English builders, the receding orders with exquisite mouldings and
dog-tooth ornament--the hall-mark of the early Gothic artists. It
looks upon the Smithfield market, and how many strange scenes of
London history has this gateway witnessed! Under its arch possibly
stood London's first chronicler, Fitzstephen, the monk, when he saw
the famous horse fairs that took place in Smithfield every Friday,
which he described so graphically. Thither flocked earls, barons,
knights, and citizens to look on or buy. The monk admired the nags
with their sleek and shining coats, smoothly ambling along, the young
blood colts not yet accustomed to the bridle, the horses for burden,
strong and stout-limbed, and the valuable chargers of elegant shape
and noble height, with nimbly moving ears, erect necks, and plump
haunches. He waxes eloquent over the races, the expert jockeys, the
eager horses, the shouting crowds. "The riders, inspired with the love
of praise and the hope of victory, clap spurs to their flying horses,
lashing them with their whips, and inciting them by their shouts"; so
wrote the worthy monk Fitzstephen. He evidently loved a horse-race,
but he need not have given us the startling information, "their chief
aim is to prevent a competitor getting before them." That surely would
be obvious even to a monk. He also examined the goods of the peasants,
the implements of husbandry, swine with their long sides, cows with
distended udders, _Corpora magna boum, lanigerumque pecus_, mares
fitted for the plough or cart, some with frolicsome colts running by
their sides. A very animated scene, which must have delighted the
young eyes of the stone arch in the days of its youth, as it did the
heart of the monk.

Still gayer scenes the old gate has witnessed. Smithfield was the
principal spot in London for jousts, tournaments, and military
exercises, and many a grand display of knightly arms has taken place