hin the last thirty years. That is to say, when one
entered at Lud Gate and passed through Paul's Churchyard, he found
himself in the broad street, the market place of the City, known as
Chepe. This continued to the place where the Royal Exchange now stands,
where it broke off into two branches, Cornhill and Lombard Street.
These respectively led into Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street,
which united again before Aldgate. Another leading thoroughfare crossed
the City from London Bridge to Bishopsgate, and another, Thames Street,
by far the most important, because here the merchant adventurers--those
who had ships and imported goods--met for the transaction of business.
The rough cobbled pavement of Thames Street was the Exchange of
Whittington and the merchants of his time, who all had their houses on
the rising ground, among the narrow lanes north of the street. You have
seen what splendid houses a London merchant loved to build. What kind of
house did the retailer and the craftsman occupy? It was of stone in the
lower parts, but the upper storey was generally of wood, and the roof
was too often thatched. The window was glazed in the upper part, but had
open work and shutter for the lower half: this half, with the door,
stood open during the greater part of the year. The lower room was the
living room, and sometimes the work room of the occupant. The upper
floor contained the bed rooms. There was but one fireplace in the
house--that in the living room. At the back of the house was generally a
small garden. But, besides these houses, there were courts dark, narrow,
noisome, where the huts were still 'wattle and daub,' that is, built
with posts, the sides filled in with branches or sticks and clay or mud,
the fire in the middle of the floor, the chimney overhead. And still, as
in Saxon times, the great danger to the City was from fire.

Men of the same trade still congregated together for convenience. When
all lived together the output would be regulated, prices maintained, and
wages agreed upon. Nothing was more hateful to the mediaeval trader than
forestalling and regrating. To forestall was to buy things before they
arrived at market with intent to sell at a higher price. To regrate was
to buy up in the market and sell again in the same market at an advanced
price. To undersell your neighbour was then also an unpardonable crime.
You discover, therefore, that trade in Plantagenet London was not like
trade in Victoria