a society from which exact application of such a +kind had all but disappeared. + +The monastic institution, so far as Western Europe was concerned, was +comparatively young when the work in Britain was begun. The fifth +century had seen its inception; it was still embryonic in the sixth; +the seventh, which was the date of its great conquest of the English +country-sides, was for it a period of youth and of vigour as fresh as +was, let us say, the thirteenth century for the renaissance of civil +learning. We must not think of these early foundations as we think of +the complicated, wealthy, somewhat restricted and privileged bodies of +the later Middle Ages. They were all more or less of one type, and +that type a simple one. They all sprang from the same Benedictine +stem. It was the quality of all to be somewhat independent in +management, and especially to work in large units, and out of the very +many which sprang, up all over the island three particularly concern +the Thames Valley. Each of them dates from the very beginnings of +Anglo-Saxon history, each of them has its roots in legend, and each of +them continued for close upon a thousand years to be a capital +economic centre of English life. These three great Benedictine +foundations are WESTMINSTER, CHERTSEY, and ABINGDON. + +When civilisation returned in fulness with the Norman Conquest, +another great house of the first importance was founded--at Reading; +and, much later, a fourth at Sheen. To these we shall turn in their +place, as also to the string of dependent houses and small foundations +which line the river almost from its source right down to London: +indeed the only type of religious foundation which historic notes such +as these can afford to neglect is the monastery or nunnery built in a +town, and for the purposes of a town, after the civic life of a town +had developed. These very numerous houses (most numerous, of course, +in Oxford), such as the Observants of Richmond and a host of others, +do not properly enter into the scheme we are considering. They are not +causes but effects of the development of civilisation in the Thames +Valley. + +Abingdon, Westminster, and Chertsey are all ascribed by tradition, and +each by a very vital and well-documented tradition, to the seventh +century: Abingdon and Chertsey to its close; Westminster, with less +assurance, to its beginning. All three, we may take it, did arise in +that period which was for the eastern part of this island a time when +all the work of Europe had to be begun again. Though we know nothing +of the progress of the Saxon pirates in the province of Britain, and +though history is silent for the hundred and fifty years covered by +the disaster, yet on the analogy of other and later raids from the +North Sea we may imagine that no inland part of the country suffered +more than the valley of the Thames. All that was left of the Roman +order, wealth and right living, must have appeared at the close of +that sixth century, when the Papal Mission landed, something as +appears the wrecked and desolate land upon the retirement of a flood. +To cope with such conditions, to reintroduce into the ravaged and +desecrated province, which had lost its language in the storm, all its +culture, and even its religion, a new beginning of energy and of +production, came, with the peculiar advantages we have seen it to +possess for such a work, the monastic institution. For two centuries +the great houses were founded all over England: their attachment to +Continental learning, their exactitude, their corporate power of +action, were all in violent contrast to, and most powerfully +educational for, the barbarians in the midst of whom they grew. It may +be truly said that if we regard the life of England as beginning anew +with the Saxon invasion, if that disaster of the pirate raids be +considered as so great that it offers a breach of continuity in the +history of Britain, then the new country which sprang up, speaking +Teutonic dialects, and calling itself by its present name of England, +was actually created by the Benedictine monks. + +It was within a very few years of St. Augustine's landing that +Westminster must have been begun. There are several versions of the +story: the most detailed statement we have ascribes it to the +particular year 604, but varied as are the forms in which the history, +or rather the legend, is preserved, the truth common to all is the +foundation quite early in the seventh century. It was very probably +supported by what barbaric Government there was in London at the time +and initiated, moreover, according to one form of the legend, and that +not the least plausible, by the first bishop of the see. The site was +at the moment typical of all those which the great monasteries of the +West were to turn from desert places to gardens: it was a waste tract +of ground called "Thorney," lying low, triangular in shape, bounded by +the two reedy streams that descended through the depression which now +runs across the Green Park and Mayfair, and emptied themselves into +the Thames, the one just above, the other 100 or 200 yards below, the +site of the Houses of Parliament. + +The moment the foundation was established a stream of wealth tended +towards it: it was at the very gate of the largest commercial city in +the kingdom and it was increasingly associated, as the Anglo-Saxon +monarchy developed, with the power of the Central Government. This +process culminated in the great donation and rebuilding of Edward the +Confessor. + +The period of this new endowment was one well chosen to launch the +future glory of Westminster. England was all prepared to be permeated +with the Norman energy, and when immediately after the Conquest came, +the great shrine inherited all the glamour of a lost period, while it +established itself with the new power as a sort of symbol of the +continuity of the Crown. There William was anointed, there was his +palace and that of his son. When, with the next century, the seat of +Government became fixed, and London was finally established as the +capital, Westminster had already become the seat of the monarchy. + +Chertsey, next up the river, took on the work. Like +Westminster--though, by tradition, a few years later than +Westminster--its foundation goes back to the birth of England. Its +history is known in some detail, and is full of incident, so that it +may be called the pivot upon which, presumably, turned the development +of the Thames Valley above London for two hundred years. Its site is +worth noting. The rich, but at first probably swampy, pasturage upon +the Surrey side was just such a position as one foundation after +another up and down England settled on. To reclaim land of this kind +was one of the special functions of the great abbeys, and Chertsey may +be compared in this particular to Hyde, for instance, or to the Vale +of the Cross, to Fountains, to Ripon, to Melrose, and to many others. +It was in the new order of monastic development what Staines, its +neighbour, had been in the old Roman order--the mark of the first +stage up-river from London. + +The pagan storm which all but repeated in Britain the disaster of the +Saxon invasions, which all but overcame the mystic tenacity of Alfred +and the positive mission of the town of Paris, swept it completely. +Its abbot and its ninety monks were massacred, and it was not till +late in the next century, about 950, that it arose again from its +ruins. It was deliberately re-colonised again from Abingdon, and from +that moment onwards it grew again into power. Donations poured upon +it; one of them, not the least curious, was of land in Cardiganshire. +It came from those Welsh princes who were perpetually at war with the +English Crown: for religion was in those days what money is now--a +thing without frontiers--and it seemed no more wonderful to the Middle +Ages that an English monastery should collect its rents in an enemy's +land than it seems strange to us that the modern financier should draw +interest upon money lent for armament against the country of his +domicile. Here also was first buried (and lay until it was removed to +Windsor) the body of Henry VI. + +The third of the great early foundations is Abingdon, and in a way it +is the greatest, for, without direct connection with the Crown, by the +mere vitality of its tradition, it became something more even than +Chertsey was, wielding an immense revenue, more than half that of +Westminster itself, and situated, as it was, in a small up-valley +town, ruling with almost monarchical power. There could be even less +doubt in the case of Abingdon than there was in the case of Chertsey +that it was the creator of its own district of the Thames. It stood +right in the marshy and waste spaces of the middle upper river, +commanding a difficult but an important ford, and holding the gate of +what was to be one of the most fruitful and famous of English vales. +It can only have been from Abingdon that the culture and energy +proceeded which was to build up Northern Berkshire and Oxfordshire +between the Saxon and the Danish invasions. There only was established +a sufficient concentration of capital for the work and of knowledge +for the application of that wealth. + +Like its two peers at Chertsey and at Westminster, Abingdon begins +with legend. We are fairly sure of its date, 675, but the anchorite of +the fifth century, "Aben," is as suspicious as the early Anglo-Saxon +Chronicle itself, and still wilder are the fine and striking stories +of its British origin, of its destruction under the persecution of +Diocletian and of its harbouring the youth of Constantine. But the +stories are at least enough to show with what violence the pomp and +grandeur of the place struck the imagination of its historians. + +Abingdon was, moreover, probably on account of its distance from +London, more of a local centre, and, to repeat a word already used, +more of a "monarchy" than the other great monasteries of the Thames +Valley. This is sufficiently proved by a glance at the ecclesiastic +map, such as, for instance, that published in "The Victoria History of +the County of Berkshire," where one sees the manors belonging to +Abingdon at the time of the Conquest all clustered together and +occupying one full division of the county, that, namely, included in +the great bend of the Thames which has its cusp at Witham Hill. +Abingdon was the life of Northern Berkshire, and it is not fantastic +to compare its religious aspect in Saxon times over against the King's +towns of Wantage and Wallingford to the larger national aspect of +Canterbury over against Winchester and London. + +Even in its purely civic character, it acquired a position which no +one of the greater northern monasteries could pretend to, through the +building of its bridge in the early fifteenth century. The twin fords +crossing this bend of the river were, though direct and important, +difficult; when they were once bridged and the bridges joined by the +long causeway which still runs across Andersey Island between the old +and the new branches of the Thames, travel was easily diverted from +the bridge of Wallingford to that at Abingdon, and the great western +road running through Farringdon towards the Cotswolds and the valley +of the Severn had Abingdon for its sort of midway market town. + +These three great Benedictine monasteries form, as it were, the three +nurseries or seed plots from which civilisation spread out along the +Thames Valley after the destruction wrought by the first and worst +barbarian invasions. All three, as we have seen, go back to the very +beginning of the Christian phase of English history; the origins of +all three merge in those legends which make a twilight between the +fantastic stories of the earlier paganism and the clear records of the +Christian epoch after the re-Latinisation of England. An outpost +beyond these three is the institution of St Frideswides at Oxford. +Beyond that point the upper river, gradually narrowing, losing its +importance for commerce and as a highway, supported no great +monastery, and felt but tardily the economic change wrought by the +foundations lower down the stream. + +Chertsey and Westminster certainly, and Abingdon very probably, were +destroyed, or at least sacked, in the Danish invasions, but their +roots lay too deep to allow them to disappear: they re-arose, and a +generation before the Conquest were again by far the principal centres +of production and government in the Thames Valley. Indeed, with the +exception of the string of royal estates upon the banks of the river, +and of the town of Oxford, Chertsey, Westminster and Abingdon were the +only considerable seats of regulation and government upon the Thames, +when the Conquest came to reorganise the whole of English life. + +With that revolution it was evident that a great extension not only of +the numbers, but especially of the organisation and power, of the +monastic system would appear: that gaps left uninfluenced by it in the +line of the Thames would be filled up, and all the old foundations +themselves would be reconstructed and become new things. + +The Conquest is in its way almost as sharp a division in the history +of England as is the landing of St Augustine. In some externals it +made an even greater difference to this island than did the advent of +the Roman Missionaries, though of course, in the fundamental things +upon which the national life is built, the re-entry of England into +European civilisation in the seventh century must count as a far +greater and more decisive event than its first experience of united +and regular government under the Normans in the eleventh. Moreover +although the Conquest largely changed the language of the island, +introduced a conception of law in civil affairs with which the +Anglo-Saxon aristocracy were quite unfamiliar, and began to flood +England with a Gallic admixture which flowed .uninterruptedly for +three hundred years, yet it did not change the intimate philosophy of +the people, and it is only the change of the intimate philosophy of a +people which can have a revolutionary consequence. The Conquest found +England Catholic, vaguely feudal, and, though in rather an isolated +way, thoroughly European. The Normans organised that feudality, +extirpated whatever was unorthodox, or slack in the machinery of the +religious system, and let in the full light of European civilisation +through a wide-open door, which had hitherto been half-closed. + +The effect, therefore, of the Conquest was exercised upon the visible +and mutable things of the country rather than upon the nourishing +inward things: but it was very great, and in nothing was it greater +than in its inception of new buildings and the use everywhere of +stone. Under the Normans very nearly all the great religious +foundations of England re-arose, and that within a generation. New +houses also arose, and the mark of that time (which was a second +spring throughout Europe: full of the spirit of the Crusades, and a +complete regeneration of social life) was the rigour of new religious +orders, and especially the transformation of the old Benedictine +monotony. + +Chief, of course, of these religious movements, and the pioneer of +them all, was the institution of Cluny in Burgundy. + +Cluny did not rise by design. It was one of those spontaneous growths +which are characteristic of vigorous and creative times. Those who are +acquainted with the Burgundian blood will not think it fantastic to +imagine the vast reputation of Cluny to have been based upon rhetoric. +It was perhaps the sonorous Burgundian facility for expression and the +inheritance of oratory which belonged to Burgundian soil till +Bossuet's birth, and which still belongs to it, that gave Cluny a sort +of spell over the mind of Western Europe, and which made Cluny a +master in the century which preceded the great change of the Crusades. +From Cluny as a mother house proceeded communities instinct with the +discipline and new life of the reformed order, and though it has been +remarked that these communities were not numerous, in comparison to +the vigour of the movement, yet it should also be noted that they were +nearly always very large and wealthy, that they were in a particular +and close relation to the civil government of the district in which +each was planted, and that their absolute dependence upon the mother +house, and their close observance of one rule, lent the whole order +something of the force of an army. + +The Cluniac influence came early into the Thames Valley. By the +beginning of the twelfth century, and within fifty years of the +Conquest, this new influence was found interpolated with and imposed +upon the five centuries that had hitherto been wholly dependent upon +the three great Benedictine posts. This Cluniac foundation, the first +of the new houses on the Thames, was fixed upon the peninsula of +Reading. + +It was in 1121 that the son of the Conqueror brought the Cluniac order +to the little town. From the moment of the foundation of the abbey it +attracted, in part by its geographical position, in part by the fact +that it was the first great new foundation upon the Thames, and in +part by the accident which lent a special devotion or power to one +particular house and which was in this case largely due to the +discipline and character of the Cluniac order, Reading took on a very +high position in England. It had about it, if one may so express +oneself, something more modern, something more direct and political +than was to be found in the old Benedictine houses that had preceded +it. The work it had to do was less material: the fields were already +drained, the life and wealth of the new civilisation had begun, and +throughout the four hundred years of its existence the function of +Reading was rather to entertain the Court, to assist at parliaments, +and to be, throughout, the support of the monarchy. It sprang at once +into this position, and its architecture symbolised to some extent the +rapid command which it acquired, for it preserved to the end the +characteristics of the early century in which it was erected: the +Norman arch, the dog-tooth ornaments, the thick walls, the barbaric +capitals of the early twelfth century. + +Before the thirteenth it was in wealth equal to, and in public repute +the superior of, any foundation upon the banks of the Thames with the +exception of Westminster itself, and it forms, with the three +Benedictine foundations, and with the later foundation of Osney, the +last link in the chain of abbeys which ran unbroken from stage to +stage throughout the whole length of the river. And with it ends the +story of those first foundations which completed the recivilisation of +the Valley. + +Reading was not the only Cluniac establishment upon the Thames. +Another, and earlier one, was to be found at Bermondsey; but its +proximity to London and its distance down river forbid it having any +place in these pages. It was founded immediately after the Conquest; +Lanfranc colonised it with French monks; it became an abbacy at the +very end of the fourteenth century, and was remarkable for its +continual accretion of wealth, an accretion in some part due to the +growing importance of London throughout its existence. At the end of +the thirteenth century it stands worth £280. At the time of its +dissolution, on the first of January 1538, in spite of the much higher +value of money in the sixteenth century as compared with the +thirteenth, it stands worth over £500: £10,000 a year. + +A relic of its building remained (but only a gatehouse) till 1805. + +Osney also dated from the early twelfth century, and was almost +contemporary with Reading. + +It stood just outside the walls of Oxford Castle to the west, and upon +the bank of the main stream of the Thames, and owed its foundation to +the Conqueror's local governing family of Oilei. Though at the moment +of its suppression it hardly counted a fifth of the revenues of +Westminster (which must be our standard throughout all this +examination), yet its magnificence profoundly affected contemporaries, +and has left a great tradition. It must always be remembered that +these great monasteries were not only receivers of revenue as are our +modern rich, but were also producers or, rather, could be producers +when they chose, and that therefore the actual economic power of any +one foundation might always be higher, and often was very considerably +higher, than the nominal revenue, the dead income, which passed to the +spoliators of the sixteenth century. When a town is sacked the army +gets a considerable loot, but nothing like what the value was of the +city as it flourished before the siege. + +At any rate, whether Osney owed its magnificence to internal industry, +to a wise expenditure, or to a severity of life which left a large +surplus for ornament and extension, it was for 400 years the principal +building upon the upper river, catching the eye from miles away up by +Eynsham meadows and forming a noble gate to the University town for +those who approached it from the west by the packway, of which traces +still remain, and over the bridges which the Conqueror had built. So +deep was the impress of Osney upon the locality, and even upon the +national Government, that Henry proposed, as in the case of +Westminster, to make of the building one of his new cathedrals, and to +establish there his new See of Oxford. The determination, however, +lasted but for a very short time. In a few years the financial +pressure was too much for him; he transferred the see to the old +Church of St Frideswides, where it still remains, and gave up Osney to +loot. It was looted very thoroughly. + +The smaller monasteries need hardly a mention. At the head of them +comes Eynsham, worth more than half as much as Osney, and a very +considerable place. Founded as a colony or adjunct to Stow, in +Lincolnshire, it outlived the importance of the parent house, and was +at the height of its prosperity immediately before the Dissolution. + +Eynsham affords a very good instance of the way in which the fabric in +these superb temples disappeared. As late as the early eighteenth +century there was still standing the whole of the west front; the two +high towers, the splendid west window, and the sculptured doorways +were complete, though they remained but as a fragment of a ruined +building. A century and a half passed and the whole had disappeared, +carted away to build walls and stables for the local squires, or sold +by the local squires for rubble. + +Of the little priory at Lechlade very little is known, save that it +was founded in the thirteenth century and had disappeared long before +the Reformation, while of that at Cricklade we know even less, save +that it humbly survived and was counted in the "bag" at only four +pounds a year. + +With Dorchester, which had existed from the twelfth century, and which +was worth almost half as much as Eynsham, and with the considerable +Cell of Hurley which attached to Westminster, the list is complete. It +is interesting to know that the church at Dorchester was saved by the +local patriotism of one man, who left half his fortune for the +purchase of it, and that not in order to ruin it and to sell the +stones of it, but in order to preserve it: a singular man. + +In a general survey of monastic influence in the Valley of the Thames, +it would be natural to omit the foundations which belonged to the +later Middle Ages. It was in the Dark Ages that the great Benedictine +work was done, the pastures drained, the woods planted, the +settlements established. It was in the early Middle Ages, in the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries and in the first half of the +fourteenth--in a word, before the Black Death--that the work of the +new and vigorous foundations, and the revived energy of the older +ones, spread Gothic architecture, scholastic learning, and the whole +reinvigorated social system of the time, from Oxford to Westminster; +and the historian who notes the social and economic effects of +monasticism in Western Europe, however enthusiastic he may be in +defence of that force, cannot with truth lend it between the Black +Death and the Reformation a vigour which it did not possess. It had +tended to become, in the fifteenth century, a fixed social institution +like any other, one might almost say a bundle of proprietary rights +like any other. And though it is easy now to perceive what ruin was +caused by the sudden destruction, the contemporaries of the last age +of Great Houses were perpetually considering their privilege and their +immovable tradition rather than the remaining functions which the +monasteries fulfilled in the State. + +On this account historical notes dealing with the development of the +Thames Valley would naturally omit a reference to foundations existing +only from the close of the Middle Ages. But an exception must be made +to this rule in the case of Sheen. + +Sheen was a Charterhouse, and it merits observation not only from the +peculiar characteristics of the Carthusian Order, but also from its +considerable position so near to Westminster and not yet overshadowed +by the greatness either of that abbey or of Chertsey. It received, +from its land in England alone, a revenue of close upon two-thirds of +that which Westminster enjoyed. Recent in its origin (it had existed +for only just over 100 years when Henry VIII. attacked it), not +without that foreign flavour which, rightly or wrongly, was ascribed +in this island to the Carthusian Order, rigid in doctrine, and of a +magnificent temper in the defence of religion, these Carthusians, like +their brethren in London, formed a very natural target for the King's +attack. I include them only because notes upon the mediæval +foundations, would be quite imperfect were there no mention of Sheen, +late as the origin of the community was, and little as it had to do +with the historic development of the valley. + +This completes the list of the greater foundations; with the lesser +ones it would only be possible to deal in pages devoted to the +Monastic Institution alone. The very numerous communities of friars, +and the hospitals in the towns upon the Thames, cannot be mentioned, +the little nunneries of Ankerwick, Burnham, and Little Marlow, the +communities, early and late, of Medmenham and Cholsey, the priories of +Lechlade and of Cricklade (which might have occupied a larger space +than was available), must be passed over. Even Godstow, famous as it +is from the early legend of Rosamond, and considerable as was its +function both of education and of retreat, cannot be included in the +list of those principal foundations which alone take rank as +originators of the prosperity of the valley. + +Several of these smaller houses went in the dissolution to swell the +revenues of Bisham, the new community which Henry, as he said, +intended to take the place of much that he had destroyed; and Bisham +would be very well worth a considerable attention from the reader had +it survived. But it did not survive. Hardly was it founded when Henry +himself immediately destroyed it, and, as we shall see later, Bisham +affords one of the most curious and instructive examples of the way in +which that large monastic revenue, which it was certainly intended to +keep in the hands of the Crown, and which, had it been so kept, would +have given to England the strongest Central Government in Europe, +drifted into the hands of the squires, multiplied perhaps by ten the +wealth of their class, and transformed the Government of England into +that oligarchy which was completed in the seventeenth century, and +which, though permeated and transformed by Jewish finance, is standing +in a precarious strength to this day. + +Westminster, Chertsey, Sheen, Reading, Abingdon, and Osney +disappeared. + +One writes the list straight off without considering, taking it for +granted that everything which could have roused the cupidity of that +generation necessarily disappeared: and as one writes it one remembers +that, after all, Westminster survived. Its survival was an accident, +which will be further considered. But that survival, so far from +redeeming, emphasises and throws into relief the destruction of the +rest. + +Of these enduring monuments of human energy and, what is more +important still in the control of energy, human certitude, what +besides Westminster survived? Of Chertsey there is perhaps a gateway +and part of a wall; of Sheen nothing; of Reading a few flints built +into modern work; of Abingdon a gateway, and a buttress or two that +long served to support a brewhouse; of Osney nothing, contrariwise, +electric works and the slums of a modern town. All these were +Westminsters. In all of these was to be discovered that patient +process of production which argues the continuity, and therefore the +dignity, of human civilisation. Each had the glass which we can no +longer paint, the vivid, living, and happy grotesque in sculpture +which only the best of us can so much as understand; each had a +thousand and another thousand details of careful work in stone meant +to endure, if not for ever, at least into such further centuries as +might have the added faith and added knowledge to restore them in +greater plenitude. The whole thing has gone. It has gone to no +purpose. Nothing has been built upon it save a wandering host of rich +and careworn men. + +Suppose a man to have gone down the Thames when the new discussions +were beginning in London and (as was customary even at the close of +the Middle Ages) were spreading from town to town with a rapidity that +we, who have ceased to debate ideas, can never understand. Let such a +traveller or bargeman have gone down from Cricklade to the Tower, how +would the Great Houses have appeared to him? + +The upper river would have been much the same, but as he came to that +part of it which was wealthy and populous, as he turned the corner of +Witham Hill, he would already have seen far off, larger and a little +nearer than the many spires of Oxford, a building such as to-day we +never see save in our rare and half-deserted cathedral country towns. +It was the Abbey of Osney. It would have been his landmark, as +Hereford is the landmark for a man to-day rowing up to Wye, or the new +spire of Chichester for a man that makes harbour out of the channel +past Bisham upon a rising tide. And as he passed beneath it (for, of +the many branches here, the main stream took him that way) he would +have seen a great and populous place with nothing ruinous in it, all +well ordered, busy with men and splendid; here again that which we now +look upon as a relic and a circumstance of repose was once alive and +strong. + +Upon his way beneath the old stone bridge which crossed the ford, and +shooting between the lifted paddles of the weirs, he would, once below +Oxford, have seen much the same pastures that we see to-day; but in a +few hours Abingdon, the next to Osney, would have fixed his eyes as +Osney had before. + +Abingdon would have been to him what Noyon is on the Oise, or any of +our river cathedrals in Western Europe--an apse pointing up stream, +though rounded and lacking the flying buttresses of the Gothic, for it +was thick, broad, and Norman. Here also, as one may believe, from its +situation, trees would have shrouded somewhat what he saw. There are +few such riverside apses in Christian Europe that are not screened in +this manner by trees planted between the stream and them. But as he +drifted farther down, before he reached the bridge, the west front +would have burst upon him, quite new, exceedingly rich and proud, a +strict example, one may believe, of the Perpendicular, and of what was +for the first time, and for a moment only, a true English Gothic. It +would have stood out before him, catching the sun of the afternoon in +its maze of glass. It would have seemed a thing to endure; within his +lifetime it was to be utterly destroyed. + +Once more in the many reaches between Abingdon and Wallingford, the +sights would have been those which a man sees now. And though at +Wallingford he would have had before him a town of brilliant red tiles +and timberwork, and a town perhaps larger than that which we see +to-day, yet (could such a man come to life again) the contrast would +not strike him here, and still less in the fields below, so much as +when he came near to Reading. + +That everything else of age in Reading has disappeared one need not +say, but were that traveller here to-day, the thing that he would most +seek for and most lack would be the bulk of the building at the +farther end of the town. + +One can best say what it was by saying that it was like Durham. It is +true that Durham Cathedral stands upon a noble cliff overhanging a +ravine, while Reading Abbey stood upon a small and irregular hill +which hardly showed above the flat plains of the river meadows, but in +massiveness of structure and in type of architecture Reading seems to +have resembled Durham more nearly than any other of our great +monuments, and to emphasise its parallelism to Durham is perhaps the +best way to make the modern reader understand what we have lost. + +Nothing that he had seen in this journey would more have sunk into the +mind of a contemporary man, nothing that he would lack were he +resuscitated to-day would leave a want more grievous. In the +destruction of Reading the people of this country lost something which +not even their aptitude for foreign travel can replace. + +Windsor, as he passed, stood up above the right of him, not very +different from what we still admire as we come down from Bray and look +up to the jutting fore-tower which is worthy of Coucy. But down below +Windsor (after whose bridge we to-day see nothing whatever of value), +just after he had passed the wooden bridge of Staines and shot the +weir of that town, the river bent southward. + +The traveller would have found Pentonhook already forming or formed, +and when he had got round it he would have seen soaring above him down +stream the great mass of Chertsey Abbey. If Reading had the solidity +and the barbaric grandeur of Durham, Chertsey had in an ecclesiastical +way the vastness of Windsor, and must have seemed like a town to +anyone approaching it thus down the river. The enclosed area of the +abbey buildings alone covered four acres. + +This impression which such a traveller would have received of the +great religious houses was enhanced by something more than the +magnitude and splendour of the buildings. Divided as was opinion at +that moment upon their value to the State, and jealous as had become +landless men of the long traditions and privileges of the monks, these +still represented not only their own wealth but the general +accumulation of capital and the continued prosperity of the river +valley. It is true to say, in spite of the difficulty of appreciating +such a truth in the light of our knowledge of what was to follow, that +the destruction of such foundations would have seemed to the traveller +before the Dissolution inconceivable. Nevertheless it came. + +These notes are not the place in which to discuss that most difficult +of all historical problems--I mean the causes which led the nation to +abandon in a couple of generations the whole of its traditions and to +adopt, not spontaneously but at the bidding of a comparatively small +body of wealthy men, a new scheme of society. But it is of value to +consider the economic aspect of the thing, and to show what it was +that Henry desired to seize when his policy of Dissolution was +secretly formed. + +The economic function of the monastic system in the Middle Ages, and +especially in the later Middle Ages, is one to which no sufficient +attention has been given by historians. + +They collected, as does no modern agency, wealth from very various +sources, scattered up and down the whole of the kingdom, and often +farther afield, throughout Europe, and exercised the whole economic +power so drawn together in one centre, and so founded a permanent +nucleus of wealth in the place where the community resided. + +We are indeed to-day accustomed to a similar effect in the action of +our wealthy families. The rents of the London poor, a toll upon the +produce of Egypt, of the Argentine, or of India, all flow into some +country house in the provinces, where it revives in an effective +demand for production, or lends to the whole countryside a wealth +which, of itself, it could never have produced. The neighbourhood of +Aylesbury, the palaces of the larger territorials, are modern examples +of this truth, that the economic power of a district does not reside +in its productive capacity, but in its capacity for effective demand. +And it is undoubtedly true that if there were anything permanent in +modern society we should be witnessing in the wealthier quarters of +Paris and London, in the Riviera in the holiday part of Egypt, and in +certain centres of provincial luxury in England, in France, and in +Western Germany, the foundation of a permanent economic superiority. + +But nothing in modern society has any roots. Where to-day is some one +of these great territorial houses in fifty years there may be nothing +but decay. Fashion may change from the Riviera to some other part of +the Mediterranean littoral, and with fashion will go the concentration +of wealth which accompanies it. + +In the Middle, and especially in the latter Middle, Ages it was +otherwise. The great religious houses not only tended to accumulate +wealth and to perpetuate it in the same hands (they could not gamble +it away nor disperse it in luxury; they could hardly waste it by +mismanagement), but they were also permanently fixed on one spot. + +Such an institution as Reading, for example, or as Abingdon, went on +perpetually receiving its immense revenues for generation after +generation, and were under no temptation or rather had no capacity for +spending it elsewhere than in the situation where their actual +buildings were to be found. + +In this way the great monastic houses founded a tradition of local +wealth which has profoundly affected the history of the Thames Valley. +And if that valley is still to-day one of the chief districts wherein +the economic power of England is concentrated, it owes that position +mainly to the centuries during which the great foundations exercised +their power upon the banks of the river. + +The growth of great towns, one of the last phases of our national +development, one which finds its example in the Thames Valley as +elsewhere, and one to which we shall allude before closing these notes +upon the river, has somewhat obscured the quality of this original +accumulation of wealth along the Thames. But when we come to consider +the figures of the census at an earlier time, before modern +commercialism and the railway had drawn wealth and population into +fewer and larger centres, we shall see how considerable was the string +of towns which had grown up along the stream. And we shall especially +see how fairly divided among them was the population, and, it may be +presumed, the wealth and the rateable value, of the valley. + +The point just mentioned in connection with the larger monastic +foundations, and their artificial concentration of economic power, +deserves a further elaboration, for the economic importance of a +district is one of the aspects of geography which even modern analysis +has dealt with very imperfectly. + +Economists speak of the economic importance of such-and-such a spot +because material of use to man-kind is there discovered. Thus, people +commonly point to the economic importance of the valleys all round the +Pennine Range in England because they contain coal and metals, and to +the economic importance of a small district in South Wales for the +same reason. + +A further consideration has admitted that not only places where things +useful to mankind are discovered, but places naturally fitted for +their exchange have an economic importance peculiarly their own. +Indeed, the more history is studied from the point of view of +economics, the more does this kind of natural opportunity emerge, and +the less does the political importance of purely productive areas +appear. The mountain districts of Spain, the Cornish peninsula, were +centres of metallic industry of the first importance to the Romans, +but they remained poor throughout the period of Roman civilisation. +To-day the farmer in the west of America, the miner and the clerk in +Johannesburg, are perhaps more numerous, but as a political force no +wealthier for the opportunities of their sites: the economic power +which they ultimately produce is first concentrated in the centres of +exchange where the wealth they produce is handled. + +Now there is a third basis for the economic importance of a district, +and as this third basis is indefinitely more important than the other +two, it has naturally been overlooked in the analysis of the +universities. This basis is the basis of residence. Given that a +conqueror, or a seat of Government established by routine, is +established in a particular place and chooses there to remain; or +given that the pleasure attached to a particular site--its natural +pleasures or the inherited grandeur of its buildings or what not--make +it an established residence for those who control the expenditure of +wealth, then that place will acquire an economic importance which has +for its foundation nothing more material than the human will. Thither +wealth, wherever produced, will flow, and there will be discovered +that ultimate motive force of all production and of all exchange, the +effective demand of those possessors who alone can set the industrial +machine in motion. + +This has been abundantly true in every period of the world's history, +whenever commerce existed upon a considerable scale, or whenever a +military force sufficiently universal was at the command of wealthy +men. + +It is particularly true to-day. To-day not the natural centres of +exchange, still less the natural centres of production, determine what +places in the world shall be wealthy and what shall not. The surplus +of the wealth produced by the Egyptian fellaheen is carefully +collected by English officials and largely consumed in Paris; the +wealth produced by the manufacturers of North England is largely spent +in the south of England and upon the Continent; until their recent and +successful revolt, the wealth produced by the Irish peasantry was +largely spent in London and upon the Riviera. + +The economic importance, then, of the Thames Valley has not +diminished, but increased since South England ceased to be the main +field of production. + +The tradition of Government, the habitual residence of the wealthy and +directing classes of the community, have centred more and more in +London. The old establishment of luxury in the Thames Valley has +perpetually increased since the decline of its industrial and +agricultural importance, and undoubtedly, if it were possible to draw +a map indicating the proportion of economic _demand_ throughout the +country, the Valley of the Thames would appear, in proportion to its +population, by far the most concentrated district in England, although +it contains but one very large town, and although it is innocent of +any very important modern industry. + +It is interesting, in connection with this economic aspect of the +Thames Valley, to note that, alone of the great river valleys of +Europe, it has no railway system parallel to its banks. There is no +series of productive centres which could give rise to such a railway +system. The Great Western Railway follows the river now some distance +upon one side, now some distance upon the other, as far as Oxford; but +it does not depend in any way upon the stream, and where the course of +the stream is irregular it goes on its straight course, throwing out +branch lines to the smaller towns upon the banks: for the railway +depends, so far as this section is concerned, upon the industries of +the Midlands and of the west. Were you to cut off the sources of +carriage which it draws upon from beyond the Valley of the Thames it +could not exist. + +The Scheldt, the Rhine, the Rhone, the Garonne, the Seine, the Elbe, +are all different in this from the Thames. The economic power of our +main river valley is chiefly a spending power. It produces little and, +though it exchanges more of human wealth, it is the artificial +machinery of exchange rather than the physical movement of goods that +enriches it. + +Now this habit of residence, this settlement of the concentrated power +of demand upon the banks of the Thames, was the work of the monastic +houses. It may be argued that, with the commercial importance of +London, and with its attainment of the position of a capital, the +residence of such economic power would necessarily have spread up the +Thames Valley. It is doubtful whether any such necessity as this +existed. In Roman times the Thames certainly did not lead up thus in +the line of wealth from London, and though it is true that water +carriage greatly increased in importance after the breakdown of Roman +civilisation, yet the medium by which that water carriage was utilised +was the medium of the Benedictine foundations. They it was who +established that continuous line of progressive agricultural +development and who prepared the way for the later yet more continuous +line of the full monastic effort which succeeded the Conquest. + +A list of monastic institutions upon the river, if we exclude the +friars, the hospitals, and such foundations as made part of town or +university life, is as follows:--a priory at Cricklade, another at +Lechlade, the Abbey at Eynsham (sufficiently near the stream to be +regarded as riparian), the Nunnery and School of Godstow, the great +Abbeys of Osney and Rewley, the Benedictine Nunnery at Littlemore, the +great Abbey of Abingdon, the Abbey of Dorchester, Cholsey (but this +had been destroyed before the Conquest, and was never revived), the +Augustinian Nunnery at Goring, the great Cluniac Abbey at Reading, the +Cell of Westminster at Hurley, the Abbey of Medmenham, the Abbey of +Bisham just opposite Marlow, and the Nunnery of Little Marlow; the +Nunnery of Burnham, which, though nearly a mile and a half from the +stream, should count from the position of its property as a riparian +foundation, the little Nunnery of Ankerwike, the great Benedictine +Abbey of Chertsey, the Carthusians of Sheen, and the Benedictines of +Westminster, to which may be added the foundation of Bermondsey. + +When the end came the total number of those in control of such wide +possessions was small. + +Indeed it was perhaps no small cause of the unpopularity, such as it +was, into which the same monasteries had locally fallen, that so much +economic power was concentrated in so few hands. The greater +foundations throughout the country possessed but a little more than +3000 religious, and even when all the nuns, friars, and professed +religious of the towns are counted, we do not arrive at more than 8000 +in religion in an England which must have had a population of at least +4,000,000, and quite possibly a much larger number; nor could the mobs +foresee that the class which would seize upon the abbey lands would +concentrate the means of production into still fewer hands, until at +last the mass of Englishmen should have no lot in England. + +Moreover, it would be an error to consider the numbers of the +religious alone. The smaller foundations, and especially the convents +of nuns, did certainly support but small numbers, and this probably +accounts for the ease with which they were suppressed, but, on the +other hand, their possessions also were small. In the case of the +great foundations, though one can count but 3000 monks and canons, the +number of them must be multiplied many times if we are to arrive at +the total of the communities concerned. Reading, Abingdon, and the +rest were little cities, with a whole population of direct dependants +living within the walls, and a still larger number of families +without, who indirectly depended upon the revenues of the abbey for +their livelihood. + +Another and perhaps a better way of presenting to a modern reader the +overwhelming economic power of the mediæval monastic system, +especially its economic power in the Valley of the Thames, would be to +add to such a list of houses a map of that valley showing the manors +in ecclesiastical hands, the freeholds and leaseholds held by the +great abbeys, in addition to the livings that were within their gift; +in a word, a map giving all their different forms of revenue. + +Such a map would show the Valley of the Thames and its tributaries +covered with ecclesiastical influence upon every side. + +Even if we confined ourselves to the parishes upon the actual banks of +the river, the map would present a continuous stretch of possessions +upon either side from far above Eynsham down to below bridges. + +The research that would be necessary for the establishment of such a +complete list would require a leisure which is not at the disposal of +the present writer, but it is possible to give some conception of what +the monastic holdings were by drawing up a list confined to but a +small part of these holdings and showing therefore _a fortiori_ what +the total must have been. + +In this list I concern myself only with the eight largest houses in +the whole length of the river. I do not mention parishes from which +the revenues were not important (though these were numerous, for the +abbeys held a large number of small parcels of land). I do not mention +the very numerous holdings close to the river but not actually upon it +(such as Burnham or Watereaton), nor, which is most important of all, +do I count even in the riparian holdings such foundations as were not +themselves set upon the banks of the Thames. Whatever Thames land paid +rent to a monastery not actually situated upon the banks of the river, +I omit. Finally the list, curtailed as it is by all these limitations, +concerns only the land held at the moment of the Dissolution. Scores +of holdings, such as those of Lechlade, which was dissolved in +Catholic times, Windsor, which was exchanged as we have seen at the +time of the Conquest, I omit and confine myself only to the lands held +at the time of the Dissolution. + +Yet these lands--though they concern only eight monasteries, though I +mention only those actually upon the banks of the river, and though I +omit from the list all small payments--put before one a series of +names which, to those familiar with the Thames, seems almost like a +voyage along the stream and appears to cover every portion of the +landscape with which travellers upon the river are familiar. Thus we +have Shifford, Eynsham, South Stoke, Radley, Cumnor, Witham, Botley, +the Hinkseys, Sandford, Shillingford, Swinford, Medmenham, Appleford, +Sutton, Wittenham, Culham, Abingdon, Goring, Cowley, Littlemore, +Cholsey, Nuneham, Wallingford, Pangbourne, Streatley, Stanton +Harcourt; and all this crowd of names upon the upper river is arrived +at without counting such properties as attached to the great +monasteries within towns, as, for example, to the monasteries of +Oxford. It is true that not all these names represent complete +manorial ownership. In a number of cases they stand for portions of +the manor only, but even in this list ten at least, and possibly +twelve, stand for complete manorial ownership. Then one must add +Sonning, Wargreave, Tilehurst, Chertsey, Egham, Cobham, Richmond, Ham, +Mortlake, Sheen, Kew, Chiswick, Staines, etc., of which many of the +most important, such as Staines, are full manorial possessions. + +It is clearly evident, from such a very imperfect and rapidly drawn +list, what was the economic power of the great houses, and one may +conclude, even from the basis of such imperfect evidence, that the +directing force of economic effort throughout the Thames Valley was to +be found, right up to the Dissolution, in the chapter houses of +Reading, of Chertsey, and of Westminster, of Abingdon and of the +lesser houses. + +In a word, the business of Henry might be compared to what may be in +future the business of some democratic European Government when it +lays its hands upon the fortunes of the great financial houses, but +with this double difference, that the confiscation to which Henry bent +himself was a confiscation of capital whose product did not leave the +country, and could not be used for anti-national purposes, as also +that it was the confiscation of wealth which never acted secretly and +which had no interest, as have our chief moneylenders, in political +corruption. It was a vast undertaking and, in the truest sense of the +word, a revolutionary one, such as Europe had not seen until that +moment, and perhaps has not seen since. + +It was effected with ease, because there did not reside in the public +opinion of the time any strong body of resistance. + +The change of religion, in so far as a change was threatened (and upon +that the mass of the parish priests themselves, and still more the +mass of the laity, were very hazy), did not affect the mind of a +people famous throughout Europe for their intense and often +superstitious devotion; but in some odd way the segregation of the +great communities, their vast wealth, and perhaps an external +contradiction between their original office and their present +privilege, forbade any united or widespread enthusiasm in their +defence. + +Englishmen rose upon every side when they thought that the vital +mysteries of the Faith were threatened. The risings were only put down +by the use of foreign mercenaries and by the most execrable cruelty, +nor would even these means have sufficed had the rebels formed a clear +plan, or had the purpose of Henry himself in matters of religion been +definite and capable of definite attack. But the country, though ready +to fight for Dogma, was not ready to fight for the monasteries. It +might, perhaps, have fought if the attack upon them had been direct +and universal. If Henry had laid down a programme of suppressing +religious bodies in general, he probably could not have carried it +out, but he laid down no such programme. The Dissolution of the +smaller houses was imagined by the most devout to be a statesmanlike +measure. Many of them, like Medmenham, were decayed; their wealth was +not to be used for the private luxury of the King or of nobles; it was +to swell the revenues of the greater foundations or to be applied to +pious or honourable public use. But the example once given, the attack +upon the greater houses necessarily followed; and the whole episode is +a vivid lesson in the capital principle of statesmanship that men are +governed by routine and by the example of familiar things. Render +possible to the mass of men the conception that the road, they +habitually follow is not a necessity of their lives, and you may exact +of them almost any sacrifice or hope to see them witness without +disgust almost any enormity. + +Moreover, the great monasteries were each severally tricked. The one +was asked to surrender at one time, another at another; the one for +this reason, the other for that. The suppression of Chertsey, the +example perpetually recurring in these pages, was solemnly promised to +be but a transference of the community from one spot to another; then +when the transference had taken place the second community was +ruthlessly destroyed. There is ample evidence to show that each +community had its special hope of survival, and that each, until quite +the end of the process, regarded its fate, when that fate fell upon +it, as something exceptional and peculiar to itself. Some, or rather +many, purchased temporary exemption, doubtless secure in the belief +that their bribe would make that extension permanent. Their payments +were accepted, but the contracts depending upon them were never +fulfilled. + +When the Dissolution had taken place, apart from the private loot, +which was enormous, and to which we shall turn a few pages hence, a +methodical destruction took place on the part of the Crown. + +In none of the careless waste which marked the time is there a worse +example than in the case of Reading. The lead had already been +stripped from the roof and melted into pigs; the timbers of the roof +had already been rotting for nearly thirty years, when Elizabeth gave +leave for such of them as were sound to be removed. Some were used in +the repairing of a local church; a little later further leave was +given for 200 cartloads of freestone to be removed from the ruins. But +they showed an astonishing tenacity. The abbey was still a habitation +before the Civil Wars, and even at the end of the eighteenth century a +very considerable stretch of the old walls remained. + +Westminster was saved. The salvation of Westminster is the more +remarkable in that the house was extremely wealthy. + +Upon nothing has more ink been wasted in the minute research of modern +history than upon an attempted exact comparison between modern and +mediæval economics. + +It is a misfortune that those who are best fitted to appreciate the +economic problems and science of the modern world are, either by race +or religion, or both, cut off from the mediæval system, and even when +they are acquainted with the skeleton, as it were, of that body of +Christian Europe, are none the less out of sympathy with, or even +ignorant of, its living form and spirit. + +The particular department of that inquiry which concerns anyone who +touches the vast economic revolution produced by the Dissolution of +the monasteries is the comparison of values (as measured in the +precious metals) between the early sixteenth century and the early +twentieth. + +No sensible man needs to be told that such a comparison is one of the +very numerous parts of historical inquiry in which a better result is +arrived at in proportion as the matter is more generally and largely +observed. It is one in which detail is more fatal to a man even than +inaccuracy, and it is one in which hardly a single observer who has +been really soaked in his subject has avoided the most ludicrous +conclusions. + +Again, no man of common sense need be told that a rigid multiple is +absolutely impossible of discovery. The search for such a multiple is +like a search for an index number which shall apply to all the varying +economic habits of the modern world. One cannot say: "Multiply prices +by 10" or "Multiply prices by 20," and thus afford the modern reader a +sound basis; but one can say, after some observation: "Multiply by +such-and-such a multiple" (wherever very large and varied expenditure +is concerned) and you will certainly have a minimum; though how much +_more_ such expenditure may have represented in those very different +and far simpler social circumstances cannot be precisely determined. +What, then, is the rough multiple that will give us our minimum? + +The inquiry has been prosecuted by more than one authority upon the +basis of wheat. One may say that wheat in normal years in the early +sixteenth century stood at about an eighth of wheat in what I may call +the normal years of the nineteenth, before the influx of Colonial +produce began to be serious, and before the depreciation of silver +combined with other causes to disturb prices. + +Those who have taken wheat for their basis, recognising, as even they +must do, that 8 is far too low a multiple, are willing to grant 10, +and sometimes even 12, and this way of calculating, largely because it +is a ready rule, has entered into many books upon the Reformation. The +early Tudor penny is turned into the modern shilling. + +But this basis of calculation is false, because the eating of wheaten +bread was not then the universal thing it is to-day. The English +proletarian of to-day is, in comparison with the large well-to-do +class of his fellow-citizens, a far poorer man than his ancestry ever +were. Wheaten bread is, indeed, his necessity, but good fresh meat +(for example) is an exception for him. + +Now the Englishmen of earlier times made beef a necessity, and yet we +find that beef will permit a higher multiple than wheat. Beef will +give you a multiple of 12, and just as wheat, giving you a multiple of +8, permits a somewhat higher general multiple, so beef, giving you a +multiple of 12, permits a higher one. So if we were to make beef our +staple instead of wheat we should get a multiple of 13 or 14 by which +to turn the money of the first third of the sixteenth century into the +money of our own time. + +But beef, in its turn, is not a fair standard; during much of the year +pork had, under the circumstances of the time, to be eaten instead of +fresh meat. Pork is to-day almost the only meat all the year round of +many labourers on the land. Now pork gives a still higher multiple: it +gives 20. For the pound that you would now give in Chichester Market +for a breeding sow, you gave in the early years of the sixteenth +century a shilling. So here you have another article of common +consumption which gives you a multiple of 20. + +Strong ale gives you a higher multiple still--one of nearly 24. You +could then get strong ale at a penny a gallon. You will hardly get it +at two shillings a gallon to-day; and yet it is made of the same +materials. The small ale of the hayfield will give you almost any +multiple you like; it is from eightpence to ninepence a gallon now: it +was often given away in the sixteenth century as water would be. + +The consideration of but a few sets of prices