30 THE DOVER ROAD 



insurgents, and drew their sympathies to himself, is 

 well known ; but the revocation of the charters of 

 emancipation was a piece of faithlessness Avhich 

 makes the inquirer doubtful of the sincerity in which 

 they were first granted, and the less inclined to blame 

 Wat the Tiler for his excesses. 



Thus tamely ended this, at one time, most formidable 

 rebellion. The south gateway of London Bridge 

 received its leader's head, ancl the lieges who fared 

 by that frowning archway, together with those others 

 who felt no loyalty, were invited to look upon the 

 head of a traitor. But some day Wat the Tiler of 

 Dartford will have his monument, and, truly, there 

 are few figures in our history that so well deserve 

 one, for he was one of the first to stir a hand for the 

 English people against the exactions of a largely alien 

 nobility. 



Blackheath Avitnessed no other Avarlike gathering 

 for the matter of seventy years ; but it was in the 

 meanwhile the scene of many peaceful displays. 



VIII 



And here (says Stowe) came, in 1415, the Lord 

 Mayor and Aldermen of London, with four hundred 

 citizens in scarlet, and with white and red hoods, to 

 receive Henry the Fifth on his return from the victories 

 in France, of which that of Agincourt was the greatest. 

 " The gates and streets of the City were garnished 

 and apparelled with precious cloths of arras, containing 

 the history, triumphs, and princely acts of the kings of 

 England, his progenitors, which was done to the end 

 that the king might understand what remembrance the 

 people would hand to their posterity of these his great 

 victories and triumphs. The conduits in the City ran 

 none other but goocl sweet wines, and that abundantly. 

 There were also made in the streets many towers and 

 stages, richly adorned, and on the height of them sat 



