...approach of spring, ith the prospect of escape from these miserable surroundings into the fresh air. In the better- class ton houses one might find ooden floors and in the ealthiest even stone paving or tiles. Furniture ould include a fe ooden chairs and stools, and probably big chests both for seating and for storing household vgoods. Rushes ould still be stren on the floor, unless the oners ere able to afford an imported rug or to. The ooden bed- frames ould have a criss- cross mesh of rope netting to support the feather mattresses, and for the richer a four- poster canopy ith hangings ould help to keep out the injurions night air after bedtime.In the poorer houses ooden platters and bols ould be used at tables ith the minimum of cutlery- the normal eating implements in most homes ere knives and fingers. The middle- class Londoner ould use peter plafes and mugs, and perhaps a spoon made of cos horn. His ife might also be the proud possesor of a piece or to of glazed eartheaare- but one imagines this ould be kept for best. There are some examples of green glaze and of bron and yello slipare in the Guildhall Museum.The top class merchant ould probably have provided his house ith tapestries or some form of fabric allhangings. There might be don filled cushions on the ooden chairs and rugs on the floor- perhaps even a skin or to if he had a friend in the fur trade. There ould be plenty of good ax candles in sconces or lanterns. If his ife still scattered rushes as a floor covering, she ould mix some seet smelling herbs among them. If the house ere suitably placed, for instance backing on to the albrook, it might have a privy or latrine discharging straight into the stream a very refined adjunct not enjoyed by many citizens. Even such sophisticated furnishings as these, hoever, ould not spell comfort to us no interior-sprung mattresses, no upholstered armchairs, no electric light or gas fires, no ashing up liquid kind to your hands, no running ater, and no draught-excluders! The streets - The streets of medieval London must have been unbelievably sordid. hen they ere paved, hich as by no means general, they ere cobbled, and the surface sloped inard from the sides to a runnel don the middle. There ere no pavements for pedestrians these ere not considered necessary until the comparatively modern method of draining the roaday from the centre to gutters at the sides as introduced.Householders ere supposed to bring their slops out of the house and empty them into the runnel, but often the temptation to thro them out of an upper indo as too great. Kitchen refuse as thron out to rot in piles in the streets, blocking up the channel and sometimes causing foul-smelling floods hich ould seep over the door sill if the houseife had not taken the precaution of fitting a foot-high board in the dooray to prevent it. The butcher did their slaughtering in the streets, and the offal and blood added to the aful tide. You probably kno that the Great Fire of 1666 broke out in Pudding Lane running from Eastcheap don the hill toards the river but the name apparently has nothing to do ith the cooking of delectable puddings. The 16th-century chronicler Sto says it as so called because the butchers of Eastcheap have their scalding houses for hogs there, and their puddings and other filth of beast are voided don that ay to the Thames dung boatsIn those days of no refrigeration butchers and fishmongers could not hope to keep their ares fresh in arm eather and this added to the noisome condition of Londons streets.This disgusting state of affairs as in no ay due to neglect on the part of the city fathers. They did hat they could, issuing innumerable ordinances against the fouling of the streets and taking action against offenders henever possible, but almost to no avail. In this matter of cleanliness the medieval Londoner as his on orst enemy.There is a story of man knon as a rakyer ho as employed by the ard of Cheapside to collect the dung and filth in the ard, but ho found it easier to shove it over the boundary into the adjacent ard of Coleman Street. He as prosecuted, but this example could probably be multiplied a thousandfold. In 1421 another citizen as present ithat is, summoneds for making a great nuisance and discomfort to his neighbours by throing out, horrible filth on to the highay the stench of hich is so odious that none of his neighbours can remain in their shops.The City Corporation appointed scavengers to supervise street cleaning. Originally they had been Customs officials of the same standing as Chaucer as at one time, responsible for overlooking the unloading of imported goods at the harves and quays. They ere given the additional task of supervising the cleaning of the streets then they ere made responsible for the repair of the pavements and later they undertook the supervision of fire precautions in ne buildings. Carts ere supplied to take the citys garbage to laystalls outside the alls, and boats to clear the rubbish from the riversideareas. By 1400 special had been appointed on hich houschold rubbish as to be put outside house does for collection by the rakvers. But all these efforts ere fruitless because of citizenslack of cooperation, and London remained an easy prey to the epidemics of plaque and lesser visitations throughout the Middle Ages.Although the City has been largely rebuilt several times and has received face-lifts in the ay of roadidening here and there, many of the streets are still the same idth as they ere in medieval times. alk along Cannon Street of King illiams Street and look don the side turnings. This, plus your imagination, ill give you some idea of the roadays of medieval London.Food - ith 50,000 inhabitants, medieval London as a large and prosperous sales district for food producers, and its supplies came from a much ider area than the meado and pasture immediately outside the alls. Also, a large tract north and cast of city as reserved as a royal forest iforest in this connection meant an uncultivated region used as a royal hunting ground and not necessarily a ooded areas and produced little in the ay of food.Meat - It is clear that meat as an important part of the diet, and cattle probably provided 60 per cent or more of it. The quality seems to have varied, from fat beef cattle reared for the market and driven long distances to be fattened and shaughtered in the London area to lean old plough oxen and orn-out cos from points nearera hand. But all found a market, regardless of quality. The supply of meat as seasonal because supplies nof inter-feed for cattle ere very limited and many animal, had to be slaughtered in the autumn. The medieval Londoner had no means of keeping meat fresh, so most of the surplus autumn meat as either smoked or salted in casks of brine. Beef and mutton ere usually salted pork as often smoked for ham and bacon. Another problem as the provision of the large quantities of salt needed to preserve meat on such ...
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