such as those we have +quoted shows that the ordinary multiple might be anything between 8 +and 24, with a prejudice in favour of the higher rather than the lower +figure. But there are other lines of proof which converge upon the +matter, and which permit a greater degree of certitude. For instance, +even after the rise in prices in the early part of Elizabeth's reign, +while sixpence a week is thought low for the board and lodging of a +working man, a shilling is thought very high, and is only given in the +case of first-rate artisans; and if we consider the pre-Reformation +period, when the position of the labourer was, of course, much better +than it was under Elizabeth, or ever has been since, we find something +of the same scale. A penny a day is thought a rather mean allowance, +but twopence a day is a first-rate extra board wage. + +Again, in Henry VIII.'s first poll tax it is taken for granted that +many labourers have less than a pound a year in actual wages, and that +wages over this sum, up to two pounds, for instance, form a sort of +aristocracy of labour that can afford to pay taxation. Of course some +part of the wages so counted were paid in part board and lodging, +especially in the agricultural industries, but still, the reception of +240 pence for a year's work in money gives you a multiple of far more +than 20: you will not get a man about a house and garden for less than +thirty pounds though you feed and house him, and the unhoused outside +labourer gets, first and last, over fifty pounds at the least. + +When the Reformation was in full swing the currency was debased almost +out of recognition, and before the death of Edward VI. prices are +rendered so fictitious by inflation that they are useless for our +purpose. It is only with the currency of Elizabeth that they became +true measures of value once more. + +It is useless, therefore, to follow the inquiry after the Dissolution +of the monasteries, for not only was the currency at sixes and sevens, +but true prices were also rapidly rising with the influx of precious +metals from Spain and America. + +I have said enough in this very elementary sketch to show that a +general multiple of 20, when one considers wages as well as staple +foods, is as high as can be fixed safely, while a general multiple of +12 is certainly too low. + +But even to multiply by 20 is by no means enough if one is to +appreciate the social meaning of such-and-such a large income in the +first part of Henry VIII.'s reign. + +A brief historical essay, such as is this, is no place in which to +discuss any general theory of economics; were there space to do so, +even in an elementary fashion, it would be possible to show how the +increase of wealth in a state is, on account of the increased +elasticity in circulation of the currency, almost independent of the +movement of prices. But without going into formulæ; of this +complexity, a couple of homely comparisons will suffice to show what a +much larger thing a given income was in the early sixteenth century, +than its corresponding amount in values is to-day. + +Consider a man with some £2000 a year travelling through modern +Europe. Prices, in the competition of modern commerce and the ease of +modern travel, are levelled up very evenly throughout the area that he +traverses. Yet such a man, should he settle in a village of Spanish +peasants, would appear of almost illimitable wealth, because he would +have at his command an almost indefinite amount of those simple +necessities which form the whole category of their consumable values. +Or again, let such a man settle in a place where the variety of +consumable values is large, but where the distribution of wealth is +fairly equal, and the small income, therefore, a normal social +phenomenon--as, for instance, among the lower middle class of +Paris-there again his £2000 a year would be of much greater effect +than in a society where wealth was unequally divided, for it would +produce that effect in a medium where the satisfaction of nearly every +individual around him was easily reached upon perhaps a tenth of such +an income. + +When all this is taken into consideration we can begin to see what the +great monasteries were at the time of their dissolution. It is hardly +an exaggeration to multiply the list of mere values by 20 to bring it +into the terms of modern currency. A place worth close on £2000 a year +(as was, for instance, Ramsey Abbey) meant an income of not far short +of £40,000 a year in our money, to go by prices alone. And that +£40,000 a year was spent in an England in which nine-tenths of the +luxury of our modern rich was unknown, in which the squire was usually +but three or four times richer than one of his farmers, in which great +wealth, where it existed, attached rather to an office than to a +person. In general, the multiple of 20 must be further multiplied by a +coefficient which is not arithmetically determinable, but which we see +I to be very large by a general comparison of the small, poor, and +equable society of the early sixteenth century with the complex, huge, +wealthy, and wholly iniquitous society of our own day. + +Supposing, for instance, we take the high multiple of 20, and say that +the revenues of Westminster at its dissolution in the first days of +1540 were some £80,000 a year in our modern money, we are far +underestimating the economic position of Westminster in the State. +There are to-day many private men in London who dispose of as great an +income, and who, for all their ostentation, are not remarkable; but +the income of Westminster in the early sixteenth century, when wealth +was far more equally divided than it is now, and when the accumulation +of it was far less, was a very different matter to what we mean to-day +by £80,000 a year. It produced more of the effect which we might +to-day imagine would be produced by a million. The fortune of but very +few families could so much as compare with it, and the fortunes of +individual families, especially of wealthy families, were, during the +existence of a strong king, highly perilous, and often cut short; +nothing could pretend to equal such an economic power but the Crown, +which then was, and which remained until the victory of the +aristocracy in the Civil Wars, by far the richest legal personality in +Britain. The temptation to sack Westminster was something like the +temptation presented to our financial powers to-day to get at the +rubber of the Congo Basin or at the unexploited coal of Northern +China. + +By a miracle that temptation was withstood. For the moment Henry +intended to construct a bishopric with its cathedral out of the old +corporation and abbey. He might have done so and yet have yielded +immediately after to his cupidity, as he did with the Cathedral of +Osney. It ended in the form which it at present maintains. The greater +part of its revenues were, of course, stolen, but the fabric was +spared and enough income was retained to permit the continuous life of +Westminster to our own time. + +Men are slow to conceive what might have been--nay, what almost +_was_--in their national history; it seems difficult to our generation +to imagine Westminster Abbey absent only from the national life; yet +Abingdon is gone, all but a gateway, Reading all but a few ruined +walls, Chertsey has utterly disappeared, so has Osney, so has +Sheen--to mention the great river houses alone: Westminster alone +survives, and the only reason it survives is that it had about it at +the time of the destruction of the monasteries a royal flavour, and +that its existence helped to bolster up the Tudors. But for that it +would have been sold like the rest, the lead would have been stripped +from its roof, the glass broken and thrown aside, and a Cecil or a +Howard would have built himself a palace with the stones. It is but a +chance that the words "Westminster Abbey" mean more to us to-day than +"Woburn Abbey," "Bewley Abbey" or any one of the scores of "Abbeys," +"Priories," and the rest, which are the names of our country houses. + +Chertsey and Abingdon were less fortunate than Westminster. + +Chertsey, indeed, has so thoroughly disappeared that it might be taken +as a symbol of all that England had been for the thirty generations +since Christianity had come to her, and then, in two generations of +men, ceased suddenly to be. There is, perhaps, not one in a thousand +of the vague Colonials who regard Westminster Abbey as a sort of +inevitable centre for Britishers and Anglo-Saxons, who has so much as +heard of Chertsey. There is perhaps but one in a hundred of historical +students who could attach a definite connection to the name, and yet +Chertsey came next in the list of the great Benedictine Abbeys; +Chertsey also was coeval with England. + +Chertsey went the way of them all. The last abbot, John Cordery, +surrendered it in the July of 1537, but he and his community were not +immediately dispersed, they were taken off to fill that strange new +foundation of Bisham, of which we shall hear later in connection with +the river, and which in its turn immediately disappeared. Not a year +had passed, the June of 1538 was not over, when the new community at +Bisham was scattered as the old one at Chertsey had been. + +Of the abbey itself nothing is left but a broken piece of gateway, and +the few stones of a wall. But a relic of it remains in Black Cherry +Fair, a market granted to the abbey in the fifteenth century and +formerly held upon St. Anne's Hill and upon St. Anne's Day. + +The fate of this monastery has something about it particularly tragic, +for the abbot and the monks of Chertsey when they surrendered did so +in the full expectation of continuing their monastic life at Bisham, +and if Bisham was treacherously destroyed immediately after the fault +does not lie at their door. + +With Abingdon it was otherwise. The last prior was perhaps the least +steadfast of all the many bewildered or avaricious characters that +meet us in the story of the Dissolution. He was one Thomas Rowland, +who had watched every movement of Henry's mind, and had, if possible, +gone before. He did not even wait until the demand was made to him, +but suggested the abandonment of the trust which so many generations +of Englishmen had left in his hands, and he had a reward in the gift +not only of a very large pension but also of the Manor of Cumnor, +which had been before the destruction of the religious orders the +sanatorium or country house of the monks. He obtained it: and from his +time on Cumnor has borne an air of desolation and of murder, nor does +any part of his own palace remain. + +When any organised economic system disappears, there is nothing more +interesting in history than to watch the process of its replacement: +for example, the gradual disappearance of pagan slavery, and its +replacement by the self-governing peasantry of the Middle Ages, with +all the consequence of that change, affords some of the best reading +in Continental records. But the Dissolution of the English monasteries +has this added interest, that it was an immediate, and therefore an +overwhelming, change; there was hardly a warning, there was no delay. +Suddenly, not within the lifetime of a man, but within that of a +Parliament, from one year to another, a good quarter of the whole +economic power of the nation was utterly transformed. Nothing like it +has been known in European history. + +What filled the void so made? The answer to this question is, the +Oligarchy: the landed class which had been threatening for so long to +assume the Government of England stepped into the shoes of the great +houses, and by this addition to their already considerable power +achieved the destruction of the monarchy and within 100 years +proceeded to the ordering of the English people under a small group of +wealthy men, a form of Government which to this day England alone of +all Christian nations suffers or enjoys. + +This general statement must not be taken to mean that the oligarchic +system, whose basis lies in the ownership of land, was immediately +created by the Dissolution of the great monasteries. The development +of the territorial system of England, of which system the banks of the +Thames afford as good a picture as any in England, can be traced +certainly from Saxon, and conjecturally from Roman, times. + +The Roman estate was, presumably, the direct ancestor of the manor, +and the Saxon thegns were perhaps most of them in blood, and nearly +all of them in social constitution, descended from the owners of the +Roman Villas which had seen the petty but recurrent pirate invasions +of the fifth and sixth centuries. + +But though the manorial arrangement, with its village lords and their +dependent serfs, was common to the whole of the West, and could be +found on the Rhine, in Gaul, and even in Italy, in Saxon England it +had this peculiarity, that there was no systematic organisation by +which the local land-owner definitely recognised a feudal superior, +and through him the power of a Central Government. Or rather, though +in theory such recognition had grown up towards the end of the Saxon +period, in practice it hardly existed, and when William landed the +whole system of tenure was in disorder, in the sense that the local +lord of the village was not accustomed to the interference of a +superior, and that no groups of lords had come into existence by which +the territorial system could be bound in sheaves, as it were, and the +whole of it attached to one central point at the royal Court. + +Such a system of groups _had_ arisen in Gaul, and to that difference +ultimately we owe the French territorial system of the present day, +but William the Norman's new subjects had no comprehension of it. + +It was upon this account that even those manors which he handed over +to his French kindred and dependants were scattered, and that, though +he framed a vigorous feudal rule centring in his own hands, the +ancient customs of the populace, coupled with the lack of any bond +between scattered and locally independent units, forbade that rule to +endure. + +William's order was not a century old when the recrudescence of the +former manorial independence was felt in the reign of Henry II. Under +the personal unpopularity of his son, John, it blazed out into +successful revolt, and, in spite of the veil thrown over underlying +and permanent customs by such strong feudal kings as the first and the +third Edwards, the independence and power of the village landlord +remained the chief and growing character of English life. It expressed +itself in the quality of the local English Parliament, in the support +of the usurping Lancastrian dynasty--in twenty ways that converge and +mingle towards the close of the Middle Ages. + +But after the Dissolution of the monasteries this power of the squires +takes on quite a different complexion: the land-owning class, from a +foundation for the National Government, became, within two generations +of the Dissolution, the master of that Government. + +For many centuries previous to the sixteenth the old funded wealth of +the Crown had been gradually wasting, at the expense of the Central +National Government and to the profit of the squires. But the +alienation was never complete. There are plenty of cases in which the +Crown is found resuming the proprietorship of a manor to which it had +never abandoned the theoretical title. With the Tudors such cases +become rarer and rarer, with the Stuarts they cease. + +The cause of this rapid enfeeblement of the Crown lay largely in the +changed proportion of wealth. The King, until the middle of the +sixteenth century, had been far wealthier than any one of his +subjects. By a deliberate act, the breaking up of ecclesiastical +tenure, the Crown offered an opportunity to the wealthier of those +subjects so enormously to increase their revenues as to overshadow +itself; in a little more than a century after the throwing open of the +monastic lands the King is an embarrassed individual, with every issue +of expenditure ear-marked, every source of it controlled, and his very +person, as it were, mortgaged to a plutocracy. The squires had not +only added to their revenues the actual amounts produced by the sites +and estates of the old religious foundations, they had been able by +this sudden accession of wealth to shoot ahead in their competition +with their fellow-citizens. The _counterweight_ to the power of the +local landlord disappeared with the disappearance of the monastery. + +To show how the religious houses had furnished a powerful +counterweight by which the Central Government and the populace could +continue to oppose the growing power of the landed oligarchy, we may +take all the southern bank of the Thames from Buscot to Windsor. We +find at the time of the Conquest twelve royal manors and fifteen +religious; only the nine remaining were under private lords. Four and +a half centuries later, at the time of the Dissolution, the royal +manors have passed for the most part into private hands, but the +manors in the hands of the religious houses have actually increased in +number. + +At this point it is important to note an economic phenomenon which +appears at first sight accidental, but which, on examination, is found +to spring from calculable political causes. At the moment of the +Dissolution it was apparently in the power of the Crown to have +concentrated the revenues of all these monastic manors into its own +hands, and this typical stretch of country, the Berkshire shore, shows +how economically powerful the Central Government of England might have +become had the property surrendered to the Crown been kept in the +hands of the King. + +The modern reader will be tempted to inquire why it was not so kept. + +Most certainly Henry intended to keep, if not the whole of it (for he +must reward his servants, and he was accustomed to do things largely), +yet at least the bulk of it in the Royal Treasury, and had he been +able to do so the Central Government of England would have become by +far the strongest thing in Europe. It is conceivable, though in +consideration of the national character doubtful, that with so +powerful an instrument of government, England, instead of standing +aside from the rapid bureaucratic recasting of European civilisation +which was the work of the French Crown, might have led the way in that +chief of modern experiments. One can imagine the Stuarts, had they +possessed revenue, doing what the Bourbons did: one can imagine the +modern State developing under an English Crown wealthier than any +other European Government, and the re-birth of Europe happening just +to the north, instead of just to the south, of the Channel. + +But the speculation is vain. As a fact, the whole of the new wealth +slipped rapidly from between the fingers of the English King. + +When of three forces which still form an equilibrium two are +stationary and one is pressing upon these two, then, if either of the +stationary forces be removed, that which was pressing upon both +overwhelms the stationary force that remains. The monastic system had +been marking time for over 100 years, and in certain political aspects +of its power had perhaps slightly dwindled. The monarchy, for all its +splendour, was in actual resources no more than it had been for some +generations. Pressing upon either of these two institutions was the +rising and still rising force of the squires. It is not wonderful that +under such conditions the spoil fell to the younger and advancing +power. + +Consider, for example, the extraordinary anxiety of so apparently +powerful a king as Henry for the formal consent of the Commons to his +acts. It has been represented as part of the Tudor national policy and +what not, but those who write thus have not perhaps smiled, as has the +present writer, over the names of those who sat for the English shires +in the Parliament which assented to the Dissolution of the great +monastic houses. Here is a Ratcliffe from Northumberland, and a +Collingwood; here is a Dacre, a Musgrave, a Blenkinsop; the Constables +are there, and the Nevilles from Yorkshire; the Tailboys of Lincoln, a +Schaverell, a Throgmorton, a Ferrers, a Gascoyne; and of course, +inevitably, sitting for Bedfordshire, a hungry Russell. + +Here is a Townshend, a Wingfield, a Wentworth, an Audley--all from +East Anglia--a Butler; from Surrey a Carew, and that FitzWilliam whose +appetite for the religious spoils proved so insatiable; here is a +Blount out of Shropshire; a Lyttleton, a Talbot (and yet _another_ +Russell!), a Darrell, a Paulet, a Courtney, (to see what could be +picked up in his native county of Devon), and after him a Grenfell. +These are a few names taken at random to show what humble sort of +"Commons" it was that Henry had to consider. They are significant +names; and the "Constitution" had little to do then, and has little to +do now, with their domination. Wealth was and is their instrument of +power. + +That such men could ultimately force the Government is evident, but +what is remarkable, perhaps, is the extraordinary rapidity with which +the Crown was stripped of its new wealth by the gentry, and this can +only be explained in two ways: + +First, there was the rapid change in prices which rose from the +Spanish importation of precious metals from America, the effect of +which was now reaching England; and, secondly, the Tudor character. + +As to the first, it put the National Government, dependent as it still +largely was upon the customary and fixed payments, into a perpetual +embarrassment. Where it still received nothing but the customary +shilling, it had to pay out three for material and wages, whose price +had risen and was rising. In this embarrassment, in spite of every +subterfuge and shift, the Crown was in perpetual, urgent, and +increasing need. Rigid and novel taxes were imposed, loans were raised +and not repaid, but something far more was needed to save the +situation, with prices still rising as the years advanced. Ready money +from those already in possession of perhaps half the arable land of +England was an obvious source, and into their pockets flowed, as by +the force of gravitation, the funded wealth which had once supported +the old religion. Hardly ever at more than ten years' purchase, +sometimes at far less, the Crown turned its new rentals into ready +money, and spent that capital as though it had been income. + +The Tudor character was a second cause. + +It is a pleasing speculation to conceive that, if some character other +than a Tudor had been upon the throne, not all at least of this +national inheritance would have been dissipated. One can imagine a +character--tenacious, pure, narrow and subtle, intent upon dignity, +and with a natural suspicion of rivals--which might have saved some +part of the estates for posterity. Charles I., for example, had he +been born 100 years earlier, might very well have done the thing. + +But the Tudors, for all their violence, were fundamentally weak. There +was always some vice or passion to interrupt the continuity of their +policy--even Mary, who was not the offspring of caprice, had inherited +the mental taint of the Spanish house--and before the last of the +family had died, while still old men were living who, as children, had +seen the monasteries, nearly all this vast treasure had found its way +into the pockets of the squires. In the middle of the seventeenth +century every one of these villages is under a private landlord: +before the close of it even the theoretical link of their feudal +dependence upon the Crown is snapped: and the two centuries between +that time and our own have seen the power of the new landlords +steadily maintained and latterly vastly increased. + +Apart from the transfer of the monastic manors there was yet another +way in which the Dissolution of the religious houses helped on the +establishment of the landed oligarchy in the place of the old National +Government. The monasteries had owned not only these full manorial +rights, but also numerous parcels of land scattered up and down in +manors whose lordship was already in private hands. These parcels, +like the small lay freeholds, which they resembled, formed nuclei of +resistance to the increasing power of the squires. + +The point is of very considerable importance, though not easy to seize +for anyone unacquainted with the way in which the territorial +oligarchy has been built up or ignorant of the present conditions of +English village life. + +At the close of the Middle Ages the lord of a manor in England, though +possessed of a larger proportion of the land than were his colleagues +in other countries, but rarely could claim so much as one half of the +acreage of a parish; the rest was common, in which his rights were +strictly limited and defined, to the advantage of the poor, and also +side by side with common was to be found a number of partially and +wholly independent tenures, over which the squire had little or no +control, from copyholds which did furnish him occasional sums of +money, to freeholds which were practically independent of him. + +The monasteries possessed parcels of this sort everywhere. To give but +one example: Chertsey had twenty acres of freehold pasturage in the +Manor of Cobham; but it is useless to give examples of a thing which +was as common as the renting of a house to-day. Now these small +parcels formed a most valuable foundation upon which the independence +of similar lay parcels could repose. The squire might be tempted to +bully a four-acre man out of his land, but he could not bully the +Abbot of Abingdon, or of Reading. And so long as these small parcels +were sanctioned by the power of the great houses, so long they were +certain to endure in the hands even of the smallest and the humblest +of the tenants. To-day in a modern village where a gentleman possesses +such an island of land, better still where several do, there at once +arises a tendency and an opportunity for the smaller men to acquire +and to retain. The present writer could quote a Sussex village in the +centre of which were to be found, but thirty years ago, more than +half-a-dozen freeholds. They disappeared: in its prosperity "The +Estate" extinguished them. The next heir in his embarrassment has +handed over the whole lump to a Levantine for a loan. Had the Old +Squire spared the small freeholds they would have come in as +purchasers and would have increased their number during the later +years when the principal landlord, his son, was gradually falling into +poverty and drink. + +When the monasteries were gone the disappearance of the small men +gradually began. It was hastened by the extinction of that old +tradition which made the Church a customary landlord exacting quit +rents always less than the economic value of the land, and, what with +the security of tenure and the low rental, creating a large tenant +right. This tenant right vested in the lucky dependants of the Church +did indeed create intense local jealousies that help to account for +much of the antagonism to the monastic houses. But the future showed +that the benefits conferred, though irregular and privileged, were +more than the landless men could hope to expect when they had +exchanged the monk for the squire. + +Finally, the Dissolution of the religious houses strengthened the +squires in the mere machinery of the constitution. Before that +Dissolution the House of Lords was a clerical house. Had you entered +the Council of Henry VII. when Parliament sat at Westminster you would +have seen a crowd of mitres and of croziers, bishops and abbots of the +great abbeys, among whom, here and there, were some thirty lay lords. +This clerical House of Lords, sprung largely from the populace, +possessed only of life tenure, was a very different thing from the +House of Lords that succeeded the Dissolution. _That_ immediately +became a committee, as it were, of the landed class; and a committee +of the landed class the House of Lords remained until quite the last +few years, when the practice of purchase has admitted to it brewers, +money-lenders, Colonial speculators, and, indeed, anyone who can +furnish the sum required by a woman or a secret party fund. A concrete +example is often of value in the illustration of a general process, +and at the expense of a digression I propose to lay before the reader +as excellent a picture as we have of the way in which the Dissolution +of the monasteries not only emphasised the position of the existing +territorial class, but began to recruit it with elements drawn from +every quarter, and, while it established the squires in power, taught +them to be careless of the origin or of the end of the families +admitted to their rank. + +For this purpose I can find no better example than that of the family +of Williams, which by the licence of custom we have come to call +"Cromwell"; the most famous member of this family stands out in +English history as the typical squire who led the Forces of his Order +against the impoverished Monarchy, and so reduced that emblem of +Government to the simulacrum which it still remains. + +Putney, by Thames-side, was the home of their very lowly beginnings. + +Of the descent of the Williams throughout the Middle Ages nothing is +known. Much later they claimed relationship with certain heads of the +Welsh clans, but the derivation is fantastic. At any rate a certain +Williams was keeping a public-house in Putney in the generation which +saw the first of the Reformers. His name was Morgan, and the "Ap +William" or "Williams" which he added to that name was an affix due to +the Welsh custom of calling a man by his father's name; for surnames +had not yet become a rule in the Principality. He may have come, and +probably did, from Glamorganshire, and that is all we can say about +him; though we must admit some weight in Leland's contemporary +evidence that his son, Richard, was born in the same county, at a +place called Llanishen. Anyhow, there he is, keeping his public-house +in the first years of the sixteenth century by the riverside at +Putney. + +There lived in the same hamlet (which was a dependency of the manor of +Wimbledon) a certain Cromwell or Crumwell, who was also called Smith; +but this obscure personage should most probably be known by the first +of these two names, for his humble business was the shoeing of horses, +and the second appellation was very probably a nickname arising from +that trade. He also added beer-selling to his other work, and this +common occupation may have formed a link between him and his +neighbour, Morgan ap William. + +The next stage in the story is not perfectly clear. Smith or Crumwell +had a son and two daughters, the son was called Thomas, and the +daughter that concerns us was called Katherine. It is highly probable, +according to modern research into the records of the manor, that +Morgan ap William married Katherine. But the matter is still in some +doubt. There are not a few authorities, some of them painstaking, +though all of them old, who will have it that the blacksmith's son, +Thomas, loved Morgan ap William's sister, instead of its being the +other way about. It is not easy to establish the exact relationship +between two public-house keepers who lived as neighbours in a dirty +little village 400 years ago. + +Thomas proceeded to an astonishing career; he left his father's forge, +wandered to Italy, may have been present at the sack of Rome, and was +at last established as a merchant in the city of London. When one says +"merchant" one is talking kindly. His principal business then, as +throughout his life, was that of a usurer, and he showed throughout +his incredible adventures something of that mixture of simplicity and +greed, with a strange fixity in the oddest of personal friendships, +which amuses us to-day in our company promoters and African +adventurers. His abilities recommended him to Wolsey, and when that +great genius fell, Cromwell was, as the most familiar of historical +traditions represents him, faithful to his master. + +Whether this faithfulness recommended him to the King or not, it is +difficult to say. Probably it did, for there is nothing that a careful +plotter will more narrowly watch in an agent than his record of +fidelity in the past. + +Henry fixed upon him to be his chief instrument in the suppression of +the monasteries. His lack of all fixed principle, his unusual power of +application to a particular task, his devotion to whatever orders he +chose to obey, and his quite egregious avarice, all fitted him for the +work his master ordered. + +How the witty scoundrel accomplished that business is a matter of +common history. Had he never existed the monasteries would have fallen +just the same, perhaps in the same manner, and probably with the same +despatch. But fate has chosen to associate this revolution with his +name--and to his presence in that piece of confiscation we owe the +presence in English history of the great Oliver; for Oliver, as will +be presently seen, and all his tribe were fed upon no other food than +the possessions of the Church. Cromwell, in his business of +suppressing the great houses, embezzled quite cynically--if we can +fairly call that "embezzlement" which was probably countenanced by the +King, to whom account was due. Indeed, it is plainly evident from the +whole story of that vast economic catastrophe which so completely +separates the England we know from the England of a thousand +years--the England of Alfred, of Edward I., of Chaucer, and of the +French Wars--it is evident from the whole story, that the flood of +confiscated wealth which poured into the hands of the King's agents +and squires was a torrent almost impossible to control; Henry VIII. +was glad enough to be able to retain, even for a year or two, one half +of the spoils. + +We know, for instance, that the family of Howard (which was then +already of more than a century's standing) took everything they could +lay their hands on in the particular case of Bridlington--pyxes, +chalices, crucifixes, patens, reliquaries, vestments, shrines, every +saleable or meltable thing, and the cattle and pigs into the bargain, +and never dreamt of giving account to the King. + +With Cromwell, the embezzlement was more systematic: it was a method +of keeping accounts. But our interest lies in the fact that the +process was accompanied by that curious fidelity to all with whom he +was personally connected, which forms so interesting a feature in the +sardonic character of this adventurer. It is here that we touch again +upon the family of Morgan ap William, the public-house keeper of +Putney. + +When Cromwell was at the height of his power he lifted out from the +obscurity of his native kennel a certain Richard Williams, calling him +now "cousin" and now "nephew." We may take it that the boy was a +nephew, and that the word "cousin" was used only in the sense of +general relationship which attached to it at that time. If Cromwell +had been a man of a trifle more distinction, or of tolerable honesty, +we might even be certain that this young fellow was the legitimate son +of his sister Katherine, and, indeed, it is much the more probable +conclusion at which we should arrive to-day. But Cromwell himself +obscured the matter by alluding to his relative as "Williams (alias +Cromwell)," and there must necessarily remain a suspicion as to the +birth and real status of his dependant. + +In 1538 this young Richard Williams got two foundations handed over to +him--both in Huntingdon, and together amounting in value to about £500 +a year. + +We have seen on an earlier page how extremely difficult or impossible +it is to estimate exactly in modern money the figures of the +Dissolution. We have agreed that to multiply by twenty for a maximum +is permissible, but that even then we shall not have anything like the +true relation of any particular income to the general standard of +wealth in a time when England was so much smaller than our England of +to-day, and in an England where wealth had been until that moment so +well divided, and especially in an England where the objects both of +luxury and expenditure were so utterly different to our own: where all +textile fabric was, for instance, so much dearer in proportion to food +than it is now, and where yet a man could earn in a few weeks' labour +what would with us be capital enough to stock a small farm. + +It is safe to say, however, that when Cromwell had got his young +relation--whatever that relationship was--into possession of the two +foundations in Huntingdon, he had set him up as a considerable local +gentleman, and whether it was the inheritance of the Cromwell blood +through his mother, or something equally unpleasant in the heredity of +his father, Morgan, young Williams ("alias Cromwell") did not stick +there. + +Early in 1540 he swallowed bodily the enormous revenues of Ramsey +Abbey. + +Now to appreciate what that meant we must return to the case we have +already established in the case of Westminster. Westminster almost +alone of the great foundations remains with a certain splendour +attached to it; we cannot, indeed, see all the dependencies as they +used to stand to the south of the great Abbey. We cannot see the +lively and populous community dependent upon it; still less can we +appreciate what a figure it must have cut in the days when London was +but a large country town, and when this walled monastic community +stood in its full grandeur surrounded by its gardens and farms. But +still, the object lesson afforded by the Abbey yet remains visible to +us. We can see it as it was, and we know that its income must have +represented in the England at that time infinitely more in outward +effect than do to-day the largest private incomes of our English +gentry: a Solomon Joel, for instance, or a Rothschild, does not occupy +so great a place in modern England as did Westminster, at the close of +the Middle Ages, in the very different England of its time. + +Well, Ramsey was the equivalent of half Westminster, and young +Williams swallowed it whole. He was not given it outright, but the +price at which he bought it is significant of the way in which the +monastic lands were distributed, and in which incidentally the +squirearchy of England was founded. He bought it for less than three +years' purchase. Where he got the money, or indeed whether he paid +ready money at all, we do not know. If he did furnish the sum down we +may suspect that he borrowed it from his uncle, and we may hope that +that genial financier charged but a low rate of interest to one whom +he had so signally favoured. + +Contemporaneously with this vast accession of fortune, which made +Williams the principal man in the county, Cromwell, now Earl of Essex, +fell from favour, and was executed. The barony was revived for his son +five months after his death and was not extinguished until the first +years of the eighteenth century, but with this, the direct lineage of +the King's Vicar-General, we are not concerned: our business is with +the family of Williams. + +Young Williams did not imitate his protector in showing any startling +fidelity to the fallen. He became a courtier, was permanently in +favour with the King and with the King's son, and died established in +the great territorial position which he had come into by so singular +an accident. + +His son, Henry, maintained that position, and possibly increased it. +He was four times High Sheriff of the two counties; he received +Elizabeth, his sovereign and patroness, at his seat at Hinchinbrooke +(one of the convents), and in general he played the rôle with which we +are so tediously familiar in the case of the new and monstrous +fortunes of our own times. + +He was in Parliament also for the Queen, and it was his brother who +moved the resolution of thanks to Elizabeth for the beheading of Mary +Queen of Scots. + +He died in 1603, and even to his death the alias was maintained. +"Williams (alias Cromwell)" was the legal signature which guaranteed +the validity of purchases and sales, while to the outer world CROMWELL +(alias Williams) was the formula by which the family gently thrust +itself into the tradition of another and more genteel name. The whole +thing was done, like everything else this family ever did, by a +mixture of trickery and patience; he obtained no special leave from +Chancery as the law required; he simply used the "Williams" in public +less and less and the "Cromwell" more and more. When he died, his sons +after him, Robert and Oliver, had forgotten the Williams +altogether--in public--and in the case of such powerful men it was +convenient for the neighhours to forget the lineage also; so with the +end of the sixteenth century these Williams have become Cromwells, +_pur et simple_, and Cromwells they remain. But still the old caution +clings to them where the law, and especially where money, is +concerned; even Robert's son, who grew to be the Lord Protector, signs +_Williams_ when it is a case of securing his wife's dowry. Of Robert +and Oliver, sons of Henry, and grandsons of the original Richard, +Oliver, the elder, inherited, of course, the main wealth of the +family, but Robert also was portioned, and as was invariably the case +with the Williams' (alias Cromwell), the portion took the form of +monastic lands. + +Many more estates of the Church had come into the hands of this highly +accretive family in the half century that had passed since the +destruction of the monasteries. [Thus at the very end of the century +we find Oliver telling the abbey land of Stratton to a haberdasher in +London for £3000.] + +The portion of this younger brother, Robert, consisted of religious +estates in the town of Huntingdon itself, and it is highly +characteristic of the whole tribe that the very house in which the +Lord Protector was born was monastic, and had been, before the +Dissolution, a hospital dedicated to the use of the poor. For the Lord +Protector was the son of this Robert, who by a sort of atavism had +added to the ample income derived from monastic spoil the profits of a +brewery. It was Mrs Cromwell who looked after the brewery, and some +appreciable part of the family revenues were derived from it when, in +1617, her husband died, leaving young Oliver, the future Lord +Protector, an only son of eighteen, upon her hands. + +The quarrels between young Oliver and old Oliver (the absurdly wealthy +head of the family) would furnish material for several diverting +pages, but they do not concern this, which is itself but a digression +from the general subject of my book. + +The object of that digression has been to trace the growth of but one +great territorial family, from the gutter to affluence in the course +of less than 100 years; to show how plain "Williams" gradually and +secretly became "Cromwell"--because the new name had about it a +flavour of nobility, however parvenu; to show how the whole of their +vast revenues depended upon, and was born from, the destruction of +monastic system, and to show by the example of one Thames-side family +how rapidly and from what sources was derived that economic power of +the squires which, when it came to the issue of arms, utterly +destroyed what was left of the national monarchy. + +The new _régime_ had, however, other features about it which must not +be forgotten. For instance, in this growth of a new territorial body +upon the ruins of the monastic orders, in this sudden and portentous +increase of the wealth and power of the squires of England, the +mutability of the new system is perhaps as striking as any other of +its characteristics. + +Manors or portions of manors which had been steadily fixed in the +possession and customs of these undying corporations for centuries +pass rapidly from hand to hand, and though there is sometimes a lull +in the process the uprooting reoccurs after each lull, as though +continuity and a strong tradition, which are necessarily attached for +good or for evil to a free peasantry, were as necessarily disregarded +by a landed plutocracy. There is not, perhaps, in all Europe a similar +complete carelessness for the traditions of the soil and for the +attachment of a family to an ancestral piece of land as is to be found +among these few thousand squires. The system remains, but the +individual families, the particular lineages, appear without +astonishment and are destroyed almost without regret. Aliens, +Orientals and worse, enter the ruling class, and are received without +surprise; names that recall the Elizabethans go out, and are not +mourned. + +We are accustomed to-day, when we see some village estate in our own +country pass from an impoverished gentleman to some South African Jew, +to speak of the passing of an old world and of its replacement by a +new and a worse one. But an examination of the records which follow +the Dissolution of the monasteries may temper our sorrow. The wound +that was dealt in the sixteenth century to our general national +traditions affected the love of the land as profoundly as it did +religion, and the apparent antiquity which the trees, the stones, and +a certain spurious social feeling lend to these country houses is +wholly external. + +Among the riparian manors of the Thames the fate of Bisham is very +characteristic of the general fate of monastic land. It was +surrendered, among other smaller monasteries, in 1536, though it +enjoyed an income corresponding to about £6000 a year of our money, +and of course very much more than £6000 a year in our modern way of +looking at incomes. It was thus a wealthy place, and how it came to be +included in the smaller monasteries is not quite clear. At any rate it +was restored immediately after. The monks of Chertsey were housed in +it, as we have already seen, and the revenues of several of the +smaller dissolved houses were added to it; so that it was at the +moment of its refoundation about three times as wealthy as it had been +before. The prior who had surrendered in 1536, one Barlow, was made +Bishop of St Asaphs, and in turn of St. Davids, Bath and Wells, and +Chichester; he is that famous Barlow who took the opportunity of the +Reformation to marry, and whose five daughters all in turn married the +Protestant bishops of the new Church of England. But this is by the +way. The fate of the land is what is interesting. From Anne of Cleves, +whose portion it had been, and to whom the Government of the great +nobles under Edward VI. confirmed it after Henry VIII.'s death, it +passed, upon her surrendering it in 1552, to a certain Sir Philip +Hoby. He had been of the Privy Council of Henry VIII. Upon his death +it passed to his nephew, Edward Hoby; Edward was a Parliamentarian +under Elizabeth, wrote on Divinity, and left an illegitimate son, +Peregrine, to whom he bequeathed Bisham upon his death in 1617. It +need hardly be said that before 100 years were over the son was +already legitimatised in the county traditions; his son, Edward, was +created Baron just after the Restoration, in 1666. The succession was +kept up for just 100 years more, when the last male heir of the family +died in 1766. He was not only a baron but a parson as well, and on his +death the estate went to relatives by the name of Mill, or, as we +might imagine, "Hoby" Mill. It did not long remain with them. They +died out in 1780 and the Van Sittarts bought it of the widow. + +Consider Chertsey, from which Bisham sprang. The utter dispersion of +the whole tradition of Chertsey is more violent than that perhaps of +any other historical site in England. The Crown maintained, as we have +seen to be the case elsewhere, its nominal hold upon the foundations +of the abbey and of what was left of the buildings, though that hold +was only nominal, and it maintained such a position until 1610--that +is, for a full lifetime after the community was dispersed. But the +tradition created by FitzWilliam continued, and the Crown was ready to +sell at that date, to a certain Dr. Hammond. The perpetual mobility +which seems inseparable from spoils of this kind attaches +thenceforward to the unfortunate place. The Hammonds sell after the +Restoration to Sir Nicholas Carew, and before the end of the +seventeenth century the Carews pass it on to the Orbys, and the Orbys +pass it on to the Waytes. The Waytes sell it to a brewer of London, +one Hinde. So far, contemptuous as has been the treatment of this +great national centre, it had at least remained intact. With Hinde's +son even that dignity deserted it. He found it advisable to distribute +the land in parcels as a speculation; the actual emplacement of the +building went to a certain Harwell, an East Indian, in 1753, and his +son left it by will to a private soldier called Fuller, who was +suspected of being his illegitimate brother. Fuller, as might be +expected, saw nothing but an opportunity of making money. He redivided +what was left intact of the old estate, and sold that again by lots in +1809; a stockbroker bought the remaining materials of a house whose +roots struck back to the very footings of our country, sold them for +what they were worth--and there was the end of Chertsey. + +Then there is also Radley: which begins as an exception, but fails. It +was a manor of Abingdon, and after the Dissolution it fell a prey to +that one of the Seymours who proved too dirty and too much even for +his brother and was put to death in 1549. It passed for the moment, as +we have seen several of these riverside manors do, into the hands of +Mary. But upon her death Elizabeth bestowed it upon a certain +Stonehouse, and the Stonehouses did come uncommonly near to founding a +family that should endure. Nor can their tradition be said to have +disappeared when the name changed and the manor passed to the nephew +of the last Stonehouse, by name Bowyer. But Bowyer did not retain it. +He gradually ruined himself: and it is amusing at this distance of +time to learn that the cause of his ruin was the idea that coal +underlay his property. Everyone knows what Radley since became: it was +purchased by an enthusiast, and is now a school springing from his +foundation. + +Or consider the two Hinkseys opposite Oxford, both portions of +Abingdon manors; they are granted in the general loot to two worthies +bearing the names of Owen and Bridges: a doctor. + +These were probably no more than vulgar speculators upon a +premium--"Stags," as we should say to-day--for a few years afterwards +we find a Williams in possession of one of the Hinkseys; he is +followed by the Perrots, and only quite late, and by purchase, do we +come to the somewhat more dignified name of Harcourt. The other +Hinksey, after still more varied adventures, ends up in the hands of +the Berties, obscure south-country people who date from a rich +Protestant marriage of the time. + +Cholsey, again, with its immemorial traditions of unchanging +ecclesiastical custom, receiving its priests in Saxon times from the +Mont St. Michel upon the marches of Brittany, and later holding as a +manor from the Abbot of Reading, remains with the Crown but a very few +years. In 1555 Mary handed it over to that Sir Robert Englefield who +was promptly attainted by her successor. It gets in the hands of the +Knowleses, then of the Rich's, and ends up with the family of +Edwardes-seventeenth-century Welshmen, who, by a plan of wealthy +marriages, became gentlemen, and have now for 100 years and more been +peers, under the title of Kensington. + +The mention of Sir Robert Englefield leads one to what is perhaps the +best example in the whole Thames Valley of this perpetual chop and +change in the holding of English land; that example is to be +discovered at Pangbourne. + +Pangbourne also was monastic; and the manor held, as did Cholsey, of +Reading Abbey. In the race for the spoils Dudley clutched it in 1550. +When he was beheaded, three years later, and it passed again to the +Crown, Mary handed it (as she had handed Cholsey) to Sir Robert +Englefield. His attainder followed. Within ten years it changes hands +again. Elizabeth in 1563 gave it to her cofferer, a Mr Weldon. This +personage struck no root, nor his son after him, for in 1613, while +still some were alive who could remember the old custom and immemorial +monastic lordship of the place, Weldon the younger sold it to a +certain Davis. + +Davis, one would hope--in that seventeenth century which was so +essentially the century of the squires, and in that generation also +wherein the squires wiped out what was left of the Crown and left the +King a salaried dependant of the governing class--Davis might surely +have attempted to found a family and to achieve some sort of dignity +of tradition. He probably made no such an attempt, but if he did he +failed; for only half-a-century later the unfortunate place changes +hands again, and the Davises sell it to the Breedons. + +The Breedons showed greater stability. They are actually associated +with Pangbourne for over a century, but even this experiment in +lineage broke down, through the extinction of the direct line. In +1776, by a sham continuity consonant to the whole recent story of +English land, it passes to yet another family on the condition of +their assuming the name of Breedon--which was not their own. + +All up and down England, and especially in this Thames Valley, which +is in all its phases so typical and symbolical of the rest of the +country, this stir and change of tenure is to be found, originating +with the sharp changes of 1540, and continuing to our own day. + +Anywhere along this Berkshire shore of the Thames the process may be +traced; even the poor little ruined nunnery of Ankerwike shows it. The +site of that quiet and forgotten community was seized under Edward VI. +by Smith the courtier. Then you find it in the pockets of the Salters, +after them of the Lysons. The Lysons sell it to the Lees, and finally +it passes by marriage to the Harcourts. + +The number of such examples that could be taken in the Valley of the +Thames alone would be far too cumbersome for these pages. One can +close the list with Sonning. + +Sonning, which had been very possibly the see of an early bishopric, +and which was certainly a country house of the Bishop of Salisbury, +did not pass from ecclesiastical hands by a theft, but it was none the +less doomed to the same mutability as the rest. In 1574 it was +exchanged with the Crown for lands in Dorset. The Crown kept it for an +unusually long time, considering the way in which land slipped on +every side from the control of the National Government at this period. +It is still royal under Charles I., but it passes in 1628 to Halstead +and Chamberlain. In little more than twenty years it is in the hands +of the family of Rich. Then there is a lull, just as there was in the +case of Pangbourne, and a continuity that lasts throughout the +eighteenth century. But just as a tradition began to form it was +broken, and in the first years of the nineteenth century Sonning is +sold to the Palmers. + +Parallel to the rise of the squires and their capture of English +government has gone the development of the English town system. And +this, the last historical phase with which we shall deal in these +pages, is also very well and typically illustrated in the history of +the Thames Valley. That valley contains London, which is, of course, +not only far the largest but in its way the fullest example of what is +peculiarly English in the development of town life; and it contains, +in the modern rise of Oxford and Reading, two of the very best +instances to show how the English town in its modern aspect has sprung +from the industrial system and from the introduction of railways. For +neither has any natural facilities for production, and the growth of +each in the nineteenth century has been wholly artificial. + +The most recent change of all, with which these notes will end, is, +one need hardly say, this industrial transformation. It has made a +completely new England, and it nourishes the only civilised population +in the world which is out of touch with arms, and with the physical +life and nature of the country it inhabits, and the only population in +which the vast majority are concerned with things of which they have +no actual experience, and feel most strongly upon matters dictated to +them at second or third hand by the proprietors of great journals. + +What that new England will become none of us can tell; we cannot even +tell whether the considerable problem of maintaining it as an +organised civilisation will or will not be solved. All the conditions +are so completely new, our whole machinery of government so thoroughly +presupposes a little aristocratic agricultural state, and our strong +attachment to form and ritual so hampers all attempts at +reorganisation, that the way in which we shall answer, if we do +answer, the question of this sphinx, cannot as yet even be guessed at. + +But long before the various historical causes at work had begun to +produce the great modern English town, long before the use of coal, +the development of the navy, and, above all, the active political +transformation of our rivals during the eighteenth century, had given +us that industrial supremacy which we have but recently lost, the +English town was a thing with characteristics of its own in Europe. + +In the first place, it was not municipal in the Roman sense. The sharp +distinction which the Roman Empire and the modern French Republic, +and, from the example of that republic, the whole of Western Europe, +establish between town and country, comes from the fact that European +thought, method of government, and the rest, were formed on the +Mediterranean: but the civilisation of the Mediterranean was one of +city states; the modern civilisation which has returned to Roman +traditions is, therefore, necessarily municipal. A man's first country +in antiquity was his town; he died for his town; he left his wealth to +his town; the word "civilisation," like the word "citizen," and like a +hundred words connected with the superiority of mankind, are drawn +from the word for a town. To be political, to possess a police, to +recognise boundaries--all this was to be a townsman, and the various +districts of the Empire took their proper names, at least, from the +names of their chief cities, as do to-day the French and the Italian +countrysides. + +Doubtless in Roman times the governing forces of Britain attempted a +similar system here. But it does not seem ever to have taken root in +the same way that it did beyond the Channel. The absence of a +municipal system in the fullest sense is one of the very few things +which differentiates the Roman Britain from the rest of the Empire, +others being a land frontier to the west, and the large survival of +aboriginal dialects. + +The Roman towns were not small, indeed Roman London was very large; +they were not ill connected with highroads; they were certainly +wealthy and full of commerce; but they gave their names to no +districts, and their municipal institutions have left but very faint +traces upon posterity. + +The barbarian invasions fell severely upon the Roman cities of +Britain, in some very rare cases they may have been actually +destroyed, but in the much more numerous cases where we may be +reasonably sure that municipal life continued without a break +throughout the incursions of the pirates, their decay was pitiful; and +when recorded history begins again, after a gap of two hundred years, +with the Roman missionaries of the sixth and seventh centuries, we +find thenceforward, and throughout the Saxon period, many of the towns +living the life of villages. + +The proportion that were walled was much smaller than was the case +upon the Continent, and even the most enduring emblem and the most +tenacious survival of the Roman Imperial system--namely, the Bishop +seated in the chief municipality of his district--was not universal to +English life. + +It is characteristic of Gregory the Great that he intended, or is +believed to have intended, Britain, when he had recivilised it, to be +set out upon a clear Latin model, with a Primate in the chief city and +suffragans in every other. But if he had such a plan (and it would +have been a typically Latin plan) he must have been thinking of a +Britain very different from that which his envoys actually found. When +the work was accomplished the little market town of Canterbury was the +seat of the Primate; the old traditions of York secured for it a +second archbishop, great London could not be passed over, but small +villages in some places, insignificant boroughs in others, were the +sites of cathedrals. Selsey, a rural manor or fishing hamlet, was the +episcopal centre of St. Wilfrid and his successors in their government +of Sussex; Dorchester, as we have seen, was the episcopal town, or +rather village, for something like half England. In the names of its +officers also and in the methods of their government the Anglo-Saxon +town was agricultural. + +With the advent of the Normans, as one might expect, municipal life to +some extent re-arose. But it still maintained its distinctively +English character throughout the Middle Ages. Contrast London or +Oxford, for instance, in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, +with contemporary Paris. In London and Oxford the wall is built once +for all, and when it is completed the town may grow into suburbs as +much as it likes, no new wall is built. In Paris, throughout its +history, as the town grows, the first concern of its Government is to +mark out new limits which shall sharply define it from the surrounding +country. Philip Augustus