Stranica 30 [30]
OCR
8 ORIGIN OF THE CITY special meaning in the older English or Anglo-Saxon tongue. Stukeley, a very ed e ff j Aldgate Kaldgafe, which in modern judicious antiquary in his day, wrote English is simply Oldgate. When, however, we look into the early documents which have of late years been revealed, the puzzle ceases to perplex any one who is willing to be undeceived. The difficulty, to my mind at least, was this: Aldgate cannot be Oldgate because we know it was opened only in the reign of Henry I, and must therefore be reckoned among the newer entrances of the city. But when we look into ancient documents we find that it is not spelled Ealdgate or Oldgate or Aldgate, but either Algate or Alegate—a gate that is open to all. The good canons of the Holy Trinity, who first made it, threw it open without toll to every one. Cripplegate, again, 1s a name over which conjecture has been very busy. Stow, for example—and he has been followed by nearly all subsequent writers — calls it "of cripples begging there." Cunningham apparently accepted this derivation in his famous //ana book (1849), and it occurs in
