Antiquary, John Leland, to whose works I have already made some slight
illustrative references; and the volume to which I am now about to
request your attention, is one of the most rare, and curious, though
not the greatest, of his productions. Let me remind you, however,
before I mention the work itself, that Leland was, very probably, born
in the Parish of St. Michael le Quern, London, in September, about
the year 1506; that he was educated at St. Paul’s School, in both the
Universities, and in France; that he made a literary and an antiquarian
tour, of amazing minuteness and research, by virtue of a commission
from King Henry VIII., in 1533; and that he died in a state of mental
derangement, April the 18th, 1552, having lived about five years
under its heaviest pressure. The particular volume of his writings
to which I would refer you, as containing much original and curious
matter concerning London Bridge, is a Latin poem, written in verses of
five feet, yet not strictly in pentameters, entitled ‘_Kykneion Asma,
Cygnea Cantio: A Swan’s Song: the Author, John Leland, the Antiquary_.’
Of this book there are two editions; a quarto, printed at London in
1545; and a duodecimo, also published here in 1658: though the poem and
commentary were again inserted in the 9th volume of Hearne’s edition
of ‘_Leland’s Itinerary_;’ since, as he states in his Preface thereto,
they ‘ought to be looked upon as part of the Itinerary;’ and that they
were grown so very rare, that though twice reprinted, they had sold,
even so far back as 1712, for forty shillings in auctions. Bishop
Nicolson, in his ‘_English Historical Library_,’ page 3, characterises
this work as ‘a poetical piece of flattery, or a panegyric on King
Henry; wherein the author brings his Swan down the River of Thames,
from Oxford to Greenwich, describing, as she passes along, all the
towns, castles, and other places of note within her view. And the
ancient names of these, being sometimes different from what the common
herd of writers had usually given, therefore, in his commentary on this
Poem, he alphabetically explains his terms, and, by the bye, brings
in a great deal of the ancient geography of this island.’ The first
passage that I shall cite you from this curious volume, is from page
8, verse 213, edition 1658; which commences ‘_Mox et nobilium domos
virorum_;’ but as I have, for the first time, done it into English
verse, I will repeat you only my paraphrase, rather than the original
Latin, observing that I have strictly adhered to all the actual facts.
‘More plainly now, as o’er the tide
With swift, but gentle course we glide;
The sight embraces in its ken
Those dwellings of illustrious men,
Where Thames upon his banks descries
The brave, the courteous, and the wise.
But, Oh! that sight too well recalls
The name of one, whose love was shrined
Within his river-seated halls,
Less richly furnish’d than his mind!
For Wisdom had endow’d his heart
With all that gilds mortality;
But he _was_ man, and Death’s keen dart
Changed so much of him as _could_ die,
Into his body’s native earth,
To give his soul an heavenly birth.
Yet, whilst we muse on Time’s career,
And hail his care-worn kindred here,
The streaming river bears us on
To London’s mighty Babylon:
And that vast Bridge, which proudly soars,
Where Thames through nineteen arches roars,
And many a lofty dome on high
It raises towering to the sky.
‘There are, whose truth is void of stain,
Who write, in Lion Richard’s reign,
That o’er these waves extended stood
A ruder fabric framed of wood:
But when the swift-consuming flames
Destroy’d that bulwark of the Thames,
Rebuilt of stone it rose to view,
Beneath King John its splendours grew,
Whilst London pour’d her wealth around,
The mighty edifice to found;
The lasting monument to raise
To his, to her eternal praise,
Till, rearing up its form sublime,
It stands the glory of all time!
‘Yet here we may not longer stay
But shoot the Bridge and dart away,
Though, with resistless fall, the tide
Is dashing on the bulwark’s side;
And roaring torrents drown my song
As o’er the surge I drift along.’
“Such then, Mr. Barbican, is my rapid version of those interesting
verses contained in the ‘_Cygnea Cantio_;’ and we shall next refer to
the famous passage in the Commentary upon it, though, in order to be
perfectly explicit, I must previously mention some of the circumstances
which caused it to be written.