does it, a century and a half later Etienne +Marcel did it; through the seventeenth century, and the eighteenth, +the custom is continued: through the nineteenth also, and to-day new +and strict limits are about to be imposed on the expanded city. + +Again the metropolitan idea, which is consonant to, and the climax of, +a municipal system, is absent from the story of English towns. + +Until a good hundred years after the Conquest you cannot say where the +true capital of England is, and when you find it at last in London, +the King's Court is in a suburb outside the walls and the Parliament +of a century later yet meets at Westminster and not in the City. + +The English judges are not found fixed in local municipal centres, +they are itinerant. The later organisation of the Peace does not +depend upon the county towns; it is an organisation of rural squires; +and, most significant of all, no definite distinction can ever be +drawn between the English village and the English town neither in +spirit nor in legal definition. You have a town like Maidenhead, which +has a full local Government, and yet which has no mayor for centuries. +Conversely, a town having once had a mayor may dwindle down into a +village, and no one who respects English tradition bothers to +interfere with the anomaly. For instance, you may to-day in Orford +enjoy the hospitality, or incur the hostility, of a Mayor and +Corporation. + +On all these accounts the banks of the Thames, until quite the latest +part of our historical development, presented a line of settlements in +which it was often difficult to draw the distinction between the +village and the town. + +Consider also this characteristic of the English thing, that the +boroughs sending Members to Parliament first sent them quite haphazard +and then by prescription. + +Simon de Montfort gets just a few borough Members to his Parliament +because he knows they will be on his side; and right down to the +Tudors places are enfranchised--as, for example, certain Cornish +boroughs were--not because they are true towns but because they will +support the Government. Once returning Members, the place has a right +to return them, until the partial reform of 1832. It is a right like +the hereditary right of a peer, a quaint custom. It has no relation to +municipal feeling, for municipal feeling does not exist. Old Sarum may +lose every house, Gatton may retain but seven freeholders, yet each +solemnly returns its two Members to Parliament. + +From the first records that we possess until the beginning of the +nineteenth century, the line of the Thames was a string of large +villages and small towns, differing in size and wealth far less than +their descendants do to-day. In this arrangement, of course, the +valley was similar to all the rest of England, but perhaps the +prosperity of the larger villages and the frequency of the market +towns was more marked on the line of the Thames than in any other +countryside, from the permanent influx of wealth due to the royal +castles, the great monastic foundations, and the continual stream of +travel to and from London which bound the whole together. + +Cricklade, Lechlade, Oxford, Abingdon, Dorchester, Wallingford, +Reading, and Windsor--old Windsor, that is--were considerable places +from at least the period of the Danish invasions. They formed the +objective of armies, or the subject matter of treaties or important +changes. But the first standard of measure which we can apply is that +given us by the Norman Survey. + +How indecisive is that standard has already been said. We do not +accurately know what categories of wealth were registered in Domesday. +The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, barbaric in this as in most other matters, +would have it that the Survey was complete, and applied to all the +landed fortune of England. That, of course, is absurd. But we do have +a rough standard of comparison for rural manors, though it is a very +rough one. Though we cannot tell how much of the measurements and of +the numbers given are conventional and how much are real, though we do +not know whether the plough-lands referred to are real fields or +merely measures of capacity for production, though historians are +condemned to ceaseless guessing upon every term of the document, and +though the last orthodox guess is exploded every five or six +years--yet when we are told that one manor possessed so many ploughs +or paid upon so many hides, or had so many villein holdings while +another manor had but half or less in each category; and when we see +the dues, say three times as large in the first as in the second, then +we can say with certitude that the first was much more important than +the second; _how_ much more important we cannot say. We can, to repeat +an argument already advanced, affirm the inhabitants of any given +manor to be at the very least not less than five times the number of +holdings, and thus fix a _minimum_ everywhere. For instance, we can be +certain that William's rural England had not less than 2,000,000, +though we cannot say how much more they may not have been--3,000,000, +4,000,000, or 5,000,000. In agricultural life--that is, in the one +industry of the time--Domesday does afford a vague statement to the +rural conditions of England at the end of the eleventh century, and, +dark as it is, no other European nation possesses such a minute record +of its economic origins. + +But with the towns the case is different. There, except for the +minimum of population, we are quite at sea. We may presume that the +houses numbered are only the houses paying tax, or at least we may +presume this in some cases, but already the local customs of each town +were so highly differentiated that it is quite impossible to say with +certitude what the figures may mean. It is usual to take the taxable +value of the place to the Crown and to establish a comparison on that +basis, but it is perhaps wiser, though almost as inconclusive, to +consider each case, and all the elements of it separately, and to +attempt, by a co-ordination of the different factors given to arrive +at some sort of scale. + +Judged in this manner, Wallingford and Oxford are the early towns of +the Thames Valley which afford the best subjects for survey. + +Wallingford in Domesday counted, closes and cottages together, just +under 500 units of habitation. It is, of course, a matter of +conjecture how much population this would stand for. A minimum is +here, as elsewhere, easily established. We may presuppose that a +close, even of the largest kind, was but a private one; we may next +average the inhabitants of each house at five, which is about the +average of modern times, and so arrive at a population of 2500. But +this minimum of 2500 for the population of Wallingford at the time of +the Conquest is too artificial and too full of modern bias to be +received. Not even the strongest prejudice in favour of underrating +the wealth and population of early England, a prejudice which has for +it objects the emphasising of our modern perfection, would admit so +ludicrous a conclusion. But while we may be perfectly certain that the +population of Wallingford was far larger than this minimum, to obtain +a maximum is not so easy. We do not know, with absolute certainty, +whether the whole of the town has been enumerated in the Survey, +though we have a better ground for supposing it in this case than in +most others. Such numerous details are given of holdings which, though +situated in the town, counted in the property of local manors that we +are fairly safe in saying that we have here a more than commonly +complete survey. The very cottages are mentioned, as, for example, +"twenty-two cottages outside the wall," and their condition is +described in terms which, though not easy for us to understand, +clearly signify that they could be taken as paying the full tax. + +The real elements of uncertainty lie, first in the number of people +normally inhabiting one house at that time, and secondly, in the exact +meaning of the word "haga" or "close." + +As to the first point, we may take it that one household of five would +be the least, ten would be the most, to be present under the roof of +an isolated family; but we must remember that the Middle Ages +contained in their social system a conception of community which not +only appeared (and is still remembered) in connection with monastic +institutions, but which inspired the whole of military and civil life. +To put it briefly, a man at the time of the Conquest, and for +centuries later, would rather have lived as part of a community than +as an individual householder, and conversely, those indices of +importance and social position which we now estimate in furniture and +other forms of ostentation were then to be found in the number of +dependants surrounding the head of the house. A merchant, for example, +if he flourished, was the head of a very numerous community; every +parish church in a town represented a society of priests and of their +servants, and of course a garrison (such as Wallingford pre-eminently +possessed) meant a very large community indeed. We are usually safe, +at any rate in the towns, if we multiply the known number of tenements +by ten in order to arrive at the number of souls inhabiting the +borough. To give the Wallingford of the Conquest a minimum of 5000, if +we were certain that 500 (or, to speak exactly, 491) was the number of +single units of taxation within the borough, would be to set that +minimum quite low enough. + +The second difficulty is that of establishing the meaning of the word +"haga." In some cases it may represent one single large establishment. +But on the other hand we can point to six which between them covered a +whole acre, and no one with the least acquaintance of mediæval +municipal topography, no one, for instance, who knows the history of +twelfth-century Paris, would allow one-sixth of an acre to a single +average house within the walls of a town. A close would have one or +more wells, it is true; some closes certainly would have gardens, but +the labour of fortification, and the privilege of market, were each of +them causes which forbade any great extension of open spaces, save in +the case of privileged or wealthy communities or individuals. + +From what we know of closes elsewhere, it is more probable that these +at Wallingford were the "cells" as it were of the borough organism. A +man would be granted in the first growth of the town a unit of land +with definitely established boundaries, which he would probably +enclose (the word "haga" refers to such an enclosure), and though at +first there might be only one house upon it, it would be to his +interest to multiply the tenements within this unit, which unit +rendered a regular, customary and unchanging due to its various +superiors, whatever the number of inhabitants it grew to contain. + +If we turn to a comparison based upon taxation we have equal +difficulties, though difficulties of a different sort. We saw in the +case of Old Windsor that a community of perhaps 1000, probably of +more, but at any rate something more like a large village than a town +(and one moreover not rated as a town), paid in dues the equivalent of +thirty loads of wheat. Wallingford paid the equivalent of only twenty +or twenty-two. But on the other hand the total Farm of the Borough, +the globular price at which the taxes could be reckoned upon to yield +a profit, was equivalent to no less than 400 such loads. + +Judged by the number of hagæ we should have a Wallingford about five +times the size of Old Windsor. Judged by the taxable capacity we +should have an Old Wallingford of more than ten times the size of Old +Windsor. + +Here again a further element of complexity enters. It was quite out of +the spirit of the Middle Ages to estimate dues, whether to a feudal +superior or to the National Government, or even minor payments made to +a true proprietorial owner at the full capacity of the economic unit +concerned. All such payment was customary. Even where, in the later +Middle Ages, a man indubitably owned (in our modern sense of the word +"owned") a piece of freehold land, and let it (in our modern sense of +the word "let"), it would not have occurred to him or his tenant that +the very highest price obtainable for the productive capacity of the +land should be paid. The philosophy permeating the whole of society +compelled the owner and the tenant, even in this extreme case, to a +customary arrangement; for it was an arrangement intended to be +permanent, to allow for wide fluctuations of value, and therefore to +be necessarily a minimum. If this was the case in the later Middle +Ages where undoubted proprietary right was concerned, still more was +it the case in the early Middle Ages with the customary feudal dues; +these varied infinitely from place to place, rising in scale from +those of privileged communities wholly exempt to those of places such +as we believe Old Windsor to have been, which paid (and these were the +exceptions), not indeed every penny that they could pay (as they would +now have to pay a modern landlord), but half, or perhaps more than +half, such a rent. + +Where Wallingford stood in this scale it is quite impossible to say, +and we can only conclude with the very general statement that the +Wallingford of the Conquest consisted of certainly more than 5000 +souls, more probably of 10,000, and quite possibly of more than +10,000. + +Having taken Wallingford with its minute and valuable record as a sort +of unit, we can roughly compare it with other centres of populations +upon the river at the same date. + +Old Windsor we have already dealt with, and made it out from a fifth +to a tenth of Wallingford. Reading was apparently far smaller. Indeed +Reading is one of the puzzles of the early history of the Thames +Valley. We have already seen in discussing these strategical points +upon the river what advantages it had, and yet it appears only +sporadically in ancient history as a military post. The Danes hold it +on the first occasion on which we find the site recorded, in the +latter half of the ninth century: it has a castle during the anarchy +of the twelfth, but it is a castle which soon disappears. It +frequently plays a part in the Civil Wars of the seventeenth, but the +part it plays is only temporary. + +And Reading presents a similar puzzle on the civilian side. It is +situated at the junction of two waterways, one of which leads directly +from the Thames Valley to the West of England, yet it does not seem to +have been of a considerable civil importance until the establishment +of its monastery; and even then it is not a town of first-class size +or wealth, nor does it take up its present position until quite late +in the history of the country. + +At the time of the Domesday Survey it actually counts, in the number +of recorded enclosures at least, for less than a third of Old Windsor; +and we may take it, after making every allowance for possible +omissions or for some local custom which withdrew it from the taxing +power of the Crown, for little more than a village at that moment. + +The size of Oxford at the same period we have already touched upon, +but since, like every other inference founded upon Domesday, the +matter has become a subject of pretty violent discussion, it will +bear, perhaps, a repeated and more detailed examination at this place. + +Let us first remember that the latest prejudice from which our +historical school has suffered, and one which still clings to its more +orthodox section, was to belittle as far as possible the general +influence of European civilisation upon England; to exalt, for +example, the Celtic missionaries and their work at the expense of St +Augustine, to grope for shadowy political origins among the pirates of +the North Sea, to trace every possible etymology to a barbaric root, +and to make of Roman England and of early Medieval England--that is, +of the two Englands which were most fully in touch with the general +life of Europe--as small a thing as might be. + +In the light of this prejudice, which is the more bitter because it is +closely connected with religion and with the bitter theological +passions of our universities, we are always safe in taking the larger +as against the smaller modern estimates of wealth, of population and +of influence, where either of these civilisations is concerned, and, +conversely, we are always safe in taking at the lowest modern estimate +the numbers and effect of the barbaric element in our history. + +To return to the ground we have already briefly covered, and to +establish a comparison with Wallingford, the word "haga," which we saw +to be of such doubtful value in the case of Wallingford, is replaced +in Oxford by the word "mansio." The taxable units so enumerated are +just over 600, but of these much more than half are set down as +untaxable or imperfectly taxable under the epithets "Uasta," "Uastæ." +What that epithet means we do not know. It may mean anything between +"out of repair," "excused from taxation because they do not come up to +our new standard of the way in which a house in a borough should be +kept up, and because we want to give them time to put themselves in +order," down to the popular acceptation of the word as meaning +"ruined," or even "destroyed." + +We know that at the close of the eleventh century, or indeed at any +time before the thirteenth, the small man who lived under his own roof +would live in a very low house, and that, space for space of ground +area, the cubical contents of these poor dwellings would be less than +those of modern slums. On the other hand, we know that the population +would live much more in the open air, slept much more huddled, and +also that a very considerable proportion--what proportion we cannot +say, but probably quite half of a Norman borough--was connected with +the huge communal institutions--military, ecclesiastical, and for that +matter mercantile, as well--which marked the period. We know that the +occupied space stood for very much what is now enclosed by the line of +the old walls, and we know that under modern conditions this space, in +spite of our great empty public buildings, our sparsely inhabited +wealthy houses, and our college gardens, can comfortably hold some +5000 people. We can say, therefore, at a guess, but only at a guess, +that the Oxford of the Conquest must have had some 3000 people in it +at the very least, and can hardly have had 10,000 at the most. These +are wide limits, but anyone who shall pretend to make them narrower is +imposing upon his readers with an appearance of positive knowledge +which is the charlatanism of the colleges, and pretends to exact +knowledge where he possesses nothing but the vague basis of +antiquarian conjecture. + +It is sufficiently clear (and the reading of any of our most positive +modern authorities upon Domesday will make it clearer) that no sort of +statistical exactitude can be arrived at for the population of the +boroughs in the early Middle Ages. But when we consider that Reading +is certainly underestimated, and when we consider the detail in which +we are informed of Old Windsor, Wallingford, and Oxford, with the +neglect of Abingdon, Lechlade, Cricklade, and Dorchester, one can +roughly say that the Thames above London possessed in Staines, +Windsor, Cookham, probably Henley, perhaps Bensington, Dorchester, +Eynsham, and possibly Buscot, large villages varying from some +hundreds in population to a little over 1000, not defended, not +reckoned as towns, and agricultural in character. To these we may add +Chertsey, Ealing, and a few others whose proximity to London makes it +difficult for us to judge except in the vaguest way their true +importance. + +In another category, possessing a different type of communal life, +already thinking of themselves as towns, we should have Cricklade, +Lechlade, Abingdon, and Kingston among the smaller, though probably +possessing a population not much larger than that of the larger +villages; while of considerable centres there were but three: Reading +the smallest, almost a town, but one upon which we have no true or +sufficient data; Wallingford the largest, with the population of a +flourishing county town in our own days, and Oxford, a place which, +though in worse repair, ran Wallingford close. + +Henley affords an interesting study. At the time of the Conquest, +Bensington was no longer, Henley not yet, a borough. To trace the +growth of Henley is especially engrossing, because it is one of the +very rare examples of a process which earlier generations of +historians, and notably the popular historians like Freeman and the +Rev. Mr Green, took to be a common feature in the story of this +island. They were wrong, of course, and they have been widely and +deservedly ridiculed for imagining that the greater part of our +English boroughs grew up since the barbarian invasions upon waste +places. On the contrary most of our towns grew up upon Roman and +pre-Roman foundations, and are continuous with the pre-historic past. +But Henley forms a very interesting exception. + +It was a hamlet which went with the manor of Bensington, and that +point alone is instructive, for it points to the insignificance of the +place. When the lords of Bensington went hunting up on Chiltern they +found on the far side of the hill, it may be presumed, a little +clearing near the river. This was all that Henley was, and it is +probable that even the church of the place was not built until quite +late in the Christian period; there is at any rate an old tradition +that Aldeburgh is the mother of Henley, and it is imagined by those +who wrote monographs upon the locality that this tradition points to +the church of Aldeburgh as the mother church of what was at first a +chapel upon the riverside. + +When we first hear of Henley it is already called a town, and the date +of this is the first year of King John, 1199. + +It must be remembered that the river had been developed and changed in +that first century of orderly government under the Normans. Indeed one +of the reforms which the aristocracy made much of in their revolt, and +which is granted in Magna Charta, is the destruction of the King's +weirs upon the Thames. But the weirs cannot have been permanently +destroyed; though the public rights over the river were curtailed by +Magna Charta, the system of regulation was founded and endured. It is +probably this improvement on the great highway which led to the growth +of Henley, and when Reading Minster had become the great thing it was +late in the twelfth century, Henley must have felt the effect, for it +would have afforded the nearest convenient stage down the river from +the new and wealthy settlement round the Cluniac Abbey. In the +thirteenth century--that is, in the first hundred years after the +earliest mention we have of the place--Henley became rapidly more and +more important. It seems to have afforded a convenient halting place +whenever progress was made up river, especially a royal progress from +Windsor. Edward I. stayed there constantly, and we possess a record of +three dates which are very significant of this kind of journey. In the +December of 1277 the King goes up river. On the sixteenth of the month +he slept at Windsor, on the seventeenth at Henley, the next day at +Abingdon; and in his son's time Henley has grown so much that it +counts as one of the three only boroughs in the whole of Oxfordshire: +Oxford and Woodstock are the two others. + +It was in the thirteenth century also that a bridge was thrown across +the river at this point--that is, Henley possessed a bridge long +before Wallingford, and at a time when the river could be crossed by +road in but very few places. The granting of a number of indulgences, +and the promises of masses in the middle of the thirteenth century for +this object, give us the date; and, what is perhaps equally +interesting, this early bridge was of stone. + +It is usual to think of the early bridges over the Thames as wooden +bridges. Aft older generation was accustomed to many that still +remained. This was true of the later Middle Ages, and of the torpor +and neglect in building which followed the Reformation. But it was not +true of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The bridge at Henley, +like the bridge of Wallingford and the later bridge of Abingdon, was +of stone. + +It was allowed to fall into decay, and when Leland crossed the river +at this point it was upon a wooden bridge, the piers of which stood +upon the old foundation. How long that wooden bridge had existed in +1533, when Leland noticed it, we cannot tell, but it remained of wood +until 1786, when the present bridge replaced it. + +In spite of the early importance of the town, it was not regularly +incorporated for a long time, but was governed by a Warden, the first +on the list being the date of 1305, within the reign of Edward I. The +charter which gave Henley a Mayor and Corporation was granted as late +as the reign of Henry VIII. and but a few years before Leland's visit. +From that moment, however, the town ceased to expand, either in +importance or in numbers; the destruction of Reading Abbey and of the +Cell of Westminster at Hurley just over the river, very possibly +affected its prosperity. At the beginning of the nineteenth century it +had a population of less than 3000, and sixty years later it had not +added another 1000 to that number. + +Maidenhead follows, for centuries, a sort of parallel course to the +development of Henley. + +Recently, of course, it has very largely increased in population, and +in this it is an example in a minor degree of what Reading and Oxford +are in a major degree--that is, of the changes which the railway has +made in the Thames Valley. But until the effect of the railway began +to be felt Maidenhead was the younger and parallel town to Henley. + +For example, though we cannot tell exactly when Maidenhead Bridge was +built, we may suppose it to have been some few years after Henley +Bridge. It already exists and is in need of repair in 1297. Henley +Bridge is founded more than a generation earlier than that. + +"Maidenhythe," as it was called, has been thought to have been before +the building of this bridge a long timber wharf upon the river, but +that is only a guess. There must have been some local accumulation of +wealth or of traffic or it would not have been chosen as a site for +the new bridge which was somewhat to divert the western road. + +Originally, so far as we can judge, the main stream of gravel crossed +the Thames at Cookham, and again at Henley. Why this double crossing +should have been necessary it is useless to conjecture unless one +hazards the guess that the quality of the soil in very early times +gave so much better going upon the high southern bank of the river +that it was worth while carrying the main road along the bank, even at +the expense of a double crossing of the stream. If that was the case +it is difficult to see how a town of the importance of Marlow could +have grown up upon the farther shore; that Marlow was important we +know from the fact that it had a Borough representation in Parliament +in the first years of that experiment before the close of the +thirteenth century. + +At any rate, whatever the reason was, whether from some pre-historic +conditions having brought the road across the peninsula at this point, +or, as is more likely, on account of some curious arrangement of +mediæval privilege, it is fairly certain that, in the centuries before +the great development of the thirteenth, travel did come across the +river in front of Cookham, recross it in front of Henley, and so make +over the Chilterns to the great main bridge at Wallingford, which led +out to the Vale of the White Horse and the west country. + +The importance of Cookham in this section of the road is shown in +several ways. First the great market, in Domesday bringing in +customary dues to the King of twenty shillings--and what twenty +shillings means in Domesday in mere market dues one can appreciate by +considering that all the dues from Old Windsor only amounted to ten +pounds. Then again it was a royal manor which, unlike most of the +others, was never alienated; it was not even alienated during the ruin +and breakdown of the monarchy which followed the Dissolution of the +monastic orders. + +To this day traces remain of the road which joined this market to the +second crossing at Henley. + +We may presume that the importance of Cookham was maintained for some +two centuries after the Conquest, until it was outflanked and the +stream of its traffic diverted by the building of the bridge at +Maidenhead. + +Just as this bridge came later than the Bridge at Henley, so it was +inferior to it in structure; it was, as we have seen, of timber, but +such as it was, it was the cause of the growth of Maidenhead much more +than was the bridge at Henley the cause of the growth of Henley. The +first nucleus of municipal government grows up in connection with the +Bridge Guild; the Warden and the Bridge Masters remain the head of the +embryonic corporation throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries, and even when the town is incorporated (shortly before the +close of the seventeenth century), by James II., the maintenance and +guardianship of the wooden bridge remained one of the chief +occupations of the new corporation. + +It was just after the granting of the Charter that the army of William +III. marched across this bridge on its way to London, an episode which +shows how completely Maidenhead held the monopoly of the Western road. +The present stone bridge was not built to replace the old wooden one +until the last quarter of the eighteenth century, parallel in this as +in everything else to the example of Henley; and this position of +inferiority to Henley, and of parallel advance to that town, is +further seen in the statistics of population. In 1801, when Henley +already boasted nearly 2000 souls, Maidenhead counted almost exactly +half that number. The later growth of the place is quite modern. + +The antiquity of the crossing of the Thames at Cookham is supported by +a certain amount of pre-historic evidence, worth about as much as such +evidence ever is, and about as little. Two Neolithic flint knives have +been found there, a bronze dagger sheath and spear-head, a bronze +sword, and a whole collection or store of other bronze spear-heads. +Such as it is, it is a considerable collection for one spot. + +Cookham has not only these pre-historic remains; it has also fragments +of British pottery found in the relics of pile dwellings near the +river, and two Roman vases from the bed of the stream; it has further +furnished Anglo-Saxon remains, and, indeed, there are very few points +upon the river where so regular a continuity of the historic and the +pre-historic is to be discovered as in the neighbourhood of this old +ford. + +In was in the course of the Middle Ages, and after the Conquest, that +new Windsor rose to importance. It is not recognised as a borough +before the close of the thirteenth century; it is incorporated in the +fifteenth. + +Reading certainly increased considerably with the continual stream of +wealth that poured from the abbey; it possessed in practice a working +corporation before the Dissolution, was famous for its cloth long +before, and had become, in the process of years, an important town +that rivalled the great monastery which had developed it; indeed it is +probable that only the privileges, the conservatism, of the abbey +forbade it to be recognised and chartered before the Reformation. + +Abingdon also grew (but with less vigour), also had a manufactory of +cloth, though of a smaller kind, and was also worthy of incorporation +at the end of the Middle Ages. + +Staines cannot take its place with these, for in spite of its high +strategical value, of its old Roman tradition, of its proximity to +London and the rest, Staines was throughout the Middle Ages, and till +long after, rather a village than a town. Though a wealthy place it is +purely agricultural in the Domesday Survey, and the comparative +insignificance of the spot is perhaps explained by the absence of a +bridge. That absence is by no means certain. Staines after all was on +the great military highway leading from London westward, and it must +have been necessary for considerable forces to cross the river here +throughout the Dark Ages and the early Middle Ages, as did for +instance, at the very close of that period, the barons on their way to +Runnymede; and far earlier the army that marched hurriedly from London +to intercept the Danes in 1009, when the pagans were coming up the +river, and whether by the help of the tide or what not, managed to get +ahead of the intercepting force. But if a bridge existed so early as +the Conquest, we have no mention of it. The first allusion to a bridge +is in the granting of three oaks from Windsor for the repairing of it +in 1262. It may have existed long before that date, but it is +significant that in the Escheats of Edward III., and as late as the +twenty-fourth year of his reign--that is, after the middle of the +fourteenth century--it is mentioned that the bridge existed since the +reign of Henry III., which would convey the impression that in 1262 +the bridge had first needed repairing, being built, perhaps, in the +earlier years of the reign and completed, possibly, but a little after +the death of King John. + +This bridge of Staines was most unfortunate. It broke down again and +again. Even an experiment in stone at the end of the last century was +a failure, because the foundations did not go deep enough into the bed +of the river. An iron absurdity succeeded the stone, and luckily broke +down also, until at last, in the thirties of the nineteenth century, +the whole thing was rebuilt, 200 yards above the old traditional site. + +Staines is of interest in another way, because it marks one of those +boundaries between the maritime and the wholly inland part of a river +which is in so many of the English valleys associated with some +important crossing. The jurisdiction of the port of London over the +river extended as high as the little island just opposite the mouth of +the Colne. On this island can still be seen the square stone shaft +which is at least as old as the thirteenth century (though it stands +on more modern steps), and which marks this limit, as it does also the +shire mark between Middlesex and Buckingham. + +We have, after the Dissolution it is true, and when the financial +standing of most of these places had been struck a heavy blow, a +valuable estimate for many of them in the inquiry ordered by Pole in +1555. This estimate gives Abingdon less than 1500 of population, +Reading less than 3000, Windsor about 1000; and in general one may say +that with the sixteenth century, whether the population was +diminishing (as certainly contemporary witnesses believed), or whether +it had increased beyond the maximum which England had seen before the +Black Death, at any rate the relative importance of the various +centres of population had not very greatly changed during those long +five centuries of customary rule and of firm tradition. The towns and +villages which Shakespeare would have passed in a journey up the +river, though probably shrunk somewhat from what they had been in, let +us say, the days of Edward I. or of his grandson, when the Middle Ages +were in their full vigour and before the Black Death had ruined our +countrysides, were still a string of some such large villages and +small walled boroughs as his ancestry had seen for many hundred years, +disfigured only and changed by the scaffolded ruins here and there of +the great religious foundations. Windsor, Wallingford, Reading, +Abingdon, and even Oxford, were towns appearing to him much as +Lechlade to-day remains or Abingdon still. As for the riverside +villages their agricultural and native population was certainly larger +than that which they now possess; and in general the effect produced +upon such a journey was of a sort of even distribution of population +gradually increasing from the loneliness of the upper river to the +growing sites between Windsor and London, but in no part exaggerated; +larger everywhere in proportion to the importance of the stream, or of +agricultural or of strategical position, and forming together one +united countryside, bound together even in its architecture by the +common commerce of the river. + +The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries did little to disturb this +equilibrium or to destroy this even tradition. The opening up of the +waterways and the great improvement of the highroads, and the building +of bridges, and the expansion of wealth at the end of the eighteenth +century had indeed some considerable effect in increasing the +population of England as a whole, but the smaller country towns, in +the south at least, and in the Thames Valley, seem to have benefited +fairly equally from the general change. The new canals, entering at +Oxford and at Reading, gave a certain lead to both those centres, and +even the Severn Canal, entering at Lechlade, did a little for that +up-river town. The new fashion of the public schools (which had now +long been captured by the wealthier classes) also increased the +importance of Eton, and towards the close of the period the now +rapidly expanding capital had overfed the villages within reach of +London with a considerable accession of population. But it is +remarkable how evenly spread was even this industrial development. + +The twin towns of Abingdon and Reading, for instance, twin +monasteries, twin corporations, had for all these centuries preserved +their ratio of the up-country town and the larger centre that was the +neighbour of London and Windsor. In the beginning of the nineteenth +century, in spite of the general increase of population, that ratio +was still well preserved: it is about three to one. But the Railway +found one and left the other. + +The Railway came, and in our own generation that ratio began to change +out of all knowledge. It grows from four, five, six, to _seven_ to +one. After a short halt you have eight, nine and at last--after eighty +years--more than _ten_ to one. The last census (that of 1901) is still +more significant: Abingdon positively declines, and the last ratio is +_twelve_. + +It is through the Railway, and even then long after its first effect +might have been expected, that the Valley of the Thames, later than +any other wealthy district in England, loses, as all at last are +doomed to lose, its historic tradition, and suffers the social +revolution which has made modern England the unique and perilous thing +it is among the nations of the world. + + + + +INDEX + + +Abbots. See under separate monasteries. + +Aben, legend of, at Abingdon, 98. + +Abingdon, 9, 23, 37, 87, 88, 93, 97-99, 102, 139. + +Abingdon and Reading, change in ratio of population of, 198. + +Ad Pontes, Roman name of Staines, 33. + +Alfred, his boundary neglects the Thames, 34. + +Andersey Island, opposite Abingdon, 99. + +Ankerwike, nunnery of, 109, 168. + +Anne of Cleves obtains Bisham, 163. + +Barbarian invasions, 90, 91, 94, 95. + +Barlow, Prior of Bisham, becomes Bishop of St. Asaphs, 163. + +Barons give Tower to Archbishop in trust for Magna Charta, 84. + +Barwell obtains Chertsey, 165. + +Benedictine Order, 89-100. + +Bermondsey, Cluniac Abbey of, 104, 105. + +Berties obtain Hinksey, 166. + +Birinus receives Cynegil into the Church, 52. + +Bisham, dissolution of, 110, 163, 164. + +Blackcherry Fair, at Chertsey, 139. + +Bowyer obtains Radley, 165. + +Brackley, strategical importance of, 72. + +Breedons obtain Pangbourne, 167. + +Bridge, London, 17-21. + +Bridlington Priory, movables of, embezzled by Howards, 156. + +Britain, + conversion of, position of Dorchester in, 49; + first barbarian invasion of, 90, 91. + +Burford, early name of Abingdon Ford, 23. + +Burgundy, character of that province, 103. + +Burnham, nunnery of, mentioned, 109. + +Buscot, a royal manor in eleventh century, 28. + +Canal, Thames and Severn, building of, 15. + +Canterbury, Archbishop of, + holds Tower in pledge for Magna Charta, 84; + St. Thomas of (see St. Thomas). + +Canute at Oxford, 55. + +Carew obtains Chertsey, 164. + +Charterhouse, Sheen, 108. + +Chateau Gaillard compared to Windsor, 69. + +Chaucer's son custodian of Wallingford, 60. + +Chertsey, + foundation of, 96; + Abbey, sack of, 137; + fate of land of, 159-165. + +Cholsey, Priory of, 109, 166. + +Churn joins Thames at Cricklade, 39. + +Civil War, + destruction of Wallingford Castle under, 66; + of King and Parliament, 86-89. + +Cluny, 102, 103. + +Cobham, Manor of, twenty acres possessed by Chertsey in, 149. + +Commons, Dissolution House of, significant names in, 146, 147. + +Conquest, Norman, + See of Dorchester removed to Lincoln, 52, 102. + +Constantine, legend of, at Abingdon, 98. + +Conversion of Britain, position of Dorchester in, 49. + +Cookham, early importance of, 191-194. + +Cricklade, + importance of, 38-41; + small Priory of, 107; + ford at, 22. + +"Cromwell," Oliver. See Williams, his destruction of Wallingford + Castle, 61. + +Cromwell, or Smith of Putney, family of, 153-161. + +Crown, + loses its manors, 144; + British, might have led the modern period in Europe, 145-146; + cause of ruin of, weakness of Tudor character, 148. + +Culham, attempted fortification of bridge of, 87. + +Cumnor granted to Thomas Rowland, 139. + +Currency, 134. + +Cynegil, baptism of, at Dorchester, 50, 51. + +Danes at Oxford, 54, 55. + +Danish invasions destroy Chertsey, 97. + +Davis obtains Pangbourne, 167. + +Diocletian, his boundaries, 33; + legend of, at Abingdon, 98. + +Dissolution and destruction of monasteries, 110-152. + +Domesday Survey, + Oxford in, 56-58; + Survey, ambiguity of, 57; + indecision of, 176, 177. + +Dorchester, 33, 47-52, 107, 108. + +Dover, isolated defence of, 75. + +Drainage of swamps, monastic work in, 97, 98. + +Dudley obtains Pangbourne, 167. + +Durham, appearance of, before the Dissolution, compared to Reading, + 114. + +Duxford, ford at, 22. + +Ealing, tidal river passable at, 24. + +Eaton, meaning of place name, 31. + +Economic aspect of Dissolution, 115-137; + aspect of monastic system, 116-118; + of the rise of gentry, 143, 144. + +Edge Hill, battle of, 88. + +Edmund Ironside at Oxford, 55. + +Edward the Confessor, + manorial lord of Old Windsor, 70; + the Confessor rebuilds Westminster Abbey, 96. + +Edward I., + prisoner in youth at Wallingford, 60; + his march when a prince to the Tower from Windsor, 85. + +Edward II. leaves the Tower, 85. + +Edwardes obtains Cholsey, 166. + +Elizabeth restores purity of currency, 134. + +England, history of, dependent on river system, 1-3. + +Englefield, Sir Robert, + obtains Cholsey, 167; + obtains Pangbourne, 167. + +Essex occupies Abingdon, 87. + +Essex, earldom of, conferred on Thomas Cromwell, 158. + +Eynsham, 10; + monastery of, 107. + +Fawley, parish with special water front, 9. + +Fords, 22-34, 33, 99. + +Forest, Windsor, 70, 77, 78. + +Fortifications, + rareness of, along Thames, 47; + on Thames, examples of, 47; + theory of, 62, 63; + mediæval, never urban, 66, + urban, Louvre an example of, 67. + +Fosse Way, 38, 44. + +Fuller obtains Chertsey, 165. + +Fyfield, example of parish with special water front, 10. + +Gentry, territorial, their origins before Reformation, 141-143; + See Oligarchy. + +Godstow, nunnery of, mentioned, 109. + +Goring, track of Icknield Way through, 42. + +Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, 83. + +Hammond obtains Chertsey, 164. + +Harold, his council at Oxford, 56. + +Henley, growth of, 187-190. + +Henry I. enlarges Windsor, 70. + +Henry II. at Wallingford, 37. + +Henry III., his misfortunes connected with the Tower, 83. + +Henry VI., + his childhood passed at Wallingford, 61; + buried at Chertsey, 97. + +Henry VIII. loses the spoils of the Dissolution, 145. + +Hinchinbrooke, seat of the Williamses, 159. + +Hind obtains Chertsey, 165. + +Hinkseys, fate of land of, 166. + +Hoby, Edward, son of Sir Philip Hoby, 163. + +Hoby, Sir Philip, + obtains Bisham, 163; + Peregrine, son of Sir Philip Hoby, 164. + +Horseferry Road, Westminster, 44. + +Howards, noble family of, embezzled property, 155. + +Huntingdon, two foundations in, given to Richard Williams, 156. + +Icknield Way, 38, 40-44. + +Islip, + birth of the Confessor there, 55; + a private manor of Queen Emma, 55. + +Jews in Tower, 85. + +Joel, Solomon, contrasted with gentry of the Dissolution, 158. + +John, King, 71-76. + +Kelmscott, loneliness of neighbourhood of, due to nature of soil, 7. + +Knowles obtain Cholsey, 166. + +Lanfranc colonises Bermondsey Abbey, 105. + +Lechlade, small Priory of, 107. + +Lincoln succeeds Dorchester as a see, 52. + +Little Marlow, nunnery of, mentioned, 109. + +Littlemore, example of parish with special water front, 10, 11. + +London, 65-68, 73, 86, 87, 89. + +Longchamps surrenders Tower, 84. + +Long Wittenham, ford at, 23. + +Lords, House of, utterly transformed by Dissolution of monasteries, + 151. + +Louis of France called in by barons, 75. + +Magna Charta, 29, 71-76, 84. + +Maidenhead, + probable origin of name, 32; + growth of, 190-194. + +Mandeville holds Tower, 83. + +Manors, + in monastic hands in Thames Valley, 124-126; + English, probably Roman in origin, certainly Saxon, 141, 142; + royal lapse of, 144; + mutability of ownership in, after Dissolution, 161-169. + +Matilda, fealty sworn to, at Windsor, 70. + +Medmenham, Priory of, 109. + +Mill, family of, succeeds Hobys at Bisham, 164. + +Monasteries, system of, 91-93. + +Monastic foundations on Thames, list of, 122, 123. + +Monastic possessions in Thames Valley, list of, 125-126. + +Monastic system, 108, 116, 117, 127, 148, 150. + +Montlhéry, originally dominated Paris as Windsor London, 67. + +Mont St. Michel, connection with Cholsey, 166. + +Morgan, first known of the Williamses, 152. + +"Mota de Windsor," 70. + +Mortimer holds Wallingford, 60. + +Municipal system, + English, different from that of other countries, 170-175; + Roman, 171; + in Roman Britain, 172. + +Naseby, battle of, women massacred after, by Puritans, 88, 89. + +Norman Conquest, 52, 82, 93. + +Normandy, modern boundaries of, fixed by Diocletian, 33. + +Nuneham Morren, example of parish with special water front, 11. + +Observants at Richmond, 93. + +Ock, River, original marsh at mouth of, 8. + +Offa, Wallingford mentioned under, 37. + +Oilei builds Osney, 105. + +Old Windsor, 69, 70. + +Oligarchy rose on ruins of Catholicism, 140-152. + +Orby obtains Chertsey, 164. + +Osney, Abbey of, at Oxford, 105; + loot of, by Henry VIII., 106; + appearance of, before Dissolution, 112, 113. + +Owen obtains Hinksey, 166. + +Oxford, 22, 31, 53, 58, 86, 87, 106, 183-186. + +Oxford Street, Roman military road into London, 68. + +Pangbourne, ford at, 34; + held of Reading Abbey, 167; + fate of land of, 167. + +Paris, dominated by Montlhéry as London by Windsor, 67; + an example of fortification following residence, 77. + +Parishes, shape of, 8, 11. + +Penda, his opposition to Christianity, 51. + +Peregrine Hoby, 164. + +Perrots obtain Hinksey, 166. + +Philiphaugh, battle of, massacre of women after, by Puritans, 89. + +Place names, + on the Thames, 30, 32, 33; + Celtic, rare in Thames Valley, 30; + Roman, disappeared in Thames Valley, 32. + +Pole, his estimate of population, 196. + +Population, + of Abingdon and Reading, typical of change in nineteenth century, + 198; + of Oxford in early times, 56, 57. + +Prices and values at time of Dissolution compared with modern, + 130-136. + +Priory of Medmenham, 109. + +Puritans, their massacre of the women after battle of Philiphaugh, 88, + 89. + +Radley, fate of land of, 165, 166. + +Ramsey Abbey, + given to Richard Williams, 157; + value of, 158. + +Reading, 64, 88, 103, 104, 113, 114, 129, 166, 167, 182. + +Reading and Abingdon, change in ratio of population of, typical of + nineteenth century, 198. + +Religious, numbers of, at time of suppression, 122, 123. + +Richard Williams or "Cromwell" born at Llanishen, 152. + +Riches obtained Cholsey, 166. + +Rivers, importance of, + in English history, 1-3; + as early highways, 5-8; + military value of, 46, 47. + +Roads, + original, of Britain, four in connection with Thames Valley, 37; + original in Thames Valley, 38. + +Rochester, Bishop of, builds Tower for the Conqueror, 83. + +Roman, + place names disappeared in Thames Valley, 34; + occupation of Britain, thoroughness of, 45, 46; + origins of Wallingford, 60; + work, none certain in Tower, 79; + origins of Tower discussed, 79, 81, 82; + origin of English manors probable, 141, 142; + fortification, urban, 66; + occupation of Windsor, 65; + municipal system, 171. + +Roman Britain, municipal system of, 172. + +Roman roads, 68. + +Rowland, Thomas, last Abbot of Abingdon, 139. + +Royal manors, lapse of, 144. + +Runnymede, + conjectured etymology of, 75; + meeting of barons and John at, 75. + +Rupert, Prince, attempts to recapture Abingdon, 87. + +St. Augustine begins the civilisation of England, 91. + +St. Frideswides receives new Protestant bishopric of Oxford, 106. + +Saxon Chronicle, first mention of Oxford in, 54. + +Saxon origin of first part of place names on Thames, 31; + of Oxford Castle, 54; + of English manors probable, 141, 142. + +Seymour, + obtains Chertsey, 165; + obtains Radley, 165. + +Sheen, monastery of, late foundation of, 108. + +Sinodun Hills, + fortification of, 48; + geological parallel to Windsor, 66. + +Sir Philip Hoby obtains Bisham, 163. + +Somerford Keynes, ford at, 22. + +Sonning, fate of land of, 168, 169. + +Squires, English, their origins and rise before Reformation, 140-143. + +Staines, 45, 68, 69, 74, 194, 196. + +Stephen, Civil Wars under, Tower besieged during, 83. + +Stonehouse obtains Radley, 165. + +Stow, in Lincolnshire, mother house at Eynsham, 106. + +Stratton, monastic lands of, sold by Oliver Williams, 161. + +Streatley, 33, 34, 48. + +Sweyn at Oxford, 55. + +Taxes a basis for calculation of prices, 133, 134. + +Tenant right under monastic system, 150. + +Thames, + surface soil of valley of, 7-9; + estuary of, unimportant in early history, 13; + probably a boundary under Diocletian, 33; + a boundary between counties, 34; + points at which it is crossed, 36, 37; + traffic upon, begins after entry of Churn at Cricklade, 39, 40; + absence of traces of Roman bridges on, 46; + military value of, 46, 47; + imaginary voyage down, before Dissolution, 111-115. + +Thames Valley, + in Civil Wars, 86-89; + affords William III. his approach to London, 89; + affords Charles I. his approach to London, 89; + economic importance of sites therein, produced by the monastic + system, 117-121; + railway of, draws its prosperity from beyond the valley, 121; + towns of, 169-190. + +Thomas Rowland, last Abbot of Abingdon, 150. + +Thorney, original site of Westminster Abbey, 95. + +Tower, the, + its importance in campaign in Magna Charta, 74, 78-86; + compared to Louvre, 79; + White, true Tower of London, 79, 82; + military misfortunes of, 83, 84; + Jews in, 85. + +Towns of Thames Valley, 160-199. + +Van Sittarts succeed Mills at Bisham, 164. + +Wages a basis for calculation of prices, 133, 134. + +Waite obtains Chertsey, 164. + +Wallingford, 22, 24, 37, 58-62, 75, 76, 177-182. + +Waste land, social and strategical importance of, in Europe, 75, 76. + +Water front, examples of parishes seeking, 8-11. + +Watling Street, 38; + place of crossing Thames by, 44; + identical with Edgware Road, 44. + +Weldon obtains Pangbourne, 167. + +Welsh land left to Chertsey, 97. + +Westminster Abbey, 63-97, 130, 137. + +Westminster, 95, 69, 93, 95, 96, 130. + +White Tower, 79, 82, 83. + +William the Conqueror, + crosses at Wallingford, 37; + his choice of Windsor Hill, 65; + exchanges Windsor with monks of Westminster, 69; + builds Tower of London, 82; + anointed at Westminster, 96. + +William Rufus completes Tower, 82. + +William III., his approach to London afforded by Thames Valley, 89. + +Williams obtains Hinksey, 166. + +Williams, family of, rise of, 152-162. + +Williams, Henry, son of Richard, his career, 159. + +Williams, Oliver, uncle of Protector, 160. + +Williams, Richard, + is given two monastic foundations by his uncle, 156; + gets the revenues of Ramsey Abbey, 157. + +Williams, Robert, grandson of Richard, father of the Protector, 160. + +Wimbledon, manorial rolls of, evidence of William's marriage in, 153. + +Windsor, 65-78, 85. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Historic Thames, by Hilaire Belloc + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORIC THAMES *** + +***** This file should be named 13046-8.txt or 13046-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/0/4/13046/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Project Manager; 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/13046-8.zip b/old/13046-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad92889 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13046-8.zip diff --git a/old/13046.txt b/old/13046.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..28839cb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13046.