The following curious anecdote is taken from Archdeacon Coxe’s
Historical Tour in Monmouthshire, vol. i., p. 101-2:--“The frame of the
wooden bridge over the Usk, at Caerleon, is not unlike the carpentry of
Cæsar’s bridge over the Rhine, as described by him in his Commentaries.
The floor, supported by ten lofty piers, is level, and divided by posts
and rails into rooms or beds of boards, each twelve feet in length; the
apparently loose and disjointed state of the planks, and the clattering
noise which they make under the pressure of a heavy weight, have not
unfrequently occasioned alarm to those who are unused to them. Some
travellers, from a superficial view of the structure, have asserted that
the planks are placed loose, to admit the tide through their interstices
when it rises above the bridge, and which would, if they were fixed,
force them from the frame, and carry them away. But, in fact, the tide
has never been known to rise above the bridge, nor was the flooring
constructed to obviate this inconvenience. Formerly the planks were
fastened to each extremity by iron nails; but the wood being liable to
split, and the nails frequently forced up by the elastic agitation of
the beams under the pressure of heavy carriages, the planks were secured
from rising by horizontal rails, fastened to the posts, and prevented
from slipping side-ways by a peg at each end within the rail.
“The height of the water, at extraordinary tides, exceeds thirty feet;
but though it has never risen above the floor, yet the united body of a
high tide, and the floods to which the Usk is subject, have been known
to carry away parts of the bridge. An accident of this kind, which
happened on the 29th of October, 1772, occasioned a singular event, to
which I should not have given credit, had it not been authenticated by
the most respectable testimony.
“As Mrs. Williams, wife of Mr. Edward Williams, brazier, was returning
from the village on the other side of the bridge to the town of
Caerleon, at eleven o’clock at night, with a candle and lantern, the
violence of the current forced away four piers and a considerable part
of the bridge. On a fragment of this mass, consisting of an entire
_room_, with the beams, posts, and flooring, she was hurried down the
river; but preserved sufficient presence of mind to support herself by
the railing. After having been carried down about a mile and a half the
candle was extinguished: on passing some houses at St. Julian’s, near
the river-side, she screamed for help, and was heard by several persons,
who started out of their beds to assist her; but the violence of the
stream had already hurried her beyond their reach. During this time she
felt but little apprehension, as she entertained hopes of being
delivered by the boatmen at Newport; her expectations were increased by
the numerous lights which she discerned in the houses, and she
accordingly redoubled her cries for assistance, though without effect.
On arriving at Newport, which is more than three miles from Caerleon,
the fragment on which she stood being broken to pieces against a pier of
the bridge, she fortunately bestrode a beam, and, after being detained
for some minutes by the eddies at the bridge, was rapidly hurried along
towards the sea. In this perilous situation she at length gave up all
hope of deliverance, and resigned herself to her approaching fate.
“About a mile from Newport she discerned a glimmering light, in a barge
which was moored near the shore, and, redoubling her cries, was heard by
the master of the vessel. After hailing her, and learning her situation,
he cried out, ‘Keep up your spirits, and you will be soon out of
danger;’ then leaping into the boat with one of his men, rowed towards
the place from whence the screams proceeded; but some time elapsed
before he overtook her, at a considerable distance from the anchorage of
the barge. The night was so dark that they could not discern each other,
and the surf swelling violently, the master repeated his exhortations,
charged her to be calm, and not attempt to quit her station.
Fortunately, a sudden dispersion of the clouds enabled him to lash the
beam fore and aft to the boat. At this moment, however, her presence of
mind forsook her, and eagerly attempting to throw herself forward, she
was checked by the oaths of the seamen, who were at length enabled to
heave her into the boat, but could not disengage themselves from the
beam till they almost reached the mouth of the Usk. This being effected,
not without great difficulty, they rowed to the shore, and embayed
themselves till the first dawn of the morning, when they conveyed her in
the boat to Newport.”
Mr. Coxe gives the names of several respectable persons residing in the
neighbourhood, who expressly confirmed to his satisfaction the truth of
this narrative: he especially refers to a clergyman, to whom Mrs.
Williams often repeated the story, and confirmed it on her death-bed
with the most solemn asseverations.
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_Disturbed Times unfavourable to Lawyers._--In Stow’s Chronicles, p.
631, the following lively picture is drawn of the state of the courts of
law during the performance of the tragedies of religious persecution and
tyranny under Queen Mary in 1557:--“This yeere, in Michaelmas terme, men
might have seen in Westminster Hall, at the King’s Bench bar, not two
men of law before the justices. There was one named Fostar, who looked
about, and had nothing to do; the judges likewise looking about them. In
the Common Pleas no more serjeants but one, which was Serjeant Benlowes,
who looked about him: there was elbow-room enough; which made the
lawyers to complain of their injuries in that terme.”
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As the Italian poet, Tasso, whose misfortunes were as great as his
genius, was on one of his journeys between Rome and Naples, he fell into
the hands of banditti, who immediately proceeded to plunder him and his
fellow-travellers. But no sooner did the captain of the band, the
celebrated Marco Sciarra, of Abruzzi, hear the poet pronounce his name,
than, with tokens of admiration and respect, he set him at liberty; nor
would he even permit his followers to plunder Tasso’s companions. A
prince of royal or imperial birth confined the poet in a mad-house for
more than seven years; the great and wealthy left him to a precarious
life, which was often a life of absolute want; the servile men of
letters of the day loaded him with abusive and most unjust criticism;
but a mountain robber, by the road’s side, controlled in his favour the
very instinct of his gang, and kissed the hand of the author of the
‘Gerusalemme!’
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Parini, a native of Milan, was not only one of the first poets of modern
Italy, but a dignified, philanthropic, and most amiable man. When the
government of his country was changed, and a republic first instituted
under the protection of the French arms, Milan became the scene of very
natural excitement, and occasionally of violence. The people had been
too long deprived of liberty to be able to bear their new condition with
moderation. Things even went so far that a young and beautiful girl was
seen to ascend the republican tribune, and to promise her virgin-love to
the man who should bring in the head of that foe to liberty--the poor
old Pope; and the father of this virago was seen to embrace her with
transport and tears excited by this _heroic virtue_! It was at this time
that some violent demagogue tried to force Parini, one night at the
theatre, to join the mob in crying “death to the aristocrats!” “Long
live the Republic,” exclaimed the poet. “Life to the Republic, but death
to no one!” In an instant tranquillity was restored.
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A Savoyard got his livelihood by exhibiting a monkey and a bear. He
gained so much applause from his tricks with the monkey, that he was
encouraged to practise some of them upon the bear: he was dreadfully
lacerated, and on being rescued, with great difficulty, from the gripe
of Bruin, he exclaimed: “What a fool was I, not to distinguish between a
monkey and a bear! A bear, my friends, is a very grave kind of
personage, and, as you plainly see, does not understand a joke.”
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Evelyn truly remarked, that all is vanity which is not honest, and there
is no solid wisdom but in real piety.
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THE BRITISH MUSEUM.--No. 3.