beloved the Mayor and Citizens of London, greeting. Considering how
the Lord in a short time hath wrought in regard to the Bridges of
Xainctes and Rochelle, by the great care and pains of our faithful,
learned, and worthy Clerk, Isenbert, Master of the Schools of Xainctes:
We therefore, by the advice of our Reverend Father in Christ, Hubert,
(Walter) Archbishop of Canterbury, and that of others, have desired,
directed, and enjoined him to use his best endeavour in building your
Bridge, for your benefit, and that of the public: For we trust in the
Lord, that this Bridge, so requisite for you, and all who shall pass
the same, will, through his industry, and the divine blessing, soon
be finished. Wherefore, without prejudice to our right, or that of
the City of London, we will and grant, that the rents and profits of
the several houses which the said Master of the Schools shall cause
to be erected upon the Bridge aforesaid, be for ever appropriated to
repair, maintain, and uphold the same. And seeing that the requisite
work of the Bridge cannot be accomplished without your aid, and that
of others, we charge, and exhort you, kindly to receive and honour the
above-named Isenbert, and those employed by him, who will perform every
thing to your advantage and credit, according to his directions, you
affording him your joint advice and assistance in the premises. For
whatever good office or honour you shall do to him, you ought to esteem
the same as done to us. But, should any injury be offered to the said
Isenbert, or to the persons employed by him, which we do not believe
there will, see that the same be redressed so soon as it comes to your
knowledge. Witness myself, at Molinel,’--in the Province of Bourbon, in
France,--‘the eighteenth day of April.’ ‘A Letter,’ adds Hearne, on
page *471, ‘of the same form, was written to all the King’s faithful
subjects constituting the realm of England;’ and the instrument itself
is also to be found at length in the original Latin, in Sir Symonds
D’Ewes’ extracts from the Records, Harleian MSS. in the British Museum,
No. 86, page 1 a.
“It is, however, by no means clear, notwithstanding this Royal Writ,
that Isenbert was employed by the Citizens to complete the building
of London Bridge; indeed, the Rev. John Entick, in his edition of
Maitland’s ‘_History of London_,’ volume i. page 45, imagines quite
otherwise, because he found that King John, in the seventh year of his
reign, 1205, three years, as _he_ says, before the Bridge was finished,
granted the custody of it to one Friar West, taking it from the Lord
Mayor, and obliging the City to apply certain void places within its
walls to be built on for its support. Strype also quotes the former
instrument as being yet preserved in the ‘_Rotuli Clausi_,’ or Close
Rolls, in the Tower, 7 John, c. 19, for you know it was a private
instrument, and therefore sealed up, and directed to the persons whom
it specially concerned.
“But now let us see how far this supposition is founded in truth.
In the first place, the reference to the Close Rolls is erroneous,
for the writ is to be found on the 15th Membrane, there being no
such article as c. 19; and, in the next place, there was no such
person as Friar West, for the title of Friar was not in use until the
fourteenth century, and the person referred to was called _Wasce_,
though the name of West has been copied and re-copied, and the error
thus perpetuated _ad infinitum_. The actual words of the writ are, in
English, as follow.
“‘The King to Geoffrey Fitz Peter, &c.’--Chief Justice of England.--‘We
will that Brother Wasce, our Almoner, and some other lawful man of
London, provided by you and the Mayor of London, be Attorney for the
custody of London Bridge. And, therefore, we command you that they give
the whole to these men, like as Peter, the Chaplain of Colechurch,
possessed the same from them. Witness for the same, the Prior of
Stoke, at Marlebridge, the 15th day of September.’ Notwithstanding
this instrument, we hear no more of Frater Wasce, nor of Isenbert of
Xainctes, but are told by Stow, page 58, without his referring to
any other authority, that ‘this work, to wit the Arches, Chapel, and
Stone Bridge over the Thames at London, having been thirty-three years
in building, was, in the year 1209, finished by the worthy Merchants
of London, Serle Mercer, William Almaine, and Benedict Botewrite,
principal masters of that work.’
“This new Bridge consisted, then, of a stone platform, erected somewhat
westward of the former, 926 feet long, and 40 in width, standing about
60 feet above the level of the water; and containing a Drawbridge, and
19 broad pointed arches, with massive piers varying from 25 to 34 feet
in solidity, raised upon strong elm piles, covered by thick planks,
bolted together. Such was the FIRST STONE LONDON BRIDGE, commenced by
PETER OF COLECHURCH, A. D. 1176.
