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74 THE GROWTH OF THE CITY
national costume. [furniture was scarce; there were few beds. Straw
and rushes were on the floors, and the wealthy kept out draughts with
costly but coarse hang¬
ings. There can have
been no window-glass
in common use, and
but little even in the 7
churches. q
If we care to make
one more such excursion =
through old London, let 7
us choose a date well
on in the fifteenth cen¬
ie aap el 7 al tury, say two hundred
years later than 1266. Edward IV is on the throne, and Elizabeth, his
eldest daughter, afterwards the Queen of Henry VII, has just been born.
There is a temporary lull in the long Wars of the Roses, but in the
city every preparation is kept up, and the citizens, who were foremost in