The Sight Of Them, And Their Noise, Are Vastly
Agreeable To The Fleets That Meet Them In Their Course.
It is
joined to the city by a bridge of stone, wonderfully built; is never
increased by any rains, rising only with the tide, and is everywhere
spread with nets for taking salmon and shad.
Thus far Paulus
Jovius.
Polydore Vergil affirms that London has continued to be a royal
city, and the capital of the kingdom, crowded with its own
inhabitants and foreigners, abounding in riches, and famous for its
great trade, from the time of King Archeninus, or Erchenvinus. Here
the kings are crowned, and solemnly inaugurated, and the council of
the nation, or parliament, is held. The government of the city is
lodged, by ancient grant of the Kings of Britain, in twenty-four
aldermen - that is, seniors: these annually elect out of their own
body a mayor and two sheriffs, who determine causes according to
municipal laws. It has always had, as indeed Britain in general
has, a great number of men of learning, much distinguished for their
writings.
The walls are pierced with six gates, which, as they were rebuilt,
acquired new names. Two look westward:
1. Ludgate, the oldest, so called from King Lud, whose name is yet
to be seen, cut in the stone over the arch on the side; though
others imagine it rather to have been named Fludgate, from a stream
over which it stands, like the Porta Fluentana at Rome. It has been
lately repaired by Queen Elizabeth, whose statue is placed on the
opposite side.
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