frequent.

So much for a brief history of the parish. Its soil was from very early
times damp and marshy. To the south of the hospital was a stretch of
ground called Marshlands, probably at one time a pond. Great ditches and
fosses cut up the ground. The most important of these was Blemund's
Ditch, which divided the parish from that of Bloomsbury. This is
supposed to have been an ancient line of fortification. Besides this, a
ditch traversed the marshlands above mentioned, another encompassed the
croft lying by the north gate of the hospital, and there were several
others of less importance.

The Hospital of St. Giles was the earliest foundation of its kind in
London, if we except St. James's Hospital. Stow sums it up thus: "St.
Giles-in-the-Fields was an hospital for leprous people out of the City
of London and shire of Middlesex, founded by Matilde the Queen, wife to
Henry I., and suppressed by King Henry VIII." The date of foundation is
given by Leland and Malcolm as 1101, though Stow and others give 1117,
which was the year before the foundress died. Before this time this part
of London had apparently been included in the great estate of Rugmere,
which belonged to St. Paul's.

Matilda gave the ground, and endowed the hospital with the magnificent
sum of L3 per annum! Her foundation provided for forty lepers, one
chaplain, one clerk, and one servant. Henry II. confirmed all privileges
and gifts which had accrued to the hospital, and added to them himself.
Parton says, "His liberality ranks him as a second founder." During
succeeding reigns the hospital grew in wealth and importance. In Henry
III.'s reign Pope Alexander issued a confirmatory Bull, but the charity
had become a refuge for decayed hangers-on at Court who were not
lepers. This abuse was prohibited by the King's decree. In Edward III.'s
reign the first downward step was taken, for he made the hospital a cell
to Burton St. Lazar. The brethren apparently rebelled, refusing to admit
the visitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and destroying many
valuable documents and records belonging to the hospital. Two centuries
later King Henry VIII. desired the lands and possessions of St. Giles's,
and with him to desire was to acquire.

The hospital was thus shorn of the greater part of its wealth, retaining
only the church (not the manor) at Feltham (one of its earliest gifts),
the hospital estates at Edmonton, in the City of London, and in the
various parishe