LON 
ting great depredations wherever they went. Hereupon 
Alfred difpatched Ethelred, the governor of London, with 
a number of regular troops, which, being joined by a large 
body of the citizens, drove the ravaging Danes back to 
the caltle, to which they laid fiege, and took it and a 
very rich booty, at the fame time taking prifoners the 
wife and Tons of the Danifh general Hseften, whom they 
conducted to London. On this occafion the citizens 
diftinguifhed themfelves in fuch a manner as evinced at 
once their great courage and loyalty. 
This part of the hiltory of our celebrated metropolis 
being little known, on account of the caufes Hated be¬ 
fore, we have been more prolix perhaps than other publi¬ 
cations of the fame kind ; but, when we confider the in- 
tereft which every one feels for ancient records concerning 
the origin of places, and the events locally connected with 
them, we are fure to have acquitted ourfclves of a pleafing 
duty. 
About the year 886, it appears that Alfred, having 
completely expugnated the Danes, and forced them to re¬ 
treat, caufed many (hips to be built, and let them, and 
money alfo, out to merchants, who traded to the Eaft 
Indies, and brought from thence precious itones, Sec. fome 
of which remain ttill in the moft ancient crown wherewith 
Alfred and his fucceflors were wont to be crowned. But 
this traffic, faysRapin, could be no farther than the Levant; 
in which it is more than probable he judges right. Others 
fay, that thofe (hips failed to Alexandria, and from thence 
their people, palling over the Ilthmus, went down the Red 
Sea, to the coafts of Perfia, Sc c. and this opinion feems 
to be countenanced by what William of Malmfbury relates 
of Sighelm bifnop of Sherborn, who, being fent by Al¬ 
fred to Rome with prefents for the pope, afterwards tra¬ 
velled as far as the town of St. Thomas, in India, now 
called Meliapour, with gifts for the Chriltians there from 
that king, to whom he brought precious Hones and fpices ; 
fome of which remained in the,cathedral church of Sher¬ 
borne in Dorfetlhire at the time in-which he wrote. 
Thus in the reign of Alfred, London began to recover 
from its ruinous Hate. In 893, however, he had the mor¬ 
tification to fee his capital reduced to allies by an acci¬ 
dental fire, which, from the houfes being at that time 
built of wood, could not be extinguilhed ; but the walls, 
being conftrufted of incombuftible materials, withllood 
the deftrudlive element. In the fame year the Danes made 
another attempt upon London, by fending one divifion of 
their fleet up the Thames, while a defcent was made in 
Kent by another 5 but, Alfred having built veflels longer, 
and higher out of the water, than thofe of the Danes, fome 
of which had forty oars, and a kind of half-deck, they 
were difcomfited, and compelled to retire. 
At this time the city appears to have received for the 
firft time a form of government for the better protedtion 
of the citizens, and the execution of the focial laws, 
which, as the town increafed, it became more neceflary 
£0 enforce. According to feveral ancient chroniclers, 
Alfred inttituted the important office of ffieriff, or, as it 
■was called in the Saxon language, Jhire-rcive ; but there is 
no record remaining by which this faff can be afcertained 
with regard to the Iheriff of London. It was alfo about 
this period that the inhabitants, having confiderably fuf- 
fered by fire, on account of the combuftible materials of 
which their houfes were compofed, and being incited by 
the example of their king, Alfred, who had built feveral 
palaces of brick and Hone, began to admit thefe more fo- 
lid materials into the compofition of their manfions. 
King Ethelred, who began his reign in 979, and died 
in 1016, made laws, at Wantage, for the regulation of 
the cuftoms on (hips and merchandile, to be paid at 
Blynefgate, or Billingfgate, in the port of London, then 
the only quay. They were as follows-: 
“ 1. A final! veflel arriving there was to pay one half¬ 
penny for toll. 
z. If a greater one, bearing fails, one penny. 
Voi. XIII. No. S 3 S. 
DON. 57 
3. For a keele, or hulk, being a long and large capa¬ 
cious fort of a veflel, four pence. 
