strongly fastened to a trunk or mast, fixed in the middle of the
River, and a youngster standing upright in the stern of a boat, made
to move as fast as the oars and current can carry it, is to strike the
target with his lance; and if in hitting it he break his lance, and
keep his place in the boat, he gains his point, and triumphs; but if
it happen that the lance be not shivered by the force of the blow, he
is of course tumbled into the water, and away goes his vessel without
him. However, a couple of boats full of young men is placed, one on
each side of the target, so as to be ready to take up the unsuccessful
adventurer, the moment he emerges from the stream, and comes fairly to
the surface. The Bridge, and the balconies on the banks, are filled
with spectators, whose business it is to laugh.’
“Of this singular sport, Joseph Strutt copied in his ‘_Sports and
Pastimes of the People of England_,’ London, 1801, 4to. page 92, plate
x. a very curious illumination, contained in a volume of the Royal
Manuscripts in the British Museum,--2 B. vii.--which consists of a
history of the Old Testament, the Psalter, the Hymns of the Church, and
a Calendar; all richly painted in water-colours, and beautified with
gold,--‘yellow, glittering, precious gold,’--so highly embossed, as to
be ‘sensible to feeling as to sight.’
“That volume brings back old days to my recollection, whenever I behold
it; for, in the year 1553, it belonged to Queen Mary of England, and
is bound in a truly regal style for her; being in thick boards covered
with crimson velvet, richly embroidered with large flowers in coloured
silks and gold twist; besides being garnished with gilt brass bosses
and clasps, on the latter of which are engraven the Royal devices
and supporters. Another, and more pleasing proof of its having been
her’s,--inasmuch as it records a good action of a London Citizen
concerned with the affairs of this brave river,--is to be found in
a Latin note written in a beautiful black text hand, on the reverse
of the last leaf of the volume. ‘This Book,’ it states, ‘formerly a
gift, was afterwards carried away by a sailor; but that excellent and
honest person, Baldwin Smith, Receiver of the Customs of the Port of
London, hath restored and given it unto the most illustrious Mary,
Queen of England, France, and Ireland, in the month of October, in
the year of our Lord, 1553, in the first year of her reign.’ The text
of this volume is said to have been written, and the illuminations
executed, in the fourteenth century, though, from their style, I cannot
help thinking that the period is nearly an hundred years too late;
for beneath the pages of the Psalter is a series of most interesting
and excellent drawings, in pen-and-ink outlines, very slightly and
delicately tinted with colours, which was certainly a far more ancient
custom. However that may be, this series consists ‘_de omnibus rebus,
et quibusdam aliis_,’ for there are the representations of animals and
birds, field-sports, games, legends, martyrdoms, battles, and fables,
of an almost infinite variety; and in the course of them occur the
figures of a water-quintain, both as it is described by Fitzstephen,
and also of a more warlike character. The first of these was engraved
by Strutt in the work which I have before referred to, and gives a very
perfect idea of the RIVER TILTING OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY,
[Illustration]
which the illuminator had, no doubt, personally witnessed in his own
time. The other, which has also been engraven in the same work, page
113, plate xv. shews two armed knights getting ‘grysly together,’ as
the ‘_Morte d’Arthur_’ calls it, in boats;
[Illustration]
and you will find it under the 60th Psalm, ‘_Dominus repulisti nos_,’
&c.
“Stow, in his ‘_Survey_,’ volume i. page 301, mentions a very rude
imitation of this kind of jousting on the water at London; when he
says, ‘I have seen also in the summer season, upon the River of
Thames, some rowed in wherries, with staves in their hands, flat at
the fore-end, running one against another, and, for the most part,
one or both of them were overthrown and well ducked.’ In Queen Mary’s
Manuscript, under the psalm of ‘_Misericordiam et judicium cantabo_,’
is also a representation of two fiends hurling a Monk from a rude stone
Bridge; but as I rather think that did not occur at London, I mention
it no farther.