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6159 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Historic Thames, by Hilaire Belloc + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Historic Thames + +Author: Hilaire Belloc + +Release Date: July 29, 2004 [EBook #13046] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORIC THAMES *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Project Manager; Keith M. Eckrich, +Post-Processor; the PG Online Distributed Proofreaders Team + + + + + + +THE WAYFARER'S LIBRARY + + + + +THE HISTORIC THAMES + + +Hilaire Belloc + + +O.M. DENT & SONS Ltd. + +LONDON + + + + +THE HISTORIC THAMES + + +England has been built up upon the framework of her rivers, and, in +that pattern, the principal line has been the line of the Thames. + +Partly because it was the main highway of Southern England, partly +because it looked eastward towards the Continent from which the +national life has been drawn, partly because it was better served by +the tide than any other channel, but mainly because it was the chief +among a great number of closely connected river basins, the Thames +Valley has in the past supported the government and the wealth of +England. + +Among the most favoured of our rivals some one river system has +developed a province or a series of provinces; the Rhine has done so, +the Seine and the Garonne. But the great Continental river systems--at +least the navigable ones--stand far apart from one another: in this +small, and especially narrow, country of Britain navigable river +systems are not only numerous, but packed close together. It is +perhaps on this account that we have been under less necessity in the +past to develop our canals; and anyone who has explored the English +rivers in a light boat knows how short are the portages between one +basin and another. + +Now not only are we favoured with a multitude of navigable +waterways--the tide makes even our small coastal rivers navigable +right inland--but also we are quite exceptionally favoured in them +when we consider that the country is an island. + +If an island, especially an island in a tidal sea, has a good river +system, that system is bound to be of more benefit to it than would be +a similar system to a Continental country. For it must mean that the +tide will penetrate everywhere into the heart of the plains, carrying +the burden of their wealth backward and forward, mixing their peoples, +and filling the whole national life with its energy; and this will be +especially the case in an island which is narrow in proportion to its +length and in which the rivers are distributed transversely to its +axis. + +When we consider the river systems of the other great islands of +Europe we find that none besides our own enjoys this advantage. Sicily +and Crete, apart from the fact that they do not stand in tidal water, +have no navigable rivers. Iceland, standing in a tidal sea, too far +north indeed for successful commerce, but not too far north for the +growth of a civilisation, is at a similar disadvantage. Great Britain +and Ireland alone--Great Britain south of the Scottish Mountains, that +is--enjoy this peculiar advantage; and there are few things more +instructive when one is engaged upon the history of England than to +take a map and mark upon it the head of each navigable piece of water +and the head of its tideway, for when this has been done all England, +with the exception of the Welsh Hills and the Pennines, seems to be +penetrated by the influence of the sea. + +The conditions which give a river this great historic importance, the +fundamental character, therefore, which has lent to the Thames its +meaning in English history, is twofold: a river affords a permanent +means of travel, and a river also forms an obstacle and a boundary. +Men are known to have agglomerated in the beginning of society in two +ways: as nomadic hordes and as fixed inhabitants of settlements. + +There has arisen a profitless discussion as to which of these two +phases came first. No evidence can possibly exist upon either side, +but one may take it that with the first traditions and records, as at +the present time, the two systems existed side by side, and that +either was determined by geographical conditions. A river is an +advantage to both groups, but to the second it is of more consequence +than to the first; and in South England, if we go back to the origins +of our history, it is in fixed settlements that we find the first +evidence of man. With every year of research the extreme antiquity of +our inhabited sites becomes more apparent. And indeed the geographical +nature of Southern England should make us certain of the antiquity of +village life in it, even were there no archaeological evidence to +support that antiquity. + +South England is everywhere fertile, everywhere well watered, and +nowhere divided, as is the North, by long districts of bare country, +or of hills snowbound in winter, or of morass. Its forests, though +numerous, have never formed one continuous belt; even the largest of +them, the Forest of the Weald, between the downs of Surrey and Kent +and those of Sussex, was but twenty miles across--large enough to +nourish a string of hunting villages upon the north and the south +edges of it; but not large enough to isolate the Thames Valley from +the southern coast. + +From the beginning of human activity in this island the whole length +of the river has been set with human settlements never far removed one +from the other; for the Thames ran through the heart of South England, +and wherever its banks were secure from recurrent floods it furnished +those who settled on them with three main things which every early +village requires: good water, defence, and communication. + +The importance of the first lessens as men learn to dig wells and to +canalise springs; the two last, defence and communication, remain +attached to river settlements to a much later date, and are apparent +in all the history of the Thames. + +The problem of communication under early conditions is serious. Even +in a high civilisation the maintenance of roads is of greater moment, +and imposes a greater burden, than most of the citizens who support it +know; but before the means or the knowledge exist to survey and to +harden roads, with their causeways over marshes and their bridges over +rivers, the supply of food in time of scarcity or of succour in time +of danger is never secure: a little narrow path kept up by nothing but +the continual passage of men and animals is all the channel a +community of men have for communicating with their neighbours by land. +And it must be remembered that upon such communication depend not only +the present existence, but the future development of the society, +which cannot proceed except by that fertilisation, as it were, which +comes from the mixture of varied experiences and of varied traditions: +every great change in history has necessarily been accompanied by some +new activity of travel. + +Under the primitive conditions of which we speak a river of moderate +depth, not too rapid in its current and perennial in its supply, is +much the best means by which men may communicate. It will easily +carry, by the exertions of a couple of men, some hundred times the +weight the same men could have carried as porters by land. It +furnishes, if it is broad, a certain security from attack during the +journey; it will permit the rapid passage of a large number abreast +where the wood tracks and paths of the land compel a long procession; +and it furnishes the first of the necessities of life continually as +the journey proceeds. + +Upon all these accounts a river, during the natural centuries which +precede and follow the epochs of high civilisation, is as much more +important than the road or the path as, let us say, a railway to-day +is more important than a turnpike. + +What is equally interesting, when a high civilisation after its little +effort begins to decline into one of those long periods of repose into +which all such periods of energy do at last decline, the river +reassumes its importance. There is a very interesting example of this +in the history of France. Before Roman civilisation reached the north +of Gaul the Seine and its tributary streams were evidently the chief +economic factor in the life of the people: this may be seen in the +sites of their strongholds and in the relation of the tribes to one +another, as for instance, the dependence of the Parisians upon Sens. +The five centuries of active Roman civilisation saw the river replaced +by the system of Roman roads; the great artificial track from north to +south, for instance, takes on a peculiar importance; but when the end +of that period has come, and the energies of the Roman state are +beginning to drag, when the money cannot be collected to repair the +great highways, and these fall into decay--then the Seine and its +tributaries reassume their old importance. Paris, the junction of the +various waterways, becomes the capital of a new state, and the +influence of its kings leads out upon every side along the river +valleys which fall into the main valley of the Seine. + +There are but two considerable modifications to the use for habitation +of slow and constant rivers: their value is lessened or interrupted by +precipitous banks or they are rendered unapproachable by marshes. The +first of these causes, for instance, has singularly cut off one from +the other the groups of population residing upon the upper and the +lower Meuse, as it has also, to quote another example, cut off even in +language the upper from the lower Elbe. + +From this first species of interruption the Thames is, of course, +singularly free. There is no river in England, with the exception of +the Trent, whose banks interfere so little with the settlement of men +in any place on account of their steepness. + +As to the second, the Thames presents a somewhat rare character. + +The upper part of the river, which is in lowland valleys the most +easily inhabited, and the part in which, once the river is navigable, +will be found the largest number of small settlements, is in the case +of the Thames the most marshy. From its source to beyond Cricklade the +river runs entirely over clay; thenceforward the valley is a flat mass +of alluvium, in which the stream swings from one side to the other, +and even where it touches higher soil, touches nothing better than the +continuation of this clay. In spite, therefore, of the shallowness and +narrowness of the upper river there always existed this impediment +which an insecure soil would present to the formation of any +considerable settlements. The loneliness of the stretch below +Kelmscott is due to an original difficulty of this kind, and the one +considerable settlement upon the upper river at Lechlade stands upon +the only place where firm ground approaches the bank of the river. + +This formation endures well below Oxford until one reaches the gap at +Sandford, where the stream passes between two beds of gravel which +very nearly approach either bank. + +Above this point the Thames is everywhere, upon one side or the other, +guarded by flat river meadows, which must in early times have been +morass; and nowhere were these more difficult of passage than in the +last network of streams between Witham Hill and Sandford, to the west +of the gravel bank upon which Oxford is built. + +Below Sandford, and on all the way to London Bridge, the character of +the river in this respect changes. You have everywhere gravel or +flinty chalk, with but a narrow bed of alluvial soil, upon either bank +to represent the original overflow of the river. + +At the crossing places (as we shall see later), notably at Long +Wittenham, at Wallingford, at Streatley, at Pangbourne, and, still +lower, at Maidenhead and at Ealing, this hard soil came right down to +the bank upon either side. + +On all this lower half of the Thames marsh was rare, and was to be +found even in early times only in isolated patches, which are still +clearly defined. These are never found facing each other upon opposite +banks of the stream. Thus there was a bad bit on the left bank above +Abingdon, but the large marsh below Abingdon, where the Ock came in, +was on the right bank, with firm soil opposite it. There was a large +bay, as it were, of drowned land on the right bank, from below Reading +to a point opposite Shiplake, the last wide morass before the marshes +of the tidal portion of the river; and another at the mouth of the +Coln, above Staines, on the left bank, which was the last before one +came to the mud of the tidal estuary; and even the tidal marshes were +fairly firm above London. From Staines eastward down as far as Chelsea +the superficial soil upon either side is of gravels, and the long list +of ancient inhabited sites upon either bank show how little the +overflow of the river interfered with its usefulness to men. + +The river, then, from Sandford downward has afforded upon either bank +innumerable sites upon which a settlement could be formed. Above +Sandford these sites are not to be found indifferently upon either +bank, but now on one, now on the other. There is no case on the upper +river of two villages facing each other on either side of the stream. +But though the soil of this upper part was in general less suited to +the establishment of settlements, a certain number of firmer stretches +could be found, and advantage was taken of them to build. + +There thus arose along the whole course of the Thames from its source +to London a series of villages and towns, increasing in importance as +the stream deepened and gave greater facilities to traffic, and bound +together by the common life of the river. It was their _highway_, and +it is as a highway that it must first be regarded. + +Of the way in which the Thames was a necessary great road in early +times, perhaps the best proof is the manner in which various parishes +manage to get their water front at the expense of a somewhat unnatural +shape to their boundaries. Thus Fawley in Buckinghamshire has a +curious and interesting arrangement of this sort thrusting down from +the hills a tongue of land which ends in a sort of wharfage on the +river just opposite Remenham church. In Berkshire there are also +several examples of this. On the upper river Dractmoor and Kingston +Bagpuise are both very narrow and long, a shape forced upon them by +the necessity of having this outlet upon the river in days when the +life of a parish was a real one and the village was a true and +self-sufficing unit. Next to them Fyfield does the same thing. Lower +down, near Wallingford, the parish of Brightwell has added on a +similar eccentric edge to the north and east so that it may share in +the bank; but perhaps the best example of all in this connection is +the curious extension below Reading. Here land which is of no use for +human habitation--water meadows continually liable to floods--runs out +from the parish northward for a good mile. These lands are separated +from the river during the whole of this extension until at last a bend +of the stream gives the parish the opportunity it has evidently sought +in thus extending its boundaries. On the Oxford bank Standlake and +Brighthampton do the same thing upon the Upper Thames and to some +extent Eynsham; for when one thinks how far back Eynsham stands from +the river it is somewhat remarkable that it should have claimed the +right to get at the stream. Below Oxford there is another most +interesting instance of the same thing in the case of Littlemore. +Littlemore stands on high and dry land up above the river somewhat set +back from it. Sandford evidently interfered with its access to the +water, and Littlemore has therefore claimed an obviously artificial +extension for all the world like a great foot added on to the bulk of +the parish. This "foot" includes Kennington Island, and runs up the +meadows to the foot of that eyot. + +The long and narrow parishes in the reaches below Benson, Nuneham +Morren, Mongewell, and Ipsden and South Stoke are not, however, +examples of this tendency. + +They owe their construction to the same causes as have produced the +similar long parishes of the Surrey and the Sussex Weald. The life of +the parish was in each case right on the river or very close to it, +and the extension is not the attempt of the parish to reach the river, +but the claim of the parish upon the hunting lands which lay up behind +it upon the Chiltern Hills. The truth of this will be apparent to +anyone who notes upon the map the way in which parishes are thus +lengthened, not only on the western side of the hills, but also upon +the farther eastern side, where there was no connection with the +river. + +There are many other proofs remaining of the chief function which the +Thames fulfilled in the early part of our history as a means of +communication. + +We shall see later in these pages how united all that line of the +stream has been; how the great monasteries founded upon the Thames +were supported by possessions stretched all along the valleys; how +much of it, and what important parts, were held by the Crown; and how +strong was the architectural influence of towns upon one another up +and down the water, as also how the place names upon the banks are +everywhere drawn from the river; but before dealing with these it is +best to establish the main portions into which the Thames falls and to +see what would naturally be their limits. + +It may be said, generally, that every river which is tidal, and whose +stream is so slow as to be easily navigable in either direction, +divides itself naturally, when one is regarding it as a means of +communication, into three main divisions. + +There will first of all be the tidal portion which the tide usually +scours into an estuary. As a general rule, this portion is not +considerably inhabited in the early periods of history, for it is not +until a large international commerce arises that vessels have much +occasion to stop as they pass up and down the maritime part of the +stream; and even so, settlements upon its banks must come +comparatively late in the development of the history of the river, +because a landing upon such flooded banks is not easily to be +effected. + +This is true of the Dutch marshes at the mouths of the Rhine, whose +civilisation (one exclusively due to the energy of man) came centuries +after the establishment of the great Roman towns of the Rhine; it is +true of the estuary of the Seine, whose principal harbour of Havre is +almost modern, and whose difficulties are still formidable for +ocean-going craft; and it is true of the Thames. + +The estuary of the Thames plays little or no part in the very early +history of England. Invaders, when they landed, landed on the +sea-coast at the very mouth, or appear to have sailed right up into +the heart of the country. + +It is, nevertheless, true that the last few miles of tidal water, in +Western Europe at least, are not to be included in this first division +of a great river. + +The swish of the tide continues up beyond the broad estuary, the +sand-banks, and the marshes, and there are reaches more or less long +(rather less than twenty miles perhaps originally in the case of the +Thames, rather more perhaps originally in the case of the lower Seine) +which for the purposes of habitation are inland reaches. They have the +advantage of a current moving in either direction twice a day and yet +not the disadvantage of greatly varying levels of water. Thus one may +say of the Seine in the old days that from about Caudebec to Point de +L'Arche it enjoyed such inland tidal conditions; and of the Thames +from Greenwich to Teddington that similar advantages existed. + +The true point of division which separates, so far as human history is +concerned, the lower from the upper part of such rivers is the first +bridge, and, what almost always accompanies the first bridge, the +first great town. To repeat the obvious parallel, Rouen was this point +upon the Seine; upon the Thames this point was the Bridge of London. +It is with the habitable and historic Thames Valley above the bridge +that this book has to deal, and it will later be to the reader's +purpose to consider why London Bridge crossed the stream just where it +did, and of what moment that site has been in the history of the +Thames and of England. + +The second division in a great European tidal river, considered as a +means of communication, is the navigable but non-tidal portion. + +The word navigable is so vague that it requires some definition before +we can apply it to any particular stream. It does not, of course, mean +in this connection "navigable by sea-going boats." One may take a +constant depth of so little as three feet to be sufficient for the +purpose of carrying merchandise even in considerable bulk. + +The legislatures of various countries have established varying gauges +to determine where the navigability of a river may be said to cease. +In practice these gauges have always been arbitrary. The upper reaches +of a river may present sufficient depth but too fast a current, or +they may be too narrow, or the curves may be too rapid, or the +obstruction of rocks too common, for any sort of navigation, although +the depth of water be sufficient. + +Conversely, in some streams of peculiar breadth and constancy very +shallow upper reaches may have early been converted to the use of man. +The matter is only to be determined by the experience of what the +inhabitants of a river valley have actually been able to do under the +local circumstances, and when we examine this we shall usually be +astonished to see how far inland a river was used until the history of +internal navigation was transformed by the development of canals or +partially destroyed by the development of railways. Thus it is certain +that so small a stream as the Adur in Sussex floated barges up to the +boundaries of Shipley Parish; that the Stour was habitually used +beyond Canterbury; that so tiny a tributary as the Ant in Norfolk was +followed up from its parent Bure to the neighbourhood of Worsted. + +In this connection the Thames is of an especial interest, for it had, +in proportion to its length, the greatest section of navigable +non-tidal water of any of the shorter rivers in Europe. Until the +digging of the Thames and Severn Canal at the end of last century it +was possible, and even common, for boats to reach Cricklade, or at any +rate the mouth of the Churn. And even now, in spite of the pumping +that is necessary at Thames head and the consequent diminution of the +volume of water in the upper reaches, the Thames, were water carriage +to come again into general use, would be a busy commercial stream as +high up as Lechlade. + +This exceptional sector of non-tidal navigable water cutting right +across England from east to west, and that in what used to be the most +productive and is still the most fertile portion of the island, is the +chief factor in the historic importance of the Thames. + +From Cricklade to the navigable waters of the Severn Valley is but a +long day's walk; and one may say that even in the earliest times there +was thus provided a great highway right across what then was by far +the most thickly populated and the most important part of the island. + +A third section in all such rivers (and, from what we have said above, +a short and insignificant one in the case of the Thames) may be called +the _head-waters_ of the river: where the stream is so shallow or so +uncertain as to be no longer navigable. In the case of the Thames +these head-waters cover no more than ten to fifteen miles of country. +With the exception of rivers that run through mountain districts this +section of a river's course is nearly always small in proportion to +the rest; but the Thames, just as it has the longest proportion of +navigable water, has also by far the shortest proportion of useless +head-water of all the shorter European rivers. + +There is a further discussion as to what is the true source of the +Thames, and which streams may properly be regarded as its head-waters: +the Churn, especially since the digging of the canal, having a larger +flow than the stream from Thames head; but whichever is chosen, the +non-navigable portion starts at the same point, and is the third of +the divisions into which the valley ranges itself when it is +considered in its length, as a highway from the west to the east of +England. The two limits, then, are at London Bridge and at Cricklade, +or rather at some point between Lechlade and Cricklade, and nearer to +the latter. + +But a river has a second topographical and historic function. It +cannot only be considered longitudinally as a highway, it can also be +considered in relation to transverse forces and regarded as an +obstacle, a defence, and a boundary. + +This function has, of course, been of the highest importance in the +history of all great rivers, not perhaps so much so in the case of the +Thames as in the case of swifter or deeper streams, but, still, more +than has been the case with so considerable and so rapid a river as +the Po in Lombardy or the uncertain but dangerous Loire in its passage +through the centre of France. For the Thames Valley was that which +divided the vague Mercian land from which we get our weights, our +measures, and the worst of our national accent, and cut it off from +that belt of the south country which was the head and the heart of +England until the last industrial revolution of our history. + +The Thames also has entered to a large, though hardly to a +determining, extent into the military history of the country; to an +extent which is greater in earlier than in later times, because with +every new bridge the military obstacle afforded by the stream +diminished. And finally, the Thames, regarded as an obstacle, was the +cause that London Bridge concentrated upon itself so much of the life +of the nation, and that the town which that bridge served, always the +largest commercial city, became at last the capital of the island. + +We have already said that the establishment of the site of London +Bridge was a capital point in the history of the river and the +principal line of division in its course. What were the topographical +conditions which caused the river to be crossed at this point rather +than at another? + +It is always of the greatest moment to men to find some crossing for a +great river as low down as may be towards the mouth. For the higher +the bridge the longer the detour between, at the least, _two_ +provinces of the country which the river traverses. It is especially +important to find such a crossing as low down as possible when the +river is tidal and when it is flanked upon either side by great +flooded marshes, as was and is the Thames. For under such conditions +it is difficult, especially in primitive times, to cross habitually +from one side to the other in boats. + +Now it is a universal rule of early topography, and one which can be +proved upon twenty of the old trackways of England, that the wild path +which the earliest men used, when it approaches a river, seeks out a +spur of higher and drier land, and if possible one directly facing +another similar spur upon the far side of the water. It is a feature +which the present writer continually observed in the exploration of +the old British trackway between Winchester and Canterbury; it is +similarly observable in the presumably British track between Chester +and Manchester; and it is the feature which determined the site of +London Bridge. + +From the sea for sixty miles is a succession of what was once +entirely, and is now still in great part, marshy land; or at least if +there are no marshes upon one bank there will be marshes upon the +other. In the rare places down stream where there is a fairly rapid +rise upon either side of the river the stream is far too wide for +bridging; and these marshes were to be found right up the valley until +one struck the gravel at Chelsea: even here there were bad marshes on +the farther shore. + +There is in the whole or the upper stretch of the tidal water but one +place where a bluff of high and dry land faces, not indeed land +equally dry immediately upon the farther bank, but at least a spur of +dry land which approaches fairly near to the main stream. If the +modern contour lines be taken and laid out upon a map of London this +spur will be found to project from Southwark northward directly +towards the river, and immediately opposite it is the dry hill, +surrounded upon three sides by river or by marsh, upon which grew up +the settlement of London. Here, then, the first crossing of the Thames +was certain to be made. + +It is not known whether a permanent bridge existed before the Roman +Conquest. It may be urged in favour of the negative argument that +Caesar had no knowledge of such a bridge, or at least did not march +towards it, but crossed the river with difficulty in the higher +reaches by a ford. And it may also be urged that a bridge across the +Rhine was equally unknown in that time. But, the bridge once +established, it could not fail to become the main point of convergence +for the commerce of Southern England, and indeed for much of that +which proceeded from the North upon its way to the Continent. Such an +obstacle would oppose itself to every invasion, and did, in fact, +oppose itself to more than one historical invasion from the North Sea. +It would further prevent sea-going vessels whose masts were securely +stepped and could not lower from proceeding farther up stream, and +would thereupon become the boundary of the seaport of the Thames. Such +a bridge would, again, concentrate upon itself the traffic of all that +important and formerly wealthy part of the island which bulges out to +the east between the estuary of the Thames and the Wash, and which +must necessarily have desired communication both with the still +wealthier southern portion and with the Continent. But, more important +than this, London Bridge also concentrated upon itself all the +up-country traffic in men and in goods which came in by the natural +gate of the country at the Straits of Dover, except that small portion +which happened to be proceeding to the south-west of England: and this +exception to the early commerce of England was the smaller from the +comparative ease with which the Channel could be crossed between +Brittany and Cornwall. + +Finally, the Bridge, as it formed the limit for sea-going vessels, +formed also if not the limit at least a convenient terminus for craft +coming from inland down the stream. It would form the place of +transhipment between the sea-going and the inland trade. + +Everything then conspired to make this first crossing of the Thames +the chief commercial point in Britain; and, since we are considering +in particular the history of the river, it must be noted that these +conditions also made of London Bridge what we have remarked it to be, +the chief division in the whole course of the stream. This character +it still maintains, and the life of the river from the bridge to the +Nore is a totally different thing, with a different literature and a +different accompanying art, from the life of the river above bridges. + +We have seen that the river when it is regarded as an avenue of access +to men for commerce or for travel is, especially in early times, and +with boats of light draught, of one piece from Lechlade to London +Bridge. There was in this section always sufficient water even in a +dry summer to float some sort of a boat. But the river, regarded as a +barrier or obstacle for human beings in their movement up and down +Britain, did not form one such united section. On the contrary, it +divided itself, as all such rivers do, into two very clearly defined +parts: there was that upper part which could be crossed at frequent +intervals by an army, that lower part in which fords are rare. + +In most rivers one has nothing more to do in describing those two +sections than to show how gradually they merge into one another. In +most rivers the passage of the upper waters is perfectly easy, and as +one descends the fords get rarer and rarer, until at last they cease. + +With the Thames this is not the case. The two portions of the river +are sharply divided in the vicinity of Oxford, and that for reasons +which we have already seen when we were speaking of the suitability of +its banks for habitation. The upper Thames is indeed shallow and +narrow, and there are innumerable places above Oxford where it could +be crossed, so far as the volume of its waters was concerned. It was +crossed by husbandmen wherever a village or a farm stood upon its +banks. Perhaps the highest point at which it had to be crossed at one +chosen spot is to be discovered in the word Somer_ford_ Keynes, but +the ease with which the water itself could be traversed is apparent +rather in the absence than in the presence of names of this sort upon +the upper Thames. Shifford, for instance, which used to be spelt +Siford, may just as well have been named from the crossing of the +Great Brook as from the crossing of the Thames. The only other is +Duxford. + +While, however, the upper Thames was thus easy to cross where +individuals only or small groups of cattle were concerned, the marshes +on either side always made it difficult for an army. The records of +early fighting are meagre, and often legendary, but such as they are +you do not find the upper Thames crossed and recrossed as are the +upper Severn or the upper Trent. There are two points of passage: +Cricklade and Oxford, nor can the passage from Oxford be made westward +over the marshes. It is confined to the ford going north and south. + +Below Oxford, after the entry of the Cherwell, and from thence down to +a point not very easily determined, but which is perhaps best fixed at +Wallingford, the Thames is only passable at fixed crossings in +ordinary weather, as at Sandford, where the hard gravels approach the +bank upon either side, and at other places, each distant from the next +by long stretches of river. + +It is not easy, now that the river has been locked, to determine +precisely where all these original crossings are to be found. + +The records of Abingdon and its bridge make it certain that a +difficult ford existed here; the name "Burford" attached to the bridge +points to the ancient ford at this spot. It is a name to be discovered +in several other parts of England where there has been some ancient +crossing of a river, as, for instance, the crossing of the Mole in +Surrey by the Roman military road. + +The next place below Abingdon may have been at Appleford, but was more +likely between the high cliff at Clifton-Hampden and the high and dry +spit of Long Wittenham. Below this again for miles there was no easy +crossing of the river. + +The Thames was certainly impassable at Dorchester. The whole +importance of Dorchester indeed in history lies in its being a strong +fortified position, and it depends for its defence upon the depth of +the river, which swirls round the peninsula occupied by the camp. + +It has been conjectured that there was a Roman ford or ferry at the +east end of Little Wittenham Wood, where it touches the river. The +conjecture is ill supported. No track leads to this spot from the +south, and close by is an undoubted ford where now stands Shillingford +Bridge. + +Below this again there was no crossing until one got to Wallingford; +and here we reach a point of the greatest importance in the history of +the Thames and of England. + +Wallingford was not the lowest point at which the Thames could ever be +crossed. So far was this from being the case that the _tidal_ Thames +could be crossed in several places on the ebb, notably at the passage +between Ealing and Kew, where Kew Bridge now stands; and, as we shall +see, the Thames was passable at many other places. But the special +character of the passage at Wallingford lay in the fact that it was a +ford upon which one could always depend. Below Wallingford the +crossings were either only to be effected in very dry seasons or, +though normally usable, might be interrupted by rain. + +It is at Wallingford, therefore, that the main lowest passage of the +Thames was effected, and it was through Wallingford that Berkshire +communicated with the Chilterns. Wallingford is, then, the second +point of division upon the Thames when one is regarding that river as +a defence or a boundary. Below Wallingford there was perhaps a regular +crossing at Pangbourne; there was certainly a ford of great importance +between Streatley and Goring; and all the way down the river at +intervals were difficult but practicable passages--notably at Cowey +Stakes between the Surrey and the Middlesex shore, a place which is +the traditional crossing of Caesar. The water here in normal weather +was, however, as much as five feet deep, and this ford well +illustrates the difficulties of all the lower crossings of the Thames. + +The effect of the river as a barrier must, of course, have largely +depended upon the level to which the waters rose in early times. It is +exceedingly difficult to get any evidence upon this--first, because +however far you go back in English history some sort of control seems +always to have been imposed upon the river; and secondly, because the +early overflows have left little permanent effect. + +As an example of the antiquity of the regulation of the Thames we have +the embankment round the Isle of Dogs, which is Roman or pre-Roman in +its origin, like the sea-wall of the Wash, which defends the Fenland; +and at Ealing, Staines, Abingdon, and twenty other places we have +sites probably pre-historic, and certainly at the beginnings of +history, which could never have been inhabited if the neighbouring +fields had not been drained or protected. The regularity of the stream +has therefore been somewhat artificial throughout all the centuries of +recorded history, and the banks have had ample time to acquire +consistency. + +It is certain, of course, that works of planting, of draining, or of +embankment, which required continuous energy, skill, and capital, +decayed after the coming of the Saxon pirates, and were not undertaken +again with full vigour until after the Norman Conquest. Even to-day +the work is not quite complete, though every year sees its +improvement: we are still unable to prevent regularly recurrent floods +in the flats round Oxford and below the gorge of the Chilterns; but +for the purpose of this argument the chief fact to be noted is that no +serious interruption to the approach of the river seems to have +existed in historic times. + +In pre-historic times many stretches of the river must have afforded +great difficulties of approach. The mouths of the Ock, the Coln, the +Kennet, the Mole, and the Wandle must each have been surrounded by a +marsh; all the plain between Oxford and the Hinkseys must have been +partially flooded, as must the upper reaches between Lechlade and +Witham (on one side or the other of the stream as it winds from the +southern to the northern rises of land), and as must also have been +the long stretch of the right bank below Reading. The highest spring +tides may have been felt as high up the stream as Staines, and both +the character of the surface and the contour lines permit one to +conjecture that the valley of the Wandle and several other inlets from +the lower river were flooded. Yet it is remarkable that in this +alluvium, more disturbed and dug than any other in Europe, little or +nothing of human relics, of boats, or of piles has been discovered, +and this absence of testimony also points to the remoteness of date +from which we should reckon the human control of the river. + +Here, as in many other conjectures concerning early history or +pre-history, one is convinced of that safe rule which, in Europe at +least, bids us never exaggerate the changes achieved by the last few +centuries or the contrast between recorded and unrecorded things. + +The tendency of most modern history in this country has been to +exaggerate such changes and such contrasts. In the greater part of +modern popular history care is taken to emphasise the difference +between the Middle and Dark Ages and the last few centuries. The +forests of England are represented as impassable, or nearly so; the +numbers of the population are grossly underestimated; the towns which +have had a continuous municipal existence of 1500 years are +represented as villages. + +The same spirit would tend to make of the Thames Valley in the Dark +and Middle Ages a very different landscape from that which we see +to-day. The floods were indeed more common and the passage of the +river somewhat more difficult; cultivation did not everywhere approach +the banks as it does now; and in two or three spots where there has +been a great development of modern building, notably at Reading, and, +of course, in London, the banks have been artificially strengthened. +But with these exceptions it may be confidently asserted that no belt +of densely inhabited landscape in England has changed so little in its +natural features as the Thames Valley. + +There are dozens of reaches upon the upper Thames where little is in +sight save the willows, the meadows, and a village church tower, which +present exactly the same aspect to-day as they did when that church +was first built. You might put a man of the fifteenth century on to +the water below St. John's Lock, and, until he came to Buscot Lock, he +would hardly know that he had passed into a time other than his own. +The same steeple of Lechlade would stand as a permanent landmark +beyond the fields, and, a long way off, the same church of Eaton +Hastings, which he had known, would show above the trees. + +There is another method of judging the comparative smallness of the +change, and it is a method which can be applied to many other parts of +England whose desertion or wildness in the Dark and early Middle Ages +has been too confidently asserted. That method is to note where human +settlements were and are found. With the exception of the long and +probably marshy piece between Radcot and Shifford the whole of the +upper Thames was dotted with such settlements, which, though small, +were quite close to the banks. Kelmscott is right up against the river +in what one would otherwise have imagined to be land too marshy for +building until modern times. Buscot, on the other bank, is not only +close to the river, but was a royal manor of high historical +importance in the eleventh century. Eaton Hastings is similarly placed +right against the bank; so was in its day the palace of Kempsford +above Lechlade, and so is the church of Inglesham between the two. All +the way down you have at intervals old stonework and old place names, +indicating habitation upon the upper Thames. + +A proper system of locks is comparatively modern on any European +river. The invention is even said (upon doubtful authority) to be as +late as the sixteenth century, but the method of regulating the waters +of a river by weirs is immemorial. + +We have no earlier record of weirs upon the Thames than that in Magna +Charta; but some such system must have existed from the time when men +first used the Thames in a regular manner for commerce. + +There is but one place left in which one can still reconstruct for +oneself the aspect of such weirs as were till but little more than a +century ago the universal method of canalising the river. Modern weirs +are merely adjuncts to locks, and are usually found upon a branch of +the stream other than that which leads up to the lock. But in this +weir the old fashion of crossing the whole stream is still preserved. +There is no lock, and when a boat would pass up or down the paddles of +the weir have to be lifted. It is, in a modern journey upon the upper +Thames, the one faint incident which the day affords, for if one is +going down the stream but few paddles are lifted, and the boat shoots +a small rapid, while to admit a boat going up stream the whole weir is +raised, and, even so, a great rush of water opposes the boat as it is +hauled through. Some years ago there were several of these weirs upon +the upper river. They have all been superseded by locks, and it is +probable that this last one will not long survive. + +Such weirs did certainly sufficiently regulate the stream as to make +its banks regularly habitable. If no local order, at least the +interest of villagers in their mills sufficed to the watching of the +stream. + +We have in the place names upon the Thames a further evidence of the +antiquity of its regulation, for, as will be seen in a moment, none +give proof of any important settlement later than the eleventh +century. + +These place names not only indicate a continuous and early settlement +of the banks, but also form in themselves a very interesting series, +whose etymology is a little section of the history of England. + +Of purely Celtic names very few survive in the sites of human +habitation, though the names of the waterways are almost universally +Celtic, as is the name of Thames itself. But it is probable that in +the Saxon names which line the river there are many corruptions of +Celtic words made to sound in the Saxon fashion. We cannot prove such +origins. We can surmise with justice that the "tons" and "dons" all up +and down England are Celtic terminations; they are almost unknown in +Germany. There is a somewhat pedantic guess, drawn (it is said) from +Iceland, that we got this national name ending from Scandinavia; so +universal a habit would hardly have arisen from an admixture of +Scandinavian blood received at the very close of the Dark Ages and +affecting but small patches of North England. Moreover, as against +this theory, there is the fact that quite half the Celtic place names +mentioned in our early history and in that of Gaul had a similar +termination. London itself is the best example. + +If, however, we neglect this termination, and consider the first part +of the words in which it occurs (as in Abing-don, Bensing-ton, Ea-ton, +etc.), we shall find that most of the place names are Saxon in form, +and some certainly Saxon in derivation. + +Thus Ea-ton, a name scattered all along the Thames, from its very +source to the last reaches, is the "tun" by the water or stream. +Clif-ton (as in Clifton-Hampden) is the "ton" on the cliff, a very +marked feature of the left bank of the river at this place. Of +Bensing-ton, now Benson, we know nothing, nor do we of the origin of +the word Abing-don. + +The names terminating in "ham" are, in their termination at least, +certainly Teutonic; and the same may be true of most of those--but not +all of those--ending in "ford." Ford may just as well be a Celtic as a +Teutonic ending, and in either case means a "passage," a "going." It +does not even in all cases indicate a shallow passage, though in the +great majority of cases on the Thames it does indicate a place where +one could cross the river on foot. Thus Wallingford was probably the +walled or embattled ford, and Oxford almost certainly the "ford of the +droves"--droves going north from Berkshire. One may say roughly that +all the "hams" were Teutonic save where one can put one's finger on a +probable Celtic derivation such as one has, for instance, in the case +of Witham, which should mean the settlement upon the "bend" or curve +of the river, a Celtic name with a Teutonic ending. + +One may also believe that the termination "or" or "ore" is Teutonic; +Cumnor may have meant "the wayfarers' stage," and Windsor probably +"the landing place on the winding of the river." + +Hythe also is thought to be Teutonic. One can never be quite sure with +a purely Anglo-Saxon word, that it had a German origin, but at least +Hythe is Anglo-Saxon, a wharf or stage; thus Bablock Hythe on the road +through the Roman town of Eynsham across the river to Cumnor and +Abingdon, cutting off the great bend of the river at Witham; so also +the town we now call "Maidenhead," which was perhaps the "mid-Hythe" +between Windsor and Reading. Some few certainly Celtic names do +survive: in the Sinodun Hills, for instance, above Dorchester; and the +first part of the name Dorchester itself is Celtic. At the very head +of the Thames you have Coates, reminding one of the Celtic name for +the great wood that lay along the hill; but just below, where the +water begins, to flow, Kemble and Ewen, if they are Saxon, are perhaps +drawn from the presence of a "spring." Cricklade may be all Celtic, or +may be partly Celtic and partly Saxon. London is Celtic, as we have +seen. And in the mass of places whose derivation it is impossible to +establish the primitive roots of a Celtic place name may very possibly +survive. + +The purely Roman names have quite disappeared, and, what is odd, they +disappeared more thoroughly in the Thames Valley than in any other +part of England. Dorchester alone preserves a faint reminiscence of +its Romano-Celtic name; but Bicester to the north, and the crossing of +the ways at Alchester, are probably Saxon in the first part at least. +Streatley has a Roman derivation, as have so many similar names +throughout England which stand upon a "strata" or "way" of British or +of Roman origin. But though "Spina" is still Speen, Ad Pontes, close +by, one of the most important points upon the Roman Thames, has lost +its Roman name entirely, and is known as Staines: the stones or stone +which marked the head of the jurisdiction of London upon the river. + +To return to the river regarded as a _boundary_, it is subject to this +rather interesting historical observation that it has been more of a +boundary in highly civilised than in barbaric times. + +One would expect the exact contrary to be the case. A civilised man +can cross a river more easily than a barbarian; and in civilised times +there are permanent bridges, where in barbaric times there would be +only fords or ferries. + +Nevertheless, it is true of the Thames, as of nearly every other +division in Europe, that it was much more of a boundary at the end of +the Roman Empire, and is more of a strict boundary to-day, than it was +during the Dark Ages, and presumably also before the Claudian +invasion. Thus we may conjecture with a fair accuracy that in the last +great ordering of boundaries within the Roman Empire, which was the +work of Diocletian, and so much of which still survives in our +European politics to-day (for instance, the boundary of Normandy), the +Thames formed the division between Southern and Midland Britain. It is +equally certain that it did _not_ form any exact division between +Wessex and Mercia. + +The estuary has, of course, always formed a division, and in the +barbarian period it separated the higher civilisation of Kent from +that of the East Saxons, who were possibly of a different race, and +certainly of a different culture. But the Thames above London Bridge +was not a true boundary until the civilisation of England began to +form, towards the close of the Dark Ages. It is perpetually crossed +and recrossed by contending armies, and the first result of a success +is to cause the conqueror to annex a belt from the farther bank to his +own territories. + +It is further remarkable that the one great definite boundary of the +Dark Ages in England--that which was established for a few years by +Alfred between his kingdom and the territory of the Danish +invaders--abandons the Thames above bridges altogether, and uses it as +a limitation in its estuarial part only, up to the mouth of the Lea. + +With the definition of exact frontiers for the English counties, +however, a process whose origin can hardly antedate the Norman +Conquest by many years, the Thames at once becomes of the utmost +importance as a boundary. + +Its higher and hardly navigable streams are not so used. The upper +Thames and its little tributaries for some ten miles from its source +are not only indifferent to county boundaries, but run through a +territory which has been singularly indefinite in the past. For +instance, the parish of Kemble, wherein the first waters now appear, +has been counted now in Gloucester, now in Wilts. But when these ten +miles are run, just after Castle Eaton Bridge, and not quite half way +between that bridge and the old royal palace at Kempsford, the Thames +becomes the line of division between two counties, and from there to +the sea it never loses its character of a boundary. + +It is a tribute to the great place of the river in history that there +is no other watercourse in England nor any other natural division of +which this is so universally true. + +The reason that the Thames, like so many other European boundaries, +has come late into the process of demarcation, and the reason that its +use as a limit is more apparent in civilised than in uncivilised +times, is simply the fact that limits and boundaries themselves are +never of great exactitude save in times of comparatively high +civilisation. It is when a complex system of law and a far-reaching +power of execution are present in a country that the necessity for +precise delimitation arises. In the barbaric period of England there +was no such necessity. Doubtless the men of Berkshire and the men of +Oxfordshire felt themselves to be in general divided by the stream; +but had we documents to hand (which, of course, we have not) it might +be possible to show that exceptional tracts, such as the isolated Hill +of Witham (which is much more influenced by Oxford than by Abingdon), +was treated as the land of Oxfordshire men in early times, or was +perhaps a territory in dispute; and something of the same sort may +have existed in the connection of Caversham with Reading. + +In this old age of our civilisation the exactitude of the boundary +which the Thames establishes is apparent in various survivals. Islands +now joined to the one bank and indistinguishable from the rest of the +shore are still annexed to the farther shore. Such a patch is to be +found at Streatley, geographically in Berkshire, legally in Oxford; +there is another opposite Staines, which Middlesex claims from Surrey. +In all, half-a-dozen or more such anomalous frontiers mark the course +of the old river. One arrested in process of formation may be seen at +Pentonhook. + +A boundary--that is, an obstacle to travel--has this further feature, +that the point at which it is crossed--that is, the point at which the +obstacle is surmounted--is certain to become a point of strategic and +often of commercial importance. So it is with the passes over +mountains and with the narrows of the sea, and so it is with fords and +bridges over rivers. So it is with the Thames. + +The energies both of travel and of war are driven towards and confined +in such spots. Fortresses arise and towns which they may defend. +Depots of goods are formed, the coining and the change of money are +established, secure meeting places for speculation are founded. + +Such passages over the Thames were of two sorts: there are first the +original fords, numerous and primeval; next the crossing places of the +great roads. + +Of the original fords we have already drawn up a list. Few have, +merely as fords, proved to be of strategic or commercial value. Oxford +may have been an early exception; and the difficult passage at +Abingdon founded a great monastery but no military post: the rise of +each was connected, as was Reading (which had no ford), with the +junction of a tributary. Wallingford alone, in its character of the +last easy and practicable ford down the river, had for centuries an +importance certainly due to geographical causes alone. Two principal +events of English history--the crossing of the Thames by the Conqueror +and the successful challenge of Henry II. to Stephen--depend upon the +site of this crossing. Long before their time it had been of capital +importance to the Saxon kings, so early as Offa and so late as Alfred. +If the bridges built at Abingdon in the fifteenth century had not +gradually deflected the western road, Wallingford might still count +the fourteen churches and the large population which it possessed for +so many centuries. + +Apart from Wallingford, however, the fords, as fords, did little to +build up towns or to determine the topography of English history. Of +more importance were the crossings of the great _roads_. + +When one remembers that the south of England was originally by far the +wealthiest part of the country, and when one considers the shape of +Ireland, it is evident that certain main tracks would lead from north +to south, and that most or all of these would be compelled to cross +the Thames Valley. We find four such primeval ways. + +One from the Straits of Dover in the south-east to the north-western +centres of the Welsh Marches and of Chester, the Port for Ireland, and +so up west of the Pennines. This came in Saxon times to be called the +_Watling Street_, a name common to other lesser lanes. + +Another, the converse to this, proceeded from the metal mines of the +south-west to the north-east until it struck and merged into other +roads running north and east of the Pennines. This came to be called +(as did other lesser roads) the _Fosse Way_. + +A third went more sharply west from the southern districts, and +connected them not with the Dee, but with the lower Severn. This track +ran from the open highlands of Hampshire through Newbury and the +Berkshire Hills to Gloucester, and was called (like other lesser +tracks) the _Ermine Street_. + +Finally, a fourth went in a great bend from these same highlands up +eastward to the coast of the North Sea in East Anglia. This was called +in Saxon times the _Icknield Way_. + +All these can be traced in their general direction throughout and for +most of their length minutely. All were forced to cross the Thames +Valley, which so nearly divided the whole of South England from east +to west. + +Of these four crossings the first in point of interest is that which +the _Ermine Street_ makes over the upper Thames at _Cricklade_. + +These old roads are of capital importance in the story of England, and +though historians have always recognised this there are a number of +features about them which have not been sufficiently noted--as, for +instance, that armies until perhaps the twelfth century perpetually +used them; for the great English roads, though their general track was +laid out in pre-historic times, were generally hardened, straightened, +and embanked by the Romans in a manner which permitted them to survive +right on into the early Middle Ages; and of these four all were so +hardened and strengthened, except the Icknield Way. Not one of them is +quite complete to-day, but the Ermine Street is perhaps the best +preserved. It is a good modern road all the way from Bayden to +Gloucester, with the exception of a very slight gap at this village of +Cricklade. + +It originally crossed the river half-a-mile below Cricklade Bridge, so +that the priory which stood on the left bank lay just to the south of +the old road. How and when the old bridge at Cricklade fell we have no +record, but one of the most important records of the Thames in +Anglo-Saxon history is connected with this passage of the river. + +The importance of Cricklade as a station upon the upper Thames does +not only proceed from its being the crossing place of a great road, it +is also the point when the first important tributary stream, the +Churn, joins the Thames. Above this junction the Thames nowadays is +hardly a stream; and even in the eighteenth century and earlier, +before the digging of the Severn and Thames Canal, it must have +depended on the weather whether there were any appreciable amount of +water in the upper part or not. It would probably be found, if records +could be examined, that the mills at Somerford Keynes were not +continually worked throughout the year, even when the supply of water +had been left undiminished by modern engineering. But when once the +Churn (which, as we have seen, has a larger volume of water than the +Thames) had fallen in at Cricklade the two formed a true river, with +depth in it always sufficient to support a boat, and with a fairly +strong stream, as also with a width sufficient for minor traffic; and +it is after Cricklade that you get a succession of villages and +churches dependent upon the river and standing close to its banks. + +But though this piece of hydrography has its importance the chief +meaning of Cricklade in history lay in the fact that it was the spot +where this Ermine Street on its way from the south country to the +Severn Valley got over the Thames, and the village connected with it +was entrenched certainly in Roman and probably in pre-Roman times. +This entrenchment may still be traced. + +The crossing of the Thames by the Icknield Way, unlike the crossing of +the Ermine Street at Cricklade, presents a problem. + +Cricklade, as we have seen, is a perfectly well-established site, and +we owe our certitude upon the matter to the fact that the Romans had +hardened and straightened what was probably an old British track. But +with the crossing of the Icknield Way no such complete certitude +exists, for the Icknield Way was but a vague barbarian track, often +tortuous in outline, confused by branching ways, and presenting all +the features of a savage trail. Doubtless that trail was used during +the four hundred years of the high Roman civilisation as a country +road, just as the similar trail, known as the "Pilgrims' Way" from +Winchester to Canterbury, was used in the same epoch. There are plenty +of Roman remains to be found along the track, and there is no doubt +that all such roads, even when the State was not at the expense of +hardening or straightening them, were in continual use before, as they +were in continual use after, the presence of Roman government in this +island; but the Icknield Way does not approach the river in a clear +and unmistakable manner as would a Roman or a Romanised road. It is on +this account that the exact point of its crossing has been debated. + +The problem is roughly this: the high and treeless chalk downs have +been used from the beginning of human habitation in these islands as +the principal highways, and any single traveller or tribe that desired +in early times to get from the Hampshire highlands to the east and +north of England must have begun by following the ridge of the +Berkshire Hills, and by continuing along the dry upland of the +Chiltern Hills, which continue this reach beyond the Thames. But the +spot at which the pre-historic crossing of the Thames was effected +cannot be determined by a simple survey of the place where the Thames +cuts through the chalk range. Wallingford up above this gorge has +certain claims, both because it was the lowest of the continually +practicable fords upon the river, and because its whole history points +to an immemorial antiquity. Higher still, Dorchester, on which every +historian of the Thames must dwell as perhaps the most interesting of +all the settlements upon the banks of the river, has also been +suggested. Just above Dorchester, on the Berkshire side, stands the +peculiar isolated twin height which forms so conspicuous a landmark +when one gazes over the plain from the summit of the Downs. Such +landmarks often helped to trace the old roads. And Dorchester has also +an immemorial antiquity--a pre-historic fortification upon the hills +above, and fortifications, probably historic, on the Oxford bank +below, but Dorchester has no ford. + +When all the evidence is weighed it seems more probable that the +regular crossing from the Berkshire Hills to the Chilterns was +effected at Streatley. + +Of this there are several proofs. In the first place, the name of the +place suggests the passage of some great way. Place names of this sort +are invariably found upon some one of the principal roads of England. +In the second place, a lane bearing the traditional name of the +Icknield Way can be traced to a point very near the river and the +village. Another can be recovered beyond the river. The name would +hardly have been so continued--even with considerable gaps--both upon +the Oxfordshire and the Berkshire side unless the place of regular +crossing had been here. + +Within a mile or two of Streatley this lane begins to descend the side +of the Berkshire Downs. Just before it falls into the Wantage Road and +is lost it has begun to curl round the shoulder of the steep hill; but +there is no way of telling at what precise spot it would strike the +river upon the Berkshire side, because a thousand years or so of +building, cultivation, and other changes have obliterated every trace +of it. + +Luckily, we have some indication upon the farther bank. A way can then +be traced here as a lane (and in the gaps as a right of way, as a +path, or sometimes only by its general direction) for some miles on +the Oxfordshire side as it approaches Goring and the river coming from +the Chilterns. And we know the point at which it strikes the village. +This point is at the Sloane Hotel close to the railway; the inn is +actually built upon the old road. Beyond the railway the track is +continued in the lane which leads on past the schoolhouse to the old +ferry, where there was presumably in Roman times a ford. If we accept +this track we can conjecture that the vicarage of Streatley, upon the +Berkshire bank, stands upon the continuation of the Way, and give the +place where the pre-historic road crossed the river with tolerable +certitude, though it is, I believe, impossible to recover the +half-mile or so which lies between Streatley vicarage and the point +where the Wantage Road and the Icknield Way separated upon the +hillside above. + +If the ford lay here the site was certainly well chosen, just below a +group of islands which broadened the stream and made it at once +shallower and less swift, acting somewhat as a natural weir above the +crossing. + +The third crossing place of a great pre-historic road, that of the +Watling Street, is believed to correspond with the line of that very +ugly suspension bridge which runs from Lambeth to the Horseferry Road +in Westminster. This is, according to the most probable conjecture, +the place at which the great road which ran from the Straits of Dover +to the north-western ports of the island crossed the Thames. + +Here, of course, there could be no question of a ford; there can only +have been a ferry. Such a ferry existed throughout the Middle Ages and +up to the building of Westminster Bridge, and produced a large revenue +for the Archbishop of Canterbury. The memory of it is preserved in the +name of the street upon the Middlesex shore. The Watling Street is +fairly fixed in all its journey from the coast to the Archbishop's +palace on the banks of the river. On the Middlesex shore it is lost, +but it may be conjectured to have run in a curve somewhere in the +neighbourhood of Buckingham Palace up on the higher ground west of the +Tybourne, parallel with or perhaps identical with Park Lane until we +find it certainly again at the Marble Arch, whence in the form of the +Edgware Road it begins a clear track across North-Western England. + +As for the Fosse Way, it only just touches the valley of the Thames. +It crosses the line of the river in a high embankment a mile or so +below its traditional source at Thames head, but above the point where +the first water is seen. A small culvert running under that embankment +takes the flood water in winter down the hollow, but no longer covers +a regular stream. + +Besides these four crossings of the old British ways above London +Bridge there is the crossing of the Roman Road at Staines, which may +or may not represent a passage older than the Roman occupation. We +have no proof of its being older. The river is deep, and, unless the +broken causeway on the Surrey shore is regarded as the remains of +British work, there is no trace of a pre-Roman track in the +neighbourhood. + +The crossing at Staines was the main bridge over the middle river +during the Roman occupation; no other spot on the banks (except London +Bridge) is _certainly_ the site of a Roman bridge. + +But apart from these there are two unsolved problems in connection +with the roads across the Thames Valley in Roman times. The first +concerns the passage of the upper Thames south of Eynsham; the second +concerns the road which runs south from Bicester and Alchester. + +As to the first of these, we know that the plain lying to the north of +the Thames between the Cotswolds and the Chilterns was thoroughly +occupied. We have also in the Saxon Chronicle a legendary account of +the occupation of four Roman towns in this plain by the Saxon +invaders. By what avenue did this wealthy and civilised district +communicate with the wealthy and civilised south? + +It is a question which will probably never be answered. There is no +trace remaining of Roman bridges; perhaps nothing was built save of +wood. + +The obvious short-cut from the Roman town of Eynsham across the Witham +peninsula to Abingdon bears no signs of a ford approached by Roman +work or of a bridge, nor any record of such things. + +As to the second question, the road from Bicester southward runs +straight to Dorchester. At Dorchester, as we have seen, there was no +ford, though just below it a Roman ferry has been guessed at. + +There may have been a country road running down along the left or +north bank of the river to the pre-historic crossing place at Goring +and Streatley; but if there was, no trace of it remains, save perhaps +in the two place names North Stoke and South Stoke. + +A barrier has yet another quality in history, and that quality is +perhaps the most important of all. In so far as it is an obstacle it +is also a means of defence. + +All the great rivers of Europe prove this. They are studded with lines +of strongholds standing either right upon their banks or close by; and +various as is the character of the different great rivers in their +physical