The British nation a history / by George MWrong . x towns. But they were tiny places; before 1300the largest borough in England, outside of London, con-tained only four or five thousand inhabitants. In the nar-row streets reigned indescribable filth and misery; manyof the houses were only of mud, with a roof of thatch andreeds, for the wealth and energy of England were in thisage spent, not in improving the towns, but in buildingcastles, cathedrals, and monasteries. Tanners, butchers,and mercers were the chief townsmen, and to this daythe upper classes in England do not dwell in the
The British nation a history / by George MWrong . x towns. But they were tiny places; before 1300the largest borough in England, outside of London, con-tained only four or five thousand inhabitants. In the nar-row streets reigned indescribable filth and misery; manyof the houses were only of mud, with a roof of thatch andreeds, for the wealth and energy of England were in thisage spent, not in improving the towns, but in buildingcastles, cathedrals, and monasteries. Tanners, butchers,and mercers were the chief townsmen, and to this daythe upper classes in England do not dwell in the mediaeval townsmen had but a humble share in the 148 THE BRITISH NATION life of the nation, and their momhers of Parliament were long looked down upon by those who sat for the counties. 15ut London was then, as now, a place apart. London already j^^ ^^^ ^^ England, merchants of London a place apart, » had ranked as barons. William the Con-queror found it a city of wooden houses liable to de-structive fires. His massive tower of London soon held. A Town Louis of France on his way tn chuivli in tliu early morning received thecontents of a hasin of dirty water tlirown out of a window by a of helns angry the liing rewarded tlie student for rising early tostudy. Note that some, if not all, of the windows liave no glass. the sometimes turbulent capital in check and its streetswere in time lined with stone edifices; its importance intrade and political life grew, and every great man soonfound it necessary to keep a London house. The Con-queror gave London a charter which assured to it priv-ileges and independence that no other place in Englandat the time possessed. In the life of the towns the guilds were the year loOO no less tlum one hundred and fifty CIVILIZATION IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 149 English towns had merchant guilds, with valuablo privi-leges conferred by the king. A merchant guild some- ^ „ .,, times controlled the trade of a w
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