“But now, to return to our subject:--Stow relates the particulars of
the great fire of 1135-36, at page 58 of his ‘_Survey_,’ citing in
the margin the ‘_Annals of Bermondsey_,’ and the ‘_Book of Trinity
Priory_,’ as his authorities. The latter of these is, perhaps, now no
more; but in the former you may find the conflagration mentioned at
page 13 b, where it is said to have happened in the year 1135, and
to have extended to the Church of St. Clement Danes. It was probably
in the Register of Trinity Priory, that Stow found a notice that
London Bridge was not only repaired, but a new one erected of elm
timber, in 1163, by the most excellent Peter of Colechurch, Priest and
Chaplain; since I find it in none of the historians with whom I am
acquainted. It is, however, much better authenticated that the same
pious architect began his labours upon the first stone one in 1176;
for, in the ‘_Annals of Waverley_,’ at page 161, you find the following
entry.--‘1176. In this year, the Stone Bridge at London is begun by
Peter, the Chaplain of Colechurch.’ Here, therefore, ends the history
of the infancy of London Bridge: and a very chargeful infancy it was,
for, as old Stow says, ‘it was maintained partly by the proper lands
thereof, partly by the liberality of divers persons, and partly by
taxations in divers shires, as I have proved, for the space of 215
years,’--And now, Mr. Geoffrey Barbican, your very good health.”
“Sir, my hearty thanks to you,” replied I, rubbing my eyes, “for
this Bridge Story is as dull as proving a Peerage, where there’s
no reliance, and much doubting:--but how’s this, Master Postern!”
continued I, looking into the tankard, “you have drank, and I have
drank, and yet the jug is as full as ever, and as hot as it was as
first?”
“You’re pleased to be facetious, good Sir,” answered my visitor, “for
truly I’m no Saint Richard to work such miracles; but, if you please,
we’ll now return to the Bridge again.
“We are here entering upon the golden age of London Bridge, for the new
stone building, by Peter of Colechurch, was such an ornament as the
Thames had never before witnessed; indeed, in my poor judgment, it very
far surpassed that erection, of which I shall hereafter have occasion
to speak; and perhaps, for its time, even that which now stretches
itself across the flood. The person to whom was entrusted the building
of the first stone Bridge at London, was, as I have already told you,
named Peter, a Priest and Chaplain of St. Mary Colechurch; an edifice,
which, until the Great Fire of London, stood on the North side of the
Poultry, at the South end of a turning denominated Conyhoop Lane, from
a Poulterer’s shop having the sign of three Conies hanging over it.
This Chapel, of which the skilful Peter was Curate, was dedicated to
the Blessed Virgin, and was famous as the place where St. Edmund and
St. Thomas à Beckett were presented at the baptismal Font; still it
must have been something very like having a church on a first floor,
for you may remember Stow says, in his ‘_Survey_,’ volume i. page 552,
that it was ‘built upon a vault above ground, so that men are forced to
ascend into it by certain steps.’ Of the architectural knowledge of the
Curate thereof, I have already shewed you that the Citizens of London
had experienced some proofs, since he is said to have rebuilt their
last wooden Bridge: and John Leland the Antiquary--whom I shall anon
quote more particularly,--observes, in the notes to his famous ‘_Song
of the Swan_,’--a book of which I will also speak hereafter,--that
Radulphus de Diceto, Dean of London, who wrote about 1210, states
from his own knowledge, that he was a native of this City. The same
venerable Antiquary also tells us in his ‘_Itinerary_,’ edited by
Thomas Hearne, Oxford, 1768-69, octavo, volume vii. part I. marginal
folio 22, page 12,--that ‘a Mason beinge Master of the Bridge Howse,
buildyd _à fundamentis_ the Chapell on London Bridge, _à fundamentis
propriis impensis_;’ or, as we should now say, from bottom to top,
at his own costs and charges. The property of Peter of Colechurch,
however, would not stand Bridge-building by itself; and therefore the
present will be the most fitting place, to give you some account of the
other contributors to this great national work.