conformation, few or none have been unable to furnish sites +for fortification. For instance, the slow rivers of Northern France, +running for the most part through a flat country, were able to afford +fortresses for the Gaulish clans in their numerous islands; the origin +of Melun and Paris, for instance, was of this kind. The sharp rocks +along the Rhone became platforms for castle after castle: Beaucaire, +Tarascon, Aries, Avignon, and twenty others all of this sort. + +The Thames, curiously enough, forms an exception; it is an exception +even in the list of English rivers, most of which can show a certain +number of fortifications along their banks. + +In the whole course of the great river above London there are but +three examples of fortification, or at any rate of fortification +directly dependent upon the river. Of these the first, at Lechlade, is +conjectural; the second, at Windsor, came quite late in history, and +the only one which seems to have been a primeval fortified site was +Dorchester. + +There were, of course, plenty of towns and castles susceptible of +defence. At one time or another every important settlement upon the +Thames was capable of resistance: Oxford was walled, Wallingford was a +fortress, Abingdon or Reading could be defended. But these were all, +so to speak, artificial. The settlement came first, and after the +settlement the necessity of guarding it from attack, and it was so +guarded, not by natural means, but by human construction. The castle +at Oxford, for instance, stood upon a mound of earth raised by human +work. The only considerable place in which the river itself suggested +defence from the earliest times appears to have been at Dorchester. + +The curious importance of Dorchester in the very origins of English +history and the still more curious way in which it sinks out of sight +for generations, to revive again in the tenth century, is one of the +puzzles of the history of the Thames. + +It is useless to pursue an archaeological discussion as to the origin +of the place, and still more useless to try and determine why, though +certainly the most easily defended, it should originally have been the +_only_ heavily fortified spot in the whole of the valley. We know that +it was Roman: we know that it was a place of pre-historic +fortification before the Romans came: we know that a Roman road ran +northward towards Bicester from it, and we also know, or at least we +can make a very probable guess, that though it was continuously +important, and that the interest of early history is continually +returning to it, it can never have been large. + +Perhaps the best conjecture upon the origin of Dorchester is that the +stronghold grew up as an out-lier to the great fort over the river at +the top of Sinodun Hill. The exact and regular peninsula between the +bend in the Thames and the mouth of the Thames is obviously suited for +fortification: the tributary flows just to the east of this peninsula, +exactly parallel with the main river beyond, and covers the peninsula +not only with a stream on its east flank, but with a marsh at the +mouth. One can imagine that the conspicuous heights of the Sinodun +Hills were held, from the very beginning of human habitation in this +district, as a permanent fortress, into which the neighbouring tribes +could retire during war, and one can imagine that when the river was +low in summer, and perhaps fordable, the spit of land before it, which +formed an exception to the marshes round about, needed to be protected +as a sort of bastion beyond the stream. This theory will at least +account for the two great ridges of earthwork going from one water to +the other and completely cutting off the peninsula, since it is agreed +these works are earlier than the Roman invasion. Whatever its origin, +the part which Dorchester plays in the early history of England is +most remarkable. + +The conversion of England was effected by a process of which we know +far more than of any other series of national events before the Danish +invasions. That process is more exactly recorded, less legendary, and +more consecutively told because it was (to all contemporary watchers) +the capital event of the time, and to all posterity the one thing that +explained men to themselves. + +We know also that, not so much the nucleus of the conversion as the +secure vantage from which it marched outward, was the triangle of +Kent. We can believe that the civilisation of Kent was something quite +separate from the rest of the south-eastern portion of England, and +that the many customary survivals which are, to this day, native to +the county are remaining proofs of its unique character among the +petty kingdoms during the mythical period between the withdrawal of +the Romans and the arrival of St. Augustine. + +The early hold of civilisation upon Kent is explicable. But when the +influence of Rome begins to spread again over England you have +distances covered which are astounding; there occur sporadic incidents +of the highest importance in spots where they would be the least +expected. Among the very first of these is the first baptism of a +West-Saxon King. + +It was certainly at Dorchester that this baptism took place and the +choice of the site, little as we know of the village or city, has +filled every historian with conjecture. Up to the very landing of St. +Augustine we are still dependent upon what is half legendary and very +meagre record. The chief point indeed as regards this part of the +country is the tradition of a battle fought against the British at +Bedford by the West Saxons and the occupation of "four towns." This +success was put down by tradition to the year 571, but everything was +still so dark that even this success is a legend. + +Within the lifetime of a man you have the baptism of Cynegil, the king +of the West Saxons, at Dorchester, and that baptism takes place less +than forty years after the complete submission of Kent. + +The Chronicle, in mentioning this date, is no longer upon legendary +ground: it is dealing with an event which was kept on record by +civilised men who understood the art of writing, who could speak +Latin, who could bear their records to Rome, and, what is more, the +fact and the date are confirmed by the Venerable Bede. + +It is imagined by some authorities that the fulness of the story and +its apparent accuracy depend upon access to some early ecclesiastical +record preserved at Dorchester and now lost. At any rate, Dorchester, +whether because it had been, up till then, an unconquered Roman town, +or for whatever other reason, becomes at once the ecclesiastical +centre and one to which, even when this baptism takes place, the King +of Northumbria was at the pains of travelling southward to, to be +present as sponsor for the new Christian. + +The story has a special historical interest, because it shows how very +vague were the boundaries and the occupancies of the little wandering +chieftains of this period. It need hardly be pointed out that no +regular division into shires can have existed so early, and, as we +have already insisted, the Thames itself was not a permanent boundary +between any two definable societies, yet those who regard the +Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as historical would show one Penda had appeared +a few years before as the chief of a group of men with a new name, the +Mercians--probably a loose agglomeration of tribes occupying the +middle strip of England; a group whose dialect and measures of land +are, perhaps, the ancestors of the modern Midland dialect and most of +our measures. Cynegil's baptism could not have taken place in +territory controlled by Penda, for he was the champion of all the +Anti-Christian forces of the time, and though he had just defeated the +West Saxons, and (according to a later legend) pushed back their +boundary to the line of the Thames, his action, like that of all the +little kings of the barbaric age in Britain, can have been no more +than a march with a few thousands, a battle, and a retreat. In a word, +the true and verifiable story of Cynegil's baptism is one of the many +valuable instances which help to prove the unreliability of that part +of the early Chronicle which does not deal with ecclesiastical +affairs. + +The priest who received Cynegil into the Church was one Birinus, an +Italian, and perhaps a Milanese; he appears, from his first presence +in Dorchester, to have fixed the seat of a bishopric in that village. +His reasons for choosing the spot are as impossible to discover as are +the origins of any other of the characteristics of the place. It was, +in any case, as were so many of the sees of the Dark Ages, a frontier +see--a sort of ecclesiastical fortress, pushed out to the very limits +of the occupation of the enemy. + +Whether Dorchester continued to be a bishopric from this moment +onwards we cannot tell; but no less than three hundred years +afterwards--in the tenth century--it appears again, and this time as +the centre of the gigantic diocese which stretched throughout the +whole of Middle England and right up to the Humber. The Conquest came, +the diocese was cut up just afterwards, and the seat of the bishop +finally removed from the village to Lincoln, and with the Conquest the +importance of Dorchester as a fortified position, an importance which +it had held for untold centuries, began to decline in favour of +Oxford. + +The artificial chain of fortifications up the Thames Valley, which had +their origin under William the Conqueror, will call our attention to +many other spots besides Oxford as these pages proceed, but it is +interesting at this moment to consider Oxford in its early military +aspect, when it succeeded Dorchester, and came forward as the chief +stronghold of the upper Thames Valley above Wallingford. + +The gravel bank north of the ford, by which what is presumed to have +been the drovers' road from south to north crossed the river, had +supported a very considerable population, and had attained a very +considerable civil importance, long before the Conquest. It is +difficult to believe that any new, especially that any extensive, +centres of population grew up in Anglo-Saxon Britain, upon sites +chosen by the barbarians. The Romans had colonised and densely +populated every suitable spot. The ships' crews of open pirate vessels +had no qualities suitable to the founding of a town; and when there is +no direct evidence it is always safer of the two conjectures in +English topography to believe that any spot which we find inhabited +and flourishing in the Anglo-Saxon period, even at its close, was not +a town developed during the Dark Ages but one which the pirates, when +they first entered the island, had found already inhabited and +flourishing, though sometimes perhaps more British than Roman. But +though this is always the more historical way of looking at the +probable origin of an English town it must be admitted that there is +no direct evidence of any town upon the site of Oxford before the +Danish invasions, and the first mention of the place by name is as +late as eleven years after Alfred's death, when it is recorded that +Edward, his son, "took possession of London and of Oxford and of all +lands in obedience thereunto." + +This first mention, slight as it is, characterises Oxford as being the +town of the upper Thames Valley at the opening of the tenth century, +and we have what is usually a good basis for history--that is, +ecclesiastical tradition and a monastic charter--to show us that a +considerable monastery had existed upon the spot for a century and a +half before this first mention in the Chronicle. + +There still exists in the modern town, to the west of it, a large +artificial mound, one of those which have been discovered here and +there up and down England, and which are characteristic of a late +Saxon method of fortification. Before the advent of the Normans these +mounds were defended by palisades only, and were used as but +occasional strongholds. It may be conjectured that this Saxon work at +Oxford dates from somewhat the same period as does the first mention +of the town in the Chronicle. Twelve years later Alfred's grandson is +mentioned as dying at Oxford. It may be presumed that his death would +indicate the presence of a royal palace. We hear nothing more of this +town during the remainder of the tenth century, but we have a long +account in what is probably an accurate record of the rising of the +townsmen against the Danes in the beginning of the eleventh. The +Scandinavians made their last stand in the church of the monastery, +and the townsmen burnt it. Five years later a new host of Danes took +and burnt the town; and four years later again, Sweyn, in his terrible +conquering march, captured it, after very little resistance, in the +same year in which he took the crown of England. The brief episode of +Edmund Ironside again brings the town into history: he slept here upon +his way to London in the late autumn of 1016, and here, very probably, +he was killed. From that moment the fortress (as it now certainly was) +enters continually into that last anarchy which was only cured by a +second advent of European civilisation and the success of its armies +at Hastings. + +The great national council of 1018, which may be called the settlement +of Canute, was held at Oxford, and in 1036 another national council, +of even greater importance, which was held to decide upon the +succession of Canute's heirs, was again held at Oxford, and it was at +Oxford that, four years later, the first Harold died. + +Meanwhile, in the near neighbourhood of the city, at Islip, Queen Emma +had, half a lifetime earlier, borne a son, who, after the death of all +these Danes, remained the legitimate heir to the English throne. Islip +was, most probably, not royal, but a private manor of the Queen's, +which descended to the Confessor, and it is interesting to note in +passing that it was his gift of this land and of its church to +Westminster Abbey which originated the present connection between the +two--a connection which has now, therefore, behind it nearly nine +hundred years of continuity. + +In the few hurried months before Hastings the last of the great +Anglo-Saxon meetings in the town was summoned. It was held at the end +of October, 1065, and was that in which Harold's policy was agreed to. +Within twelve months Harold himself was dead, and a victorious +invading army was marching upon Wallingford. + +In all this record it is clear that Oxford held a continually growing +place in the life of England, and especially as a stronghold of +whoever might be governing England. What battle was fought there, if +any, or how the Normans got it, we do not know, but it is presumed +that it suffered in the fighting because the number and value of its +houses is given in the subsequent Survey as having fallen very largely +indeed. + +It is always well, whenever one comes across the Domesday Survey in +history, to remember that the whole record is very imperfectly +understood. We do not know quite what was being measured: we do not +know, for instance, in the case of a town like Oxford, whether all the +inhabited houses were counted; or whether only those who by custom +gave taxes were counted; nor can we be certain of the meaning of the +word _vastus_, save that it has some connection either with +destruction or dilapidation, or lack of occupation, or, possibly, even +remission of taxation. But the theory of a sack is not without +foundation, for we know that in the case of York (which was certainly +sacked by Tostig in 1065 and then again by William in 1068) what is +probably a destruction of a similar kind, though a rather greater one, +is expressed in similar words. + +Whether, however, the number given in the town list of the Conqueror +is or is not due to the destruction wrought by the Conquest we must be +very careful not to estimate the population of that time upon the +basis to-day such a list would afford. The figures of Domesday stand +for a much larger population than most historians have hitherto been +inclined to grant, as may be shown by considerations to which I shall +only allude here, as I shall have to repeat them more fully upon a +later page when I speak of urban life upon the Thames. The nomadic +element in the life of the early Middle Ages; the smallness of the +space allotted for sleeping; the large amount of time spent out of +doors; the great proportion of collegiate institutions, not only +monastic but military; the life in common which spread as a habit to +so many parts of society beyond the monastic; the large families which +(from genealogy) we can trust to be as much a character of the early +Middle Ages as they, were not the character of the later Middle Ages, +the crowd of semi-servile dependants which would be discovered in any +large house--all these make us perfectly safe in multiplying by at +least ten the number of households counted in the Survey if we would +get at the population of those households, and it must be remembered +that the houses counted, even in those parts of England which were +fairly thoroughly surveyed, can only represent a _minimum_ number, +whatever was the method of counting. The lists may in some instances +include every single household in a place, though from what we know of +the diversity of local custom this is unlikely. In most places it is +far more likely that the list covered but some portion that by custom +owed a public tax, and this is especially true of the towns. + +After Dorchester, which was the first of the fortresses of the Thames, +so far as we have any knowledge, and after Oxford, which came next, +and appears to have been founded since the beginning of recorded +history in these islands, there remain to be considered the other +strongholds which held the line of the valley. + +It would be easy to multiply these if one were to consider all +fortifications whatsoever connected with the general strategic line +formed by the Thames, but such a catalogue would exceed the boundaries +set to this book. It is proposed to consider only those which were +strictly connected with the passage of the stream, and of such there +are but three besides Dorchester and Oxford, for that at Cricklade is +doubtful, and in any case determines a passage which could be always +outflanked upon either side, while the great fortress of the Tower, +lying as it does upon the estuarial Thames below bridges, does +directly protect a highway. + +These three strongholds directly connected with the inland river are +Wallingford, Reading and Windsor, and of the three Wallingford and +Windsor were more directly military: the last, Reading, appears to +have been but an adjunct to a large and civil population; the fourfold +quality of Reading in the history of the Thames, as a civil +settlement, as a religious centre, as a stronghold, and as one of the +very few examples of modern industrial development in the valley, will +be considered later. We will take each of the three strongholds in +their order down stream. + +What determined the importance of Wallingford is not easy to fix +nowadays. The explanation more usually given to the great part which +this crossing of the Thames played in the early history of Britain is +the double one that it was the lowest continuously practicable ford +over the river, and that it held the passage of the great road going +from London to the west. + +Now it is true that any traveller making from London to Bath, or the +Mendip Hills, and the lower Severn would, on the whole, find his most +direct road to be along the Vale of the White Horse, but the +convenience of this line through Wallingford may easily be +exaggerated, especially its convenience for men in early times before +the valleys were properly drained. Though the ford at Abingdon was +more difficult than the ford at Wallingford, yet the line through +Abingdon westward along the Farringdon road was certainly shorter than +the line through Wantage. Whether the old habit, inherited from +pre-historic times, of following the chalk ridge had produced a +parallel road just at the foot of that ridge and so had made +Wallingford, Wantage, and all the southern edge of the Vale of the +White Horse the natural road to the west, or whether it was that the +great run of travel ran, when once the Thames had been crossed at +Wallingford, slightly south-west towards Bath, it is certain that the +Wallingford and Wantage line is the line of travel in early history. + +There is no record, and but very little basis for conjecture, as to +the origin of the fortifications at Wallingford. Not much is left of +them, and though there is some Roman work in the place it is work +which has evidently been handled over and over again. It is certainly +somewhat late in English history that this "Walled Ford" is heard +of--with the tenth century. Its first castle is, of course, Norman, +and contemporary with that of Oxford--or rather a year later than that +at Oxford, and from the Conquest onward it remains royal. From that +time, also, it is perpetually appearing in English history. It was the +place of confinement of Edward I. when, as Prince Edward, he was the +prisoner of Leicester. It was the attempt to succour that prisoner +which led to his removal to Kenilworth, and finally to that escape +which permitted him to fight the battle of Evesham. Wallingford passed +to Gaveston in Edward the Second's reign, and, remaining continually +within the gift of the crown, to the Despenser in the succeeding +generation, and finally to Isabella, who declared her policy from +within the walls of Wallingford when she returned to the country. It +was next held by her favourite, Mortimer, and we afterwards find it, +throughout the fourteenth century, a sort of appanage of the +heir-apparent, and especially of the Duchy of Cornwall, to which it +was attached until the Reformation. It was for a moment under the +custody of Chaucer's son: it nursed the childhood of Henry VI., but +with the beginning of the next century it had already lost its +importance. After half that century had passed the castle was already +falling into disrepair; much of the masonry of the town and of the +fortress, lying squared and convenient to the river, had been moved +down stream for the new buildings at Windsor, and when, nearly a +century later again, the Civil War broke out, it was not until after +some considerable repair that the place could pretend to stand a +siege. It fell to the Parliament, and, before the Restoration, was +carefully destroyed, as were throughout England so many foundations of +her past by the orders of Oliver Cromwell. + +It has often been remarked with surprise that cities and strongholds +once densely inhabited and heavily built can disappear and leave no +material trace to posterity. That they do so disappear should give +pause to those historians who are perpetually using the negative +argument, and pretending that the lack of material evidence is +sufficient to disturb a strong and early tradition. Those who have +watched the process by which abandoned buildings become a quarry will +easily understand how all traces of habitation disappear. +Three-quarters of what was once Orford, much of what once was Worsted, +has gone, and up and down the country-sides to-day one could witness, +even in our strictly disciplined civilisation, the removal, by +purchase or theft, of abandoned material. + +The whole of Wallingford has suffered this fate--the mound, presumably +artificial, upon which the first keep stood, and which was, probably, +a palisade mound of Anglo-Saxon times, remains, but there is upon it +no remaining masonry. + +Next down stream of the points with a strategic importance in English +history comes Reading. But the strategic importance of Reading was not +produced by the town's possessing a site of national moment: it was +produced only by local topography. Reading was never (to use a modern +term) a "nodal point" in the communications of England. + +It may be generally laid down that mere strength of position is noted +and greedily seized in barbaric times alone. For mere strength of +position is a mere refuge. A strong position (I do not speak, of +course, of tactical and temporary, but of permanent, positions), +chosen only because it is strong, will save you during a critical +short period from the attack of a fierce, unthoughtful, and easily +wearied enemy--such as are all barbarians; but it cannot _of itself_ +fall into a general scheme of defence, nor, _simply because it is +strong_, intercept the advance of an adversary or support a line of +opposition and resistance. Position is always of _advantage_ to a +fortress, and, in all but highly civilised times, a _necessity_--as we +shall see when we come to discuss Windsor--but it is not sufficient. A +fortress, when society is organised, and when the feud of one small +tribe or family against another is not to be feared, derives its +principal value from a command of established communications, and +established aggregations of power--especially of economic power. Towns +alone can feed and house armies; by roads and railways alone can +armies proceed. + +There are, indeed, examples of a chain of positions so striking that, +from their strength alone, a strategic line imposes itself; but these +are very rare. Another, and much commoner, exception to the rule I +have stated is the growth of what was once a barbaric stronghold, +chosen merely for its position, into a larger centre of population, +through which communications necessarily lead, and in which stores and +other opportunities for armies can be provided. Such places often +preserve a continuity of strategic importance, from civilised, through +barbaric, to civilised times again. Laon is an excellent instance of +this, and so is Constantine another, and so is Luxembourg a +third--indeed they are numerous. + +But, in spite of--or, rather, as is proved by--these exceptions the +fortresses of an organised people are found at the conjunction of +their communications, or at places (such as straits or passes) which +have the monopoly of communication, or they are identical with great +aggregations of population and opportunity, or at least they are +situated in spots from which such aggregations can be commanded. +Position is always of value, but only as an adjunct. + +Now Reading, save, perhaps, in barbaric times, when the Thames was the +main highway of Southern England, occupied no such vantage until the +nineteenth century. To-day, with its large population, its provision +of steam and electrical power, and above all, its command of the main +junction between the southern and middle railways, Reading would again +prove of primary strategic importance if we still considered warfare +with our equals as a possibility. But during all previous centuries, +since the Dark Ages, Reading was potentially, as it is still actually, +civilian; and, indeed, it is as the typical great town of the Thames +Valley that it will be treated later in these pages. + +The long and narrow peninsula between the Kennet and the Thames was an +ideal place for defence. It needed but a trench from the one marsh to +the other to secure the stronghold. But though this was evident to +every fighter, though it is as such a stronghold that Reading is +mentioned first in history, yet the advantage was never permanently +held. Armies hold Reading, fall back on the town, fight near it, and +raid it: but it is never a great fortress in the intervals of wars, +because, while Oxford commanded the Drovers' Road, Wallingford the +western road, and Windsor (as we shall see in a moment) London itself, +Reading neither held a line of supply nor an accumulation of supply, +and was, therefore, civilian, though it was nearly as easy to hold as +Windsor, as easy as Dorchester, its parallel, easier than Oxford, and +far easier than Wallingford, which had, indeed, no natural defences +whatsoever. + +Proceeding with the stream, there is no further stronghold till we +come to Windsor. + +Even to-day, and in an England that has lost hold of her past more +than has any rival nation, Windsor seems to the passer-by to possess a +meaning. That hill of stones, sharp though most of its modern outlines +are, set upon another hill for a pedestal, gives, even to a modern +patriot, a hint of history; and when it is seen from up-stream, +showing its only noble part, where the Middle Ages still linger, it +has an aspect almost approaching majesty. + +The creator of Windsor was the Conqueror. The artificial mound on +which the Round Tower stands may or may not be pre-historic. The +slopes of the hill were inhabited, like nearly all our English sites, +by the Romans, and by the savages before and after the Romans; but the +welter of the Saxon dark ages did not use this abrupt elevation for a +stronghold. What military reasoning led William of Falaise to discern +it at once and there to build his keep? + +In order to answer that question let us consider what other points in +the valley were at his disposal. + +Reading we have discussed. The chalk spurs in the gorge by Goring and +Pangbourne are not isolated (as is that of Chateau Gaillard, for +instance), and are dominated by the neighbouring heights. The +escarpment opposite Henley offered a good site for an eleventh-century +castle--but the steep cliff of Windsor had this advantage beyond all +the others--that it was at exactly the right distance from London. +Windsor is the warden of the capital. + +If the reader will look at a modern geological map, he will see from +Wallingford to Bray a great belt of chalk in which the trench of the +Thames is carved. Alluvials and gravels naturally flank the stream, +but chalk is the ground rock of the whole. To the west and to the east +of this belt he will notice two curious isolated patches, detached +from the main body of the chalk. That to the west forms the twin +height of the Sinodun Hills, rising abruptly out of the green sand; +that to the east is the knoll of Windsor, rising abruptly out of the +thick and damp clay. It is a singular and unique patch, almost exactly +round, and as a result of some process at which geology can hardly +guess the circle is bisected by the river. If ever the chalk of the +north bank rose high it has, in some manner, been worn down. That on +the south bank remains in a steep cliff with which everyone who uses +the river is familiar. It was the summit of this chalk hill piercing +through the clays that the Conqueror noted for his purpose, and he +was, to repeat, determined (we must presume) by the distance from +London. + +The command of a great town, especially a metropolis, is but partially +effected by a fortress situated within its limits. In case of a +popular revolt, and still more in case the resources of the town are +held by an enemy, such a fortress will be penned in and find itself +suffering a siege far more rigorous than any that could be laid in an +open country-side. On this account the urban fortresses of the Middle +Ages are to be found (at least in large cities) lying upon an extreme +edge of the walls and reposing, as far as possible, upon uninhabited +land or upon water, or both. The two classic examples of this rule +are, of course, the Tower and the Louvre, each standing down stream, +just outside the wall, and each reposing on the river. + +But in an active time even this precaution fails, and that for two +reasons. First, the growth of the town makes any possible garrison of +the fortress too small for the force with which it might have to cope; +and, secondly, this same growth physically overlaps the exterior +fortress; suburbs grow up beyond the wall, and the castle finds itself +at last embedded in the town. Thus within a hundred and fifty years of +its completion the Louvre was but a residence, wholly surrounded, save +upon the water front, by the packed houses within the new wall of +Marcel. + +A tendency therefore arises, more or less early according to local +circumstance, to establish a fortified base within striking distance +of the civilian centre which it is proposed to command; and striking +distance is a day's march. The strict alliance between Paris and the +Crown forbade such an experiment to the Capetian Monarchy, but, even +in that case, the truth of the general military proposition involved +is proved by the power which Montlhery possessed until the middle of +the twelfth century of doing mischief to Paris. In the case of London, +and of a population the wealthier of whom were probably for some years +hostile to the Conqueror, the immediate necessity for an exterior base +presented itself, and though the distance from London was indeed +considerable, Windsor, under the circumstances of that moment, proved +the most suitable point at which to establish the fortress. + +Some centuries earlier or later the exact point for fortification +would have lain at _Staines_, and Windsor may be properly regarded as +a sort of second best to Staines. + +The great Roman roads continued until the twelfth century to be the +main highways of the barbaric and mediaeval armies. We know, for +instance, from a charter of Westminster's, that Oxford Street was +called, in the last years of the Saxon Dynasty, "Via Militaria," and +it was this road which was still in its continuation the marching road +upon London from the south and west: from Winchester, which was still +in a fashion the capital of England and the seat of the Treasury. Now +Staines marks the spot where this road crossed the river. It was a +"nodal point," commanding at once the main approach to London by land +and the main approach by water. + +But there is more than this in favour of Staines. I have already said +that a fortress commanding a civilian population--an ancient fortress, +at least--can do so with the best effect at the distance of an easy +march. Now Staines is not seventeen miles from Tyburn, and a good road +all the way: Windsor is over twenty, and for the last miles there was +no good, hard road in the time of its foundation. + +But, though Staines had all these advantages, it was rejected from a +lack of position. Position was still of first importance, and remained +so till the seventeenth century. The new Castle, like so many hundred +others built by the genius of the same race, must stand on a steep +hill even if the choice of such a site involved a long, instead of a +reasonable, day's march. Windsor alone offered that opportunity, and, +standing isolated upon the chalk, beyond the tide, accessible by water +and by road, became to London what, a hundred years later, Chateau +Gaillard was to become for a brief space to Rouen. + +The choice was made immediately after the Conquest. In the course of +the Dark Ages whatever Roman farms clustered here had dwindled, the +Roman cemetery was abandoned, the original name of the district +forgotten, and the Saxon "Winding Shore" grew up at Old Windsor, two +or three miles down stream. Old Windsor was not a borough, but it was +a very considerable village. It paid dues to its lords to the amount +of some twenty-five loads of corn and more--say 100 quarters--and it +had at least 100 houses, since that number is set down in Domesday, +and, as we have previously said, Domesday figures necessarily express +a minimum. We may take it that its population was something in the +neighbourhood of 1000. + +This considerable place was under the lordship of the abbots of +Westminster. It had been a royal manor when Edward the Confessor came +to the throne; he gave it to his new great abbey. When the Conqueror +needed the whole neighbourhood for his new purpose he exchanged it +against land in Essex, which he conveyed to the abbey, and he added +(for the manorial system was still flexible) half a hide from Clewer +on the west side of the Windsor territory. This half-hide gave him his +approach to the platform of chalk on which he designed to build. + +He began his work quickly. Within four years of Hastings, and long +before the conquest of the Saxon aristocracy was complete, he held his +Court at Windsor and summoned a synod there, and, though we do not +know when the keep was completed, we can conjecture, from the rapidity +with which all Norman work was done, that the walls were defensible +even at that time. Of his building perhaps nothing remains. The forest +to the south, with its opportunities for hunting, and the increasing +importance of London (which was rapidly becoming the capital of +England) made Windsor of greater value than ever in the eyes of his +son. Henry I. rebuilt or greatly enlarged the castle, lived in it, was +married in it, and accomplished in it the chief act of his life, when +he caused fealty to be sworn to his daughter, Matilda, and prepared +the advent of the Angevin. When the civil wars were over, and the +treaty between Henry II. and Stephen was signed, Windsor ("Mota de +Windsor"), though it does not seem to have stood a siege, was counted +the second fortress of the realm. + +Of the exact place of Windsor in mediaeval strategy, of its relations +to London and to Staines, and all we have just mentioned, as also of +the great importance of cavalry in the Middle Ages, no better example +can be quoted than the connected episode of April-June 1215, which may +be called--to give it a grandiose name--the Campaign of Magna Charta. +It further illustrates points which should never be forgotten in the +reading of early English history, though they are too particular for +the general purpose of this book--to wit, the way in which London +increased in military value throughout the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries; the strategic importance of the few old national roads as +late as the reign of John, and that power of the defensive, even in +the field, which made general and strategic, as opposed to tactical, +attack so cautious, decisive action so rare, and when it _was_ +decisive, so thorough. + +This book is no place wherein to develop a theme which history will +confirm with regard to the aristocratic revolt against the vice and +the genius of the third Plantagenet. The strategy of the quarrel alone +concerns us. + +When John's admirable diplomacy had failed (as diplomacy will under +the test of arms), and when his Continental allies had been crushed at +Bouvines in the summer of 1214, the rebels in England found their +opportunity. The great lords, especially those of the north, took oath +in the autumn to combine. The accounts of this conspiracy are +imperfect, but its general truth may be accepted. John, who from this +moment lay perpetually behind walls, held a conference in the Temple +during the January of 1215--to be accurate, upon the Epiphany of that +year--and he struck a compact with the conspirators that there should +be a truce between their forces and those of the Crown until Low +Sunday--which fell that year upon the 26th of April. The great nobles, +mistrusting his faith with some justice (especially as he had taken +the Cross), gathered their army some ten days before the expiry of the +interval, but, as befitted men who claimed in especial to defend the +Catholic Church and its principles, they were scrupulous not to engage +in actual fighting before the appointed day. The size of this army we +cannot tell, but as it contained from 2000 to 3000 armed and mounted +gentlemen it must have counted at least double that tale of cavalry, +and perhaps five-, perhaps ten-fold the number of foot soldiers. A +force of 15,000 to 30,000 men in an England of some 5,000,000 (I more +than double the conventional figures) was prepared to enforce feudal +independence against the central government, even at the expense of +ceding vast territories to Scotland or of submitting to the nominal +rule of a foreign king. Against this army the King had a number of +mercenaries, mainly drawn from his Continental possessions, probably +excellent soldiers, but scattered among the numerous garrisons which +it was his titular office to defend. + +In the last days of the truce the rebels marched to Brackley and +encamped there on Low Monday--the 27th April. The choice of the site +should be noted. It lies in a nexus of several old marching roads. The +Port Way, a Roman road from Dorchester northward, the Watling Street +all lay within half-an-hour's ride. The King was at Oxford, a day's +march away. They negotiated with him, and their claims were refused, +yet they did not attack him (though his force was small), partly +because the function of government was still with him and partly +because the defensive power of Oxford was great. They wisely preferred +the nearest of his small official garrisons-that holding the castle of +Northampton. They approached it up the Roman road through Towcester. +They failed before it after two weeks of effort, and marched on to the +next royal post at Bedford, which was by far the nearest of the +national garrisons. It was betrayed to them. When they were within the +gates they received a message from the wealthier citizens of London +(who were in practice one with the Feudal Oligarchy), begging them to +enter the capital. + +What followed could only have been accomplished: by cavalry, by +cavalry in high training, by a force under excellent generalship, and +by one whose leaders appreciated the all-importance of London in the +coming struggle. The rebels left Bedford immediately, marched all that +day, all the succeeding night, and early on the Sunday morning, 24th +May, entered London, and by the northern gate. Their entry was not +even challenged. + +From Bedford to St. Paul's is--as the crow flies--between forty and +fifty miles: whatever road a man may take would make it nearer fifty +than forty. Bearing, as did this army, towards the east until it +struck the Ermine Street, the whole march must have been well over +fifty miles. + +This fine feat was not a barren one: it was well worth the effort and +loss which it must have cost. London could feed, recruit, and remount +an army of even this magnitude with ease. The Tower was held by a +royal garrison, but it could do nothing against so great a town. + +From London, as though the name of the city had a sort of national +authority, the Barons, who now felt themselves to be hardly rebels but +almost co-equals in a civil war, issued letters of mandate to others +of their class and to their inferiors. These letters were obeyed, not +perhaps without some hesitation, but at any rate with a final +obedience which turned the scale against the King. John was now in a +very distinct inferiority, and even of his personal attendants a +considerable number left the Court on learning of the defection of +London. In all this long struggle nothing but the occupation of the +capital had proved enough to make John feign a compromise. As +excellent an intriguer as he was a fighter he asked nothing better +than to hear once more the terms of the Barons. + +He proceeded to _Windsor_, asked for a parley, issued a safeguard to +the emissaries of the Barons, and despatched this document upon the +8th June, giving it a validity of three days. His enemies waited +somewhat longer, perhaps in order to collect the more distant +contingents, and named Runnymede--a pasture upon the right bank of the +Thames just above _Staines_--as the place of meeting. + +There are those who see in the derivation of the name "Runnymede" an +ancient use of the meadow as a place of council. This is, of course, +mere conjecture, but at any rate it was, at this season of the year, a +large, dry field, in which a considerable force could encamp. The +Barons marched along the old Roman military road, which is still the +high-road to Staines from London, crossed the river, and encamped on +Runnymede. Here the Charta was presented, and probably, though not +certainly, signed and sealed. The local tradition ascribes the site of +the actual signature to "Magna Charta" island--an eyot just up-stream +from the field, now called Runnymede, but neither in tradition nor in +recorded history can this detail be fixed with any exactitude. The +Charta is given as from Runnymede upon the 15th June, and for the +purpose of these pages what we have to note is that these two months +of marching and fighting had ended upon the strategic point of +Staines, and had clearly shown its relation to Windsor and to London. + +In the short campaign that followed, during which John so very nearly +recovered his power, the capital importance of Windsor reappears. +Louis of France, to whom the Barons were willing to hand over what was +left of order in England, had occupied all the south and west, +including even Worcester, and, of course, London. In this occupation +the exception of Dover, which the French were actively besieging, must +be regarded as an isolated point, but _Windsor_, which John's men held +against the allies, threw an angle of defence right down into the +midst of the territory lost to the Crown. Windsor was, of course, +besieged; but John's garrison, holding out as it did, saved the +position. The King was at Wallingford at one moment during the siege; +his proximity tempted the enemy to raise the siege, to leave Windsor +in the hands of the royal garrison, and to advance against him, or +rather to cut him off in his advance eastward. They marched with the +utmost rapidity to Cambridge, but John was ahead of them: and before +they could return to the capture of Windsor he was rapidly confirming +his power in the north and the east. + +It must not be forgotten in all this description that Windsor was +helped in its development as a fortress by the presence to the south +of the hill of a great space of waste lands. + +These waste lands of Western Europe, which it was impossible or +unprofitable to cultivate, were, by a sound political tradition, +vested in the common authority, which was the Crown. + +Indeed they still remain so vested in most European countries. The +Cantons of Switzerland, the Communes and the National Governments of +France, Italy, and Spain remain in possession of the waste. It is only +with us that wealthy private owners have been permitted to rob the +Commonwealth of so obvious an inheritance, a piece of theft which they +have accomplished with complete cynicism, and by specific acts whose +particular dates can be quoted, though historians are very naturally +careful to leave the process but vaguely analysed. Indeed, the last +and most valuable of these waste spaces, the New Forest itself, might +have entirely disappeared had not Charles I. (the last king in England +to attempt a repression of the landed class) so forcibly urged the +local engrosser to disgorge as to compel him, with Hampden and the +rest, to a burning zeal for political liberty. + +This great waste space to the south of Windsor Hill became, after the +Conquest, the Forest, and apart from the hunting which it afforded to +the Royal palace, served a certain purpose on the military side as +well. + +To develop a thought which has already been touched on in these pages, +mediaeval fortification was dual in character: it had either a purely +strategical object, in which case the site was chosen with an eye to +its military value, whether inhabited or not, or the stronghold or +fortification was made to develop an already existing town or site of +importance. Of the second sort was Wallingford, but of the first sort, +as we have seen, was Windsor. Indeed the distinction is normal to all +fortification and exists upon the Continent to-day. For instance, the +first-class fortress Paris is an example of the second sort, the +first-class fortress Toul of the first. Again, all German fortresses, +without exception, are of the second sort, while all Swiss +fortification, what little of it exists, is of the first. + +Now where the first category is concerned a waste space is of value, +though its dimensions will vary in military importance according to +the means of communication of the time. A stronghold may be said to +repose upon that side through which communications are most difficult. + +It is true that this space lying to the south of Windsor was of no +very great dimensions, but such as it was, uninhabited and therefore +unprovided with stores of any kind, it prevented surprise from the +south. + +The next point of strategic importance on the Thames, and the last, is +the Tower. + +Though it is below bridges it must fall into the scheme of this book, +because its whole military history and connection with the story of +England is bound up with the inland and not with the estuarial river. + +It was, as has already been pointed out, one long day's march from +Windsor--a march along the old Roman road from Staines. This land +passage more than halved the distance by river, it cut off not only +the numerous large turns which the Thames begins to take between +Middlesex and Surrey, but also the general sweep southward of the +river, and it avoided, what another road might have necessitated, the +further crossing of the stream. + +Long as the march is, there was no fortification of importance between +one point and the other, and mediaeval history is crammed with +instances of armies leaving the Tower to march to Windsor in one day, +or leaving Windsor to march to the Tower. + +The position of the Tower we saw in an earlier page to be due to the +same geographical causes as had built up so many of the urban +strongholds of Europe. It was situated upon the very bank of the river +which fed the capital, it was down stream from the town, and it was +just outside the walls. In a word, it was the parallel of the Louvre. + +Its remote origins are doubtful; some have imagined that they are +Roman, and that if not in the first part of the Roman occupation at +least towards the end of those wealthy and populous three centuries, +which are the foundation and the making of England, some fortification +was built on the brow of the little eminence which here slopes down to +the high-water mark. + +I will quote the evidence, such as it is, and the reader will perceive +how difficult it is to arrive at a conclusion. + +Of actual Roman remains all we have is a couple of coins of the end of +the fourth century (probably minted at Constantinople), a silver ingot +of the same period, and a funeral inscription. No indubitably Roman +work has been discovered. + +On the other hand there has been no modern investigation of those +foundations of the White Tower where, if anywhere, Roman work might be +expected. This exhausts the direct evidence. In sciences such as +geology or the criticism of Sacred Books evidence to this extent would +be ample to overset the firmest traditions or the most self-evident +conclusion of common human experience. But history is bound to a +greater caution, and it must be reluctantly admitted that the two +coins, the ingot and the bit of stone are insufficient to prove the +existence of a Roman fortress. + +Leaving such material and direct evidence we have the tradition, which +is a fairly strong one, of Roman fortification here, and we have the +analogy, so frequently occurring in space and time throughout the +history and the area of Western Europe, that Gaul reproduces Rome. +What the Conqueror saw (it might be vaguely argued) to be the +strategical position for London, that a Roman emperor would have seen. +But against this argument from tradition, which is fairly strong, and +that argument from analogy, which is weak, we have other and contrary +considerations. + +Rome even in her decline did not build her citadels outside the walls: +that was a habit which grew up in the Dark and early Middle Ages, and +was attached to the differentiation between the civic and military +aspects of the State. + +Again, Roman fortification of every kind is connected with earthworks. +So far as we can tell from recorded history the ditch round the Tower +was not dug till the end of the twelfth century. Finally, there is +this strong argument against the theory of a Roman origin to the Tower +that had such a Roman fortress existed an extension of the town would +almost certainly have gathered round it. + +One of the features of the break-up of Roman society was the enormous +expansion of the towns. We have evidence of it on every side and +nowhere more than in Northern Africa. This expansion took place +everywhere, but especially and invariably in the presence of a +garrison, and indeed the military conditions of the fourth century, +with its cosmopolitan and partially hereditary army, fixed in +permanent garrisons and forming as it were a local caste, presupposed +a large dependent civilian population at the very gates of the camp or +stronghold. Thus you have the Palatine suburb to the south of Lutetia +right up against the camp, and Verecunda just outside Lamboesis. Now +there is nothing of the sort in the neighbourhood of the Tower. It +seems certain that from the earliest times London ended here cleanly +at the wall, and that except along the Great Eastern Road the +neighbourhood of the Tower was agricultural land. + +How then could a tradition have arisen with regard to Roman +occupation? It is but a conjecture, though a plausible one, that when +the pirate raids grew in severity this knoll down stream was +fortified, while still the ruling class was Latin speaking and while +still the title of Caesar was familiar, whether before or after the +withdrawal of the Legions. If this were the case, then, on the analogy +of other similar sites, one may imagine something like the following: +that in the Dark Ages the masonry was used as a quarry for other +constructions, that the barbarians would occasionally stockade the +site, though not permanently, and only for the purposes of their +ephemeral but constant quarrels; and one may suggest that when the +barbaric period was ended, by the landing of William's army, the place +was still, by a tradition now six hundred years old, a public area +under the control of the Crown and one such as would lend itself to +the design of a permanent fortification. William, finding it in this +condition, erected upon it the great keep which was to be the last of +his fortifications along the line of the river, and the pivot for the +control of London. + +This keep is of course the White Tower, which still impresses even our +generation with the squat and square shoulders of Norman strength. It +and Ely are the best remaining expressions of the hardy little men, +and it fills one, as does everything Norman, from the Tyne to the +Euphrates, with something of awe. This building, the White Tower, is +the Tower itself; the rest is but an accretion, partly designed for +defence, but latterly more for habitation. Its name of the "White" +Tower is probably original, though we do not actually find the term +"La Blaunche Tour" till near the middle of the fourteenth century. The +presumption that it is the original name is founded upon a much +earlier record--namely, that of 1241, in which not only is it ordered +that the tower be repainted white, but in which mention is also made +that its original colour had been "worn by the weather and by the long +process of time." Such a complaint would take one back to the twelfth +century, and quite probably to the first building of the Keep. The +object of whitening the walls of the Tower is again explicable by the +very reasonable conjecture that it would so serve as a landmark over +the long, flat stretches of the lower river. It was the last +conspicuous building against the mass of the great town, and there are +many examples of similar landmarks used at the head of estuaries or +sea passages. When these are not spires they are almost invariably +white, especially where they are so situated as to catch the southern +or the eastern sun. + +The exact date at which the plan was undertaken we do not know, but it +is obviously one with the scheme of building Windsor, and must date +from much the same period. The order to build was given by the +Conqueror to the Bishop of Rochester, Gundulph. Now Gundulph was not +promoted to the See of Rochester till 1077. Exactly twenty years +later, in 1097, the son of the Conqueror built the outer wall. The +Keep was then presumed to be completed, and at some time during those +twenty years it must have been begun, probably about 1080. That which +we have seen increasing, the military importance of Windsor, +diminished the military importance of the Tower, until, with the close +of the Middle Ages, it had become no more than a prison. It was not +indeed swamped by the growth of the town, as was its parallel the +Louvre, but the increase of wealth (and therefore of the means of +war), coupled with the correspondingly increased population, made both +urban fortresses increasingly difficult to hold as mediaeval +civilisation developed. + +The whole history of the Tower is the history of military misfortune, +which grows as London expands in numbers and prosperity. It probably +held out under Mandeville when the Londoners (who were always the +allies of the aristocracy against the national government) besieged it +under the civil wars of Stephen; but even so there was bad luck +attached to it, for when Mandeville was taken prisoner he was +compelled to sign its surrender. Within a generation Longchamp again +surrendered it to the young Prince John; he was for the moment leading +the aristocracy, which, when it was his turn to reign, betrayed him. +It was surrendered to the baronial party by the King as a trust or +pledge for the execution of Magna Charta, and though it was put into +the hands of the Archbishop, who was technically neutral, it was from +that moment the symbol of a successful rebellion, as it had already +proved to be in the past and was to prove so often again. + +It was handed over to Louis of France upon his landing, and during the +next reign almost every misfortune of Henry III. is connected with the +Tower. He was perpetually taking refuge in it, holding his Court in +it: losing it again, as the rebels succeeded, and regaining it as they +failed. This long and unfortunate tenure of his is illumined only by +one or two delightful phrases which one cannot but retain as one +reads. Thus there is the little written order, which still remains to +us for the putting of painted windows into the Chapel of St John, the +northern one of which was to have for its design "some little Mary or +other, holding her Child"--"quandam Mariolam tenenten puerum suum." +There is also a very pleasing legend in the same year, 1241, when the +fall of certain new buildings was ascribed to the action of St. +Thomas, who was seen by a priest in a dream upsetting them with his +crozier and saying that he did this "as a good citizen of London, +because these new buildings were not put up for the defence of the +realm but to overawe the town," and he added this charming remark: "If +I had not undertaken the duty myself St. Edward or another would have +done it." + +Even when Henry's misfortunes were at an end, and when the Battle of +Evesham was won, the Tower was perpetually unfortunate. A body of +rebels surrounded it, and in the defence were present a great number +of Jews, who had fled from the fighting in the city only to find +themselves pressed for service in defence of the fortress. From that +moment they make no further appearance in English military history +till the South African War, unless indeed their appearance in chains +thirteen years later in this same Tower as prisoners for financial +trickery can be counted a military event. + +Upon this occasion the siege was raised by the promptitude and energy +of Prince Edward--the man who as King was to march to Caernarvon and to +the Grampians had already in his boyhood shown the energy and the +military aptitude of his grandfather King John. He was but twenty +years old, yet he had already done all the fighting at Lewes, he had +already won Evesham, and now, at the end of spring, he made one march +from Windsor to the Tower and relieved it. It was almost the last time +that the Tower stood for the success of authority. From this time +onwards it is, as it had been before, the unfortunate symbol of +successful rebellion. Edward II. had to leave it in his fatal year of +1326, the Londoners poured in and incidentally massacred the Bishop of +Exeter, into whose hands it had been entrusted. + +In 1460 it surrendered to the House of York, and from that time +onwards becomes more and more of a prison and less and less of a +fortress. + +The preponderatingly military aspect of the Thames Valley in English +history dwindles with the dwindling of military energy in our +civilisation, and passes with the passing of a governing class that +was military rather than commercial. + +Sites which owed their importance to strategical position, and which +had hence grown into considerable towns, ceased to show any but a +civilian character, and even in the only episode of consequence +wherein fighting occurred in England since the Middle Ages--the +episode of the Civil Wars--the banks of the Thames, though perpetually +infested by either army, saw very little serious fighting, and that +although the line of the Thames was the critical line of action during +the first stage of the war. + +For the Civil Wars as a whole were but an affair upon the flank of the +general struggle in Europe: the losses were never heavy, and in the +first stages one can hardly call it fighting at all. + +The losses at the skirmish of Edge Hill were, indeed, respectable, +though most of them seem to have been incurred after the true fighting +ceased, but with that exception, and especially upon the line of the +Thames itself, the losses were extraordinarily small. + +One may say that Oxford