ve been much better. Still, the
shops in Fleet Street were, no doubt, even in Edward II.'s reign, of
importance, for we find, in 1321, a Fleet Street bootmaker supplying the
luxurious king with "six pairs of boots, with tassels of silk and drops
of silver-gilt, the price of each pair being 5s." In Richard II.'s reign
it is especially mentioned that Wat Tyler's fierce Kentish men sacked
the Savoy church, part of the Temple, and destroyed two forges which had
been originally erected on each side of St. Dunstan's church by the
Knight Templars. The Priory of St. John of Jerusalem had paid a rent of
15s. for these forges, which same rent was given for more than a century
after their destruction.

The poet Chaucer is said to have beaten a saucy Franciscan friar in
Fleet Street, and to have been fined 2s. for the offence by the
Honourable Society of the Inner Temple; so Speight had heard from one
who had seen the entry in the records of the Inner Temple.

In King Henry IV.'s reign another crime disturbed Fleet Street. A Fleet
Street goldsmith was murdered by ruffians in the Strand, and his body
thrown under the Temple Stairs.

In 1440 (Henry VI.) a strange procession startled London citizens.
Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester, did penance through Fleet Street
for witchcraft practised against the king. She and certain priests and
necromancers had, it was said, melted a wax figure of young King Henry
before a slow fire, praying that as that figure melted his life might
melt also. Of the duchess's confederates, the Witch of Ely, was burned
at Smithfield, a canon of Westminster died in the Tower, and a third
culprit was hung, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn. The duchess was
brought from Westminster, and landed at the Temple Stairs, from whence,
with a tall wax taper in her hand, she walked bareheaded to St. Paul's,
where she offered at the high altar. Another day she did penance at
Christ Church, Aldgate; a third day at St. Michael's, Cornhill, the Lord
Mayor, sheriffs, and most of the Corporation following. She was then
banished to the Isle of Man, and her ghost they say still haunts Peel
Castle.

And now, in the long panorama of years, there rises in Fleet Street a
clash of swords and a clatter of bucklers. In 1441 (Henry VI.) the
general effervescence of the times spread beyond Ludgate, and there was
a great affray in Fleet Street between the hot-blooded youths of the
Inns of Court and the citizens, which lasted two days