“Master Leland, in the same place which I last quoted, observes that
‘a Cardinale, and Archepisshope of Cantorbyri, gave 1000 Markes or
_li._ to the erectynge of London Bridge.’ Now, the Cardinal who is
here alluded to, was Hugo, Hugocio, or Huguzen di Petraleone, a Roman,
Cardinal Deacon of St. Angelo, whom Pope Alexander III. sent, in
1176, to France, Scotland, and England, as his Legate; which you may
find stated in Alphonso Ciaconio’s noble book entitled ‘_Vitæ et Res
Gestæ Pontificum Romanorum, et Sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinalium_,’
Rome, printed with the Vatican types, in 1630, folio, page 578, a work
of about 3000 pages in extent; of an enormous size, fairly bound in
embossed vellum, and adorned with a prodigious number of copper-plates
and wood-cut Armorial Ensigns; by the latter of which we are shewn,
that this foreign contributor to the building of London Bridge bore
for his arms, Quarterly, Argent and Gules, and over all, in the centre
point, a sieve of the first. Whilst the Cardinal resided in England,
he took some notice of the dispute which was then going on concerning
the Primacy, between the Archbishops of Canterbury and York: when at a
meeting held at Westminster, Roger de Ponte, the turbulent possessor of
the latter see, arrogantly took his seat at the Cardinal’s right hand.
Upon which the domestics of Richard, the mild and amiable Archbishop
of Canterbury, took him thence by force, and in the ensuing scuffle he
was beaten, and turned out of the assembly, with his episcopal robes
sadly rent. Now this Richard was a Benedictine Monk, and Prior of
the Monastery of St. Martin’s, Dover; who was elected to the See of
Canterbury on the death of Thomas à Beckett, in 1174. ‘He was a man,’
says Bishop Godwin, when writing his memoirs, ‘very liberal, gentle,
and passing wise;’ and, what gives him great honour in _my_ sight, he
was the very Prelate whom Leland mentions in the passage I quoted, as
subscribing so nobly to the foundation of London Bridge. And yet, ’tis
strange, that only in his ‘_Itinerary_,’ and in Stow’s ‘_Survey_,’
volume i. page 58, is this donation recorded; for even in the best and
most splendid edition of Bishop Godwin’s volume, ‘_De Præsulibus Angliæ
Commentarius_,’ by William Richardson, Canon of Lincoln, Cambridge,
1743, folio, page 79, the old Citizen is referred to at note _y_, as
his authority for the fact. I cannot omit now giving you the blazon of
this Prelate’s own arms, as they appear in that noble illuminated copy
of Archbishop Parker’s work, ‘_De Antiquitate et Privilegiis Ecclesiæ
Cantuariensis cum Archiepiscopis ejusdem 70_,’ Lambeth, 1572, folio,
page 123, which is estimated to be fully worth its weight in gold. This
truly valuable volume was presented by our late good King George the
Third to the British Museum, and formerly belonged to Queen Elizabeth.
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. And I pray you also,
forget not well to note the binding; since a richer, or more fancifully
embroidered covering there are few tomes which can exhibit. The ground
of it is green velvet, intended to represent the _vert_ of a park, and
it is surrounded by a broad border of pales with a gate, worked in
brown silk and gold twist; whilst within are trees, flowers, shrubs,
tufts of grass, serpents, hinds, and does, all executed in richly
coloured silks, and gold and silver wire. At the back are the Queen’s
badges of red and white roses; the edges of the leaves are gilt, and
the volume was once secured by ribbons of crimson silk.
“Of this most splendid book I must, indeed, yet add another word,
that it may be estimated as it so well deserves. Dr. Ducarel, in
his account of that astonishing copy of it which is deposited in
the Archiepiscopal Palace at Lambeth, says, ‘It was first printed
at Lambeth by John Daye in 1572; and so small a number were then
published, that, except this complete copy, there is but one extant
in England, known to be so, which is preserved in the Public Library
of Cambridge, as I am informed.’ See his Letter of July the 15th,
1758, addressed to Archbishop Secker, which is inserted in the Rev.
H. J. Todd’s ‘_Catalogue of the Archiepiscopal Manuscripts in Lambeth
Palace_.’ London, 1812, folio, page 242, Art. 959.