and London were the two objective points of +the opposing forces from the close of 1642 to the spring of 1644. The +King's Government at Oxford, the Parliament in London, were the civil +bases, at least, upon which the opposing forces pivoted, and the two +intermediate points were Abingdon and Reading. To read the +contemporary, and even the modern, history of the time, one would +imagine from the terms used that these places were the theatre of +considerable military operations. We hear, with every technicality +which the Continental struggle had rendered familiar to Englishmen, of +sieges, assaults, headquarters, and even hornworks. But when one looks +at dates and figures it is not easy to treat the matter seriously. +Here, for instance, is Abingdon, within a short walk of Oxford, and +the Royalists easily allow it to be occupied by Essex in the spring of +'44. Even so Abingdon is not used as a base for doing anything more +serious than "molesting" the university town. And it was so held that +Rupert tried to recapture it, of all things in the world, with +cavalry! He was "overwhelmed" by the vastly superior forces of the +enemy, and his attempt failed. When one has thoroughly grasped this +considerable military event one next learns that the overwhelming +forces were a trifle over a thousand in number! + +Next an individual gentleman with a few followers conceives the +elementary idea of blocking the western road at Culham Bridge, and +isolating Abingdon upon this side. He begins building a "fort." A +certain proportion of the handful in Abingdon go out and kill him and +the fort is not proceeded with: and so forth. A military temper of +this sort very easily explains the cold-blooded massacre of prisoners +which the Parliament permitted, and which has given to the phrase +"Abingdon Law" the unpleasant flavour which it still retains. + +The story of Reading in the earlier part of the struggle is much the +same. Reading was held as a royal garrison and fortified in '43. +According to the garrison the fortification was contemptible, +according to the procedures it was of the most formidable kind. Indeed +they doubted whether it could be captured by an assault of less than +5000 men, a number which appeared at this stage of the campaign so +appalling that it is mentioned as a sort of standard of comparison +with the impossible. The garrison surrendered just as relief was +approaching it, and after a strain which it had endured for no less +than ten days; but the capture of Reading was not effected entirely +without bloodshed; certainly fifty men were killed (counting both +sides), possibly a few more; and the whole episode is a grotesque +little foot-note to the comic opera upon which rose the curtain of the +Civil Wars. It was not till the appearance of Cromwell, with his +highly paid and disciplined force, that the tragedy began. + +Even after Cromwell had come forward as the chief leader, in fact if +not in name, the apparent losses are largely increased by the random +massacres to which his soldiers were unfortunately addicted. Thus +after Naseby a hundred women were killed for no particular reason +except that killing was in the air, and similarly after Philiphaugh +the conscience of the Puritans forbade them to keep their word to the +prisoners they had taken, who were put to the sword in cold blood: the +women, however, on this occasion, were drowned. + +After the Civil Wars all the military meaning of the Thames +disappears. Nor is it likely to revive short of a national disaster; +but that disaster would at once teach us the strategical meaning of +this great highway running through the south of England with its +attendant railways, it would re-create the strategical value of the +point where the Thames turns northward and where its main railways +bifurcate; it would provide in several conceivable cases, as it +provided to Charles I. and to William III., the line of approach on +London. + + * * * * * + +So far as we have considered the Thames, first as a line of +pre-historic settlements, passing successively into the Roman, the +barbaric and the Norman phases of our history; and secondly, as a +field on which one can plot out certain strategical points and show +how these points created the original importance of the towns which +grew about them. + +In the next part of these notes I propose to consider the economic or +civil development of the Thames above London, and to show how the +foundations of its permanent prosperity was laid. That economic +phenomenon has at its roots the action of the Benedictine Order. It +was the great monasteries which bridged the transition between Rome +and the Dark Ages throughout North-Western Europe; it was they that +recovered land wasted by the barbarian invasions, and that developed +heaths and fens which the Empire even in its maturity had never +attempted to exploit. + +The effect of the barbarian invasions was different in different +provinces of the Roman Empire, though roughly speaking it increased in +intensity with the distance from Rome. It is probable that the actual +numbers of the barbarian invaders was small even in Britain, as it +certainly was in Northern Gaul, but we must not judge of the effect +produced upon civilisation by this catastrophe, as though it were a +mere question of numbers. So large a proportion of the population was +servile, and so fixed had the imagination of everyone become in the +idea that the social order was eternal; so entirely had the army +become a professional thing, and probably a thing of routine divorced +from the civilian life round it, that at the close of the fourth +century a little shock from without was enough to produce a very +considerable result. In Eastern Britain, small as the number of the +invaders must necessarily have been, religion itself was almost, if +not entirely, destroyed, and the whole fabric of Roman civilisation +appears to have dissolved--with the exception, of course, of such +irremovable things as the agricultural system, the elements of +municipal life, and the simpler arts. Even the language very probably +changed in the eastern part of the island, and passed from what we may +conceive to have been Low Latin in the towns and Celtic dialects in +the country-sides, with possibly Teutonic settlements here and there +along the eastern shore, to a generally confused mass of Teutonic +dialects scattered throughout the eastern and northern half of the +island and enclosing but isolated fragments of Celtic speech. + +So far as we can judge the disaster was complete, but it was destined +that Britain should be recivilised. + +St Augustine landed, and after the struggle of the seventh century +between those petty chieftains who sympathised with, and those who +opposed, the order of cultivated European life, the battle was won in +favour of that civilisation which we still enjoy. It would have been +impossible to re-create a sound agriculture and to refound the arts +and learning; especially would it have been impossible to refound the +study of letters, upon which all material civilisation depends, had it +not been for the monastic institution. This institution did more work +in Britain than in any other province of the Empire. And it had far +more to do. It found a district utterly wrecked, perhaps half +depopulated, and having lost all but a vague memory of the old Roman +order; it had to remake, if it could, of all this part of a Europe. No +other instrument was fitted for the purpose. + +The chief difficulty of starting again the machine of civilisation +when its parts have been distorted by a barbarian interlude, whether +external or internal in origin, is the accumulation of capital. The +next difficulty is the preservation of such capital in the midst of +continual petty feuds and raids, and the third is that general +continuity of effort, and that treasuring up of proved experience, to +which a barbaric time, succeeding upon the decline of a civilisation, +is particularly unfitted. For the surmounting of all these +difficulties the monks of Western Europe were suited to a high degree. +Fixed wealth could be accumulated in the hands of communities whose +whole temptation was to gather, and who had no opportunity for +spending in waste. The religious atmosphere in which they grew up +forbade their spoliation, at least in the internal wars of a Christian +people, and each of the great foundations provided a community of +learning and treasuring up of experience which single families, +especially families of barbaric chieftains, could never have achieved. +They provided leisure for literary effort, and a strict disciplinary +rule enforcing regular, continuous, and assiduous labour, and they +provided these in a society from which exact application of such a +kind had all but disappeared. + +The monastic institution, so far as Western Europe was concerned, was +comparatively young when the work in Britain was begun. The fifth +century had seen its inception; it was still embryonic in the sixth; +the seventh, which was the date of its great conquest of the English +country-sides, was for it a period of youth and of vigour as fresh as +was, let us say, the thirteenth century for the renaissance of civil +learning. We must not think of these early foundations as we think of +the complicated, wealthy, somewhat restricted and privileged bodies of +the later Middle Ages. They were all more or less of one type, and +that type a simple one. They all sprang from the same Benedictine +stem. It was the quality of all to be somewhat independent in +management, and especially to work in large units, and out of the very +many which sprang, up all over the island three particularly concern +the Thames Valley. Each of them dates from the very beginnings of +Anglo-Saxon history, each of them has its roots in legend, and each of +them continued for close upon a thousand years to be a capital +economic centre of English life. These three great Benedictine +foundations are WESTMINSTER, CHERTSEY, and ABINGDON. + +When civilisation returned in fulness with the Norman Conquest, +another great house of the first importance was founded--at Reading; +and, much later, a fourth at Sheen. To these we shall turn in their +place, as also to the string of dependent houses and small foundations +which line the river almost from its source right down to London: +indeed the only type of religious foundation which historic notes such +as these can afford to neglect is the monastery or nunnery built in a +town, and for the purposes of a town, after the civic life of a town +had developed. These very numerous houses (most numerous, of course, +in Oxford), such as the Observants of Richmond and a host of others, +do not properly enter into the scheme we are considering. They are not +causes but effects of the development of civilisation in the Thames +Valley. + +Abingdon, Westminster, and Chertsey are all ascribed by tradition, and +each by a very vital and well-documented tradition, to the seventh +century: Abingdon and Chertsey to its close; Westminster, with less +assurance, to its beginning. All three, we may take it, did arise in +that period which was for the eastern part of this island a time when +all the work of Europe had to be begun again. Though we know nothing +of the progress of the Saxon pirates in the province of Britain, and +though history is silent for the hundred and fifty years covered by +the disaster, yet on the analogy of other and later raids from the +North Sea we may imagine that no inland part of the country suffered +more than the valley of the Thames. All that was left of the Roman +order, wealth and right living, must have appeared at the close of +that sixth century, when the Papal Mission landed, something as +appears the wrecked and desolate land upon the retirement of a flood. +To cope with such conditions, to reintroduce into the ravaged and +desecrated province, which had lost its language in the storm, all its +culture, and even its religion, a new beginning of energy and of +production, came, with the peculiar advantages we have seen it to +possess for such a work, the monastic institution. For two centuries +the great houses were founded all over England: their attachment to +Continental learning, their exactitude, their corporate power of +action, were all in violent contrast to, and most powerfully +educational for, the barbarians in the midst of whom they grew. It may +be truly said that if we regard the life of England as beginning anew +with the Saxon invasion, if that disaster of the pirate raids be +considered as so great that it offers a breach of continuity in the +history of Britain, then the new country which sprang up, speaking +Teutonic dialects, and calling itself by its present name of England, +was actually created by the Benedictine monks. + +It was within a very few years of St. Augustine's landing that +Westminster must have been begun. There are several versions of the +story: the most detailed statement we have ascribes it to the +particular year 604, but varied as are the forms in which the history, +or rather the legend, is preserved, the truth common to all is the +foundation quite early in the seventh century. It was very probably +supported by what barbaric Government there was in London at the time +and initiated, moreover, according to one form of the legend, and that +not the least plausible, by the first bishop of the see. The site was +at the moment typical of all those which the great monasteries of the +West were to turn from desert places to gardens: it was a waste tract +of ground called "Thorney," lying low, triangular in shape, bounded by +the two reedy streams that descended through the depression which now +runs across the Green Park and Mayfair, and emptied themselves into +the Thames, the one just above, the other 100 or 200 yards below, the +site of the Houses of Parliament. + +The moment the foundation was established a stream of wealth tended +towards it: it was at the very gate of the largest commercial city in +the kingdom and it was increasingly associated, as the Anglo-Saxon +monarchy developed, with the power of the Central Government. This +process culminated in the great donation and rebuilding of Edward the +Confessor. + +The period of this new endowment was one well chosen to launch the +future glory of Westminster. England was all prepared to be permeated +with the Norman energy, and when immediately after the Conquest came, +the great shrine inherited all the glamour of a lost period, while it +established itself with the new power as a sort of symbol of the +continuity of the Crown. There William was anointed, there was his +palace and that of his son. When, with the next century, the seat of +Government became fixed, and London was finally established as the +capital, Westminster had already become the seat of the monarchy. + +Chertsey, next up the river, took on the work. Like +Westminster--though, by tradition, a few years later than +Westminster--its foundation goes back to the birth of England. Its +history is known in some detail, and is full of incident, so that it +may be called the pivot upon which, presumably, turned the development +of the Thames Valley above London for two hundred years. Its site is +worth noting. The rich, but at first probably swampy, pasturage upon +the Surrey side was just such a position as one foundation after +another up and down England settled on. To reclaim land of this kind +was one of the special functions of the great abbeys, and Chertsey may +be compared in this particular to Hyde, for instance, or to the Vale +of the Cross, to Fountains, to Ripon, to Melrose, and to many others. +It was in the new order of monastic development what Staines, its +neighbour, had been in the old Roman order--the mark of the first +stage up-river from London. + +The pagan storm which all but repeated in Britain the disaster of the +Saxon invasions, which all but overcame the mystic tenacity of Alfred +and the positive mission of the town of Paris, swept it completely. +Its abbot and its ninety monks were massacred, and it was not till +late in the next century, about 950, that it arose again from its +ruins. It was deliberately re-colonised again from Abingdon, and from +that moment onwards it grew again into power. Donations poured upon +it; one of them, not the least curious, was of land in Cardiganshire. +It came from those Welsh princes who were perpetually at war with the +English Crown: for religion was in those days what money is now--a +thing without frontiers--and it seemed no more wonderful to the Middle +Ages that an English monastery should collect its rents in an enemy's +land than it seems strange to us that the modern financier should draw +interest upon money lent for armament against the country of his +domicile. Here also was first buried (and lay until it was removed to +Windsor) the body of Henry VI. + +The third of the great early foundations is Abingdon, and in a way it +is the greatest, for, without direct connection with the Crown, by the +mere vitality of its tradition, it became something more even than +Chertsey was, wielding an immense revenue, more than half that of +Westminster itself, and situated, as it was, in a small up-valley +town, ruling with almost monarchical power. There could be even less +doubt in the case of Abingdon than there was in the case of Chertsey +that it was the creator of its own district of the Thames. It stood +right in the marshy and waste spaces of the middle upper river, +commanding a difficult but an important ford, and holding the gate of +what was to be one of the most fruitful and famous of English vales. +It can only have been from Abingdon that the culture and energy +proceeded which was to build up Northern Berkshire and Oxfordshire +between the Saxon and the Danish invasions. There only was established +a sufficient concentration of capital for the work and of knowledge +for the application of that wealth. + +Like its two peers at Chertsey and at Westminster, Abingdon begins +with legend. We are fairly sure of its date, 675, but the anchorite of +the fifth century, "Aben," is as suspicious as the early Anglo-Saxon +Chronicle itself, and still wilder are the fine and striking stories +of its British origin, of its destruction under the persecution of +Diocletian and of its harbouring the youth of Constantine. But the +stories are at least enough to show with what violence the pomp and +grandeur of the place struck the imagination of its historians. + +Abingdon was, moreover, probably on account of its distance from +London, more of a local centre, and, to repeat a word already used, +more of a "monarchy" than the other great monasteries of the Thames +Valley. This is sufficiently proved by a glance at the ecclesiastic +map, such as, for instance, that published in "The Victoria History of +the County of Berkshire," where one sees the manors belonging to +Abingdon at the time of the Conquest all clustered together and +occupying one full division of the county, that, namely, included in +the great bend of the Thames which has its cusp at Witham Hill. +Abingdon was the life of Northern Berkshire, and it is not fantastic +to compare its religious aspect in Saxon times over against the King's +towns of Wantage and Wallingford to the larger national aspect of +Canterbury over against Winchester and London. + +Even in its purely civic character, it acquired a position which no +one of the greater northern monasteries could pretend to, through the +building of its bridge in the early fifteenth century. The twin fords +crossing this bend of the river were, though direct and important, +difficult; when they were once bridged and the bridges joined by the +long causeway which still runs across Andersey Island between the old +and the new branches of the Thames, travel was easily diverted from +the bridge of Wallingford to that at Abingdon, and the great western +road running through Farringdon towards the Cotswolds and the valley +of the Severn had Abingdon for its sort of midway market town. + +These three great Benedictine monasteries form, as it were, the three +nurseries or seed plots from which civilisation spread out along the +Thames Valley after the destruction wrought by the first and worst +barbarian invasions. All three, as we have seen, go back to the very +beginning of the Christian phase of English history; the origins of +all three merge in those legends which make a twilight between the +fantastic stories of the earlier paganism and the clear records of the +Christian epoch after the re-Latinisation of England. An outpost +beyond these three is the institution of St Frideswides at Oxford. +Beyond that point the upper river, gradually narrowing, losing its +importance for commerce and as a highway, supported no great +monastery, and felt but tardily the economic change wrought by the +foundations lower down the stream. + +Chertsey and Westminster certainly, and Abingdon very probably, were +destroyed, or at least sacked, in the Danish invasions, but their +roots lay too deep to allow them to disappear: they re-arose, and a +generation before the Conquest were again by far the principal centres +of production and government in the Thames Valley. Indeed, with the +exception of the string of royal estates upon the banks of the river, +and of the town of Oxford, Chertsey, Westminster and Abingdon were the +only considerable seats of regulation and government upon the Thames, +when the Conquest came to reorganise the whole of English life. + +With that revolution it was evident that a great extension not only of +the numbers, but especially of the organisation and power, of the +monastic system would appear: that gaps left uninfluenced by it in the +line of the Thames would be filled up, and all the old foundations +themselves would be reconstructed and become new things. + +The Conquest is in its way almost as sharp a division in the history +of England as is the landing of St Augustine. In some externals it +made an even greater difference to this island than did the advent of +the Roman Missionaries, though of course, in the fundamental things +upon which the national life is built, the re-entry of England into +European civilisation in the seventh century must count as a far +greater and more decisive event than its first experience of united +and regular government under the Normans in the eleventh. Moreover +although the Conquest largely changed the language of the island, +introduced a conception of law in civil affairs with which the +Anglo-Saxon aristocracy were quite unfamiliar, and began to flood +England with a Gallic admixture which flowed .uninterruptedly for +three hundred years, yet it did not change the intimate philosophy of +the people, and it is only the change of the intimate philosophy of a +people which can have a revolutionary consequence. The Conquest found +England Catholic, vaguely feudal, and, though in rather an isolated +way, thoroughly European. The Normans organised that feudality, +extirpated whatever was unorthodox, or slack in the machinery of the +religious system, and let in the full light of European civilisation +through a wide-open door, which had hitherto been half-closed. + +The effect, therefore, of the Conquest was exercised upon the visible +and mutable things of the country rather than upon the nourishing +inward things: but it was very great, and in nothing was it greater +than in its inception of new buildings and the use everywhere of +stone. Under the Normans very nearly all the great religious +foundations of England re-arose, and that within a generation. New +houses also arose, and the mark of that time (which was a second +spring throughout Europe: full of the spirit of the Crusades, and a +complete regeneration of social life) was the rigour of new religious +orders, and especially the transformation of the old Benedictine +monotony. + +Chief, of course, of these religious movements, and the pioneer of +them all, was the institution of Cluny in Burgundy. + +Cluny did not rise by design. It was one of those spontaneous growths +which are characteristic of vigorous and creative times. Those who are +acquainted with the Burgundian blood will not think it fantastic to +imagine the vast reputation of Cluny to have been based upon rhetoric. +It was perhaps the sonorous Burgundian facility for expression and the +inheritance of oratory which belonged to Burgundian soil till +Bossuet's birth, and which still belongs to it, that gave Cluny a sort +of spell over the mind of Western Europe, and which made Cluny a +master in the century which preceded the great change of the Crusades. +From Cluny as a mother house proceeded communities instinct with the +discipline and new life of the reformed order, and though it has been +remarked that these communities were not numerous, in comparison to +the vigour of the movement, yet it should also be noted that they were +nearly always very large and wealthy, that they were in a particular +and close relation to the civil government of the district in which +each was planted, and that their absolute dependence upon the mother +house, and their close observance of one rule, lent the whole order +something of the force of an army. + +The Cluniac influence came early into the Thames Valley. By the +beginning of the twelfth century, and within fifty years of the +Conquest, this new influence was found interpolated with and imposed +upon the five centuries that had hitherto been wholly dependent upon +the three great Benedictine posts. This Cluniac foundation, the first +of the new houses on the Thames, was fixed upon the peninsula of +Reading. + +It was in 1121 that the son of the Conqueror brought the Cluniac order +to the little town. From the moment of the foundation of the abbey it +attracted, in part by its geographical position, in part by the fact +that it was the first great new foundation upon the Thames, and in +part by the accident which lent a special devotion or power to one +particular house and which was in this case largely due to the +discipline and character of the Cluniac order, Reading took on a very +high position in England. It had about it, if one may so express +oneself, something more modern, something more direct and political +than was to be found in the old Benedictine houses that had preceded +it. The work it had to do was less material: the fields were already +drained, the life and wealth of the new civilisation had begun, and +throughout the four hundred years of its existence the function of +Reading was rather to entertain the Court, to assist at parliaments, +and to be, throughout, the support of the monarchy. It sprang at once +into this position, and its architecture symbolised to some extent the +rapid command which it acquired, for it preserved to the end the +characteristics of the early century in which it was erected: the +Norman arch, the dog-tooth ornaments, the thick walls, the barbaric +capitals of the early twelfth century. + +Before the thirteenth it was in wealth equal to, and in public repute +the superior of, any foundation upon the banks of the Thames with the +exception of Westminster itself, and it forms, with the three +Benedictine foundations, and with the later foundation of Osney, the +last link in the chain of abbeys which ran unbroken from stage to +stage throughout the whole length of the river. And with it ends the +story of those first foundations which completed the recivilisation of +the Valley. + +Reading was not the only Cluniac establishment upon the Thames. +Another, and earlier one, was to be found at Bermondsey; but its +proximity to London and its distance down river forbid it having any +place in these pages. It was founded immediately after the Conquest; +Lanfranc colonised it with French monks; it became an abbacy at the +very end of the fourteenth century, and was remarkable for its +continual accretion of wealth, an accretion in some part due to the +growing importance of London throughout its existence. At the end of +the thirteenth century it stands worth L280. At the time of its +dissolution, on the first of January 1538, in spite of the much higher +value of money in the sixteenth century as compared with the +thirteenth, it stands worth over L500: L10,000 a year. + +A relic of its building remained (but only a gatehouse) till 1805. + +Osney also dated from the early twelfth century, and was almost +contemporary with Reading. + +It stood just outside the walls of Oxford Castle to the west, and upon +the bank of the main stream of the Thames, and owed its foundation to +the Conqueror's local governing family of Oilei. Though at the moment +of its suppression it hardly counted a fifth of the revenues of +Westminster (which must be our standard throughout all this +examination), yet its magnificence profoundly affected contemporaries, +and has left a great tradition. It must always be remembered that +these great monasteries were not only receivers of revenue as are our +modern rich, but were also producers or, rather, could be producers +when they chose, and that therefore the actual economic power of any +one foundation might always be higher, and often was very considerably +higher, than the nominal revenue, the dead income, which passed to the +spoliators of the sixteenth century. When a town is sacked the army +gets a considerable loot, but nothing like what the value was of the +city as it flourished before the siege. + +At any rate, whether Osney owed its magnificence to internal industry, +to a wise expenditure, or to a severity of life which left a large +surplus for ornament and extension, it was for 400 years the principal +building upon the upper river, catching the eye from miles away up by +Eynsham meadows and forming a noble gate to the University town for +those who approached it from the west by the packway, of which traces +still remain, and over the bridges which the Conqueror had built. So +deep was the impress of Osney upon the locality, and even upon the +national Government, that Henry proposed, as in the case of +Westminster, to make of the building one of his new cathedrals, and to +establish there his new See of Oxford. The determination, however, +lasted but for a very short time. In a few years the financial +pressure was too much for him; he transferred the see to the old +Church of St Frideswides, where it still remains, and gave up Osney to +loot. It was looted very thoroughly. + +The smaller monasteries need hardly a mention. At the head of them +comes Eynsham, worth more than half as much as Osney, and a very +considerable place. Founded as a colony or adjunct to Stow, in +Lincolnshire, it outlived the importance of the parent house, and was +at the height of its prosperity immediately before the Dissolution. + +Eynsham affords a very good instance of the way in which the fabric in +these superb temples disappeared. As late as the early eighteenth +century there was still standing the whole of the west front; the two +high towers, the splendid west window, and the sculptured doorways +were complete, though they remained but as a fragment of a ruined +building. A century and a half passed and the whole had disappeared, +carted away to build walls and stables for the local squires, or sold +by the local squires for rubble. + +Of the little priory at Lechlade very little is known, save that it +was founded in the thirteenth century and had disappeared long before +the Reformation, while of that at Cricklade we know even less, save +that it humbly survived and was counted in the "bag" at only four +pounds a year. + +With Dorchester, which had existed from the twelfth century, and which +was worth almost half as much as Eynsham, and with the considerable +Cell of Hurley which attached to Westminster, the list is complete. It +is interesting to know that the church at Dorchester was saved by the +local patriotism of one man, who left half his fortune for the +purchase of it, and that not in order to ruin it and to sell the +stones of it, but in order to preserve it: a singular man. + +In a general survey of monastic influence in the Valley of the Thames, +it would be natural to omit the foundations which belonged to the +later Middle Ages. It was in the Dark Ages that the great Benedictine +work was done, the pastures drained, the woods planted, the +settlements established. It was in the early Middle Ages, in the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries and in the first half of the +fourteenth--in a word, before the Black Death--that the work of the +new and vigorous foundations, and the revived energy of the older +ones, spread Gothic architecture, scholastic learning, and the whole +reinvigorated social system of the time, from Oxford to Westminster; +and the historian who notes the social and economic effects of +monasticism in Western Europe, however enthusiastic he may be in +defence of that force, cannot with truth lend it between the Black +Death and the Reformation a vigour which it did not possess. It had +tended to become, in the fifteenth century, a fixed social institution +like any other, one might almost say a bundle of proprietary rights +like any other. And though it is easy now to perceive what ruin was +caused by the sudden destruction, the contemporaries of the last age +of Great Houses were perpetually considering their privilege and their +immovable tradition rather than the remaining functions which the +monasteries fulfilled in the State. + +On this account historical notes dealing with the development of the +Thames Valley would naturally omit a reference to foundations existing +only from the close of the Middle Ages. But an exception must be made +to this rule in the case of Sheen. + +Sheen was a Charterhouse, and it merits observation not only from the +peculiar characteristics of the Carthusian Order, but also from its +considerable position so near to Westminster and not yet overshadowed +by the greatness either of that abbey or of Chertsey. It received, +from its land in England alone, a revenue of close upon two-thirds of +that which Westminster enjoyed. Recent in its origin (it had existed +for only just over 100 years when Henry VIII. attacked it), not +without that foreign flavour which, rightly or wrongly, was ascribed +in this island to the Carthusian Order, rigid in doctrine, and of a +magnificent temper in the defence of religion, these Carthusians, like +their brethren in London, formed a very natural target for the King's +attack. I include them only because notes upon the mediaeval +foundations, would be quite imperfect were there no mention of Sheen, +late as the origin of the community was, and little as it had to do +with the historic development of the valley. + +This completes the list of the greater foundations; with the lesser +ones it would only be possible to deal in pages devoted to the +Monastic Institution alone. The very numerous communities of friars, +and the hospitals in the towns upon the Thames, cannot be mentioned, +the little nunneries of Ankerwick, Burnham, and Little Marlow, the +communities, early and late, of Medmenham and Cholsey, the priories of +Lechlade and of Cricklade (which might have occupied a larger space +than was available), must be passed over. Even Godstow, famous as it +is from the early legend of Rosamond, and considerable as was its +function both of education and of retreat, cannot be included in the +list of those principal foundations which alone take rank as +originators of the prosperity of the valley. + +Several of these smaller houses went in the dissolution to swell the +revenues of Bisham, the new community which Henry, as he said, +intended to take the place of much that he had destroyed; and Bisham +would be very well worth a considerable attention from the reader had +it survived. But it did not survive. Hardly was it founded when Henry +himself immediately destroyed it, and, as we shall see later, Bisham +affords one of the most curious and instructive examples of the way in +which that large monastic revenue, which it was certainly intended to +keep in the hands of the Crown, and which, had it been so kept, would +have given to England the strongest Central Government in Europe, +drifted into the hands of the squires, multiplied perhaps by ten the +wealth of their class, and transformed the Government of England into +that oligarchy which was completed in the seventeenth century, and +which, though permeated and transformed by Jewish finance, is standing +in a precarious strength to this day. + +Westminster, Chertsey, Sheen, Reading, Abingdon, and Osney +disappeared. + +One writes the list straight off without considering, taking it for +granted that everything which could have roused the cupidity of that +generation necessarily disappeared: and as one writes it one remembers +that, after all, Westminster survived. Its survival was an accident, +which will be further considered. But that survival, so far from +redeeming, emphasises and throws into relief the destruction of the +rest. + +Of these enduring monuments of human energy and, what is more +important still in the control of energy, human certitude, what +besides Westminster survived? Of Chertsey there is perhaps a gateway +and part of a wall; of Sheen nothing; of Reading a few flints built +into modern work; of Abingdon a gateway, and a buttress or two that +long served to support a brewhouse; of Osney nothing, contrariwise, +electric works and the slums of a modern town. All these were +Westminsters. In all of these was to be discovered that patient +process of production which argues the continuity, and therefore the +dignity, of human civilisation. Each had the glass which we can no +longer paint, the vivid, living, and happy grotesque in sculpture +which only the best of us can so much as understand; each had a +thousand and another thousand details of careful work in stone meant +to endure, if not for ever, at least into such further centuries as +might have the added faith and added knowledge to restore them in +greater plenitude. The whole thing has gone. It has gone to no +purpose. Nothing has been built upon it save a wandering host of rich +and careworn men. + +Suppose a man to have gone down the Thames when the new discussions +were beginning in London and (as was customary even at the close of +the Middle Ages) were spreading from town to town with a rapidity that +we, who have ceased to debate ideas, can never understand. Let such a +traveller or bargeman have gone down from Cricklade to the Tower, how +would the Great Houses have appeared to him? + +The upper river would have been much the same, but as he came to that +part of it which was wealthy and populous, as he turned the corner of +Witham Hill, he would already have seen far off, larger and a little +nearer than the many spires of Oxford, a building such as to-day we +never see save in our rare and half-deserted cathedral country towns. +It was the Abbey of Osney. It would have been his landmark, as +Hereford is the landmark for a man to-day rowing up to Wye, or the new +spire of Chichester for a man that makes harbour out of the channel +past Bisham upon a rising tide. And as he passed beneath it (for, of +the many branches here, the main stream took him that way) he would +have seen a great and populous place with nothing ruinous in it, all +well ordered, busy with men and splendid; here again that which we now +look upon as a relic and a circumstance of repose was once alive and +strong. + +Upon his way beneath the old stone bridge which crossed the ford, and +shooting between the lifted paddles of the weirs, he would, once below +Oxford, have seen much the same pastures that we see to-day; but in a +few hours Abingdon, the next to Osney, would have fixed his eyes as +Osney had before. + +Abingdon would have been to him what Noyon is on the Oise, or any of +our river cathedrals in Western Europe--an apse pointing up stream, +though rounded and lacking the flying buttresses of the Gothic, for it +was thick, broad, and Norman. Here also, as one may believe, from its +situation, trees would have shrouded somewhat what he saw. There are +few such riverside apses in Christian Europe that are not screened in +this manner by trees planted between the stream and them. But as he +drifted farther down, before he reached the bridge, the west front +would have burst upon him, quite new, exceedingly rich and proud, a +strict example, one may believe, of the Perpendicular, and of what was +for the first time, and for a moment only, a true English Gothic. It +would have stood out before him, catching the sun of the afternoon in +its maze of glass. It would have seemed a thing to endure; within his +lifetime it was to be utterly destroyed. + +Once more in the many reaches between Abingdon and Wallingford, the +sights would have been those which a man sees now. And though at +Wallingford he would have had before him a town of brilliant red tiles +and timberwork, and a town perhaps larger than that which we see +to-day, yet (could such a man come to life again) the contrast would +not strike him here, and still less in the fields below, so much as +when he came near to Reading. + +That everything else of age in Reading has disappeared one need not +say, but were that traveller here to-day, the thing that he would most +seek for and most lack would be the bulk of the building at the +farther end of the town. + +One can best say what it was by saying that it was like Durham. It is +true that Durham Cathedral stands upon a noble cliff overhanging a +ravine, while Reading Abbey stood upon a small and irregular hill +which hardly showed above the flat plains of the river meadows, but in +massiveness of structure and in type of architecture Reading seems to +have resembled Durham more nearly than any other of our great +monuments, and to emphasise its parallelism to Durham is perhaps the +best way to make the modern reader understand what we have lost. + +Nothing that he had seen in this journey would more have sunk into the +mind of a contemporary man, nothing that he would lack were he +resuscitated to-day would leave a want more grievous. In the +destruction of Reading the people of this country lost something which +not even their aptitude for foreign travel can replace. + +Windsor, as he passed, stood up above the right of him, not very +different from what we still admire as we come down from Bray and look +up to the jutting fore-tower which is worthy of Coucy. But down below +Windsor (after whose bridge we to-day see nothing whatever of value), +just after he had passed the wooden bridge of Staines and shot the +weir of that town, the river bent southward. + +The traveller would have found Pentonhook already forming or formed, +and when he had got round it he would have seen soaring above him down +stream the great mass of Chertsey Abbey. If Reading had the solidity +and the barbaric grandeur of Durham, Chertsey had in an ecclesiastical +way the vastness of Windsor, and must have seemed like a town to +anyone approaching it thus down the river. The enclosed area of the +abbey buildings alone covered four acres. + +This impression which such a traveller would have received of the +great religious houses was enhanced by something more than the +magnitude and splendour of the buildings. Divided as was opinion at +that moment upon their value to the State, and jealous as had become +landless men of the long traditions and privileges of the monks, these +still represented not only their own wealth but the general +accumulation of capital and the continued prosperity of the river +valley. It is true to say, in spite of the difficulty of appreciating +such a truth in the light of our knowledge of what was to follow, that +the destruction of such foundations would have seemed to the traveller +before the Dissolution inconceivable. Nevertheless it came. + +These notes are not the place in which to discuss that most difficult +of all historical problems--I mean the causes which led the nation to +abandon in a couple of generations the whole of its traditions and to +adopt, not spontaneously but at the bidding of a comparatively small +body of wealthy men, a new scheme of society. But it is of value to +consider the economic aspect of the thing, and to show what it was +that Henry desired to seize when his policy of Dissolution was +secretly formed. + +The economic function of the monastic system in the Middle Ages, and +especially in the later Middle Ages, is one to which no sufficient +attention has been given by historians. + +They collected, as does no modern agency, wealth from very various +sources, scattered up and down the whole of the kingdom, and often +farther afield, throughout Europe, and exercised the whole economic +power so drawn together in one centre, and so founded a permanent +nucleus of wealth in the place where the community resided. + +We are indeed to-day accustomed to a similar effect in the action of +our wealthy families. The rents of the London poor, a toll upon the +produce of Egypt, of the Argentine, or of India, all flow into some +country house in the provinces, where it revives in an effective +demand for production, or lends to the whole countryside a wealth +which, of itself, it could never have produced. The neighbourhood of +Aylesbury, the palaces of the larger territorials, are modern examples +of this truth, that the economic power of a district does not reside +in its productive capacity, but in its capacity for effective demand. +And it is undoubtedly true that if there were anything permanent in +modern society we should be witnessing in the wealthier quarters of +Paris and London, in the Riviera in the holiday part of Egypt, and in +certain centres of provincial luxury in England, in France, and in +Western Germany, the foundation of a permanent economic superiority. + +But nothing in modern society has any roots. Where to-day is some one +of these great territorial houses in fifty years there may be nothing +but decay. Fashion may change from the Riviera to some other part of +the Mediterranean littoral, and with fashion will go the concentration +of wealth which accompanies it. + +In the Middle, and especially in the latter Middle, Ages it was +otherwise. The great religious houses not only tended to accumulate +wealth and to perpetuate it in the same hands (they could not gamble +it away nor disperse it in luxury; they could hardly waste it by +mismanagement), but they were also permanently fixed on one spot. + +Such an institution as Reading, for example, or as Abingdon, went on +perpetually receiving its immense revenues for generation after +generation, and were under no temptation or rather had no capacity for +spending it elsewhere than in the situation where their actual +buildings were to be found. + +In this way the great monastic houses founded a tradition of local +wealth which has profoundly affected the history of the Thames Valley. +And if that valley is still to-day one of the chief districts wherein +the economic power of England is concentrated, it owes that position +mainly to the centuries during which the great foundations exercised +their power upon the banks of the river. + +The growth of great towns, one of the last phases of our national +development, one which finds its example in the Thames Valley as +elsewhere, and one to which we shall allude before closing these notes +upon the river, has somewhat obscured the quality of this original +accumulation of wealth along the Thames. But when we come to consider +the figures of the census at an earlier time, before modern +commercialism and the railway had drawn wealth and population into +fewer and larger centres, we shall see how considerable was the string +of towns which had grown up along the stream. And we shall especially +see how fairly divided among them was the population, and, it may be +presumed, the wealth and the rateable value, of the valley. + +The point just mentioned in connection with the larger monastic +foundations, and their artificial concentration of economic power, +deserves a further elaboration, for the economic importance of a +district is one of the aspects of geography which even modern analysis +has dealt with very imperfectly. + +Economists speak of the economic importance of such-and-such a spot +because material of use to man-kind is there discovered. Thus, people +commonly point to the economic importance of the valleys all round the +Pennine Range in England because they contain coal and metals, and to +the economic importance of a small district in South Wales for the +same reason. + +A further consideration has admitted that not only places where things +useful to mankind are discovered, but places naturally fitted for +their exchange have an economic importance peculiarly their own. +Indeed, the more history is studied from the point of view of +economics, the more does this kind of natural opportunity emerge, and +the less does the political importance of purely productive areas +appear. The mountain districts of Spain, the Cornish peninsula, were +centres of metallic industry of the first importance to the Romans, +but they remained poor throughout the period of Roman civilisation. +To-day the farmer in the west of America, the miner and the clerk in +Johannesburg, are perhaps more numerous, but as a political force no +wealthier for the opportunities of their sites: the economic power +which they ultimately produce is first concentrated in the centres of +exchange where the wealth they produce is handled. + +Now there is a third basis for the economic importance of a district, +and as this third basis is indefinitely more important than the other +two, it has naturally been overlooked in the analysis of the +universities. This basis is the basis of residence. Given that a +conqueror, or a seat of Government established by routine, is +established in a particular place and chooses there to remain; or +given that the pleasure attached to a particular site--its natural +pleasures or the inherited grandeur of its buildings or what not--make +it an established residence for those who control the expenditure of +wealth, then that place will acquire an economic importance which has +for its foundation nothing more material than the human will. Thither +wealth, wherever produced, will flow, and there will be discovered +that ultimate motive force of all production and of all exchange, the +effective demand of those possessors who alone can set the industrial +machine in motion. + +This has been abundantly true in every period of the world's history, +whenever commerce existed upon a considerable scale, or whenever a +military force sufficiently universal was at the command of wealthy +men. + +It is particularly true to-day. To-day not the natural centres of +exchange, still less the natural centres of production, determine what +places in the world shall be wealthy and what shall not. The surplus +of the wealth produced by the Egyptian fellaheen is carefully +collected by English officials and largely consumed in Paris; the +wealth produced by the manufacturers of North England is largely spent +in the south of England and upon the Continent; until their recent and +successful revolt, the wealth produced by the Irish peasantry was +largely spent in London and upon the Riviera. + +The economic importance, then, of the Thames Valley has not +diminished, but increased since South England ceased to be the main +field of production. + +The tradition of Government, the habitual residence of the wealthy and +directing classes of the community, have centred more and more in +London. The old establishment of luxury in the Thames Valley has +perpetually increased since the decline of its industrial and +agricultural importance, and undoubtedly, if it were possible to draw +a map indicating the proportion of economic _demand_ throughout the +country, the Valley of the Thames would appear, in proportion to its +population, by far the most concentrated district in England, although +it contains but one very large town, and although it is innocent of +any very important modern industry. + +It is interesting, in connection with this economic aspect of the +Thames Valley, to note that, alone of the great river valleys of +Europe, it has no railway system parallel to its banks. There is no +series of productive centres which could give rise to such a railway +system. The Great Western Railway follows the river now some distance +upon one side, now some distance upon the other, as far as Oxford; but +it does not depend in any way upon the stream, and where the course of +the stream is irregular it goes on its straight course, throwing out +branch lines to the smaller towns upon the banks: for the railway +depends, so far as this section is concerned, upon the industries of +the Midlands and of the west. Were you to cut off the sources of +carriage which it draws upon from beyond the Valley of the Thames it +could not exist. + +The Scheldt, the Rhine, the Rhone, the Garonne, the Seine, the Elbe, +are all different in this from the Thames. The economic power of our +main river valley is chiefly a spending power. It produces little and, +though it exchanges more of human wealth, it is the artificial +machinery of exchange rather than the physical movement of goods that +enriches it. + +Now this habit of residence, this settlement of the concentrated power +of demand upon the banks of the Thames, was the work of the monastic +houses. It may be argued that, with the commercial importance of +London, and with its attainment of the position of a capital, the +residence of such economic power would necessarily have spread up the +Thames Valley. It is doubtful whether any such necessity as this +existed. In Roman times the Thames certainly did not lead up thus in +the line of wealth from London, and though it is true that water +carriage greatly increased in importance after the breakdown of Roman +civilisation, yet the medium by which that water carriage was utilised +was the medium of the Benedictine foundations. They it was who +established that continuous line of progressive agricultural +development and who prepared the way for the later yet more continuous +line of the full monastic effort which succeeded the Conquest. + +A list of monastic institutions upon the river, if we exclude the +friars, the hospitals, and such foundations as made part of town or +university life, is as follows:--a priory at Cricklade, another at +Lechlade, the Abbey at Eynsham (sufficiently near the stream to be +regarded as riparian), the Nunnery and School of Godstow, the great +Abbeys of Osney and Rewley, the Benedictine Nunnery at Littlemore, the +great Abbey of Abingdon, the Abbey of Dorchester, Cholsey (but this +had been destroyed before the Conquest, and was never revived), the +Augustinian Nunnery at Goring, the great Cluniac Abbey at Reading, the +Cell of Westminster at Hurley, the Abbey of Medmenham, the Abbey of +Bisham just opposite Marlow, and the Nunnery of Little Marlow; the +Nunnery of Burnham, which, though nearly a mile and a half from the +stream, should count from the position of its property as a riparian +foundation, the little Nunnery of Ankerwike, the great Benedictine +Abbey of Chertsey, the Carthusians of Sheen, and the Benedictines of +Westminster, to which may be added the foundation of Bermondsey. + +When the end came the total number of those in control of such wide +possessions was small. + +Indeed it was perhaps no small cause of the unpopularity, such as it +was, into which the same monasteries had locally fallen, that so much +economic power was concentrated in so few hands. The greater +foundations throughout the country possessed but a little more than +3000 religious, and even when all the nuns, friars, and professed +religious of the towns are counted, we do not arrive at more than 8000 +in religion in an England which must have had a population of at least +4,000,000, and quite possibly a much larger number; nor could the mobs +foresee that the class which would seize upon the abbey lands would +concentrate the means of production into still fewer hands, until at +last the mass of Englishmen should have no lot in England. + +Moreover, it would be an error to consider the numbers of the +religious alone. The smaller foundations, and especially the convents +of nuns, did certainly support but small numbers, and this probably +accounts for the ease with which they were suppressed, but, on the +other hand, their possessions also were small. In the case of the +great foundations, though one can count but 3000 monks and canons, the +number of them must be multiplied many times if we are to arrive at +the total of the communities concerned. Reading, Abingdon, and the +rest were little cities, with a whole population of direct dependants +living within the walls, and a still larger number of families +without, who indirectly depended upon the revenues of the abbey for +their livelihood. + +Another and perhaps a better way of presenting to a modern reader the +overwhelming economic power of the mediaeval monastic system, +especially its economic power in the Valley of the Thames, would be to +add to such a list of houses a map of that valley showing the manors +in ecclesiastical hands, the freeholds and leaseholds held by the +great abbeys, in addition to the livings that were within their gift; +in a word, a map giving all their different forms of revenue. + +Such a map would show the Valley of the Thames and its tributaries +covered with ecclesiastical influence upon every side. + +Even if we confined ourselves to the parishes upon the actual banks of +the river, the map would present a continuous stretch of possessions +upon either side from far above Eynsham down to below bridges. + +The research that would be necessary for the establishment of such a +complete list would require a leisure which is not at the disposal of +the present writer, but it is possible to give some conception of what +the monastic holdings were by drawing up a list confined to but a +small part of these holdings and showing therefore _a fortiori_ what +the total must have been. + +In this list I concern myself only with the eight largest houses in +the whole length of the river. I do not mention parishes from which +the revenues were not important (though these were numerous, for the +abbeys held a large number of small parcels of land). I do not mention +the very numerous holdings close to the river but not actually upon it +(such as Burnham or Watereaton), nor, which is most important of all, +do I count even in the riparian holdings such foundations as were not +themselves set upon the banks of the Thames. Whatever Thames land paid +rent to a monastery not actually situated upon the banks of the river, +I omit. Finally the list, curtailed as it is by all these limitations, +concerns only the land held at the moment of the Dissolution. Scores +of holdings, such as those of Lechlade, which was dissolved in +Catholic times, Windsor, which was exchanged as we have seen at the +time of the Conquest, I omit and confine myself only to the lands held +at the time of the Dissolution. + +Yet these lands--though they concern only eight monasteries, though I +mention only those actually upon the banks of the river, and though I +omit from the list all small payments--put before one a series of +names which, to those familiar with the Thames, seems almost like a +voyage along the stream and appears to cover every portion of the +landscape with which travellers upon the river are familiar. Thus we +have Shifford, Eynsham, South Stoke, Radley, Cumnor, Witham, Botley, +the Hinkseys, Sandford, Shillingford, Swinford, Medmenham, Appleford, +Sutton, Wittenham, Culham, Abingdon, Goring, Cowley, Littlemore, +Cholsey, Nuneham, Wallingford, Pangbourne, Streatley, Stanton +Harcourt; and all this crowd of names upon the upper river is arrived +at without counting such properties as attached to the great +monasteries within towns, as, for example, to the monasteries of +Oxford. It is true that not all these names represent complete +manorial ownership. In a number of cases they stand for portions of +the manor only, but even in this list ten at least, and possibly +twelve, stand for complete manorial ownership. Then one must add +Sonning, Wargreave, Tilehurst, Chertsey, Egham, Cobham, Richmond, Ham, +Mortlake, Sheen, Kew, Chiswick, Staines, etc., of which many of the +most important, such as Staines, are full manorial possessions. + +It is clearly evident, from such a very imperfect and rapidly drawn +list, what was the economic power of the great houses, and one may +conclude, even from the basis of such imperfect evidence, that the +directing force of economic effort throughout the Thames Valley was to +be found, right up to the Dissolution, in the chapter houses of +Reading, of Chertsey, and of Westminster, of Abingdon and of the +lesser houses. + +In a word, the business of Henry might be compared to what may be in +future the business of some democratic European Government when it +lays its hands upon the fortunes of the great financial houses, but +with this double difference, that the confiscation to which Henry bent +himself was a confiscation of capital whose product did not leave the +country, and could not be used for anti-national purposes, as also +that it was the confiscation of wealth which never acted secretly and +which had no interest, as have our chief moneylenders, in political +corruption. It was a vast undertaking and, in the truest sense of the +word, a revolutionary one, such as Europe had not seen until that +moment, and perhaps has not seen since. + +It was