with the cries of peascods, strawberries, cherries,
and the more costly articles of pepper, saffron, and spices, all hawked
about the streets. Having cleared his way through the press, and arrived
at Cheapside, he found a crowd much larger than he had as yet
encountered, and shopkeepers plying before their shops or booths,
offering velvet, silk, lawn, and Paris thread, and seizing him by the
hand that he might turn in and buy. At London-stone were the
linendrapers, equally clamorous and urgent; while the medley was
heightened by itinerant vendors crying "hot sheep's feet, mackerel," and
other such articles of food. Our Lickpenny now passed through Eastcheap,
which Shakespeare later on associates with a rich supply of sack and fat
capons, and there he found ribs of beef, pies, and pewter pots,
intermingled with harping, piping, and the old street carols of Julian
and Jenkin. At Cornhill, which at that time seems to have been a noted
place for the receivers of stolen goods, he saw his own hood, stolen at
Westminster, exposed for sale. After refreshing himself with a pint of
wine, for which he paid the taverner one penny, he hastened to
Billingsgate, where the watermen hailed him with their cry, "Hoo! go we
hence!" and charged him twopence for pulling him across the river.
Bewildered and oppressed, Master Lickpenny was delighted to pay the
heavy charge, and to make his escape from the din and confusion of the
great city, resolving never again to enter its portals or to have
anything to do with London litigation.

Then there was the active Church life of the city. During the mediaeval
period, ecclesiastical, social, and secular life were so blended
together that religion entered into all the customs of the people, and
could not be separated therefrom. In our chapter upon the City Companies
we have pointed out the strong religious basis of the Guilds. The same
spirit pervaded all the functions of the city. The Lord Mayor was
elected with solemn ecclesiastical functions. The holidays of the
citizens were the Church festivals and saints' days. In Fitzstephen's
time there were no less than one hundred and twenty-six parish churches,
besides thirteen great conventual churches. The bells of the churches
were continually sounding, their doors were ever open, and the market
women, hucksters, artizans, 'prentices, merchants, and their families
had continual resort to them for mass and prayer. Strict laws were in
force to prevent men