Richard Thompson

“ In most places they hid the arches, and nothing appeared but the rude piers.—I well remember the street on London Bridge, narrow, darksome, and dangerous to passengers, from the multitude of carriages: frequent arches of strong timber crossing the street, from the tops of the houses to keep them together, and from falling into the river. Nothing but use could preserve the repose of the inmates, who soon grew deaf to the noise of falling waters, the clamors of watermen, or the frequent shrieks of drowning wretches. ”

“ Rodolphus à Diceto relates in his History, that Peter of Colechurch, a Priest, laid the foundations of a new Bridge: but though it was at first very inconsiderable, Royal and Civic munificence afterwards brought it to be the edifice which it now appears. Upon this subject, Courteous Reader, I am assailed by a whole herd of blustering smatterers, of whom there is one more insignificant than even the rest; a fellow more notorious for loquacity than eloquence, and prodigiously self-conceited; he, truly, shamelessly asserts me to have mistaken in my enumeration of the Arches of London Bridge. ”

“ Odzooks! do men write your thick folios, only because they know nothing of the matter? But you have no such excuse, for you quote me a dozen authors to tell of one event; and then there’s such ‘fending and proving’ about a handful of years, that where subjects are lacking, ’fore George! you seem to me to create them.”
“Well, Sir, well,” resumed the mild old man, “your wit becomes you; but as we may never meet again, I would fain pour into your bosom all the little knowledge which I possess upon this point; and so we will pass on to the Chronicles of London Bridge in the seventeenth century. ”

“ In the year 1440, the Annals of London Bridge became again interwoven with the great historical events of the kingdom, which impart such dignity to its own records, inasmuch as the Bridge-Street, by which is meant as well the passage over the Thames as the main street beyond it on each side, was one scene of the public penance of Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester, for Witchcraft. ”

“ Too soon after this calamity, at a most inauspicious time for commencing, or executing, expensive public works, in 1097, King William Rufus imposed a heavy tax upon his subjects for the re-building of London Bridge,—though that might very well be defended,—the erecting of the palace of West-Minster Hall, and the construction of a wall round the Tower. The ‘Saxon Chronicle’ speaks of these ill-advised undertakings in the blended tones of sorrow and of anger. ”

“ Its banks are every where beautified with fine country seats, woods, and farms; below, is the Royal Palace of Greenwich; above, that of Richmond; and between both, on the West of London, rise the noble buildings of Westminster, most remarkable for the Courts of Justice, the Parliament, and St. Peter’s Church, enriched with the Royal tombs. At the distance of 20 miles from London, is the Castle of Windsor, a most delightful retreat of the Kings of England, as well as famous for several of their tombs, and for the most renowned ceremonial of the Order of the Garter. ”

“ Geoffrey Barbican,” recommenced my visitor, “for this most opportune display of your Heraldical learning: and, in returning to London Bridge, I must observe, that as all history is but a record of the evanescent scenes of human life, it must, of course, be formed of all those strong lights and shades which are so very conspicuous in its original; and hence arises that striking contrast of events, which so frequently fills us with solemnity and awe. We retire, perchance, from a banquet to a prison, or from a triumph to an execution ”

“ As Cæsar and his Legions marched straight from the coast, worthy old Bagford was certainly in the right, when, in a letter to his brother-antiquary Hearne, he said, that the Roman invader came along the rich marshy ground now supporting Kent Street,—in truth very unlike the road of a splendid conqueror,—and, entering the Thames as the tide was just turning, his army made a wide angle, and was driven on shore by the current close to yonder Cement Wharf, at Dowgate Dock. ”

“ From these scanty notices of misery, infatuation, and crime, it is with much delight that we turn to a spectacle of the greatest magnificence, and the most distinguished character, which London Bridge ever witnessed: the entrance of King Henry VI. to the City, after his Coronation as King of France, in the Church of Nôtre Dame, at Paris, on Friday, the 7th of December, 1431. On the 9th of the February following, he landed at Dover, and upon Thursday, the 21st of the same month, he was met by the Mayor and Corporation of London at Blackheath. ”

“ Postern,” interrupted I, “for I am naturally impatient at reflections; if you love me, then, give me scenery without meditations, and history without a moral.”
“Truly, Sir,” said he, “I was oblivious, for I’d got upon a favourite topic of mine, the worth of our Saxon fore-fathers; but we’ll cut them off short by another draught of the sack-posset, and take up again with the establishment of a ferry by one Master Audery, in the year nine hundred and ninety——Ah! see now, my memory has left me for the precise year, but nevertheless, Mr. Geoffrey Barbican, my service to you.” ”