effected with ease, because there did not reside in the public +opinion of the time any strong body of resistance. + +The change of religion, in so far as a change was threatened (and upon +that the mass of the parish priests themselves, and still more the +mass of the laity, were very hazy), did not affect the mind of a +people famous throughout Europe for their intense and often +superstitious devotion; but in some odd way the segregation of the +great communities, their vast wealth, and perhaps an external +contradiction between their original office and their present +privilege, forbade any united or widespread enthusiasm in their +defence. + +Englishmen rose upon every side when they thought that the vital +mysteries of the Faith were threatened. The risings were only put down +by the use of foreign mercenaries and by the most execrable cruelty, +nor would even these means have sufficed had the rebels formed a clear +plan, or had the purpose of Henry himself in matters of religion been +definite and capable of definite attack. But the country, though ready +to fight for Dogma, was not ready to fight for the monasteries. It +might, perhaps, have fought if the attack upon them had been direct +and universal. If Henry had laid down a programme of suppressing +religious bodies in general, he probably could not have carried it +out, but he laid down no such programme. The Dissolution of the +smaller houses was imagined by the most devout to be a statesmanlike +measure. Many of them, like Medmenham, were decayed; their wealth was +not to be used for the private luxury of the King or of nobles; it was +to swell the revenues of the greater foundations or to be applied to +pious or honourable public use. But the example once given, the attack +upon the greater houses necessarily followed; and the whole episode is +a vivid lesson in the capital principle of statesmanship that men are +governed by routine and by the example of familiar things. Render +possible to the mass of men the conception that the road, they +habitually follow is not a necessity of their lives, and you may exact +of them almost any sacrifice or hope to see them witness without +disgust almost any enormity. + +Moreover, the great monasteries were each severally tricked. The one +was asked to surrender at one time, another at another; the one for +this reason, the other for that. The suppression of Chertsey, the +example perpetually recurring in these pages, was solemnly promised to +be but a transference of the community from one spot to another; then +when the transference had taken place the second community was +ruthlessly destroyed. There is ample evidence to show that each +community had its special hope of survival, and that each, until quite +the end of the process, regarded its fate, when that fate fell upon +it, as something exceptional and peculiar to itself. Some, or rather +many, purchased temporary exemption, doubtless secure in the belief +that their bribe would make that extension permanent. Their payments +were accepted, but the contracts depending upon them were never +fulfilled. + +When the Dissolution had taken place, apart from the private loot, +which was enormous, and to which we shall turn a few pages hence, a +methodical destruction took place on the part of the Crown. + +In none of the careless waste which marked the time is there a worse +example than in the case of Reading. The lead had already been +stripped from the roof and melted into pigs; the timbers of the roof +had already been rotting for nearly thirty years, when Elizabeth gave +leave for such of them as were sound to be removed. Some were used in +the repairing of a local church; a little later further leave was +given for 200 cartloads of freestone to be removed from the ruins. But +they showed an astonishing tenacity. The abbey was still a habitation +before the Civil Wars, and even at the end of the eighteenth century a +very considerable stretch of the old walls remained. + +Westminster was saved. The salvation of Westminster is the more +remarkable in that the house was extremely wealthy. + +Upon nothing has more ink been wasted in the minute research of modern +history than upon an attempted exact comparison between modern and +mediaeval economics. + +It is a misfortune that those who are best fitted to appreciate the +economic problems and science of the modern world are, either by race +or religion, or both, cut off from the mediaeval system, and even when +they are acquainted with the skeleton, as it were, of that body of +Christian Europe, are none the less out of sympathy with, or even +ignorant of, its living form and spirit. + +The particular department of that inquiry which concerns anyone who +touches the vast economic revolution produced by the Dissolution of +the monasteries is the comparison of values (as measured in the +precious metals) between the early sixteenth century and the early +twentieth. + +No sensible man needs to be told that such a comparison is one of the +very numerous parts of historical inquiry in which a better result is +arrived at in proportion as the matter is more generally and largely +observed. It is one in which detail is more fatal to a man even than +inaccuracy, and it is one in which hardly a single observer who has +been really soaked in his subject has avoided the most ludicrous +conclusions. + +Again, no man of common sense need be told that a rigid multiple is +absolutely impossible of discovery. The search for such a multiple is +like a search for an index number which shall apply to all the varying +economic habits of the modern world. One cannot say: "Multiply prices +by 10" or "Multiply prices by 20," and thus afford the modern reader a +sound basis; but one can say, after some observation: "Multiply by +such-and-such a multiple" (wherever very large and varied expenditure +is concerned) and you will certainly have a minimum; though how much +_more_ such expenditure may have represented in those very different +and far simpler social circumstances cannot be precisely determined. +What, then, is the rough multiple that will give us our minimum? + +The inquiry has been prosecuted by more than one authority upon the +basis of wheat. One may say that wheat in normal years in the early +sixteenth century stood at about an eighth of wheat in what I may call +the normal years of the nineteenth, before the influx of Colonial +produce began to be serious, and before the depreciation of silver +combined with other causes to disturb prices. + +Those who have taken wheat for their basis, recognising, as even they +must do, that 8 is far too low a multiple, are willing to grant 10, +and sometimes even 12, and this way of calculating, largely because it +is a ready rule, has entered into many books upon the Reformation. The +early Tudor penny is turned into the modern shilling. + +But this basis of calculation is false, because the eating of wheaten +bread was not then the universal thing it is to-day. The English +proletarian of to-day is, in comparison with the large well-to-do +class of his fellow-citizens, a far poorer man than his ancestry ever +were. Wheaten bread is, indeed, his necessity, but good fresh meat +(for example) is an exception for him. + +Now the Englishmen of earlier times made beef a necessity, and yet we +find that beef will permit a higher multiple than wheat. Beef will +give you a multiple of 12, and just as wheat, giving you a multiple of +8, permits a somewhat higher general multiple, so beef, giving you a +multiple of 12, permits a higher one. So if we were to make beef our +staple instead of wheat we should get a multiple of 13 or 14 by which +to turn the money of the first third of the sixteenth century into the +money of our own time. + +But beef, in its turn, is not a fair standard; during much of the year +pork had, under the circumstances of the time, to be eaten instead of +fresh meat. Pork is to-day almost the only meat all the year round of +many labourers on the land. Now pork gives a still higher multiple: it +gives 20. For the pound that you would now give in Chichester Market +for a breeding sow, you gave in the early years of the sixteenth +century a shilling. So here you have another article of common +consumption which gives you a multiple of 20. + +Strong ale gives you a higher multiple still--one of nearly 24. You +could then get strong ale at a penny a gallon. You will hardly get it +at two shillings a gallon to-day; and yet it is made of the same +materials. The small ale of the hayfield will give you almost any +multiple you like; it is from eightpence to ninepence a gallon now: it +was often given away in the sixteenth century as water would be. + +The consideration of but a few sets of prices such as those we have +quoted shows that the ordinary multiple might be anything between 8 +and 24, with a prejudice in favour of the higher rather than the lower +figure. But there are other lines of proof which converge upon the +matter, and which permit a greater degree of certitude. For instance, +even after the rise in prices in the early part of Elizabeth's reign, +while sixpence a week is thought low for the board and lodging of a +working man, a shilling is thought very high, and is only given in the +case of first-rate artisans; and if we consider the pre-Reformation +period, when the position of the labourer was, of course, much better +than it was under Elizabeth, or ever has been since, we find something +of the same scale. A penny a day is thought a rather mean allowance, +but twopence a day is a first-rate extra board wage. + +Again, in Henry VIII.'s first poll tax it is taken for granted that +many labourers have less than a pound a year in actual wages, and that +wages over this sum, up to two pounds, for instance, form a sort of +aristocracy of labour that can afford to pay taxation. Of course some +part of the wages so counted were paid in part board and lodging, +especially in the agricultural industries, but still, the reception of +240 pence for a year's work in money gives you a multiple of far more +than 20: you will not get a man about a house and garden for less than +thirty pounds though you feed and house him, and the unhoused outside +labourer gets, first and last, over fifty pounds at the least. + +When the Reformation was in full swing the currency was debased almost +out of recognition, and before the death of Edward VI. prices are +rendered so fictitious by inflation that they are useless for our +purpose. It is only with the currency of Elizabeth that they became +true measures of value once more. + +It is useless, therefore, to follow the inquiry after the Dissolution +of the monasteries, for not only was the currency at sixes and sevens, +but true prices were also rapidly rising with the influx of precious +metals from Spain and America. + +I have said enough in this very elementary sketch to show that a +general multiple of 20, when one considers wages as well as staple +foods, is as high as can be fixed safely, while a general multiple of +12 is certainly too low. + +But even to multiply by 20 is by no means enough if one is to +appreciate the social meaning of such-and-such a large income in the +first part of Henry VIII.'s reign. + +A brief historical essay, such as is this, is no place in which to +discuss any general theory of economics; were there space to do so, +even in an elementary fashion, it would be possible to show how the +increase of wealth in a state is, on account of the increased +elasticity in circulation of the currency, almost independent of the +movement of prices. But without going into formulae; of this +complexity, a couple of homely comparisons will suffice to show what a +much larger thing a given income was in the early sixteenth century, +than its corresponding amount in values is to-day. + +Consider a man with some L2000 a year travelling through modern +Europe. Prices, in the competition of modern commerce and the ease of +modern travel, are levelled up very evenly throughout the area that he +traverses. Yet such a man, should he settle in a village of Spanish +peasants, would appear of almost illimitable wealth, because he would +have at his command an almost indefinite amount of those simple +necessities which form the whole category of their consumable values. +Or again, let such a man settle in a place where the variety of +consumable values is large, but where the distribution of wealth is +fairly equal, and the small income, therefore, a normal social +phenomenon--as, for instance, among the lower middle class of +Paris-there again his L2000 a year would be of much greater effect +than in a society where wealth was unequally divided, for it would +produce that effect in a medium where the satisfaction of nearly every +individual around him was easily reached upon perhaps a tenth of such +an income. + +When all this is taken into consideration we can begin to see what the +great monasteries were at the time of their dissolution. It is hardly +an exaggeration to multiply the list of mere values by 20 to bring it +into the terms of modern currency. A place worth close on L2000 a year +(as was, for instance, Ramsey Abbey) meant an income of not far short +of L40,000 a year in our money, to go by prices alone. And that +L40,000 a year was spent in an England in which nine-tenths of the +luxury of our modern rich was unknown, in which the squire was usually +but three or four times richer than one of his farmers, in which great +wealth, where it existed, attached rather to an office than to a +person. In general, the multiple of 20 must be further multiplied by a +coefficient which is not arithmetically determinable, but which we see +I to be very large by a general comparison of the small, poor, and +equable society of the early sixteenth century with the complex, huge, +wealthy, and wholly iniquitous society of our own day. + +Supposing, for instance, we take the high multiple of 20, and say that +the revenues of Westminster at its dissolution in the first days of +1540 were some L80,000 a year in our modern money, we are far +underestimating the economic position of Westminster in the State. +There are to-day many private men in London who dispose of as great an +income, and who, for all their ostentation, are not remarkable; but +the income of Westminster in the early sixteenth century, when wealth +was far more equally divided than it is now, and when the accumulation +of it was far less, was a very different matter to what we mean to-day +by L80,000 a year. It produced more of the effect which we might +to-day imagine would be produced by a million. The fortune of but very +few families could so much as compare with it, and the fortunes of +individual families, especially of wealthy families, were, during the +existence of a strong king, highly perilous, and often cut short; +nothing could pretend to equal such an economic power but the Crown, +which then was, and which remained until the victory of the +aristocracy in the Civil Wars, by far the richest legal personality in +Britain. The temptation to sack Westminster was something like the +temptation presented to our financial powers to-day to get at the +rubber of the Congo Basin or at the unexploited coal of Northern +China. + +By a miracle that temptation was withstood. For the moment Henry +intended to construct a bishopric with its cathedral out of the old +corporation and abbey. He might have done so and yet have yielded +immediately after to his cupidity, as he did with the Cathedral of +Osney. It ended in the form which it at present maintains. The greater +part of its revenues were, of course, stolen, but the fabric was +spared and enough income was retained to permit the continuous life of +Westminster to our own time. + +Men are slow to conceive what might have been--nay, what almost +_was_--in their national history; it seems difficult to our generation +to imagine Westminster Abbey absent only from the national life; yet +Abingdon is gone, all but a gateway, Reading all but a few ruined +walls, Chertsey has utterly disappeared, so has Osney, so has +Sheen--to mention the great river houses alone: Westminster alone +survives, and the only reason it survives is that it had about it at +the time of the destruction of the monasteries a royal flavour, and +that its existence helped to bolster up the Tudors. But for that it +would have been sold like the rest, the lead would have been stripped +from its roof, the glass broken and thrown aside, and a Cecil or a +Howard would have built himself a palace with the stones. It is but a +chance that the words "Westminster Abbey" mean more to us to-day than +"Woburn Abbey," "Bewley Abbey" or any one of the scores of "Abbeys," +"Priories," and the rest, which are the names of our country houses. + +Chertsey and Abingdon were less fortunate than Westminster. + +Chertsey, indeed, has so thoroughly disappeared that it might be taken +as a symbol of all that England had been for the thirty generations +since Christianity had come to her, and then, in two generations of +men, ceased suddenly to be. There is, perhaps, not one in a thousand +of the vague Colonials who regard Westminster Abbey as a sort of +inevitable centre for Britishers and Anglo-Saxons, who has so much as +heard of Chertsey. There is perhaps but one in a hundred of historical +students who could attach a definite connection to the name, and yet +Chertsey came next in the list of the great Benedictine Abbeys; +Chertsey also was coeval with England. + +Chertsey went the way of them all. The last abbot, John Cordery, +surrendered it in the July of 1537, but he and his community were not +immediately dispersed, they were taken off to fill that strange new +foundation of Bisham, of which we shall hear later in connection with +the river, and which in its turn immediately disappeared. Not a year +had passed, the June of 1538 was not over, when the new community at +Bisham was scattered as the old one at Chertsey had been. + +Of the abbey itself nothing is left but a broken piece of gateway, and +the few stones of a wall. But a relic of it remains in Black Cherry +Fair, a market granted to the abbey in the fifteenth century and +formerly held upon St. Anne's Hill and upon St. Anne's Day. + +The fate of this monastery has something about it particularly tragic, +for the abbot and the monks of Chertsey when they surrendered did so +in the full expectation of continuing their monastic life at Bisham, +and if Bisham was treacherously destroyed immediately after the fault +does not lie at their door. + +With Abingdon it was otherwise. The last prior was perhaps the least +steadfast of all the many bewildered or avaricious characters that +meet us in the story of the Dissolution. He was one Thomas Rowland, +who had watched every movement of Henry's mind, and had, if possible, +gone before. He did not even wait until the demand was made to him, +but suggested the abandonment of the trust which so many generations +of Englishmen had left in his hands, and he had a reward in the gift +not only of a very large pension but also of the Manor of Cumnor, +which had been before the destruction of the religious orders the +sanatorium or country house of the monks. He obtained it: and from his +time on Cumnor has borne an air of desolation and of murder, nor does +any part of his own palace remain. + +When any organised economic system disappears, there is nothing more +interesting in history than to watch the process of its replacement: +for example, the gradual disappearance of pagan slavery, and its +replacement by the self-governing peasantry of the Middle Ages, with +all the consequence of that change, affords some of the best reading +in Continental records. But the Dissolution of the English monasteries +has this added interest, that it was an immediate, and therefore an +overwhelming, change; there was hardly a warning, there was no delay. +Suddenly, not within the lifetime of a man, but within that of a +Parliament, from one year to another, a good quarter of the whole +economic power of the nation was utterly transformed. Nothing like it +has been known in European history. + +What filled the void so made? The answer to this question is, the +Oligarchy: the landed class which had been threatening for so long to +assume the Government of England stepped into the shoes of the great +houses, and by this addition to their already considerable power +achieved the destruction of the monarchy and within 100 years +proceeded to the ordering of the English people under a small group of +wealthy men, a form of Government which to this day England alone of +all Christian nations suffers or enjoys. + +This general statement must not be taken to mean that the oligarchic +system, whose basis lies in the ownership of land, was immediately +created by the Dissolution of the great monasteries. The development +of the territorial system of England, of which system the banks of the +Thames afford as good a picture as any in England, can be traced +certainly from Saxon, and conjecturally from Roman, times. + +The Roman estate was, presumably, the direct ancestor of the manor, +and the Saxon thegns were perhaps most of them in blood, and nearly +all of them in social constitution, descended from the owners of the +Roman Villas which had seen the petty but recurrent pirate invasions +of the fifth and sixth centuries. + +But though the manorial arrangement, with its village lords and their +dependent serfs, was common to the whole of the West, and could be +found on the Rhine, in Gaul, and even in Italy, in Saxon England it +had this peculiarity, that there was no systematic organisation by +which the local land-owner definitely recognised a feudal superior, +and through him the power of a Central Government. Or rather, though +in theory such recognition had grown up towards the end of the Saxon +period, in practice it hardly existed, and when William landed the +whole system of tenure was in disorder, in the sense that the local +lord of the village was not accustomed to the interference of a +superior, and that no groups of lords had come into existence by which +the territorial system could be bound in sheaves, as it were, and the +whole of it attached to one central point at the royal Court. + +Such a system of groups _had_ arisen in Gaul, and to that difference +ultimately we owe the French territorial system of the present day, +but William the Norman's new subjects had no comprehension of it. + +It was upon this account that even those manors which he handed over +to his French kindred and dependants were scattered, and that, though +he framed a vigorous feudal rule centring in his own hands, the +ancient customs of the populace, coupled with the lack of any bond +between scattered and locally independent units, forbade that rule to +endure. + +William's order was not a century old when the recrudescence of the +former manorial independence was felt in the reign of Henry II. Under +the personal unpopularity of his son, John, it blazed out into +successful revolt, and, in spite of the veil thrown over underlying +and permanent customs by such strong feudal kings as the first and the +third Edwards, the independence and power of the village landlord +remained the chief and growing character of English life. It expressed +itself in the quality of the local English Parliament, in the support +of the usurping Lancastrian dynasty--in twenty ways that converge and +mingle towards the close of the Middle Ages. + +But after the Dissolution of the monasteries this power of the squires +takes on quite a different complexion: the land-owning class, from a +foundation for the National Government, became, within two generations +of the Dissolution, the master of that Government. + +For many centuries previous to the sixteenth the old funded wealth of +the Crown had been gradually wasting, at the expense of the Central +National Government and to the profit of the squires. But the +alienation was never complete. There are plenty of cases in which the +Crown is found resuming the proprietorship of a manor to which it had +never abandoned the theoretical title. With the Tudors such cases +become rarer and rarer, with the Stuarts they cease. + +The cause of this rapid enfeeblement of the Crown lay largely in the +changed proportion of wealth. The King, until the middle of the +sixteenth century, had been far wealthier than any one of his +subjects. By a deliberate act, the breaking up of ecclesiastical +tenure, the Crown offered an opportunity to the wealthier of those +subjects so enormously to increase their revenues as to overshadow +itself; in a little more than a century after the throwing open of the +monastic lands the King is an embarrassed individual, with every issue +of expenditure ear-marked, every source of it controlled, and his very +person, as it were, mortgaged to a plutocracy. The squires had not +only added to their revenues the actual amounts produced by the sites +and estates of the old religious foundations, they had been able by +this sudden accession of wealth to shoot ahead in their competition +with their fellow-citizens. The _counterweight_ to the power of the +local landlord disappeared with the disappearance of the monastery. + +To show how the religious houses had furnished a powerful +counterweight by which the Central Government and the populace could +continue to oppose the growing power of the landed oligarchy, we may +take all the southern bank of the Thames from Buscot to Windsor. We +find at the time of the Conquest twelve royal manors and fifteen +religious; only the nine remaining were under private lords. Four and +a half centuries later, at the time of the Dissolution, the royal +manors have passed for the most part into private hands, but the +manors in the hands of the religious houses have actually increased in +number. + +At this point it is important to note an economic phenomenon which +appears at first sight accidental, but which, on examination, is found +to spring from calculable political causes. At the moment of the +Dissolution it was apparently in the power of the Crown to have +concentrated the revenues of all these monastic manors into its own +hands, and this typical stretch of country, the Berkshire shore, shows +how economically powerful the Central Government of England might have +become had the property surrendered to the Crown been kept in the +hands of the King. + +The modern reader will be tempted to inquire why it was not so kept. + +Most certainly Henry intended to keep, if not the whole of it (for he +must reward his servants, and he was accustomed to do things largely), +yet at least the bulk of it in the Royal Treasury, and had he been +able to do so the Central Government of England would have become by +far the strongest thing in Europe. It is conceivable, though in +consideration of the national character doubtful, that with so +powerful an instrument of government, England, instead of standing +aside from the rapid bureaucratic recasting of European civilisation +which was the work of the French Crown, might have led the way in that +chief of modern experiments. One can imagine the Stuarts, had they +possessed revenue, doing what the Bourbons did: one can imagine the +modern State developing under an English Crown wealthier than any +other European Government, and the re-birth of Europe happening just +to the north, instead of just to the south, of the Channel. + +But the speculation is vain. As a fact, the whole of the new wealth +slipped rapidly from between the fingers of the English King. + +When of three forces which still form an equilibrium two are +stationary and one is pressing upon these two, then, if either of the +stationary forces be removed, that which was pressing upon both +overwhelms the stationary force that remains. The monastic system had +been marking time for over 100 years, and in certain political aspects +of its power had perhaps slightly dwindled. The monarchy, for all its +splendour, was in actual resources no more than it had been for some +generations. Pressing upon either of these two institutions was the +rising and still rising force of the squires. It is not wonderful that +under such conditions the spoil fell to the younger and advancing +power. + +Consider, for example, the extraordinary anxiety of so apparently +powerful a king as Henry for the formal consent of the Commons to his +acts. It has been represented as part of the Tudor national policy and +what not, but those who write thus have not perhaps smiled, as has the +present writer, over the names of those who sat for the English shires +in the Parliament which assented to the Dissolution of the great +monastic houses. Here is a Ratcliffe from Northumberland, and a +Collingwood; here is a Dacre, a Musgrave, a Blenkinsop; the Constables +are there, and the Nevilles from Yorkshire; the Tailboys of Lincoln, a +Schaverell, a Throgmorton, a Ferrers, a Gascoyne; and of course, +inevitably, sitting for Bedfordshire, a hungry Russell. + +Here is a Townshend, a Wingfield, a Wentworth, an Audley--all from +East Anglia--a Butler; from Surrey a Carew, and that FitzWilliam whose +appetite for the religious spoils proved so insatiable; here is a +Blount out of Shropshire; a Lyttleton, a Talbot (and yet _another_ +Russell!), a Darrell, a Paulet, a Courtney, (to see what could be +picked up in his native county of Devon), and after him a Grenfell. +These are a few names taken at random to show what humble sort of +"Commons" it was that Henry had to consider. They are significant +names; and the "Constitution" had little to do then, and has little to +do now, with their domination. Wealth was and is their instrument of +power. + +That such men could ultimately force the Government is evident, but +what is remarkable, perhaps, is the extraordinary rapidity with which +the Crown was stripped of its new wealth by the gentry, and this can +only be explained in two ways: + +First, there was the rapid change in prices which rose from the +Spanish importation of precious metals from America, the effect of +which was now reaching England; and, secondly, the Tudor character. + +As to the first, it put the National Government, dependent as it still +largely was upon the customary and fixed payments, into a perpetual +embarrassment. Where it still received nothing but the customary +shilling, it had to pay out three for material and wages, whose price +had risen and was rising. In this embarrassment, in spite of every +subterfuge and shift, the Crown was in perpetual, urgent, and +increasing need. Rigid and novel taxes were imposed, loans were raised +and not repaid, but something far more was needed to save the +situation, with prices still rising as the years advanced. Ready money +from those already in possession of perhaps half the arable land of +England was an obvious source, and into their pockets flowed, as by +the force of gravitation, the funded wealth which had once supported +the old religion. Hardly ever at more than ten years' purchase, +sometimes at far less, the Crown turned its new rentals into ready +money, and spent that capital as though it had been income. + +The Tudor character was a second cause. + +It is a pleasing speculation to conceive that, if some character other +than a Tudor had been upon the throne, not all at least of this +national inheritance would have been dissipated. One can imagine a +character--tenacious, pure, narrow and subtle, intent upon dignity, +and with a natural suspicion of rivals--which might have saved some +part of the estates for posterity. Charles I., for example, had he +been born 100 years earlier, might very well have done the thing. + +But the Tudors, for all their violence, were fundamentally weak. There +was always some vice or passion to interrupt the continuity of their +policy--even Mary, who was not the offspring of caprice, had inherited +the mental taint of the Spanish house--and before the last of the +family had died, while still old men were living who, as children, had +seen the monasteries, nearly all this vast treasure had found its way +into the pockets of the squires. In the middle of the seventeenth +century every one of these villages is under a private landlord: +before the close of it even the theoretical link of their feudal +dependence upon the Crown is snapped: and the two centuries between +that time and our own have seen the power of the new landlords +steadily maintained and latterly vastly increased. + +Apart from the transfer of the monastic manors there was yet another +way in which the Dissolution of the religious houses helped on the +establishment of the landed oligarchy in the place of the old National +Government. The monasteries had owned not only these full manorial +rights, but also numerous parcels of land scattered up and down in +manors whose lordship was already in private hands. These parcels, +like the small lay freeholds, which they resembled, formed nuclei of +resistance to the increasing power of the squires. + +The point is of very considerable importance, though not easy to seize +for anyone unacquainted with the way in which the territorial +oligarchy has been built up or ignorant of the present conditions of +English village life. + +At the close of the Middle Ages the lord of a manor in England, though +possessed of a larger proportion of the land than were his colleagues +in other countries, but rarely could claim so much as one half of the +acreage of a parish; the rest was common, in which his rights were +strictly limited and defined, to the advantage of the poor, and also +side by side with common was to be found a number of partially and +wholly independent tenures, over which the squire had little or no +control, from copyholds which did furnish him occasional sums of +money, to freeholds which were practically independent of him. + +The monasteries possessed parcels of this sort everywhere. To give but +one example: Chertsey had twenty acres of freehold pasturage in the +Manor of Cobham; but it is useless to give examples of a thing which +was as common as the renting of a house to-day. Now these small +parcels formed a most valuable foundation upon which the independence +of similar lay parcels could repose. The squire might be tempted to +bully a four-acre man out of his land, but he could not bully the +Abbot of Abingdon, or of Reading. And so long as these small parcels +were sanctioned by the power of the great houses, so long they were +certain to endure in the hands even of the smallest and the humblest +of the tenants. To-day in a modern village where a gentleman possesses +such an island of land, better still where several do, there at once +arises a tendency and an opportunity for the smaller men to acquire +and to retain. The present writer could quote a Sussex village in the +centre of which were to be found, but thirty years ago, more than +half-a-dozen freeholds. They disappeared: in its prosperity "The +Estate" extinguished them. The next heir in his embarrassment has +handed over the whole lump to a Levantine for a loan. Had the Old +Squire spared the small freeholds they would have come in as +purchasers and would have increased their number during the later +years when the principal landlord, his son, was gradually falling into +poverty and drink. + +When the monasteries were gone the disappearance of the small men +gradually began. It was hastened by the extinction of that old +tradition which made the Church a customary landlord exacting quit +rents always less than the economic value of the land, and, what with +the security of tenure and the low rental, creating a large tenant +right. This tenant right vested in the lucky dependants of the Church +did indeed create intense local jealousies that help to account for +much of the antagonism to the monastic houses. But the future showed +that the benefits conferred, though irregular and privileged, were +more than the landless men could hope to expect when they had +exchanged the monk for the squire. + +Finally, the Dissolution of the religious houses strengthened the +squires in the mere machinery of the constitution. Before that +Dissolution the House of Lords was a clerical house. Had you entered +the Council of Henry VII. when Parliament sat at Westminster you would +have seen a crowd of mitres and of croziers, bishops and abbots of the +great abbeys, among whom, here and there, were some thirty lay lords. +This clerical House of Lords, sprung largely from the populace, +possessed only of life tenure, was a very different thing from the +House of Lords that succeeded the Dissolution. _That_ immediately +became a committee, as it were, of the landed class; and a committee +of the landed class the House of Lords remained until quite the last +few years, when the practice of purchase has admitted to it brewers, +money-lenders, Colonial speculators, and, indeed, anyone who can +furnish the sum required by a woman or a secret party fund. A concrete +example is often of value in the illustration of a general process, +and at the expense of a digression I propose to lay before the reader +as excellent a picture as we have of the way in which the Dissolution +of the monasteries not only emphasised the position of the existing +territorial class, but began to recruit it with elements drawn from +every quarter, and, while it established the squires in power, taught +them to be careless of the origin or of the end of the families +admitted to their rank. + +For this purpose I can find no better example than that of the family +of Williams, which by the licence of custom we have come to call +"Cromwell"; the most famous member of this family stands out in +English history as the typical squire who led the Forces of his Order +against the impoverished Monarchy, and so reduced that emblem of +Government to the simulacrum which it still remains. + +Putney, by Thames-side, was the home of their very lowly beginnings. + +Of the descent of the Williams throughout the Middle Ages nothing is +known. Much later they claimed relationship with certain heads of the +Welsh clans, but the derivation is fantastic. At any rate a certain +Williams was keeping a public-house in Putney in the generation which +saw the first of the Reformers. His name was Morgan, and the "Ap +William" or "Williams" which he added to that name was an affix due to +the Welsh custom of calling a man by his father's name; for surnames +had not yet become a rule in the Principality. He may have come, and +probably did, from Glamorganshire, and that is all we can say about +him; though we must admit some weight in Leland's contemporary +evidence that his son, Richard, was born in the same county, at a +place called Llanishen. Anyhow, there he is, keeping his public-house +in the first years of the sixteenth century by the riverside at +Putney. + +There lived in the same hamlet (which was a dependency of the manor of +Wimbledon) a certain Cromwell or Crumwell, who was also called Smith; +but this obscure personage should most probably be known by the first +of these two names, for his humble business was the shoeing of horses, +and the second appellation was very probably a nickname arising from +that trade. He also added beer-selling to his other work, and this +common occupation may have formed a link between him and his +neighbour, Morgan ap William. + +The next stage in the story is not perfectly clear. Smith or Crumwell +had a son and two daughters, the son was called Thomas, and the +daughter that concerns us was called Katherine. It is highly probable, +according to modern research into the records of the manor, that +Morgan ap William married Katherine. But the matter is still in some +doubt. There are not a few authorities, some of them painstaking, +though all of them old, who will have it that the blacksmith's son, +Thomas, loved Morgan ap William's sister, instead of its being the +other way about. It is not easy to establish the exact relationship +between two public-house keepers who lived as neighbours in a dirty +little village 400 years ago. + +Thomas proceeded to an astonishing career; he left his father's forge, +wandered to Italy, may have been present at the sack of Rome, and was +at last established as a merchant in the city of London. When one says +"merchant" one is talking kindly. His principal business then, as +throughout his life, was that of a usurer, and he showed throughout +his incredible adventures something of that mixture of simplicity and +greed, with a strange fixity in the oddest of personal friendships, +which amuses us to-day in our company promoters and African +adventurers. His abilities recommended him to Wolsey, and when that +great genius fell, Cromwell was, as the most familiar of historical +traditions represents him, faithful to his master. + +Whether this faithfulness recommended him to the King or not, it is +difficult to say. Probably it did, for there is nothing that a careful +plotter will more narrowly watch in an agent than his record of +fidelity in the past. + +Henry fixed upon him to be his chief instrument in the suppression of +the monasteries. His lack of all fixed principle, his unusual power of +application to a particular task, his devotion to whatever orders he +chose to obey, and his quite egregious avarice, all fitted him for the +work his master ordered. + +How the witty scoundrel accomplished that business is a matter of +common history. Had he never existed the monasteries would have fallen +just the same, perhaps in the same manner, and probably with the same +despatch. But fate has chosen to associate this revolution with his +name--and to his presence in that piece of confiscation we owe the +presence in English history of the great Oliver; for Oliver, as will +be presently seen, and all his tribe were fed upon no other food than +the possessions of the Church. Cromwell, in his business of +suppressing the great houses, embezzled quite cynically--if we can +fairly call that "embezzlement" which was probably countenanced by the +King, to whom account was due. Indeed, it is plainly evident from the +whole story of that vast economic catastrophe which so completely +separates the England we know from the England of a thousand +years--the England of Alfred, of Edward I., of Chaucer, and of the +French Wars--it is evident from the whole story, that the flood of +confiscated wealth which poured into the hands of the King's agents +and squires was a torrent almost impossible to control; Henry VIII. +was glad enough to be able to retain, even for a year or two, one half +of the spoils. + +We know, for instance, that the family of Howard (which was then +already of more than a century's standing) took everything they could +lay their hands on in the particular case of Bridlington--pyxes, +chalices, crucifixes, patens, reliquaries, vestments, shrines, every +saleable or meltable thing, and the cattle and pigs into the bargain, +and never dreamt of giving account to the King. + +With Cromwell, the embezzlement was more systematic: it was a method +of keeping accounts. But our interest lies in the fact that the +process was accompanied by that curious fidelity to all with whom he +was personally connected, which forms so interesting a feature in the +sardonic character of this adventurer. It is here that we touch again +upon the family of Morgan ap William, the public-house keeper of +Putney. + +When Cromwell was at the height of his power he lifted out from the +obscurity of his native kennel a certain Richard Williams, calling him +now "cousin" and now "nephew." We may take it that the boy was a +nephew, and that the word "cousin" was used only in the sense of +general relationship which attached to it at that time. If Cromwell +had been a man of a trifle more distinction, or of tolerable honesty, +we might even be certain that this young fellow was the legitimate son +of his sister Katherine, and, indeed, it is much the more probable +conclusion at which we should arrive to-day. But Cromwell himself +obscured the matter by alluding to his relative as "Williams (alias +Cromwell)," and there must necessarily remain a suspicion as to the +birth and real status of his dependant. + +In 1538 this young Richard Williams got two foundations handed over to +him--both in Huntingdon, and together amounting in value to about L500 +a year. + +We have seen on an earlier page how extremely difficult or impossible +it is to estimate exactly in modern money the figures of the +Dissolution. We have agreed that to multiply by twenty for a maximum +is permissible, but that even then we shall not have anything like the +true relation of any particular income to the general standard of +wealth in a time when England was so much smaller than our England of +to-day, and in an England where wealth had been until that moment so +well divided, and especially in an England where the objects both of +luxury and expenditure were so utterly different to our own: where all +textile fabric was, for instance, so much dearer in proportion to food +than it is now, and where yet a man could earn in a few weeks' labour +what would with us be capital enough to stock a small farm. + +It is safe to say, however, that when Cromwell had got his young +relation--whatever that relationship was--into possession of the two +foundations in Huntingdon, he had set him up as a considerable local +gentleman, and whether it was the inheritance of the Cromwell blood +through his mother, or something equally unpleasant in the heredity of +his father, Morgan, young Williams ("alias Cromwell") did not stick +there. + +Early in 1540 he swallowed bodily the enormous revenues of Ramsey +Abbey. + +Now to appreciate what that meant we must return to the case we have +already established in the case of Westminster. Westminster almost +alone of the great foundations remains with a certain splendour +attached to it; we cannot, indeed, see all the dependencies as they +used to stand to the south of the great Abbey. We cannot see the +lively and populous community dependent upon it; still less can we +appreciate what a figure it must have cut in the days when London was +but a large country town, and when this walled monastic community +stood in its full grandeur surrounded by its gardens and farms. But +still, the object lesson afforded by the Abbey yet remains visible to +us. We can see it as it was, and we know that its income must have +represented in the England at that time infinitely more in outward +effect than do to-day the largest private incomes of our English +gentry: a Solomon Joel, for instance, or a Rothschild, does not occupy +so great a place in modern England as did Westminster, at the close of +the Middle Ages, in the very different England of its time. + +Well, Ramsey was the equivalent of half Westminster, and young +Williams swallowed it whole. He was not given it outright, but the +price at which he bought it is significant of the way in which the +monastic lands were distributed, and in which incidentally the +squirearchy of England was founded. He bought it for less than three +years' purchase. Where he got the money, or indeed whether he paid +ready money at all, we do not know. If he did furnish the sum down we +may suspect that he borrowed it from his uncle, and we may hope that +that genial financier charged but a low rate of interest to one whom +he had so signally favoured. + +Contemporaneously with this vast accession of fortune, which made +Williams the principal man in the county, Cromwell, now Earl of Essex, +fell from favour, and was executed. The barony was revived for his son +five months after his death and was not extinguished until the first +years of the eighteenth century, but with this, the direct lineage of +the King's Vicar-General, we are not concerned: our business is with +the family of Williams. + +Young Williams did not imitate his protector in showing any startling +fidelity to the fallen. He became a courtier, was permanently in +favour with the King and with the King's son, and died established in +the great territorial position which he had come into by so singular +an accident. + +His son, Henry, maintained that position, and possibly increased it. +He was four times High Sheriff of the two counties; he received +Elizabeth, his sovereign and patroness, at his seat at Hinchinbrooke +(one of the convents), and in general he played the role with which we +are so tediously familiar in the case of the new and monstrous +fortunes of our own times. + +He was in Parliament also for the Queen, and it was his brother who +moved the resolution of thanks to Elizabeth for the beheading of Mary +Queen of Scots. + +He died in 1603, and even to his death the alias was maintained. +"Williams (alias Cromwell)" was the legal signature which guaranteed +the validity of purchases and sales, while to the outer world CROMWELL +(alias Williams) was the formula by which the family gently thrust +itself into the tradition of another and more genteel name. The whole +thing was done, like everything else this family ever did, by a +mixture of trickery and patience; he obtained no special leave from +Chancery as the law required; he simply used the "Williams" in public +less and less and the "Cromwell" more and more. When he died, his sons +after him, Robert and Oliver, had forgotten the Williams +altogether--in public--and in the case of such powerful men it was +convenient for the neighhours to forget the lineage also; so with the +end of the sixteenth century these Williams have become Cromwells, +_pur et simple_, and Cromwells they remain. But still the old caution +clings to them where the law, and especially where money, is +concerned; even Robert's son, who grew to be the Lord Protector, signs +_Williams_ when it is a case of securing his wife's dowry. Of Robert +and Oliver, sons of Henry, and grandsons of the original Richard, +Oliver, the elder, inherited, of course, the main wealth of the +family, but Robert also was portioned, and as was invariably the case +with the Williams' (alias Cromwell), the portion took the form of +monastic lands. + +Many more estates of the Church had come into the hands of this highly +accretive family in the half century that had passed since the +destruction of the monasteries. [Thus at the very end of the century +we find Oliver telling the abbey land of Stratton to a haberdasher in +London for L3000.] + +The portion of this younger brother, Robert, consisted of religious +estates in the town of Huntingdon itself, and it is highly +characteristic of the whole tribe that the very house in which the +Lord Protector was born was monastic, and had been, before the +Dissolution, a hospital dedicated to the use of the poor. For the Lord +Protector was the son of this Robert, who by a sort of atavism had +added to the ample income derived from monastic spoil the profits of a +brewery. It was Mrs Cromwell who looked after the brewery, and some +appreciable part of the family revenues were derived from it when, in +1617, her husband died, leaving young Oliver, the future Lord +Protector, an only son of eighteen, upon her hands. + +The quarrels between young Oliver and old Oliver (the absurdly wealthy +head of the family) would furnish material for several diverting +pages, but they do not concern this, which is itself but a digression +from the general subject of my book. + +The object of that digression has been to trace the growth of but one +great territorial family, from the gutter to affluence in the course +of less than 100 years; to show how plain "Williams" gradually and +secretly became "Cromwell"--because the new name had about it a +flavour of nobility, however parvenu; to show how the whole of their +vast revenues depended upon, and was born from, the destruction of +monastic system, and to show by the example of one Thames-side family +how rapidly and from what sources was derived that economic power of +the squires which, when it came to the issue of arms, utterly +destroyed what was left of the national monarchy. + +The new _regime_ had, however, other features about it which must not +be forgotten. For instance, in this growth of a new territorial body +upon the ruins of the monastic orders, in this sudden and portentous +increase of the wealth and power of the squires of England, the +mutability of the new system is perhaps as striking as any other of +its characteristics. + +Manors or portions of manors which had been steadily fixed in the +possession and customs of these undying corporations for centuries +pass rapidly from hand to hand, and though there is sometimes a lull +in the process the uprooting reoccurs after each lull, as though +continuity and a strong tradition, which are necessarily attached for +good or for evil to a free peasantry, were as necessarily disregarded +by a landed plutocracy. There is not, perhaps, in all Europe a similar +complete carelessness for the traditions of the soil and for the +attachment of a family to an ancestral piece of land as is to be found +among these few thousand squires. The system remains, but the +individual families, the particular lineages, appear without +astonishment and are destroyed almost without regret. Aliens, +Orientals and worse, enter the ruling class, and are received without +surprise; names that recall the Elizabethans go out, and are not +mourned. + +We are accustomed to-day, when we see some village estate in our own +country pass from an impoverished gentleman to some South African Jew, +to speak of the passing of an old world and of its replacement by a +new and a worse one. But an examination of the records which follow +the Dissolution of the monasteries may temper our sorrow. The wound +that was dealt in the sixteenth century to our general national +traditions affected the love of the land as profoundly as it did +religion, and the apparent antiquity which the trees, the stones, and +a certain spurious social feeling lend to these country houses is +wholly external. + +Among the riparian manors of the Thames the fate of Bisham is very +characteristic of the general fate of monastic land. It was +surrendered, among other smaller monasteries, in 1536, though it +enjoyed an income corresponding to about L6000 a year of our money, +and of course very much more than L6000 a year in our modern way of +looking at incomes. It was thus a wealthy place, and how it came to be +included in the smaller monasteries is not quite clear. At any rate it +was restored immediately after. The monks of Chertsey were housed in +it, as we have already seen, and the revenues of several of the +smaller dissolved houses were added to it; so that it was at the +moment of its refoundation about three times as wealthy as it had been +before. The prior who had surrendered in 1536, one Barlow, was made +Bishop of St Asaphs, and in turn of St. Davids, Bath and Wells, and +Chichester; he is that famous Barlow who took the opportunity of the +Reformation to marry, and whose five daughters all in turn married the +Protestant bishops of the new Church of England. But this is by the +way. The fate of the land is what is interesting. From Anne of Cleves, +whose portion it had been, and to whom the Government of the great +nobles under Edward VI. confirmed it after Henry VIII.'s death, it +passed, upon her surrendering it in 1552, to a certain Sir Philip +Hoby. He had been of the Privy Council of Henry VIII. Upon his death +it passed to his nephew, Edward Hoby; Edward was a Parliamentarian +under Elizabeth, wrote on Divinity, and left an illegitimate son, +Peregrine, to whom he bequeathed Bisham upon his death in 1617. It +need hardly be said that before 100 years were over the son was +already legitimatised in the county traditions; his son, Edward, was +created Baron just after the Restoration, in 1666. The succession was +kept up for just 100 years more, when the last male heir of the family +died in 1766. He was not only a baron but a parson as well, and on his +death the estate went to relatives by the name of Mill, or, as we +might imagine, "Hoby" Mill. It did not long remain with them. They +died out in 1780 and the Van Sittarts bought it of the widow. + +Consider Chertsey, from which Bisham sprang. The utter dispersion of +the whole tradition of Chertsey is more violent than that perhaps of +any other historical site in England. The Crown maintained, as we have +seen to be the case elsewhere, its nominal hold upon the foundations +of the abbey and of what was left of the buildings, though that hold +was only nominal, and it maintained such a position until 1610--that +is, for a full lifetime after the community was dispersed. But the +tradition created by FitzWilliam continued, and the Crown was ready to +sell at that date, to a certain Dr. Hammond. The perpetual mobility +which seems inseparable from spoils of this kind attaches +thenceforward to the unfortunate place. The Hammonds sell after the +Restoration to Sir Nicholas Carew, and before the end of the +seventeenth century the Carews pass it on to the Orbys, and the Orbys +pass it on to the Waytes. The Waytes sell it to a brewer of London, +one Hinde. So far, contemptuous as has been the treatment of this +great national centre, it had at least remained intact. With Hinde's +son even that dignity deserted it. He found it advisable to distribute +the land in parcels as a speculation; the actual emplacement of the +building went to a certain Harwell, an East Indian, in 1753, and his +son left it by will to a private soldier called Fuller, who was +suspected of being his illegitimate brother. Fuller, as might be +expected, saw nothing but an opportunity of making money. He redivided +what was left intact of the old estate, and sold that again by lots in +1809; a stockbroker bought the remaining materials of a house whose +roots struck back to the very footings of our country, sold them for +what they were worth--and there was the end of Chertsey. + +Then there is also Radley: which begins as an exception, but fails. It +was a manor of Abingdon, and after the Dissolution it fell a prey to +that one of the Seymours who proved too dirty and too much even for +his brother and was put to death in 1549. It passed for the moment, as +we have seen several of these riverside manors do, into the hands of +Mary. But upon her death Elizabeth bestowed it upon a certain +Stonehouse, and the Stonehouses did come uncommonly near to founding a +family that should endure. Nor can their tradition be said to have +disappeared when the name changed and the manor passed to the nephew +of the last Stonehouse, by name Bowyer. But Bowyer did not retain it. +He gradually ruined himself: and it is amusing at this distance of +time to learn that the cause of his ruin was the idea that coal +underlay his property. Everyone knows what Radley since became: it was +purchased by an enthusiast, and is now a school springing from his +foundation. + +Or consider the two Hinkseys opposite Oxford, both portions of +Abingdon manors; they are granted in the general loot to two worthies +bearing the names of Owen and Bridges: a doctor. + +These were probably no more than vulgar speculators upon a +premium--"Stags," as we should say to-day--for a few years afterwards +we find a Williams in possession of one of the Hinkseys; he is +followed by the Perrots, and only quite late, and by purchase, do we +come to the somewhat more dignified name of Harcourt. The other +Hinksey, after still more varied adventures, ends up in the hands of +the Berties, obscure south-country people who date from a rich +Protestant marriage of the time. + +Cholsey, again, with its immemorial traditions of unchanging +ecclesiastical custom, receiving its priests in Saxon times from the +Mont St. Michel upon the marches of Brittany, and later holding as a +manor from the Abbot of Reading, remains with the Crown but a very few +years. In 1555 Mary handed it over to that Sir Robert Englefield who +was promptly attainted by her successor. It gets in the hands of the +Knowleses, then of the Rich's, and ends up with the family of +Edwardes-seventeenth-century Welshmen, who, by a plan of wealthy +marriages, became gentlemen, and have now for 100 years and more been +peers, under the title of Kensington. + +The mention of Sir Robert Englefield leads one to what is perhaps the +best example in the whole Thames Valley of this perpetual chop and +change in the holding of English land; that example is to be +discovered at Pangbourne. + +Pangbourne also was monastic; and the manor held, as did Cholsey, of +Reading Abbey. In the race for the spoils Dudley clutched it in 1550. +When he was beheaded, three years later, and it passed again to the +Crown, Mary handed it (as she had handed Cholsey) to Sir Robert +Englefield. His attainder followed. Within ten years it changes hands +again. Elizabeth in 1563 gave it to her cofferer, a Mr Weldon. This +personage struck no root, nor his son after him, for in 1613, while +still some were alive who could remember the old custom and immemorial +monastic lordship of the place, Weldon the younger sold it to a +certain Davis. + +Davis, one would hope--in that seventeenth century which was so +essentially the century of the squires, and in that generation also +wherein the squires wiped out what was left of the Crown and left the +King a salaried dependant of the governing class--Davis might surely +have attempted to found a family and to achieve some sort of dignity +of tradition. He probably made no such an attempt, but if he did he +failed; for only half-a-century later the unfortunate place changes +hands again, and the Davises sell it to the Breedons. + +The Breedons showed greater stability. They are actually associated +with