heir hives."

William Fitzstephen, the biographer of Thomas a Becket, in his
_Description of London_, supposed to be written about the middle of the
reign of Henry II, says of this city, "ennobled by her men, graced by
her arms, and peopled by a multitude of inhabitants," that "in the wars
under King Stephen there went out to a muster of armed horsemen,
esteemed fit for war, twenty thousand, and of infantry, sixty thousand."
In general, the _Description of London_ appears trustworthy, and in some
instances is supported by other authorities. But this vast number of
fighting men must, unquestionably, be exaggerated: unless, as Lyttelton
conjectures, such a muster included the militia of Middlesex, Kent, and
other counties adjacent to London. Peter of Blois, in the reign of Henry
II, reckons the inhabitants of the city at forty thousand. That the
citizens were trained to warlike exercises, and that their manly sports
nurtured them in the hardihood of military habits, we may well conclude
from Fitzstephen's account of this community at a little later period
than that of which we are writing. To the north of the city were pasture
lands, with streams on whose banks the clack of many mills was pleasing
to the ear; and beyond was an immense forest, with densely wooded
thickets, where stags, fallow-deer, boars, and wild bulls had their
coverts. We have seen that in the charter of Henry I the citizens had
liberty to hunt through a very extensive district, and hawking was also
among their free recreations. Football was the favorite game; and the
boys of the schools, and the various guilds of craftsmen, had each their
ball. The elder citizens came on horseback to see these contests of the
young men. Every Sunday in Lent a company with lances and shields went
out to joust. In the Easter holidays they had river tournaments. During
the summer the youths exercised themselves in leaping, archery,
wrestling, stone-throwing, slinging javelins, and fighting with
bucklers. When the great marsh which washed the walls of the city on the
north was frozen over, sliding, sledging, and skating were the sports of
crowds. They had sham fights on the ice, and legs and arms were
sometimes broken. "But," says Fitzstephen, "youth is an age eager for
glory and desirous of victory, and so young men engage in counterfeit
battles, that they may conduct themselves more valiantly in real ones."
That universal love of hardy sports, which is one of the greatest