ight of learning
by means of libraries: almshouses for the poor: mercy and charity for
the prisoners: hospitals for the sick: help for the young: prayers for
the dead. These things he understood.

We cannot expect any man to be greatly in advance of his age. Otherwise
we should find a Whittington insisting upon cleanliness of streets:
fresh air in the house: burial outside the City: the abolition of the
long fasts which made people eat stinking fish and so gave them leprosy:
the education of the craftsmen in something besides their trade: the
establishment of a patrol by police: and the freedom of trade.

He did not found any school. That is a remarkable omission. One of his
successors, Sir William Sevenoke, founded a school for lads of his
native town Sevenoaks: another, Sir Robert Chichele, founded a school,
an almshouse, and a college in his native town of Higham Ferrers. A
friend of his own, Sir John Niel, proposed to establish four new grammar
schools in the City. And yet Whittington left no money for a school. We
may be quite sure that there was a reason for the omission. Perhaps he
was afraid of the growing spirit of doubt and inquiry. Boys who learn
grammar and rhetoric may grow into men who question and argue; and so,
easily and naturally, get bound to the stake and are consumed with the
pile of faggots. Everything was provided except a school for boys.
Libraries for men; but not a school for boys. The City of London School
was founded by Whittington's executor, John Carpenter. There must have
been reasons in Whittington's mind for omitting any endowment of
schools. What those reasons were I cannot even guess.

34. THE PALACES AND GREAT HOUSES.

When you think of a great city of the thirteenth or fourteenth century
you must remember two things. First, that the streets were mostly very
narrow--if you walk down Thames Street and note the streets running
north and south you will be able to understand how narrow the City
streets were. Second, that the great houses of the nobles and the rich
merchants stood in these narrow streets, shut in on all sides though
they often contained spacious courts and gardens. No attempt was made to
group the houses or to arrange them with any view to picturesque effect.

It has been the fashion to speak of mediaeval London as if it were a city
of hovels grouped together along dark and foul lanes. This was by no
means the case. On the contrary, it was a city of splendid pa