“The life of Archbishop Richard, which this book contains, is nearly
the same as that related by Francis Godwin, Bishop of Landaff; and
before I leave speaking of this early and Reverend patron of London
Bridge, let me endeavour to clear his memory from something like
a stain which attaches to it. He received the Archbishop’s Pall,
immediately after the death of a man of unconquerable spirit and
insurmountable pride, for you will remember that he was successor to
Beckett: and, perhaps, it was the strong contrast afforded by his
yielding and quiet disposition, which has made some suppose that he did
nothing worthy of memory. I am, however, myself rather surprised at
the manner of his decease, when it is allowed by all his biographers,
that he was a man so charitable, of such benefit to the revenues of the
church, and was so liberal both to the poor, the nation, the King,
and even the Pontiff himself. The story of his death is related by
Gervase of Dover, by Henry Knyghton, the Canon of Leicester, and in the
Chronicle of William Thorne, the Monk of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury;
but I shall recite it to you from the old English edition of Francis
Godwin’s ‘_Catalogue of the Bishops of England, from the first planting
of the Christian Religion in this Island:_’ London, 1615, 4to. page
96. ‘The end of this man,’ says the Prelate, ‘is thus reported, how
that being a sleepe at his Mannor of Wrotham, there seemed to come vnto
him a certaine terrible personage’--Knyghton and Thorne say ‘the Lord
appeared unto his sight,’--‘demaunding of him, who he was; whereunto,
when for feare, the Archbishop answered nothing, Thou art he, quoth
the other, that hast destroyed the goods of the Church, and I will
destroy thee from off the earth: this having said, he vanished away. In
the morning betime, the Archbishop got him up, and taking his iourney
toward Rochester, related this fearfull vision vnto a friend of his by
the way. Hee had no sooner told the tale, but hee was taken suddenly
with a great cold and stifenesse in his limmes, so that they had much
adoo to get him so farre as Haling, a house belonging to the Bishop
of Rochester. There he tooke his bed, and being horribly tormented
with the cholike, and other greefes, vntill the next day, the night
following, the 16th of February, hee gaue vp the ghost, anno 1183.’
“Though such was his untimely end, yet his being so great a benefactor
to the original building of old London Bridge, ought to make his
name revered by every true-hearted Citizen of London; and, indeed,
Bridge-building has been thought by some to be an act of real piety,
witness those rude old verses printed in Leland’s ‘_Itinerary_,’ volume
vii. part I. Marginal folio 64 b, page 79, which were composed on the
erecting of the Bridge at Culham, in Oxfordshire, and hung up by Master
Richard Fannand, Ironmonger, of Abingdon, in the Hall of St. Helen’s
Hospital.
‘Off alle werkys in this worlde that ever were wrought,
Holy Chirche is chefe, there children been chersid.
For by baptim these barnes to blisse been ybrought,
Thorough the grace of God, and fayre refresshed.
Another blessid besines is Brigges to make,
Where, that the pepul may not passe after greet showers;
Dole it is to drawe a deed body out of a lake,
That was fulled in a fount stoon, and a felow of oures.
King Herry the fifte, in his fourthe yere,
He hathe yfounde for his folke a Brige in Berke schyre,
For cartis with carriages may goo and come clere,
That many Wynters afore were mareed in the myre.
And some oute of ther sadels flette to the grounde
Went forthe in the water wist no man whare;
Fyve wekys after or they were yfounde,
Ther kyn and ther knowlech caught them uppe with care.’
“By this then, you see there is much virtue in your Bridge-builder.
The names of all the Benefactors to London Bridge, indeed, were fairly
painted on a tablet, and hung up in St. Thomas’s Chapel, which stood
upon the middle of it; and, doubtless, the donation of King Henry II.
