while Elfsig, abbot of Peterborough, gave no less than five thousand pounds of silver for a headless body, which some knavish dealer had pronounced to be that of a distinguished saint.[1]
Taxation.
London specially favoured.
By the records of Domesday, nearly all the cities
and boroughs of England appear to have been, in the
reign of Edward the Confessor, the property of the
king, or of some noble to whom the inhabitants
looked for protection and paid a rent or borough-*mail.
London, Winchester, York, and Exeter alone
enjoyed exemptions from taxes imposed on other
cities of the kingdom. London was afterwards
especially favoured by the Conqueror, who, recognizing
the great importance of that city, endeavoured
to conciliate the goodwill of the inhabitants by a
charter, which not merely confirmed all the privileges
they had previously possessed, but enjoined that
"every child should be his father's heir after his
death." To William the City owes the jurisdiction
of the Thames,[2] the conservancy of which is even now
to some extent in its hands, the Lord Mayor being
still ex-officio chairman of the present board for that
purpose. The inhabitants, or burgesses of London,
also enjoyed the highly-prized privilege of hunting
in the extensive chases of Chiltern, Middlesex, and
Surrey, which, with the conservancy over the
Thames, was confirmed by subsequent charters, and
especially by that of Henry I.
It is clear that the taxes imposed on the seaport as