[Illustration]
“Deeply as I venerate the memory of the great builder of that Bridge,
which continued for so many centuries the wonder of Europe, yet I
must not omit to notice to you, that many persons have grievously
condemned his labours; the principal objections to which are summed up
in the ‘_Londinium Redivivum_,’ of Mr. James Peller Malcolm, London,
1802-1807, 4to. volume ii. page 386, where he thus heavily censures
that erection. ‘Whatever were the pretensions of Peter of Colechurch to
eminence as an Ecclesiastical Architect, I think any person who views
Vertue’s print of London Bridge, as it stood in 1209, will allow that
he was a very bad Civil Engineer. He seems to have delighted in the
number of his piers, which amounted to nineteen; and he was so ignorant
of the true principles by which he should have been governed, that the
centre was swelled into a Chapel, reducing the adjoining arches to half
the diameter of the remainder. Indeed, it is wonderful that those piers
maintained their situation, when we reflect how the torrent now rushes
through, hurling heavy laden barges along as if they were feathers on
the stream, when every practicable remedy to enlarge them has been
applied.’
“An Architect of nearly an hundred years since, however, has considered
these objections with somewhat more of mathematical proof; and what
is better, even whilst he admits their full force, he still venerates
the memory, and dares to applaud the public spirit, of the blessed
Peter of Colechurch. You will readily guess that I allude to Master
Nicholas Hawksmoor’s ‘_Short Historical Account of London Bridge,
with a proposition for a New Stone Bridge at Westminster_,’ a quarto
pamphlet of 47 pages, and 5 folding Copper-plates, originally published
in the year 1736, for two shillings. The Author observes, at page 9,
that the whole breadth of the River from North to South is nearly 900
feet, and that in his time there were eighteen solid piers of different
dimensions, varying from 34 to 25 feet in thickness. According to
this disposition, he argues, ‘the greatest water way is when the tide
is _above_ the sterlings, which is 450 feet, and, considering the
impediments, it is not half the width of the River for the water to
pass; but when the tide is fallen _below_ the sterlings, the water-way
is reduced to 194 feet,--which is during the greatest part of the
flux and reflux of the tide,--and the river of 900 feet broad, is
forced through a channel of 194 feet, which is not a quarter of the
whole.’ We can at last, however, hardly judge of the Bridge of Peter of
Colechurch with any degree of fairness, for that great benefactor of
London died before he completed his _Pontificate_, as I may jocularly
call it; and the author whom I last quoted, very candidly observes of
him, that he, perhaps, ‘did not intend to add those immense Sterlings
that have so much obstructed the River’s passage betwixt the Stone
piers,’ and which, after all, are the great cause of the evil: for,
says the same person, at page 13, when answering the common objection
to altering London Bridge, on account of the expense attending it, ‘I
have heard some masters of Hoys and Lighters say, that a Tonnage would
willingly be paid for such a conveniency and security of their goods
and vessels; and, as I have heard, an offer _was_ made to pay Tonnage,
if the Drawbridge had been opened, when the City last repaired it,
to avoid the losses they suffered frequently by the Sterlings.’ ‘It
is very probable,’ continues the same authority, ‘that the Sterlings
were made afterwards, to keep the foundation of the piers from being
undermined;--or, perhaps, these Sterlings might be increased after
some damages that befell the piers, by the great quantity of ice
which might be stopt by the narrowness of the arches; and those that
intended to make the legs more secure, used such means as rendered them
the less so, by the violent rapidity which they gave to the River so
restrained,’ In addition to this, he also attempts an apology even for
that very part of Peter’s Bridge, which has been the most condemned;
having, perhaps, designed, says Mr. Hawksmoor, ‘by the narrowness of
his arches, to restrain the ebbing of the tide, the better to preserve
the navigation of the River above the Bridge, though it would not
have any great effect if the Sterlings were taken away,’ considering
‘that if the River had its free course, it would ebb away so fast,
that there would be scarce any navigation above the Bridge, a little
time after high-water.’ This pamphlet also contains a defence of the
Great Pier, which so violently excited the censure of Malcolm, who
thought a Church on a Bridge was thrown away; for at page 12, he states
that it might be intended ‘firstly to be a steadying of the whole
machine, instead of making an angle, as it is in the famous Bridge at
Prague, and in some of the Bridges in France; so that this fortress
was placed in the middle of the Bridge, to stem the violence of the
floods, ice, and all other accidents that might be forced against it.
Secondly,--that if by any accident of the ice or flood, or undermining
any of the legs,’--he means the piers, but Hawksmoor frequently uses
this very ungraceful epithet,--‘some of the arches might fall, as five
did, Anno 1282, yet, by the help of this great buttress,--though this
damage was done on one side,--the arches on the other side stood firm,
so that there was less expense, and greater encouragement to make the
repair. The third reason was, that he had an opportunity to shew his
piety, having a situation for erecting a Chapel, which was done, and
his body deposited in it.’
