PART I.

The White Tower is the only building in modern London which belongs to
Norman London. Portions remain--fragments--a part of the church of St.
Bartholomew the Great, a part of the church of St. Ethelburga, the crypt
of Bow Church: very little else. All the rest has been destroyed by
time, by 'improvements,' or by fire, the greatest enemy to cities in
every country and every age. Thus, three great fires in the tenth and
eleventh century swept London from end to end. No need to ask if
anything remains of the Roman or the Saxon City. Not a vestige is
left--except the little fragment, known as the London Stone, now lying
behind iron bars in the wall of St. Swithin's Church. Churches, Palaces,
Monasteries, Castles--all perished in those three fires. The City, no
doubt, speedily sprang again from its ashes, but of its rebuilding on
each occasion we have no details at all.

Most fortunately, there exists a document priceless and unique, short as
it is and meagre in many of its details, which describes London as it
was in the reign of Henry II. It is written by one FitzStephen, Chaplain
to Thomas Becket. He was present at the murder of the Archbishop and
wrote his life, to which this account is an introduction.

[Illustration: A NORMAN SHIP.

(_From the Bayeux Tapestry._)]

He says, first of all, that the City contained thirteen larger
conventual churches and a hundred and twenty-six parish churches. He
writes only fifty years after the Great Fire, so that it is not likely
that new parishes had been erected. All the churches which had been
destroyed were rebuilt. Most of them were very small parishes, with,
doubtless, very small churches. We shall return presently to the
question of the churches.

[Illustration: BUILDING A CHURCH IN THE LATER STYLE.

(_From a drawing belonging to the Society of Antiquaries._)]

On the east was the White Tower which he calls the 'Palatine Castle:'
on the west there were two towers--there was the Tower called
Montfichet, where is now Blackfriars station, and Baynard's Castle,
close beside it. The walls of the City had seven double gates. The river
wall had by this time been taken down. Two miles from the City, on the
west, was the Royal Palace (Westminster), fortified with ramparts and
connected with the City by a populous suburb. Already, therefore, the
Strand and Charing Cross were settled. The gates were Aldgate,
Bishopsgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, Newgate, Ludgate, and t