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Provider: University of Victoria
Database: The Map of Early Modern London
Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
TY - ELEC
ED - Jenstad, Janelle
T1 - Deep Ditch
T2 - The Map of Early Modern London
ET - 7.0
PY - 2022
DA - 2022/05/05
CY - Victoria
PB - University of Victoria
LA - English
UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/DEEP2.htm
UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/xml/standalone/DEEP2.xml
ER -
A low-lying marshy area just northeast of Moorgate and on the way to the Curtain, Moorfields was home to a surprising range of activities and accompanying cultural associations in early modern London. Beggars and the mentally ill patients of neighbouring Bethlehem Hospital often frequented the area. Some used the public space to bleach and dry linen, and the full of noysome waters
(Stow 2:77) until
Although its name evokes the pandemonium of the archetypal madhouse, Bethlehem (Bethlem, Bedlam) Hospital was not always an asylum. As Priorie of Cannons with brethren and
sisters
, founded in one of the Sheriffes of London
(Stow 1:164). We know from
The city ditch was part of London’s medieval defence system that ran along the outside of the wall
from the Tower to Fleet River. According to much filth (conveyed forth of the Citie) especially dead dogs, were there laid or cast
(Stow 1633, sig. M1v). The ditch
was filled in and covered with garden plots by the time of
Running north-to-south, Deep Ditch was the boundary between the Moorfields and Bethlehem Hospital. Henry Harben describes the history of the site as follows: In Agas’ map a stream is shown here flowing into the City Ditch, which may be the remains of the Walbrook, the bed of which has been found under Blomfield Street, and might be referred to by
Harben 195
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Research Assistant, 2018-2021. Lucas Simpson was a student at the University of Victoria.
Project Manager, 2020-2021. Assistant Project Manager, 2019-2020. Research Assistant, 2018-2020. Kate LeBere completed her BA (Hons.) in History and English at the University of Victoria in 2020. She published papers in
Programmer, 2018-present. Junior Programmer, 2015-2017. Research Assistant, 2014-2017. Joey Takeda was a graduate student at the University of British Columbia in the Department of English (Science and Technology research stream). He completed his BA honours in English (with a minor in Women’s Studies) at the University of Victoria in 2016. His primary research interests included diasporic and indigenous Canadian and American literature, critical theory, cultural studies, and the digital humanities.
Research Assistant, 2017-2019. Chase Templet was a graduate student at the University
of Victoria in the Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) stream. He was specifically
focused on early modern repertory studies and non-Shakespearean early modern drama,
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Research Assistant, 2016-2018. Brooke Isherwood was a graduate student in the Department of English at the University of Victoria, concentrating on medieval and early modern Literature. She had a special interest in Shakespeare as well as lesser-known works from the Renaissance.
Janelle Jenstad is Associate Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of
Programmer at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC). Martin ported the MOL project from its original PHP incarnation to a pure eXist database implementation in the fall of 2011. Since then, he has been lead programmer on the project and has also been responsible for maintaining the project schemas. He was a co-applicant on MoEML’s 2012 SSHRC Insight Grant.
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Running north-to-south, Deep Ditch was the boundary between the Moorfields and Bethlehem Hospital. Harben describes the history of the site as follows:
In Agas’ map a stream is shown here flowing into the City Ditch, which may be the remains of the Walbrook, the bed of which has been found under Blomfield Street, and might be referred to byHarben 195Stow at that time as a ditchIt had been filled up in this part of its course, and had disappeared by 1658