Soldiers from the castle rode clashing through the narrow streets; the bells of Osney clanged from the swampy meadows; processions of pilgrims wound through gates and lane to the shrine of St.Frideswide.
Frays were common enough; now the sack of a Jew's house; now burgher drawing knife on burgher; now an outbreak of the young student lads who were growing every day in numbers and audacity.

But as yet the town was well in hand.

The clang of the city bell called every citizen to his door; the call of the mayor brought trade after trade with bow in hand and banners flying to enforce the king's peace.
[Sidenote: St.Edmundsbury] The advance of towns which had grown up not on the royal domain but around abbey or castle was slower and more difficult.

The story of St.
Edmundsbury shows how gradual was the transition from pure serfage to an imperfect freedom.

Much that had been plough-land here in the Confessor's time was covered with houses by the time of Henry the Second.