London

I had seen big towns in the countries where I had been, but never before one like this... I took lodgings at the Fox and Hounds by the great bridge. As I went out to look at London’s three streets which are very handsome and wide, I observed fine paved roads adorned with big houses and countless channels of running water, although the poor contend for the water, taking it in wooden vessels and bearing it from street to street to sell it. There are in the big main street very tall stone buildings and pillars with the arms of the town, but the other streets are extremely narrow and many are not troubled by the light of the sun.

The royal castle is on a high stone wall above the sea, with four towers in a big square with no decoration at all, and was built by Julis Caesar. To the west is a very fine gate (Bishopsgate), with the king’s arms on the outside, a harp, a lily, six lions, a crown, held on one side by a lion and on the other by a unicorn. As one goes out by that gate there is on the other side a church and to the left of the church magnificent grassed gardens where the fine London cloth is dried...

It took me two and a half hours to walk the length of the city from Julius Caesar’s castle to Westmonostor, from which you can easily judge the size of it.