would be found there recorded, if that grateful testimonial were yet
in existence. The King’s gift, however, is supposed to have been, in
fact, the gift of the people, being the produce of a tax upon wool;
and hence arose that absurd tradition, which the commonalty invented
to make a wonder of the matter, that ‘London Bridge was built upon
woolpacks,’ I am, indeed, inclined to think that the measure was not
very popular; for the people of England seldom failed to complain
of any additional duty placed upon that commodity; and of this you
find some reliques in Lord Coke’s Commentary on the 30th Chapter of
the ‘_Magna Charta_’ of King Henry III., contained in his ‘_Second
Institute_,’ pages 58, 59. He is there speaking, you know, of the
taking away of evil tolls and customs, and he observes, that some have
supposed that there was a tribute due to the King by the Common Law,
upon all wools, wool-fells,--that is, the undressed sheep skins,--and
leather, to be taken as well of the English as of strangers, known by
the name of _Antiqua Custuma_. This amounted to half a mark, or 6_s._
8_d._ for every sack of wool of 26 stone weight; and a whole mark upon
every last of leather. But even this his Lordship also endeavours to
prove a recent custom, by a Patent Roll from the Exchequer, of the 3rd
of Edward I., A. D. 1274, which states, that the Prelates, Chiefs,
and the whole Common Council of the kingdom, had consented to grant
this new custom of wool to him, and to his heirs. Now, even the words
‘_novam consuetudinem_’ may signify only a revival of the ancient tax,
for some specific cause; as it might have lain dormant since the days
of building London Bridge; thus having reference to a new occasion, and
not to the date. But shortly previous to the final confirmation of the
Great and Forest Charters, however, in the 25th of Edward I., 1296, the
King set a new toll of forty shillings upon every sack of wool, without
the consent of his Parliament; which the Commonalty felt to be a very
heavy imposition. Against this they petitioned, and in the aforesaid
‘_Confirmationes Chartarum_,’ Chapter vii. it was provided that such
things should be abolished, and not taken, but by common consent and
good will; excepting the customs before granted. There appears to me,
however, even a still nearer connection between the Duties raised
for the building of London Bridge, and the xxiii. Chapter of the
‘_Magna Charta_’ of King John, for you there find that ‘No City, nor
Freeman, shall be distrained to make Bridges or water-banks, but such
as have of old been accustomed to do so:’ from which it is evident,
that the taxation was general, and that this instrument was to make
it particular; though, according to Lord Coke’s exposition, there was
nothing gained by it: for, in his ‘_Second Institute_,’ folio 29, he
says, that in the reigns of Richard I. and John, fictitious exactions
were made in the names of Bridges, Bulwarks, and the like, but that
neither the erection, nor the paying for them, was abolished by this
act, since they could not be erected but by the King himself, or by an
Act of Parliament.--But Mr. Barbican!--You doze, worthy Sir!”
“Why truly, Mr. Postern,” said I, rubbing my eyes, “Tax-gathering is
always dull work; and I verily thought we’d lost sight of the Bridge
in the paying for it. You’re as minute with all your authorities, as a
Flemish painter that marks every hair on a cat’s back, and I can turn
over your old dull authors in my own dusty book-room.”
“I must acknowledge,” said my visitor, “that such details are rather
dry; but you very well know, my good friend, as Father Le Long said,
‘Truth is so delightful, that we should consider no labour too
great to obtain it:’ and, indeed, I wished to bring before you some
circumstances which lie widely scattered, although they, nevertheless,
most excellently illustrate the story, and I would do all honour to the
memory of the worthy Peter of Colechurch.”
“Really, Sir,” answered I, “if his blessing be worth having, it ought
to rest upon your head; for had you been Peter of Colechurch himself,
ten times over, you could scarcely have taken more pains with your
history: and so,--here’s your health, and his, Mr. Barnaby.”
“My best thanks to you, my honoured friend,” replied Mr. Postern,
“and I’ll shortly repay your attention by a piece of a more brilliant
description; for having once got the Bridge built, and paid for, we’ll
take a look at the picturesque old edifice itself, and at some of the
many gorgeous sights and interesting scenes which took place upon it:
indeed it shall go hard but what I’ll find you amusement. The building,
then, which the never-to-be-forgotten Peter of Colechurch began, took
as long to complete as Solomon’s Temple, for thirty and three years
were employed in erecting it. Ere that period, however, the charitable
Priest who designed it, the learned Architect and wise builder who
watched its progress, went the way of all flesh; as we shall find
hereafter, in 1205, and not, as Maitland erroneously says, in the third
of King John, A. D. 1201, though he also supposes that he might then
be worn out by age or fatigue, since in the Patent Rolls of the Tower
of London, of that year, M. 2, No. 9, is the following Letter Missive
of the King to the Mayor and Citizens of London, recommending a new
Architect. For other references you may consult Maitland’s History,
page 45; Thomas Hearne’s edition of the ‘_Liber Niger Scaccarii_,’
London, 1771, octavo, volume i. page *470, where it is printed in the
original Latin; and the ‘_Calendarium Rotulorum Patentium in Turri
Londinensi, Printed by Command_,’ London, 1802, folio, page 1, column
1. The Letter is as follows:--