“At the great repair of London Bridge, which took place between 1757
and 1770, several additional arguments were brought forward against
the original edifice; of which Mr. Robert Mylne, in his Answers to
the Select Committee of the House of Commons, for improving the Port
of London, dated May the 15th, and October the 30th, 1801, printed in
the Fourth Report of that Committee, states the following particulars.
‘The houses,’ says he, ‘being then taken down, and the sides of the
Bridge being dismantled, the internal masses of its great bulk were
found little better than rubbish, and of bad mason-work, &c. without
active exertion, or even inert resistance. The original Piles, under
the original stone-work of a very narrow Bridge, between the two modern
sides and extreme parts, by cutting into the sides of the piers, and by
one old being opened up, and totally removed, have been found composed
of Sapling Oak and some Elm, carelessly worked, neither round nor
square, but much decayed.’
“And now, worthy Mr. Barbican, having told you some of the objections
to, and apologies for, the Bridge of the venerable Peter of Colechurch,
before we ascend to the parapet, to examine the buildings which stood
upon it, let me observe to you, that there are engraved Ground-plans
of this Bridge, in George Vertue’s prints, which I shall mention more
particularly hereafter, and also in Hawksmoor’s tract from which I have
so largely quoted.”
* * * * *
Here let me for a moment interrupt the narrative of Mr. Postern, by
stating that on the next page the Reader has a reduced copy of the
interesting plan last mentioned, to which are subjoined Hawksmoor’s own
measurements, and some additional particulars, also taken from Vertue;
on the accuracy of every part of which, we have the best authority for
placing the most complete reliance.
GROUND PLAN OF THE FIRST STONE BRIDGE AT LONDON: COMMENCED A. D. 1176,
AND COMPLETED A. D. 1209.
[Illustration]
DIMENSIONS AND REFERENCES.
COMMENCING AT THE CITY, OR NORTH END.
Feet. Inches.
Breadth of First Arch 10 --
---------------- Pier 30 --
-------- Second Arch 15 --
---------------- Pier 18 --
Length of Second Pier 47 6
Breadth of Third Arch 25 --
---------------- Pier 17 --
Length of Third Pier 41 6
Breadth of Fourth Arch 21 --
---------------- Pier 18 --
Length of Fourth Pier 47 6
Breadth of Fifth Arch 27 --
---------------- Pier 21 --
Length of Fifth Pier 47 6
Breadth of Sixth Arch 29 6
---------------- Pier 21 --
Length of Sixth Pier 54 --
Breadth of Seventh Arch 29 6
------------------ Pier 21 --
Length of Seventh Pier 54 --
Breadth of Eighth Arch 26 --
---------------- Pier 21 --
Length of Eighth Pier 54 --
Breadth of Ninth Arch 32 9
---------------- Pier 21 --
Length of Ninth Pier 54 --
Breadth of Tenth Arch 25 6
---------- Centre Pier 36 --
Length of Centre Pier 95 --
Extreme Length of ditto 125 --
VERTUE _makes the extreme length of this Pier but 115 feet only._
Feet. Inches.
Breadth of Chapel on the Centre Pier 20 --
Length of ditto 60 --
Exterior height from the Water about 110 --
Breadth of Eleventh Arch 16 --
------------------ Pier 21 --
Length of Eleventh Pier 37 --
Breadth of Twelfth Arch 24 6
------------------ Pier 21 --
Length of Twelfth Pier 38 --
Breadth of Thirteenth Arch 25 8
-------------------- Pier 27 --
Length of Thirteenth Pier 50 --
Breadth of Drawbridge, or Fourteenth Arch 29 4
VERTUE _makes this space 30 feet broad._
Feet. Inches.
Breadth of Fourteenth Pier 17 --
Length of Fourteenth Pier 26 --
Breadth of Fifteenth Arch 22 10
-------------------- Pier 26 --
Length of Fifteenth Pier 47 7
Breadth of Sixteenth Arch 21 10
-------------------- Pier 15 --
Length of Sixteenth Pier 46 --
Breadth of Seventeenth Arch 29 4
---------------------- Pier 25 --
Length of Seventeenth Pier 46 --
Breadth of Eighteenth Arch 24 --
-------------------- Pier 17 --
Length of Eighteenth Pier 46 --
Breadth of Nineteenth Arch 27 --
-------------------- Pier 17 --
Length of Nineteenth Pier, North Side 49 --
Breadth of Twentieth Arch 15 --
The Piers and Arches were both measured from the squares of the latter,
the triangular ends being left un-noticed, excepting in the instance
of the Great Pier. The length of the whole Bridge was 926 feet; its
height, 60; and the breadth of the Street over it, 40 feet.