4. Out of a (hip laden with wood, one piece for toll. 
5. A boat with fiffi, one halfpenny ; and a bigger boat, 
one penny. 
6. Thofe of Rouen, in Normandy, that came with wine, 
or grampois, (large peafe,) and thofe of Flanders and Pon- 
thieu, and others from Normandy and France, were wont 
to open their wares, and free them from toll; (i. e. I fup- 
pofe, to pay toll.) Such traders as came from Liege and 
other places, travelling by land, opened their wares, and 
paid toll. The emperor’s men, (i. e. Germans of the 
Steel-yard,) coming with their ffiips, were accounted 
worthy of good laws, and might buy in their ffiips; but 
it was not lawful for them to foreltall the markets from 
the burghers of London. They were to pay toll, and, at 
Chriftmas, two grey cloths, and one brown one; with ten 
pounds of pepper, five pair of gloves, and two velfels of 
vinegar ; and as many at Eafter. 
7. Bread to pay toll thrice a-week, viz. Sunday, Tuef- 
day, and Thurfday. Each pannier with hens to pay one 
hen for toll. ' 
8 . Butter and cheefe traded in fourteen days before 
Chrifimas, one penny for toll, and another penny feven 
days after Chriltmas.” Howell's Hijl. of the World. 
As the German merchants of the Steel-yard in London 
were very early fettled there as a commercial fociety, it 
feems at lead probable, that the tolls here named to be 
paid by the emperor's men, as they are called, at the two 
molt folemn fefiivals, point that fociety out to us. For 
it muft be meant of perfons conftantly or ufually redding 
in London ; and there never was any other fociety of 
German merchants refident in London, but thofe of the 
Steel-yard fociety. Fitzftephen, a monk of Canterbury, 
who wrote in the time of king Stephen, fays, that mer¬ 
chants of all nations had, in his time, their diftinct quays 
and wharfs in London. The Dutch had the Steel-yard j 
the French, for their wines, the Vintry, See. 
In 982, the Danes laid fiege to London, and greatly 
damaged it, but could not make themfelves matters of it. 
There were at this time but few houfes within the walls 
of London, and thofe were fcattered about in a very irre¬ 
gular manner : the greater number of buildings being ta 
the weft of Ludgate. 
In the year 992, the Danes returned again to the coaft 
of England ; upon which king Ethelred, to hinder their 
landing, fitted out a very large fleet in the port of London, 
the command of which he gave to the ealdermen Thorod 
and Ealfric, and to the bifhops Eflftane and Efcurige. 
The Englifli fleet coming up with that of the Danes, the 
traitor Ealfric, on the evening of the intended engage¬ 
ment, deferted with his fhip to the enemy ; but, as fooa 
as this was known, a fignal was made to purfue, and the 
Englifli, coming up with the rear of the Danes, took one 
of their (hips ; and, a fquadron of the Londoners falling 
in with one of the enemy’s fquadrons, a defperate engage¬ 
ment enfued, in which ieveral thoufands loft their lives, 
and the treacherous Ealfric narrowly efcaped being taken. 
In the year 994, Anlaf and Sweyn, kings of Norway 
and Denmark, attacked London with a fleet of ninety- 
four (hips ; but the valiant citizens gave them fo warm a 
reception, that they were glad to rai(e the fiege; but, full 
of revenge for the lofs they had fuftained, they committed 
the moft dreadful outrages in Middlefex, Eflex, Suffex, 
Kent, and Hampfhire, murdering all that fell in their way, 
and burning their habitations to the ground. 
The Danes, in the year 1009, having made an incurfion 
as far as Oxford, burnt that city, and in their return 
committed the moft (hocking devaftations on each fide of 
the river Thames ; but, being informed that an army of 
Londoners was marching to attack them, thofe on the 
north fide of the Thames crofted over to Staines, and, both 
parties being united, they haltened through the county 
«f Surry to their (hips on the coaft of Kent; and, having 
Q refitted 