“ Peter of Westminster, and to the Abbot Vitalis, the House which Almodus, of the Gate of St. Botolph, gave to them when he was made a Monk; that is to say, his Lord’s Court, with his Houses, and one Wharf which is at the head of London Bridge, and others of his lands in the same City, like as King Edward more fully and beneficially granted them: and I will and command that they shall enjoy the same well, and quietly, and honourably, with sake and soke, and shall hold all the customs and laws of the aforesaid. And I defend them that none shall do them any injury. ”

“ All London was immediately alarmed; the Citizens shut their shops and hastened down to the Bridge in great multitudes; and a conflict would speedily have commenced, had it not been for the prudence and mediation of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, Henry Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Prince of Portugal; who rode between the Protector and the Bishop, eight several times, ere they could bring them to any agreement; until, at length, they both consented to refer their dispute to the decision of John Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford, and Regent of France. ”

“ As the political troubles which succeeded the appearance of this monster, were productive of a very sumptuous triumph upon London Bridge, I shall take the freedom to remind you, that King Richard being greatly attached to regal magnificence and banquets, naturally found his revenues very insufficient to support the splendours of his Court; for, as Walsingham and Knyghton, the best historians of the time, assert, he valued himself upon surpassing all the other Sovereigns of Europe in magnificence; they add that he daily entertained no less than six thousand individuals ”

“ A Steam Engine, with a high funnel, was erected against the City side of the Coffer-Dam, for exhausting it of water, an entrance to which was made through a covered stone recess of the old Bridge, on the Northern side of the Dam. The rude and intricate walling of piles and other erections now began to assume a more regular appearance; a platform and flight of steps connected them with the parapet of the old edifice; a broad raised passage surrounded the area in the centre, and the whole was covered with an awning, above which rose numerous lofty flag-staves. ”

“ The Adventures of the Frog who went a courting is certainly much more like the ballad of London Bridge; but, in addition to its variations in the latter part, it is quite a modern composition, and, therefore, cannot illustrate the antiquity of that other song, of which it is itself merely a musical parody. ”

“ It was dangerous to walk the streets, the bricks and tiles falling from the houses, that the whole streets were covered with them; and whole chimneys, nay, whole houses, in two or three places, blowed down. But above all, the pales on London Bridge, on both sides, were blown away;’—almost the very words, you observe, which I have quoted you from Richard Bloome,—‘so that we were forced to stoop very low, for fear of blowing off the Bridge. We could see no boats in the Thames afloat, but what were broke loose, and carried through the Bridge, it being ebbing water. ”

“ No number so great, of knights or strangers, can either enter the city at any hour of day or night, or leave it, but all may be supplied with provisions, so that those have no occasion to fast too long, nor these to depart the city without their dinner. To this place, if they be so disposed, they resort, and there they regale themselves, every man according to his abilities. ”

“ The arms, however, were Azure, three Mullets in bend, between two Cottises Argent; and whenever you turn to this volume, on which the ancient Art of Illuminating shed its latest rays, I pray you fail not carefully to inspect it: for you will find it a copy of that edition printed at his own palace, by John Day; with many leaves impressed on vellum, and the whole of the book carefully ruled with red-ink lines, the initials coloured and gilded, and all the Armorial Ensigns, with the Frontispiece, excellently well emblazoned. ”

“ If ever there were a period more suitable than another, for engaging in national improvements, it must be the present; governed as we are by a Sovereign, the munificent and accomplished Patron of the Arts, beneath whose mild and paternal sway, by the blessing of Divine Providence, we now enjoy profound peace; living under a government, by the enlightened policy of which, our trade and manufactures so extensively flourish; and represented by a Parliament, ever ready to foster, by the most liberal grants, any plans for the improvement of the Empire ”

“ The inconvenience to the shipping is now increased more than since the setting in of the Frost, as no persons will venture upon the ice to fetch or carry any thing for them, and it is not yet sufficiently disunited for a boat to live.’ The succeeding number of this paper, page 60, mentions that on Thursday, January 15th, the ice was so powerful as to cut the cables of two vessels lying at the Old Rose Chain, and drive them through the Great Arch of London Bridge; when their masts becoming entangled with the ballustrades, both were broken, and many persons hurt. ”

“ One of the bravest defenders of London Bridge was Ralph Joceline, Alderman and Draper, afterwards made a Knight of the Bath, and Lord Mayor, in 1464 and 1476; since he not only manfully resisted Falconbridge and his party, when they attacked the Draw-Bridge, but upon their retiring, as they were at last forced to do, as well from the City as from the Bridge, he sallied forth upon them, and following them along the water-side beyond Ratcliffe, slew and captured very many of them. ”

“ Against their ferocious assailants, the Danes, they were supported by their virtue, and the hope of glory. The Citizens rushed forward even to death for their liberty; for none could think himself secure of the future if the King were deserted, in whose life he committed his own: so that although the conflict was valiant on both sides, yet the Citizens had the victory from the justness of their cause ”