* * * * *
“Let us now then, my good Sir,” continued Mr. Postern, “ascend to
the Platform or Street of the old London Bridge, erected by Peter of
Colechurch, and look at the buildings which stood upon it; the most
celebrated of which was the famous Chapel dedicated to St. Thomas à
Becket, the Martyr of Canterbury, whence it was familiarly called
St. Thomas of the Bridge. This was erected upon the Tenth, or Great
Pier, which measured 35 feet in breadth, and 115 from point to point;
whilst the edifice itself was 60 feet in length, by 20 feet broad, and
stood over the parapet on the Eastern side of the Bridge, leaving a
pathway on the West, about a quarter of the breadth of the Pier, in
front of the Chapel. The face of the building itself was forty feet in
height, having a plain gable, surmounted by a cross of about six feet
more; whilst four buttresses, crowned by crocketted spires, divided
the Western end into three parts. The wide centre contained a rich
pointed-arch window, of one mullion, with a quatrefoil in the top;
and the two sides were occupied by the entrances to the Chapel from
the Bridge-Street, each being ascended by three steps. Such was the
general appearance of the WEST FRONT OF THE CHAPEL ON LONDON BRIDGE.
[Illustration]
“The interior of this edifice consisted of two stories, both
consecrated to sacred purposes, and greatly resembling each other
in their appearance. The Upper Chapel was lofty, being supported by
fourteen groups of elegant clustered columns, and lighted by eight
pointed-arch windows divided by stone mullions into a double range
of arches, surmounted by a lozenge. Beneath each of the windows were
three arched recesses, separated by small pillars; and the roof itself
was also originally formed of lofty pointed arches; though, when this
magnificent fane was transformed into a warehouse, a wooden ceiling,
with stout beams crossing each other in squares, was erected, which
cut off the arches where they sprang from the pillars, and divided into
two parts the INTERIOR OF THE UPPER CHAPEL OF ST. THOMAS.
[Illustration]
The Eastern extremity of this building formed a semi-hexagon, having
a smaller window in each of its divisions, with richly carved arches
under them, corresponding with the series already mentioned on the
side: and the architectural lightness and elegance of the whole,
meriting the highest encomium. Beneath this principal edifice, was
a short descending passage, having, on the left hand, a stone basin
cut in a recess in the wall, for containing Holy Water, and leading,
through the solid masonry of the Pier, into the LOWER CHAPEL OF ST.
THOMAS, which was constructed in the Bridge itself.
[Illustration]
“This CRYPT was entered both from the upper apartment and the street,
as well as by a flight of stone stairs winding round a pillar, which
led into it from the nearest Pier: whilst in the front of this latter
entrance, the Sterling formed a platform at low water, which thus
rendered it accessible from the River. The Lower Chapel, which--even
decorated as _that_ was, in my estimation, very far exceeded the upper
one in architectural beauty,--was about 20 feet in height, and its
roof supported by clustered columns, similar to those I have already
described; from each of which sprang seven ribs, the centre, and the
two adjoining it in every division, being bound by fillets with roses
on the intersections; whilst the great horizontal ribs had clusters
of regal and ecclesiastical masks, producing an effect little to be
expected in such a structure, in such a situation; though I may trust
to your correct taste, my good Mr. Barbican, for duly appreciating it.
There was also a rich SERIES OF WINDOWS IN THE LOWER CHAPEL,
[Illustration]
which looked on to the water, similar in character to, though much
smaller than, those above: whilst the floor was beautifully paved with
black and white marble; for in this place did the pious Architect
propose to rest his bones. His monument, remarkable only for its
plainness, was formed, according to Maitland’s ‘_History_,’ page 46,
under the Chapel staircase, in the middle of the building; and it
measured seven feet and an half, by four in breadth. There was, indeed,
neither brass plate, nor inscription, nor carving found about the
sepulchre, when Mr. Yaldwin, the inhabitant of the Chapel in 1737,
then a dwelling, and warehouse, discovered the remains of a body in
repairing the staircase; though, from the ‘_Annals of Waverley_,’ page
168, we know that the reliques of Peter were certainly entombed in this
place. ‘In 1205,’--runs the passage,--‘died Peter the Chaplain of
Colechurch, who began the Stone Bridge at London, and he is sepultured
in the Chapel upon the Bridge.’ By this entry then, we are assured
that he lay there; and as for an epitaph, was not the whole edifice an
everlasting catafalco to his memory, which should speak for all times?
