Life in a Mediæval City | Page 6

in towns generally from thus
corrupting and infecting the air is dated 1388. The many visits of
distinguished people and public processions always conferred an
incidental boon on the city, for one of the essentials of preparation was
giving the main streets a good cleaning. There is no wonder that
plagues perpetually harassed the people of mediæval times and reduced
the population miserably. The plague never disappeared till towns were
largely rebuilt on a more commodious scale in the next great building
era, which began in 1666 in London and in the early years of the
eighteenth century elsewhere. No advance was made in sanitation till
the Victorian Age, when town sanitation was completely revolutionised
and, for the first time, efficiently organised.
The house fire was of wood and peat, though coal was also used. For
artificial lighting oil-lamps (wicks in oil) and candles were used. A
light was obtained from flint and tinder, the latter being ignited by a
spark got from striking the flint with a piece of metal.
Rooms were furnished with chairs, tables, benches, chests, bedsteads,
and, in some cases, tub-shaped baths. Carpets were to be found only in
the houses of the very wealthy. The floors of ordinary houses, like
those of churches, were covered with rushes and straw, among which it
was the useful custom to scatter fragrant herbs. This rough carpet was
pressed by the clogs of working people and the shoes of the fashionable.
The spit was a much used cooking utensil. Table-cloths, knives, and
spoons were in general use, but not the fork before the fifteenth century.
At one time food was manipulated by the fingers. York was advanced
in table manners, for it is known that a fork was used in the house of a
citizen family here in 1443. The richer members of the middle class

owned a large number of silver tankards, goblets, mazer-bowls,
salt-cellars and similar utensils and ornaments of silver, for this was a
common form in which they held their wealth.
Beer, which was largely brewed at home, was the general beverage, but
French and other wines were plentiful. The water supply came from
wells, the water being drawn up by bucket and windlass, or from the
river when the wells were low. The drinking water of the
twentieth-century city is taken entirely from the River Ouse, but now
the water is carefully treated and purified before reaching the
consumer.
There were not many inns, as is shown in records by the number of
innholders, who formed a trade company. There were also wine-dealers.
Typical inn-signs were The Bull in Coney Street, and The Dragon.
There is no reason to believe that in this century there was a really large
amount of drinking and drunkenness, such as there was in the
eighteenth century. An ordinance of the Marshals of 1409--"No man of
the craft shall go to inns but if he is sent after, under pain of 4d."--may
be quoted.
The houses of the wealthy and the great lords were, of course, the better
furnished. They had walls adorned with tapestries and hung with arras
or hangings; occasionally their walls were panelled. Their furniture was
rich, well constructed, and carved by skilled craftsmen. Their mansions
were large, for they had to house, beside the owner's family and
personal household, retainers and dependents attached to his service in
diverse capacities.
Civic Buildings consisted chiefly of the halls connected with the trade
guilds. The rulers of the city and of the guilds were often the same men,
in any case usually men of the same set. These secular buildings were
really distinguished in appearance, but not monumental. They reflected
something of the wealth that accrued from trade. They were of good
size and proportions, built to be worthy of the practical use for which
they were intended. The lower stages were of stone, the upper for the
most part of wood and plaster (half-timbering). The structural
framework was composed of stout beams and posts of timber. The

timber roofs were covered with tiles. Examples may be seen in the
Merchants' Hall, Fossgate, and St. Anthony's Hall in Peaseholm Green.
The wooden roof of the Guild Hall, which was the Common Hall,
erected in the fifteenth century, is supported by wooden columns. The
walls of this hall and the entire basement are of stone.
Of Davy Hall, the King's administrative offices and prison for the
Royal Forest of Galtres, not a trace remains to show the kind of
buildings they were.
The Fortifications consisted of the Castle and the city Walls with their
gateways. The massive stone Keep of the Castle was on a high artificial
mound at the city end of the enclosed area occupied by the Castle.
Around this mound there was a moat, or deep, broad ditch