“ The year 1450 was made memorable by the daring insurrection of Jack Cade and the commons of Kent, which arose, partly, out of the popular belief that the Duke of Suffolk had caused the loss of a great portion of France to the English Crown; and, partly, from the pretensions of Richard, Duke of York, to the throne; in consequence of the haughtiness, despotism, and usurpation of Queen Margaret, and William De la Pole, her favourite. After some vain attempts to satisfy the commons concerning the Duke of Suffolk, King Henry banished him from the realm for five years ”

“ On the 15th of August, 1675, Sir Thomas Osborne, the great-grandson of Sir Edward, was raised to the Peerage by the titles of Viscount Latimer, and Baron Kiveton, in the County of York, by Patent from King Charles the Second; on the 27th of June, in the year following, he was created Earl of Danby; on April the 20th 1680, he was advanced to the dignity of Marquess of Caermarthen; and he became First Duke of Leeds on May the 4th, 1694. So much then, Mr. Postern, for an historical and genealogical illustration of the anecdote of the gallant apprentice of London Bridge. ”

“ In petitioning for a fifth Arch, it was represented, that, notwithstanding the great expense incurred for the Water-works, the engine was yet inadequate to the furnishing at all times a sufficient supply of water. The wheels under the other four Arches would never act with the same velocity as they did before the late alteration of the Bridge; but as the 5th Arch stood nearer the central current of the River, the continual flowing of the tide would give the works additional power, without being any obstacle to the navigation. ”

“ With respect to the Bridge itself, it is filled with buildings, in which the Traitors’ Gate with the heads, the Nonesuch House, and the Chapel of St. Thomas, are particularly visible; whilst above the houses, at the North end, is seen the top of ‘The Water Worke.’ From the windows of several of the houses, buckets are being let down by long ropes into the water, which is seen rushing through the arches with great impetuosity, although there is no fall. ”

“ We derive, however, such a character of John of Lancaster from Falstaff, that we wonder to find him either in East-Cheap or Bridge-Street; for in that very same dramatic history, and [217] in the preceding scene, he says of him: ‘Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh;—but that’s no marvel, he drinks no wine.’ Here, then, close all the events of London Bridge which have come under my reading, in the year 1409. ”

“ The year 1632-33 must be ever memorable in the history of London Bridge: for scarcely in the awful conflagration which consumed almost the whole City, did our brave old edifice suffer so severely. And now, Mr. Barbican, you must forgive me if I be a little prolix in describing that desolating fire, since it not only destroyed more than a third part of the Bridge Houses, but, at one time, its ravages were feared even in the City itself. I shall commence my account then by reminding you that Richard Bloome, one of Stow’s continuators, on page 61 of his ‘Survey,’ thus speaks of the calamity. ”

“ The Jurors of the Ward of Fori, or Fore-street, page 406, column 2 of the same book, and Membrane 4 of the original Roll, ‘said that London Bridge had been for a long time in the hands of the City and Citizens of London, and that such had been always accustomed by general consent, to be made keepers of the common Bridge of our Lord the King, and of his City, and of all passers over it; and now,’ they continued, ‘the aforesaid Bridge is in the hands of the Lady the Queen, and they know not by what warrant. ”

“ The possessions of London Bridge, at Stratford, have been already referred to, but for the sake of perspicuity, I repeat them, and they were as follow:—One water-mill, called ‘Saynesmelle,’ and four acres of meadow land belonging to the same; ‘whereof one acre lies within the close of the said mill, and four roods opposite to it on the East; and they are every where planted round with willows.’ One acre and one rood of meadow land lie near ‘Wyldemersh-bregge,’ and are called ‘Horslese.’ They are held of the heirs of the Lord Richard de Playz, Knight, for the yearly rent of £1. ”

“ Having stated to his followers the active measures of the Citizens, they began to consult what course they had better adopt to secure their own success and safety. The advice of some was to return to Greenwich, and crossing the water into Essex, enter London at Aldgate; others, though they were suspected of treachery, were for going back into Kent to meet some friends and supplies; when, at length, it was concluded that they should march along the Thames towards Kingston, and, crossing the Bridge of that place, enter the City on the West. ”

“ Deeply laden barges also take the drain through at Low water. The Great Arch is doubtless one of the safest to pass under, and is always used by craft and barges; but before the erection of the New Bridge [542] works, most of the other Locks were employed at the flood tide, when the fall is extremely trifling. When the tide is on the ebb, the Arches which are chiefly used for boats are, the Draw-Lock,—the 4th from the Great Arch,—on the South; and St. Mary’s Lock,—adjoining the Great Arch,—on the North, which is always taken on the first part of the ebb. ”