How finely, indeed, might we apply to him that inscription, which the
son of Sir Christopher Wren composed for his father’s burial-place in
St. Paul’s,--‘He lived, not for himself, but for the public! Reader, if
you seek his monument, look around you!’
“And now, before we enter upon an examination of the bed of the Thames
at London Bridge, and consider whether the River were turned, as
Stow thinks, to admit of its erection, let me cite you some ancient
authorities concerning St. Thomas’s Chapel. The first of these shall
be the ‘_Itinerary of Symon Fitz Simeon, and Hugo the Illuminator_,’
both of whom were Irish Monks, of the Order of Friars Minors, who
visited London on their pilgrimage to Palestine, in 1322. ‘This flux
and reflux,’--say they, at pages 4, 5,--‘continues to the sea from
the famous River named Thames, upon the which is a Bridge, filled
with inhabitants and wealth; and in the midst of them is a Church
dedicated to the blessed Thomas, Archbishop and Martyr, which is well
served continually.’ About the year 1418, also, William Botoner, a
Monk of Worcester, of the Parish of St. James in Bristol, who then
travelled from that City to St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, in his
‘_Itinerarium_,’ pages 301, 302, thus spake of London Bridge and the
Chapel. ‘The length of the Chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr, upon
London Bridge, is about twenty yards; having an under Chancel in the
vault, with a choir, but the length of the nave of the said Chapel
contains fourteen yards. The width of the middle steps is one yard. The
length of the Bridge on the South, from the posts to the first gate
newly founded by Henry the Cardinal, unto the two posts erected near
the Church of St. Magnus, consists of five hundred of my steps. _Item_:
there are five great windows on one side,’--of the Chapel,--‘each of
which contains three panes:’ or rather divisions. Of these Itineraries
I will observe nothing farther, than that they were published from the
original Manuscripts in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, by James
Nasmith, the Editor of Tanner’s ‘_Notitia Monastica_;’ in 1778, octavo;
under the title of ‘_Itineraria Symonis Simeonis, et Willielmi de
Worcestre_.’
“Of this Chapel, and also of the first Stone Bridge, there are two
large folio engravings, taken and published, by George Vertue, in
1744-48, which, after his decease, were, with many of his other plates
of Antiquities, presented by his widow to the Antiquarian Society in
1775. The first engraving measures 18-1/4 inches by 20 inches and 3/8,
and contains ‘A View of the West Front of the Chappel of St. Thomas,
on London Bridge; also the Inside View from West to East of the said
Chappel, as it was first built An°. 1209:’--and also ‘London Bridge as
it was first built, An°. 1209:’--a Ground plan, and some measurements
of the same, and a short Historical account of the structure, drawn
up by Sir Joseph Ayloffe, Bart. Vice-President of the Society of
Antiquaries. The publication line states, that it was ‘drawn, engrav’d,
and publish’d by G. Vertue, in Brownlow-Street, Drury-Lane, 1748.’ A
second edition was printed by the Society, in 1777.
“The other plate contains ‘The Inside Perspective View of the Under
Chappel of St. Thomas within London Bridge, from the West to the East
end,’ and beneath it: the ‘Inside South View of the Under Chappel from
East to West, representing the manner and form of this rare piece
of Ancient Architecture, thus drawn and transmitted to posterity,
by G. V., Antiquary, 1744. Published and sold by G. Vertue, in
Brownlow-Street, Drury-Lane, 1747’ This plate, which measures 18-1/4
inches by 20, contains a few additional historical notes, by Sir Joseph
Ayloffe; and a reduced copy of the lower View was engraved in the
23d volume of the ‘_Gentleman’s Magazine_,’ for October, 1753, page
520. I must observe, also, that, in the large interior View on that
plate of Vertue last-mentioned, there are introduced the portraits of
the learned Samuel Gale, and the eccentric Dr. Ducarel. The former,
by whose patronage and assistance Vertue produced these prints, is
standing on the left hand, holding a plan of the Chapel, and listening
to an outlandish-looking man, designed for Peter of Colechurch;
whilst the latter Antiquary is employed in measuring. You find this
information given from Gale’s own lips, in that monument of labour,
the ‘_Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century_,’ by John Nichols,
volume iv. London, 1812, 8vo. page 552, and volume vi. part I. page
402. I shall close this notice of these most ancient views of London
Bridge, by observing to you, that there is a view and a ground-plan
of it, with measurements, engraved by Toms, on the second plate in
Hawksmoor’s work, already cited.