Pangbourne for over a century, but even this experiment in +lineage broke down, through the extinction of the direct line. In +1776, by a sham continuity consonant to the whole recent story of +English land, it passes to yet another family on the condition of +their assuming the name of Breedon--which was not their own. + +All up and down England, and especially in this Thames Valley, which +is in all its phases so typical and symbolical of the rest of the +country, this stir and change of tenure is to be found, originating +with the sharp changes of 1540, and continuing to our own day. + +Anywhere along this Berkshire shore of the Thames the process may be +traced; even the poor little ruined nunnery of Ankerwike shows it. The +site of that quiet and forgotten community was seized under Edward VI. +by Smith the courtier. Then you find it in the pockets of the Salters, +after them of the Lysons. The Lysons sell it to the Lees, and finally +it passes by marriage to the Harcourts. + +The number of such examples that could be taken in the Valley of the +Thames alone would be far too cumbersome for these pages. One can +close the list with Sonning. + +Sonning, which had been very possibly the see of an early bishopric, +and which was certainly a country house of the Bishop of Salisbury, +did not pass from ecclesiastical hands by a theft, but it was none the +less doomed to the same mutability as the rest. In 1574 it was +exchanged with the Crown for lands in Dorset. The Crown kept it for an +unusually long time, considering the way in which land slipped on +every side from the control of the National Government at this period. +It is still royal under Charles I., but it passes in 1628 to Halstead +and Chamberlain. In little more than twenty years it is in the hands +of the family of Rich. Then there is a lull, just as there was in the +case of Pangbourne, and a continuity that lasts throughout the +eighteenth century. But just as a tradition began to form it was +broken, and in the first years of the nineteenth century Sonning is +sold to the Palmers. + +Parallel to the rise of the squires and their capture of English +government has gone the development of the English town system. And +this, the last historical phase with which we shall deal in these +pages, is also very well and typically illustrated in the history of +the Thames Valley. That valley contains London, which is, of course, +not only far the largest but in its way the fullest example of what is +peculiarly English in the development of town life; and it contains, +in the modern rise of Oxford and Reading, two of the very best +instances to show how the English town in its modern aspect has sprung +from the industrial system and from the introduction of railways. For +neither has any natural facilities for production, and the growth of +each in the nineteenth century has been wholly artificial. + +The most recent change of all, with which these notes will end, is, +one need hardly say, this industrial transformation. It has made a +completely new England, and it nourishes the only civilised population +in the world which is out of touch with arms, and with the physical +life and nature of the country it inhabits, and the only population in +which the vast majority are concerned with things of which they have +no actual experience, and feel most strongly upon matters dictated to +them at second or third hand by the proprietors of great journals. + +What that new England will become none of us can tell; we cannot even +tell whether the considerable problem of maintaining it as an +organised civilisation will or will not be solved. All the conditions +are so completely new, our whole machinery of government so thoroughly +presupposes a little aristocratic agricultural state, and our strong +attachment to form and ritual so hampers all attempts at +reorganisation, that the way in which we shall answer, if we do +answer, the question of this sphinx, cannot as yet even be guessed at. + +But long before the various historical causes at work had begun to +produce the great modern English town, long before the use of coal, +the development of the navy, and, above all, the active political +transformation of our rivals during the eighteenth century, had given +us that industrial supremacy which we have but recently lost, the +English town was a thing with characteristics of its own in Europe. + +In the first place, it was not municipal in the Roman sense. The sharp +distinction which the Roman Empire and the modern French Republic, +and, from the example of that republic, the whole of Western Europe, +establish between town and country, comes from the fact that European +thought, method of government, and the rest, were formed on the +Mediterranean: but the civilisation of the Mediterranean was one of +city states; the modern civilisation which has returned to Roman +traditions is, therefore, necessarily municipal. A man's first country +in antiquity was his town; he died for his town; he left his wealth to +his town; the word "civilisation," like the word "citizen," and like a +hundred words connected with the superiority of mankind, are drawn +from the word for a town. To be political, to possess a police, to +recognise boundaries--all this was to be a townsman, and the various +districts of the Empire took their proper names, at least, from the +names of their chief cities, as do to-day the French and the Italian +countrysides. + +Doubtless in Roman times the governing forces of Britain attempted a +similar system here. But it does not seem ever to have taken root in +the same way that it did beyond the Channel. The absence of a +municipal system in the fullest sense is one of the very few things +which differentiates the Roman Britain from the rest of the Empire, +others being a land frontier to the west, and the large survival of +aboriginal dialects. + +The Roman towns were not small, indeed Roman London was very large; +they were not ill connected with highroads; they were certainly +wealthy and full of commerce; but they gave their names to no +districts, and their municipal institutions have left but very faint +traces upon posterity. + +The barbarian invasions fell severely upon the Roman cities of +Britain, in some very rare cases they may have been actually +destroyed, but in the much more numerous cases where we may be +reasonably sure that municipal life continued without a break +throughout the incursions of the pirates, their decay was pitiful; and +when recorded history begins again, after a gap of two hundred years, +with the Roman missionaries of the sixth and seventh centuries, we +find thenceforward, and throughout the Saxon period, many of the towns +living the life of villages. + +The proportion that were walled was much smaller than was the case +upon the Continent, and even the most enduring emblem and the most +tenacious survival of the Roman Imperial system--namely, the Bishop +seated in the chief municipality of his district--was not universal to +English life. + +It is characteristic of Gregory the Great that he intended, or is +believed to have intended, Britain, when he had recivilised it, to be +set out upon a clear Latin model, with a Primate in the chief city and +suffragans in every other. But if he had such a plan (and it would +have been a typically Latin plan) he must have been thinking of a +Britain very different from that which his envoys actually found. When +the work was accomplished the little market town of Canterbury was the +seat of the Primate; the old traditions of York secured for it a +second archbishop, great London could not be passed over, but small +villages in some places, insignificant boroughs in others, were the +sites of cathedrals. Selsey, a rural manor or fishing hamlet, was the +episcopal centre of St. Wilfrid and his successors in their government +of Sussex; Dorchester, as we have seen, was the episcopal town, or +rather village, for something like half England. In the names of its +officers also and in the methods of their government the Anglo-Saxon +town was agricultural. + +With the advent of the Normans, as one might expect, municipal life to +some extent re-arose. But it still maintained its distinctively +English character throughout the Middle Ages. Contrast London or +Oxford, for instance, in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, +with contemporary Paris. In London and Oxford the wall is built once +for all, and when it is completed the town may grow into suburbs as +much as it likes, no new wall is built. In Paris, throughout its +history, as the town grows, the first concern of its Government is to +mark out new limits which shall sharply define it from the surrounding +country. Philip Augustus does it, a century and a half later Etienne +Marcel did it; through the seventeenth century, and the eighteenth, +the custom is continued: through the nineteenth also, and to-day new +and strict limits are about to be imposed on the expanded city. + +Again the metropolitan idea, which is consonant to, and the climax of, +a municipal system, is absent from the story of English towns. + +Until a good hundred years after the Conquest you cannot say where the +true capital of England is, and when you find it at last in London, +the King's Court is in a suburb outside the walls and the Parliament +of a century later yet meets at Westminster and not in the City. + +The English judges are not found fixed in local municipal centres, +they are itinerant. The later organisation of the Peace does not +depend upon the county towns; it is an organisation of rural squires; +and, most significant of all, no definite distinction can ever be +drawn between the English village and the English town neither in +spirit nor in legal definition. You have a town like Maidenhead, which +has a full local Government, and yet which has no mayor for centuries. +Conversely, a town having once had a mayor may dwindle down into a +village, and no one who respects English tradition bothers to +interfere with the anomaly. For instance, you may to-day in Orford +enjoy the hospitality, or incur the hostility, of a Mayor and +Corporation. + +On all these accounts the banks of the Thames, until quite the latest +part of our historical development, presented a line of settlements in +which it was often difficult to draw the distinction between the +village and the town. + +Consider also this characteristic of the English thing, that the +boroughs sending Members to Parliament first sent them quite haphazard +and then by prescription. + +Simon de Montfort gets just a few borough Members to his Parliament +because he knows they will be on his side; and right down to the +Tudors places are enfranchised--as, for example, certain Cornish +boroughs were--not because they are true towns but because they will +support the Government. Once returning Members, the place has a right +to return them, until the partial reform of 1832. It is a right like +the hereditary right of a peer, a quaint custom. It has no relation to +municipal feeling, for municipal feeling does not exist. Old Sarum may +lose every house, Gatton may retain but seven freeholders, yet each +solemnly returns its two Members to Parliament. + +From the first records that we possess until the beginning of the +nineteenth century, the line of the Thames was a string of large +villages and small towns, differing in size and wealth far less than +their descendants do to-day. In this arrangement, of course, the +valley was similar to all the rest of England, but perhaps the +prosperity of the larger villages and the frequency of the market +towns was more marked on the line of the Thames than in any other +countryside, from the permanent influx of wealth due to the royal +castles, the great monastic foundations, and the continual stream of +travel to and from London which bound the whole together. + +Cricklade, Lechlade, Oxford, Abingdon, Dorchester, Wallingford, +Reading, and Windsor--old Windsor, that is--were considerable places +from at least the period of the Danish invasions. They formed the +objective of armies, or the subject matter of treaties or important +changes. But the first standard of measure which we can apply is that +given us by the Norman Survey. + +How indecisive is that standard has already been said. We do not +accurately know what categories of wealth were registered in Domesday. +The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, barbaric in this as in most other matters, +would have it that the Survey was complete, and applied to all the +landed fortune of England. That, of course, is absurd. But we do have +a rough standard of comparison for rural manors, though it is a very +rough one. Though we cannot tell how much of the measurements and of +the numbers given are conventional and how much are real, though we do +not know whether the plough-lands referred to are real fields or +merely measures of capacity for production, though historians are +condemned to ceaseless guessing upon every term of the document, and +though the last orthodox guess is exploded every five or six +years--yet when we are told that one manor possessed so many ploughs +or paid upon so many hides, or had so many villein holdings while +another manor had but half or less in each category; and when we see +the dues, say three times as large in the first as in the second, then +we can say with certitude that the first was much more important than +the second; _how_ much more important we cannot say. We can, to repeat +an argument already advanced, affirm the inhabitants of any given +manor to be at the very least not less than five times the number of +holdings, and thus fix a _minimum_ everywhere. For instance, we can be +certain that William's rural England had not less than 2,000,000, +though we cannot say how much more they may not have been--3,000,000, +4,000,000, or 5,000,000. In agricultural life--that is, in the one +industry of the time--Domesday does afford a vague statement to the +rural conditions of England at the end of the eleventh century, and, +dark as it is, no other European nation possesses such a minute record +of its economic origins. + +But with the towns the case is different. There, except for the +minimum of population, we are quite at sea. We may presume that the +houses numbered are only the houses paying tax, or at least we may +presume this in some cases, but already the local customs of each town +were so highly differentiated that it is quite impossible to say with +certitude what the figures may mean. It is usual to take the taxable +value of the place to the Crown and to establish a comparison on that +basis, but it is perhaps wiser, though almost as inconclusive, to +consider each case, and all the elements of it separately, and to +attempt, by a co-ordination of the different factors given to arrive +at some sort of scale. + +Judged in this manner, Wallingford and Oxford are the early towns of +the Thames Valley which afford the best subjects for survey. + +Wallingford in Domesday counted, closes and cottages together, just +under 500 units of habitation. It is, of course, a matter of +conjecture how much population this would stand for. A minimum is +here, as elsewhere, easily established. We may presuppose that a +close, even of the largest kind, was but a private one; we may next +average the inhabitants of each house at five, which is about the +average of modern times, and so arrive at a population of 2500. But +this minimum of 2500 for the population of Wallingford at the time of +the Conquest is too artificial and too full of modern bias to be +received. Not even the strongest prejudice in favour of underrating +the wealth and population of early England, a prejudice which has for +it objects the emphasising of our modern perfection, would admit so +ludicrous a conclusion. But while we may be perfectly certain that the +population of Wallingford was far larger than this minimum, to obtain +a maximum is not so easy. We do not know, with absolute certainty, +whether the whole of the town has been enumerated in the Survey, +though we have a better ground for supposing it in this case than in +most others. Such numerous details are given of holdings which, though +situated in the town, counted in the property of local manors that we +are fairly safe in saying that we have here a more than commonly +complete survey. The very cottages are mentioned, as, for example, +"twenty-two cottages outside the wall," and their condition is +described in terms which, though not easy for us to understand, +clearly signify that they could be taken as paying the full tax. + +The real elements of uncertainty lie, first in the number of people +normally inhabiting one house at that time, and secondly, in the exact +meaning of the word "haga" or "close." + +As to the first point, we may take it that one household of five would +be the least, ten would be the most, to be present under the roof of +an isolated family; but we must remember that the Middle Ages +contained in their social system a conception of community which not +only appeared (and is still remembered) in connection with monastic +institutions, but which inspired the whole of military and civil life. +To put it briefly, a man at the time of the Conquest, and for +centuries later, would rather have lived as part of a community than +as an individual householder, and conversely, those indices of +importance and social position which we now estimate in furniture and +other forms of ostentation were then to be found in the number of +dependants surrounding the head of the house. A merchant, for example, +if he flourished, was the head of a very numerous community; every +parish church in a town represented a society of priests and of their +servants, and of course a garrison (such as Wallingford pre-eminently +possessed) meant a very large community indeed. We are usually safe, +at any rate in the towns, if we multiply the known number of tenements +by ten in order to arrive at the number of souls inhabiting the +borough. To give the Wallingford of the Conquest a minimum of 5000, if +we were certain that 500 (or, to speak exactly, 491) was the number of +single units of taxation within the borough, would be to set that +minimum quite low enough. + +The second difficulty is that of establishing the meaning of the word +"haga." In some cases it may represent one single large establishment. +But on the other hand we can point to six which between them covered a +whole acre, and no one with the least acquaintance of mediaeval +municipal topography, no one, for instance, who knows the history of +twelfth-century Paris, would allow one-sixth of an acre to a single +average house within the walls of a town. A close would have one or +more wells, it is true; some closes certainly would have gardens, but +the labour of fortification, and the privilege of market, were each of +them causes which forbade any great extension of open spaces, save in +the case of privileged or wealthy communities or individuals. + +From what we know of closes elsewhere, it is more probable that these +at Wallingford were the "cells" as it were of the borough organism. A +man would be granted in the first growth of the town a unit of land +with definitely established boundaries, which he would probably +enclose (the word "haga" refers to such an enclosure), and though at +first there might be only one house upon it, it would be to his +interest to multiply the tenements within this unit, which unit +rendered a regular, customary and unchanging due to its various +superiors, whatever the number of inhabitants it grew to contain. + +If we turn to a comparison based upon taxation we have equal +difficulties, though difficulties of a different sort. We saw in the +case of Old Windsor that a community of perhaps 1000, probably of +more, but at any rate something more like a large village than a town +(and one moreover not rated as a town), paid in dues the equivalent of +thirty loads of wheat. Wallingford paid the equivalent of only twenty +or twenty-two. But on the other hand the total Farm of the Borough, +the globular price at which the taxes could be reckoned upon to yield +a profit, was equivalent to no less than 400 such loads. + +Judged by the number of hagae we should have a Wallingford about five +times the size of Old Windsor. Judged by the taxable capacity we +should have an Old Wallingford of more than ten times the size of Old +Windsor. + +Here again a further element of complexity enters. It was quite out of +the spirit of the Middle Ages to estimate dues, whether to a feudal +superior or to the National Government, or even minor payments made to +a true proprietorial owner at the full capacity of the economic unit +concerned. All such payment was customary. Even where, in the later +Middle Ages, a man indubitably owned (in our modern sense of the word +"owned") a piece of freehold land, and let it (in our modern sense of +the word "let"), it would not have occurred to him or his tenant that +the very highest price obtainable for the productive capacity of the +land should be paid. The philosophy permeating the whole of society +compelled the owner and the tenant, even in this extreme case, to a +customary arrangement; for it was an arrangement intended to be +permanent, to allow for wide fluctuations of value, and therefore to +be necessarily a minimum. If this was the case in the later Middle +Ages where undoubted proprietary right was concerned, still more was +it the case in the early Middle Ages with the customary feudal dues; +these varied infinitely from place to place, rising in scale from +those of privileged communities wholly exempt to those of places such +as we believe Old Windsor to have been, which paid (and these were the +exceptions), not indeed every penny that they could pay (as they would +now have to pay a modern landlord), but half, or perhaps more than +half, such a rent. + +Where Wallingford stood in this scale it is quite impossible to say, +and we can only conclude with the very general statement that the +Wallingford of the Conquest consisted of certainly more than 5000 +souls, more probably of 10,000, and quite possibly of more than +10,000. + +Having taken Wallingford with its minute and valuable record as a sort +of unit, we can roughly compare it with other centres of populations +upon the river at the same date. + +Old Windsor we have already dealt with, and made it out from a fifth +to a tenth of Wallingford. Reading was apparently far smaller. Indeed +Reading is one of the puzzles of the early history of the Thames +Valley. We have already seen in discussing these strategical points +upon the river what advantages it had, and yet it appears only +sporadically in ancient history as a military post. The Danes hold it +on the first occasion on which we find the site recorded, in the +latter half of the ninth century: it has a castle during the anarchy +of the twelfth, but it is a castle which soon disappears. It +frequently plays a part in the Civil Wars of the seventeenth, but the +part it plays is only temporary. + +And Reading presents a similar puzzle on the civilian side. It is +situated at the junction of two waterways, one of which leads directly +from the Thames Valley to the West of England, yet it does not seem to +have been of a considerable civil importance until the establishment +of its monastery; and even then it is not a town of first-class size +or wealth, nor does it take up its present position until quite late +in the history of the country. + +At the time of the Domesday Survey it actually counts, in the number +of recorded enclosures at least, for less than a third of Old Windsor; +and we may take it, after making every allowance for possible +omissions or for some local custom which withdrew it from the taxing +power of the Crown, for little more than a village at that moment. + +The size of Oxford at the same period we have already touched upon, +but since, like every other inference founded upon Domesday, the +matter has become a subject of pretty violent discussion, it will +bear, perhaps, a repeated and more detailed examination at this place. + +Let us first remember that the latest prejudice from which our +historical school has suffered, and one which still clings to its more +orthodox section, was to belittle as far as possible the general +influence of European civilisation upon England; to exalt, for +example, the Celtic missionaries and their work at the expense of St +Augustine, to grope for shadowy political origins among the pirates of +the North Sea, to trace every possible etymology to a barbaric root, +and to make of Roman England and of early Medieval England--that is, +of the two Englands which were most fully in touch with the general +life of Europe--as small a thing as might be. + +In the light of this prejudice, which is the more bitter because it is +closely connected with religion and with the bitter theological +passions of our universities, we are always safe in taking the larger +as against the smaller modern estimates of wealth, of population and +of influence, where either of these civilisations is concerned, and, +conversely, we are always safe in taking at the lowest modern estimate +the numbers and effect of the barbaric element in our history. + +To return to the ground we have already briefly covered, and to +establish a comparison with Wallingford, the word "haga," which we saw +to be of such doubtful value in the case of Wallingford, is replaced +in Oxford by the word "mansio." The taxable units so enumerated are +just over 600, but of these much more than half are set down as +untaxable or imperfectly taxable under the epithets "Uasta," "Uastae." +What that epithet means we do not know. It may mean anything between +"out of repair," "excused from taxation because they do not come up to +our new standard of the way in which a house in a borough should be +kept up, and because we want to give them time to put themselves in +order," down to the popular acceptation of the word as meaning +"ruined," or even "destroyed." + +We know that at the close of the eleventh century, or indeed at any +time before the thirteenth, the small man who lived under his own roof +would live in a very low house, and that, space for space of ground +area, the cubical contents of these poor dwellings would be less than +those of modern slums. On the other hand, we know that the population +would live much more in the open air, slept much more huddled, and +also that a very considerable proportion--what proportion we cannot +say, but probably quite half of a Norman borough--was connected with +the huge communal institutions--military, ecclesiastical, and for that +matter mercantile, as well--which marked the period. We know that the +occupied space stood for very much what is now enclosed by the line of +the old walls, and we know that under modern conditions this space, in +spite of our great empty public buildings, our sparsely inhabited +wealthy houses, and our college gardens, can comfortably hold some +5000 people. We can say, therefore, at a guess, but only at a guess, +that the Oxford of the Conquest must have had some 3000 people in it +at the very least, and can hardly have had 10,000 at the most. These +are wide limits, but anyone who shall pretend to make them narrower is +imposing upon his readers with an appearance of positive knowledge +which is the charlatanism of the colleges, and pretends to exact +knowledge where he possesses nothing but the vague basis of +antiquarian conjecture. + +It is sufficiently clear (and the reading of any of our most positive +modern authorities upon Domesday will make it clearer) that no sort of +statistical exactitude can be arrived at for the population of the +boroughs in the early Middle Ages. But when we consider that Reading +is certainly underestimated, and when we consider the detail in which +we are informed of Old Windsor, Wallingford, and Oxford, with the +neglect of Abingdon, Lechlade, Cricklade, and Dorchester, one can +roughly say that the Thames above London possessed in Staines, +Windsor, Cookham, probably Henley, perhaps Bensington, Dorchester, +Eynsham, and possibly Buscot, large villages varying from some +hundreds in population to a little over 1000, not defended, not +reckoned as towns, and agricultural in character. To these we may add +Chertsey, Ealing, and a few others whose proximity to London makes it +difficult for us to judge except in the vaguest way their true +importance. + +In another category, possessing a different type of communal life, +already thinking of themselves as towns, we should have Cricklade, +Lechlade, Abingdon, and Kingston among the smaller, though probably +possessing a population not much larger than that of the larger +villages; while of considerable centres there were but three: Reading +the smallest, almost a town, but one upon which we have no true or +sufficient data; Wallingford the largest, with the population of a +flourishing county town in our own days, and Oxford, a place which, +though in worse repair, ran Wallingford close. + +Henley affords an interesting study. At the time of the Conquest, +Bensington was no longer, Henley not yet, a borough. To trace the +growth of Henley is especially engrossing, because it is one of the +very rare examples of a process which earlier generations of +historians, and notably the popular historians like Freeman and the +Rev. Mr Green, took to be a common feature in the story of this +island. They were wrong, of course, and they have been widely and +deservedly ridiculed for imagining that the greater part of our +English boroughs grew up since the barbarian invasions upon waste +places. On the contrary most of our towns grew up upon Roman and +pre-Roman foundations, and are continuous with the pre-historic past. +But Henley forms a very interesting exception. + +It was a hamlet which went with the manor of Bensington, and that +point alone is instructive, for it points to the insignificance of the +place. When the lords of Bensington went hunting up on Chiltern they +found on the far side of the hill, it may be presumed, a little +clearing near the river. This was all that Henley was, and it is +probable that even the church of the place was not built until quite +late in the Christian period; there is at any rate an old tradition +that Aldeburgh is the mother of Henley, and it is imagined by those +who wrote monographs upon the locality that this tradition points to +the church of Aldeburgh as the mother church of what was at first a +chapel upon the riverside. + +When we first hear of Henley it is already called a town, and the date +of this is the first year of King John, 1199. + +It must be remembered that the river had been developed and changed in +that first century of orderly government under the Normans. Indeed one +of the reforms which the aristocracy made much of in their revolt, and +which is granted in Magna Charta, is the destruction of the King's +weirs upon the Thames. But the weirs cannot have been permanently +destroyed; though the public rights over the river were curtailed by +Magna Charta, the system of regulation was founded and endured. It is +probably this improvement on the great highway which led to the growth +of Henley, and when Reading Minster had become the great thing it was +late in the twelfth century, Henley must have felt the effect, for it +would have afforded the nearest convenient stage down the river from +the new and wealthy settlement round the Cluniac Abbey. In the +thirteenth century--that is, in the first hundred years after the +earliest mention we have of the place--Henley became rapidly more and +more important. It seems to have afforded a convenient halting place +whenever progress was made up river, especially a royal progress from +Windsor. Edward I. stayed there constantly, and we possess a record of +three dates which are very significant of this kind of journey. In the +December of 1277 the King goes up river. On the sixteenth of the month +he slept at Windsor, on the seventeenth at Henley, the next day at +Abingdon; and in his son's time Henley has grown so much that it +counts as one of the three only boroughs in the whole of Oxfordshire: +Oxford and Woodstock are the two others. + +It was in the thirteenth century also that a bridge was thrown across +the river at this point--that is, Henley possessed a bridge long +before Wallingford, and at a time when the river could be crossed by +road in but very few places. The granting of a number of indulgences, +and the promises of masses in the middle of the thirteenth century for +this object, give us the date; and, what is perhaps equally +interesting, this early bridge was of stone. + +It is usual to think of the early bridges over the Thames as wooden +bridges. Aft older generation was accustomed to many that still +remained. This was true of the later Middle Ages, and of the torpor +and neglect in building which followed the Reformation. But it was not +true of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The bridge at Henley, +like the bridge of Wallingford and the later bridge of Abingdon, was +of stone. + +It was allowed to fall into decay, and when Leland crossed the river +at this point it was upon a wooden bridge, the piers of which stood +upon the old foundation. How long that wooden bridge had existed in +1533, when Leland noticed it, we cannot tell, but it remained of wood +until 1786, when the present bridge replaced it. + +In spite of the early importance of the town, it was not regularly +incorporated for a long time, but was governed by a Warden, the first +on the list being the date of 1305, within the reign of Edward I. The +charter which gave Henley a Mayor and Corporation was granted as late +as the reign of Henry VIII. and but a few years before Leland's visit. +From that moment, however, the town ceased to expand, either in +importance or in numbers; the destruction of Reading Abbey and of the +Cell of Westminster at Hurley just over the river, very possibly +affected its prosperity. At the beginning of the nineteenth century it +had a population of less than 3000, and sixty years later it had not +added another 1000 to that number. + +Maidenhead follows, for centuries, a sort of parallel course to the +development of Henley. + +Recently, of course, it has very largely increased in population, and +in this it is an example in a minor degree of what Reading and Oxford +are in a major degree--that is, of the changes which the railway has +made in the Thames Valley. But until the effect of the railway began +to be felt Maidenhead was the younger and parallel town to Henley. + +For example, though we cannot tell exactly when Maidenhead Bridge was +built, we may suppose it to have been some few years after Henley +Bridge. It already exists and is in need of repair in 1297. Henley +Bridge is founded more than a generation earlier than that. + +"Maidenhythe," as it was called, has been thought to have been before +the building of this bridge a long timber wharf upon the river, but +that is only a guess. There must have been some local accumulation of +wealth or of traffic or it would not have been chosen as a site for +the new bridge which was somewhat to divert the western road. + +Originally, so far as we can judge, the main stream of gravel crossed +the Thames at Cookham, and again at Henley. Why this double crossing +should have been necessary it is useless to conjecture unless one +hazards the guess that the quality of the soil in very early times +gave so much better going upon the high southern bank of the river +that it was worth while carrying the main road along the bank, even at +the expense of a double crossing of the stream. If that was the case +it is difficult to see how a town of the importance of Marlow could +have grown up upon the farther shore; that Marlow was important we +know from the fact that it had a Borough representation in Parliament +in the first years of that experiment before the close of the +thirteenth century. + +At any rate, whatever the reason was, whether from some pre-historic +conditions having brought the road across the peninsula at this point, +or, as is more likely, on account of some curious arrangement of +mediaeval privilege, it is fairly certain that, in the centuries before +the great development of the thirteenth, travel did come across the +river in front of Cookham, recross it in front of Henley, and so make +over the Chilterns to the great main bridge at Wallingford, which led +out to the Vale of the White Horse and the west country. + +The importance of Cookham in this section of the road is shown in +several ways. First the great market, in Domesday bringing in +customary dues to the King of twenty shillings--and what twenty +shillings means in Domesday in mere market dues one can appreciate by +considering that all the dues from Old Windsor only amounted to ten +pounds. Then again it was a royal manor which, unlike most of the +others, was never alienated; it was not even alienated during the ruin +and breakdown of the monarchy which followed the Dissolution of the +monastic orders. + +To this day traces remain of the road which joined this market to the +second crossing at Henley. + +We may presume that the importance of Cookham was maintained for some +two centuries after the Conquest, until it was outflanked and the +stream of its traffic diverted by the building of the bridge at +Maidenhead. + +Just as this bridge came later than the Bridge at Henley, so it was +inferior to it in structure; it was, as we have seen, of timber, but +such as it was, it was the cause of the growth of Maidenhead much more +than was the bridge at Henley the cause of the growth of Henley. The +first nucleus of municipal government grows up in connection with the +Bridge Guild; the Warden and the Bridge Masters remain the head of the +embryonic corporation throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries, and even when the town is incorporated (shortly before the +close of the seventeenth century), by James II., the maintenance and +guardianship of the wooden bridge remained one of the chief +occupations of the new corporation. + +It was just after the granting of the Charter that the army of William +III. marched across this bridge on its way to London, an episode which +shows how completely Maidenhead held the monopoly of the Western road. +The present stone bridge was not built to replace the old wooden one +until the last quarter of the eighteenth century, parallel in this as +in everything else to the example of Henley; and this position of +inferiority to Henley, and of parallel advance to that town, is +further seen in the statistics of population. In 1801, when Henley +already boasted nearly 2000 souls, Maidenhead counted almost exactly +half that number. The later growth of the place is quite modern. + +The antiquity of the crossing of the Thames at Cookham is supported by +a certain amount of pre-historic evidence, worth about as much as such +evidence ever is, and about as little. Two Neolithic flint knives have +been found there, a bronze dagger sheath and spear-head, a bronze +sword, and a whole collection or store of other bronze spear-heads. +Such as it is, it is a considerable collection for one spot. + +Cookham has not only these pre-historic remains; it has also fragments +of British pottery found in the relics of pile dwellings near the +river, and two Roman vases from the bed of the stream; it has further +furnished Anglo-Saxon remains, and, indeed, there are very few points +upon the river where so regular a continuity of the historic and the +pre-historic is to be discovered as in the neighbourhood of this old +ford. + +In was in the course of the Middle Ages, and after the Conquest, that +new Windsor rose to importance. It is not recognised as a borough +before the close of the thirteenth century; it is incorporated in the +fifteenth. + +Reading certainly increased considerably with the continual stream of +wealth that poured from the abbey; it possessed in practice a working +corporation before the Dissolution, was famous for its cloth long +before, and had become, in the process of years, an important town +that rivalled the great monastery which had developed it; indeed it is +probable that only the privileges, the conservatism, of the abbey +forbade it to be recognised and chartered before the Reformation. + +Abingdon also grew (but with less vigour), also had a manufactory of +cloth, though of a smaller kind, and was also worthy of incorporation +at the end of the Middle Ages. + +Staines cannot take its place with these, for in spite of its high +strategical value, of its old Roman tradition, of its proximity to +London and the rest, Staines was throughout the Middle Ages, and till +long after, rather a village than a town. Though a wealthy place it is +purely agricultural in the Domesday Survey, and the comparative +insignificance of the spot is perhaps explained by the absence of a +bridge. That absence is by no means certain. Staines after all was on +the great military highway leading from London westward, and it must +have been necessary for considerable forces to cross the river here +throughout the Dark Ages and the early Middle Ages, as did for +instance, at the very close of that period, the barons on their way to +Runnymede; and far earlier the army that marched hurriedly from London +to intercept the Danes in 1009, when the pagans were coming up the +river, and whether by the help of the tide or what not, managed to get +ahead of the intercepting force. But if a bridge existed so early as +the Conquest, we have no mention of it. The first allusion to a bridge +is in the granting of three oaks from Windsor for the repairing of it +in 1262. It may have existed long before that date, but it is +significant that in the Escheats of Edward III., and as late as the +twenty-fourth year of his reign--that is, after the middle of the +fourteenth century--it is mentioned that the bridge existed since the +reign of Henry III., which would convey the impression that in 1262 +the bridge had first needed repairing, being built, perhaps, in the +earlier years of the reign and completed, possibly, but a little after +the death of King John. + +This bridge of Staines was most unfortunate. It broke down again and +again. Even an experiment in stone at the end of the last century was +a failure, because the foundations did not go deep enough into the bed +of the river. An iron absurdity succeeded the stone, and luckily broke +down also, until at last, in the thirties of the nineteenth century, +the whole thing was rebuilt, 200 yards above the old traditional site. + +Staines is of interest in another way, because it marks one of those +boundaries between the maritime and the wholly inland part of a river +which is in so many of the English valleys associated with some +important crossing. The jurisdiction of the port of London over the +river extended as high as the little island just opposite the mouth of +the Colne. On this island can still be seen the square stone shaft +which is at least as old as the thirteenth century (though it stands +on more modern steps), and which marks this limit, as it does also the +shire mark between Middlesex and Buckingham. + +We have, after the Dissolution it is true, and when the financial +standing of most of these places had been struck a heavy blow, a +valuable estimate for many of them in the inquiry ordered by Pole in +1555. This estimate gives Abingdon less than 1500 of population, +Reading less than 3000, Windsor about 1000; and in general one may say +that with the sixteenth century, whether the population was +diminishing (as certainly contemporary witnesses believed), or whether +it had increased beyond the maximum which England had seen before the +Black Death, at any rate the relative importance of the various +centres of population had not very greatly changed during those long +five centuries of customary rule and of firm tradition. The towns and +villages which Shakespeare would have passed in a journey up the +river, though probably shrunk somewhat from what they had been in, let +us say, the days of Edward I. or of his grandson, when the Middle Ages +were in their full vigour and before the Black Death had ruined our +countrysides, were still a string of some such large villages and +small walled boroughs as his ancestry had seen for many hundred years, +disfigured only and changed by the scaffolded ruins here and there of +the great religious foundations. Windsor, Wallingford, Reading, +Abingdon, and even Oxford, were towns appearing to him much as +Lechlade to-day remains or Abingdon still. As for the riverside +villages their agricultural and native population was certainly larger +than that which they now possess; and in general the effect produced +upon such a journey was of a sort of even distribution of population +gradually increasing from the loneliness of the upper river to the +growing sites between Windsor and London, but in no part exaggerated; +larger everywhere in proportion to the importance of the stream, or of +agricultural or of strategical position, and forming together one +united countryside, bound together even in its architecture by the +common commerce of the river. + +The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries did little to disturb this +equilibrium or to destroy this even tradition. The opening up of the +waterways and the great improvement of the highroads, and the building +of bridges, and the expansion of wealth at the end of the eighteenth +century had indeed some considerable effect in increasing the +population of England as a whole, but the smaller country towns, in +the south at least, and in the Thames Valley, seem to have benefited +fairly equally from the general change. The new canals, entering at +Oxford and at Reading, gave a certain lead to both those centres, and +even the Severn Canal, entering at Lechlade, did a little for that +up-river town. The new fashion of the public schools (which had now +long been captured by the wealthier classes) also increased the +importance of Eton, and towards the close of the period the now +rapidly expanding capital had overfed the villages within reach of +London with a considerable accession of population. But it is +remarkable how evenly spread was even this industrial development. + +The twin towns of Abingdon and Reading, for instance, twin +monasteries, twin corporations, had for all these centuries preserved +their ratio of the up-country town and the larger centre that was the +neighbour of London and Windsor. In the beginning of the nineteenth +century, in spite of the general increase of population, that ratio +was still well preserved: it is about three to one. But the Railway +found one and left the other. + +The Railway came, and in our own generation that ratio began to change +out of all knowledge. It grows from four, five, six, to _seven_ to +one. After a short halt you have eight, nine and at last--after eighty +years--more than _ten_ to one. The last census (that of 1901) is still +more significant: Abingdon positively declines, and the last ratio is +_twelve_. + +It is through the Railway, and even then long after its first effect +might have been expected, that the Valley of the Thames, later than +any other wealthy district in England, loses, as all at last are +doomed to lose, its historic tradition, and suffers the social +revolution which has made modern England the unique and perilous thing +it is among the nations of the world. + + + + +INDEX + + +Abbots. See under separate monasteries. + +Aben, legend of, at Abingdon, 98. + +Abingdon, 9, 23, 37, 87, 88, 93, 97-99, 102, 139. + +Abingdon and Reading, change in ratio of population of, 198. + +Ad Pontes, Roman name of Staines, 33. + +Alfred, his boundary neglects the Thames, 34. + +Andersey Island, opposite Abingdon, 99. + +Ankerwike, nunnery of, 109, 168. + +Anne of Cleves obtains Bisham, 163. + +Barbarian invasions, 90, 91, 94, 95. + +Barlow, Prior of Bisham, becomes Bishop of St. Asaphs, 163. + +Barons give Tower to Archbishop in trust for Magna Charta, 84. + +Barwell obtains Chertsey, 165. + +Benedictine Order, 89-100. + +Bermondsey, Cluniac Abbey of, 104, 105. + +Berties obtain Hinksey, 166. + +Birinus receives Cynegil into the Church, 52. + +Bisham, dissolution of, 110, 163, 164. + +Blackcherry Fair, at Chertsey, 139. + +Bowyer obtains Radley, 165. + +Brackley, strategical importance of, 72. + +Breedons obtain Pangbourne, 167. + +Bridge, London, 17-21. + +Bridlington Priory, movables of, embezzled by Howards, 156. + +Britain, + conversion of, position of Dorchester in, 49; + first barbarian invasion of, 90, 91. + +Burford, early name of Abingdon Ford, 23. + +Burgundy, character of that province, 103. + +Burnham, nunnery of, mentioned, 109. + +Buscot, a royal manor in eleventh century, 28. + +Canal, Thames and Severn, building of, 15. + +Canterbury, Archbishop of, + holds Tower in pledge for Magna Charta, 84; + St. Thomas of (see St. Thomas). + +Canute at Oxford, 55. + +Carew obtains Chertsey, 164. + +Charterhouse, Sheen, 108. + +Chateau Gaillard compared to Windsor, 69. + +Chaucer's son custodian of Wallingford, 60. + +Chertsey, + foundation of, 96; + Abbey, sack of, 137; + fate of land of, 159-165. + +Cholsey, Priory of, 109, 166. + +Churn joins Thames at Cricklade, 39. + +Civil War, + destruction of Wallingford Castle under, 66; + of King and Parliament, 86-89. + +Cluny, 102, 103. + +Cobham, Manor of, twenty acres possessed by Chertsey in, 149. + +Commons, Dissolution House of, significant names in, 146, 147. + +Conquest, Norman, + See of Dorchester removed to Lincoln, 52, 102. + +Constantine, legend of, at Abingdon, 98. + +Conversion of Britain, position of Dorchester in, 49. + +Cookham, early importance of, 191-194. + +Cricklade, + importance of, 38-41; + small Priory of, 107; + ford at, 22. + +"Cromwell," Oliver. See Williams, his destruction of Wallingford + Castle, 61. + +Cromwell, or Smith of Putney, family of, 153-161. + +Crown, + loses its manors, 144; + British, might have led the modern period in Europe, 145-146; + cause of ruin of, weakness of Tudor character, 148. + +Culham, attempted fortification of bridge of, 87. + +Cumnor granted to Thomas Rowland, 139. + +Currency, 134. + +Cynegil, baptism of, at Dorchester, 50, 51. + +Danes at Oxford, 54, 55. + +Danish invasions destroy Chertsey, 97. + +Davis obtains Pangbourne, 167. + +Diocletian, his boundaries, 33; + legend of, at Abingdon, 98. + +Dissolution and destruction of monasteries, 110-152. + +Domesday Survey, + Oxford in, 56-58; + Survey, ambiguity of, 57; + indecision of, 176, 177. + +Dorchester, 33, 47-52, 107, 108. + +Dover, isolated defence of, 75. + +Drainage of swamps, monastic work in, 97, 98. + +Dudley obtains Pangbourne, 167. + +Durham, appearance of, before the Dissolution, compared to Reading, + 114. + +Duxford, ford at, 22. + +Ealing, tidal river passable at, 24. + +Eaton, meaning of place name, 31. + +Economic aspect of Dissolution, 115-137; + aspect of monastic system, 116-118; + of the rise of gentry, 143, 144. + +Edge Hill, battle of, 88. + +Edmund Ironside at Oxford, 55. + +Edward the Confessor, + manorial lord of Old Windsor, 70; + the Confessor rebuilds Westminster Abbey, 96. + +Edward I., + prisoner in youth at Wallingford, 60; + his march when a prince to the Tower from Windsor, 85. + +Edward II. leaves the Tower, 85. + +Edwardes obtains Cholsey, 166. + +Elizabeth restores purity of currency, 134. + +England, history of, dependent on river system, 1-3. + +Englefield, Sir Robert, + obtains Cholsey, 167; + obtains Pangbourne, 167. + +Essex occupies Abingdon, 87. + +Essex, earldom of, conferred on Thomas Cromwell, 158. + +Eynsham, 10; + monastery of, 107. + +Fawley, parish with special water front, 9. + +Fords, 22-34, 33, 99. + +Forest, Windsor, 70, 77, 78. + +Fortifications, + rareness of, along Thames, 47; + on Thames, examples of, 47; + theory of, 62, 63; + mediaeval, never urban, 66, + urban, Louvre an example of, 67. + +Fosse Way, 38, 44. + +Fuller obtains Chertsey, 165. + +Fyfield, example of parish with special water front, 10. + +Gentry, territorial, their origins before Reformation, 141-143; + See Oligarchy. + +Godstow, nunnery of, mentioned, 109. + +Goring, track of Icknield Way through, 42. + +Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, 83. + +Hammond obtains Chertsey, 164. + +Harold, his council at Oxford, 56. + +Henley, growth of, 187-190. + +Henry I. enlarges Windsor, 70. + +Henry II. at Wallingford, 37. + +Henry III., his misfortunes connected with the Tower, 83. + +Henry VI., + his childhood passed at Wallingford, 61; + buried at Chertsey, 97. + +Henry VIII. loses the spoils of the Dissolution, 145. + +Hinchinbrooke, seat of the Williamses, 159. + +Hind obtains Chertsey, 165. + +Hinkseys, fate of land of, 166. + +Hoby, Edward, son of Sir Philip Hoby, 163. + +Hoby, Sir Philip, + obtains Bisham, 163; + Peregrine, son of Sir Philip Hoby, 164. + +Horseferry Road, Westminster, 44. + +Howards, noble family of, embezzled property, 155. + +Huntingdon, two foundations in, given to Richard Williams, 156. + +Icknield Way, 38, 40-44. + +Islip, + birth of the Confessor there, 55; + a private manor of Queen Emma, 55. + +Jews in Tower, 85. + +Joel, Solomon, contrasted with gentry of the Dissolution, 158. + +John, King, 71-76. + +Kelmscott, loneliness of neighbourhood of, due to nature of soil, 7. + +Knowles obtain Cholsey, 166. + +Lanfranc colonises Bermondsey Abbey, 105. + +Lechlade, small Priory of, 107. + +Lincoln succeeds Dorchester as a see, 52. + +Little Marlow, nunnery of, mentioned, 109. + +Littlemore, example of parish with special water front, 10, 11. + +London, 65-68, 73, 86, 87, 89. + +Longchamps surrenders Tower, 84. + +Long Wittenham, ford at, 23. + +Lords, House of, utterly transformed by Dissolution of monasteries, + 151. + +Louis of France called in by barons, 75. + +Magna Charta, 29, 71-76, 84. + +Maidenhead, + probable origin of name, 32; + growth of, 190-194. + +Mandeville holds Tower, 83. + +Manors, + in monastic hands in Thames Valley, 124-126; + English, probably Roman in origin, certainly Saxon, 141, 142; + royal lapse of, 144; + mutability of ownership in, after Dissolution, 161-169. + +Matilda, fealty sworn to, at Windsor, 70. + +Medmenham, Priory of, 109. + +Mill, family of, succeeds Hobys at Bisham, 164. + +Monasteries, system of, 91-93. + +Monastic foundations on Thames, list of, 122, 123. + +Monastic possessions in Thames Valley, list of, 125-126. + +Monastic system, 108, 116, 117, 127, 148, 150. + +Montlhery, originally dominated Paris as Windsor London, 67. + +Mont St. Michel, connection with Cholsey, 166. + +Morgan, first known of the Williamses, 152. + +"Mota de Windsor," 70. + +Mortimer holds Wallingford, 60. + +Municipal system, + English, different from that of other countries, 170-175; + Roman, 171; + in Roman Britain, 172. + +Naseby, battle of, women massacred after, by Puritans, 88, 89. + +Norman Conquest, 52, 82, 93. + +Normandy, modern boundaries of, fixed by Diocletian, 33. + +Nuneham Morren, example of parish with special water front, 11. + +Observants at Richmond, 93. + +Ock, River, original marsh at mouth of, 8. + +Offa, Wallingford mentioned under, 37. + +Oilei builds Osney, 105. + +Old Windsor, 69, 70. + +Oligarchy rose on ruins of Catholicism, 140-152. + +Orby obtains Chertsey, 164. + +Osney, Abbey of, at Oxford, 105; + loot of, by Henry VIII., 106; + appearance of, before Dissolution, 112, 113. + +Owen obtains Hinksey, 166. + +Oxford, 22, 31, 53, 58, 86, 87, 106, 183-186. + +Oxford Street, Roman military road into London, 68. + +Pangbourne, ford at, 34; + held of Reading Abbey, 167; + fate of land of, 167. + +Paris, dominated by Montlhery as London by Windsor, 67; + an example of fortification following residence, 77. + +Parishes, shape of, 8, 11. + +Penda, his opposition to Christianity, 51. + +Peregrine Hoby, 164. + +Perrots obtain Hinksey, 166. + +Philiphaugh, battle of, massacre of women after, by Puritans, 89. + +Place names, + on the Thames, 30, 32, 33; + Celtic, rare in Thames Valley, 30; + Roman, disappeared in Thames Valley, 32. + +Pole, his estimate of population, 196. + +Population, + of Abingdon and Reading, typical of change in nineteenth century, + 198; + of Oxford in early times, 56, 57. + +Prices and values at time of Dissolution compared with modern, + 130-136. + +Priory of Medmenham, 109. + +Puritans, their massacre of the women after battle of Philiphaugh, 88, + 89. + +Radley, fate of land of, 165, 166. + +Ramsey Abbey, + given to Richard Williams, 157; + value of, 158. + +Reading, 64, 88, 103, 104, 113, 114, 129, 166, 167, 182. + +Reading and Abingdon, change in ratio of population of, typical of + nineteenth century, 198. + +Religious, numbers of, at time of suppression, 122, 123. + +Richard Williams or "Cromwell" born at Llanishen, 152. + +Riches obtained Cholsey, 166. + +Rivers, importance of, + in English history, 1-3; + as early highways, 5-8; + military value of, 46, 47. + +Roads, + original, of Britain, four in connection with Thames Valley, 37; + original in Thames Valley, 38. + +Rochester, Bishop of, builds Tower for the Conqueror, 83. + +Roman, + place names disappeared in Thames Valley, 34; + occupation of Britain, thoroughness of, 45, 46; + origins of Wallingford, 60; + work, none certain in Tower, 79; + origins of Tower discussed, 79, 81, 82; + origin of English manors probable, 141, 142; + fortification, urban, 66; + occupation of Windsor, 65; + municipal system, 171. + +Roman Britain, municipal system of, 172. + +Roman roads, 68. + +Rowland, Thomas, last Abbot of Abingdon, 139. + +Royal manors, lapse of, 144. + +Runnymede, + conjectured etymology of, 75; + meeting of barons and John at, 75. + +Rupert, Prince, attempts to recapture Abingdon, 87. + +St. Augustine begins the civilisation of England, 91. + +St. Frideswides receives new Protestant bishopric of Oxford, 106. + +Saxon Chronicle, first mention of Oxford in, 54. + +Saxon origin of first part of place names on Thames, 31; + of Oxford Castle, 54; + of English manors probable, 141, 142. + +Seymour, + obtains Chertsey, 165; + obtains Radley, 165. + +Sheen, monastery of, late foundation of, 108. + +Sinodun Hills, + fortification of, 48; + geological parallel to Windsor, 66. + +Sir Philip Hoby obtains Bisham, 163. + +Somerford Keynes, ford at, 22. + +Sonning, fate of land of, 168, 169. + +Squires, English, their origins and rise before Reformation, 140-143. + +Staines, 45, 68, 69, 74, 194, 196. + +Stephen, Civil Wars under, Tower besieged during, 83. + +Stonehouse obtains Radley, 165. + +Stow, in Lincolnshire, mother house at Eynsham, 106. + +Stratton, monastic lands of, sold by Oliver Williams, 161. + +Streatley, 33, 34, 48. + +Sweyn at Oxford, 55. + +Taxes a basis for calculation of prices, 133, 134. + +Tenant right under monastic system, 150. + +Thames, + surface soil of valley of, 7-9; + estuary of, unimportant in early history, 13; + probably a boundary under Diocletian, 33; + a boundary between counties, 34; + points at which it is crossed, 36, 37; + traffic upon, begins after entry of Churn at Cricklade, 39, 40; + absence of traces of Roman bridges on, 46; + military value of, 46, 47; + imaginary voyage down, before Dissolution, 111-115. + +Thames Valley, + in Civil Wars, 86-89; + affords William III. his approach to London, 89; + affords Charles I. his approach to London, 89; + economic importance of sites therein, produced by the monastic + system, 117-121; + railway of, draws its prosperity from beyond the valley, 121; + towns of, 169-190. + +Thomas Rowland, last Abbot of Abingdon, 150. + +Thorney, original site of Westminster Abbey, 95. + +Tower, the, + its importance in campaign in Magna Charta, 74, 78-86; + compared to Louvre, 79; + White, true Tower of London, 79, 82; + military misfortunes of, 83, 84; + Jews in, 85. + +Towns of Thames Valley, 160-199. + +Van Sittarts succeed Mills at Bisham, 164. + +Wages a basis for calculation of prices, 133, 134. + +Waite obtains Chertsey, 164. + +Wallingford, 22, 24, 37, 58-62, 75, 76, 177-182. + +Waste land, social and strategical importance of, in Europe, 75, 76. + +Water front, examples of parishes seeking, 8-11. + +Watling Street, 38; + place of crossing Thames by, 44; + identical with Edgware Road, 44. + +Weldon obtains Pangbourne, 167. + +Welsh land left to Chertsey, 97. + +Westminster Abbey, 63-97, 130, 137. + +Westminster, 95, 69, 93, 95, 96, 130. + +White Tower, 79, 82, 83. + +William the Conqueror, + crosses at Wallingford, 37; + his choice of Windsor Hill, 65; + exchanges Windsor with monks of Westminster, 69; + builds Tower of London, 82; + anointed at Westminster, 96. + +William Rufus completes Tower, 82. + +William III., his approach to London afforded by Thames Valley, 89. + +Williams obtains Hinksey, 166. + +Williams, family of, rise of, 152-162. + +Williams, Henry, son of Richard, his career, 159. + +Williams, Oliver, uncle of Protector, 160. + +Williams, Richard, + is given two monastic foundations by his uncle, 156; + gets the revenues of Ramsey Abbey, 157. + +Williams, Robert, grandson of Richard, father of the Protector, 160. + +Wimbledon, manorial rolls of, evidence of William's marriage in, 153. + +Windsor, 65-78, 85. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Historic Thames, by Hilaire Belloc + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORIC THAMES *** + +***** This file should be named 13046.txt or 13046.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/0/4/13046/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Project Manager; 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