“John Bale, an intimate friend, and most fervent admirer of Leland,
admits, in the Preface attached to his ‘_New Year’s Gift_,’ that he
was not quite free from the weakness of boasting and vain-glory. An
instance of this is to be found in the Commentary on that part of
the ‘_Cygnea Cantio_,’ where he is speaking of London Bridge; and
you will find the passage referred to in a work to which I have been
greatly indebted for these notices of Leland and his writings:--‘_The
Lives of those eminent Antiquaries John Leland, Thomas Hearne, and
Anthony à Wood_,’ Oxford, 1772, 8vo., volume i., page 47, where it is
also stated, that London Bridge was then the subject of much public
attention. By far the most curious reference to Leland’s invective,
however, is to be seen in an original Letter written from Hearne to
Bagford, and preserved in the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts,
No. 5910, Part iv. at the end; whence I shall give it you in all its
original simplicity.
‘_Oxf. 11th July, 1714._
“‘SIR,
’Tis a pretty while since I received another part of your
observations about London, together with some fragments and
books, and a copy of Leland’s ‘_Encomia illustrorum virorum_.’
The gentleman who lent this copy is a person for whom I have a
great honour, and I desire you would return him my service and
thanks, altho’ I have already done this myself in a letter I writ
to him. I should be glad to know whether he be Esq., or what other
title I may call him by, if I should have occasion to make public
mention of his name. I am extremely obliged to you for your care
and trouble, and for your readiness to assist me. As for what
Leland says about London Bridge, ’tis in the word _Pontifices_ in
his Com. upon the ‘_Cygnea Cantio_.’ Some ignorant persons, and
particularly one, had found fault with his making only _nineteen
arches_, in London Bridge, when, as they alleged, there were
_twenty_. Mr. Leland acknowledges there were _twenty cataracts_,
or _passages_, but observes that one of them was only a sluice,
or Draw-Bridge, and that there were only _nineteen stone arches_.
Upon this he takes occasion to animadvert in short upon the
aforesaid person, who had been so pert, and promises to take more
notice of him afterwards, and at the same time to expose him
according to his deserts. He tells us he had survey’d the whole
City, and took notes of every thing of consequence in it, and
insinuates that he would publish a most full and exact account
of its History and Antiquities. ’Twas in this work the remarks
of the aforesaid Observator were to be fully considered; but Mr.
Leland dying before he could finish either this, or divers other
undertakings, his papers came into other hands, and those about
London (which were considerable) coming to Mr. Stowe, many of them
are published in the Survey of London as Mr. Stowe’s own, and
others are entirely lost, or, at least, ’tis not at present known
who has the possession of them.’
* * * * *
‘_For Mr. John Bagford, at the
Charter House, London._’
“After this flourish of trumpets, concerning Leland and London Bridge,
I proceed to translate for you the very amusing passage itself,
premising only that you will find it on page 133, in that edition of
the work which I have already cited.--‘_Pontifices: Bridge Masters_,
officers who derive their name from the nature of their employment,
namely, the constructing of Bridges, or the keeping of them in order;
of whom also are the two Governors charged with the care of London
Bridge. These officers have an excellent house in the suburb of
Southwark, as well as a storehouse containing every thing belonging to
their occupation. 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.
And he being, I warrant you, a critic of rare sagacity, plucks up by
the roots, rends, and mangles, all by his own mighty authority, an’t
please you, the pretended oversight on my part. But no more at present;
for upon another opportunity I am about to overwhelm his intolerable
stupidity, and trample down his arrogance: I merely then reply to him,
that one eye-witness is of more value than ten hearsays. I am a Citizen
of London, nor do I repent me of my country; and I hope also that she
may never have any reason to repent her of her son. To thee then, thou
vile companion, Geta,’--the name, you may remember, of a very knavish
servant in Terence’s ‘_Phormio_,’--‘to thee I say
To none the City better known _can_ be,
All London is a monument to me!
Suppose thou wert to try thy skill at searching into that antiquity
which involves this wonder of our City? Perchance thou mayest learn
something, unless thou art half-ashamed to learn under my tuition. But
why should we not now return to the matter of the Bridge? London Bridge
then, as it extends itself from North to South, has _twenty cataracts_;
but of _arches_, incurvated passages formed of solid stone, there are
no more than _nineteen_. That platform, having the figure of a Bridge,
made of level wooden planks, capable of being raised or lowered by
machines, that an enemy may not find an open passage, I neither can,
nor will, nor ought reasonably to call an arch. And yet thou wert
greatly in hope of a mighty triumph over me in this matter; but by
these words thus easily do I snatch away from thee thine air-built
castles.
For though Antæus thou should’st be, or Polyphemus vast,
Or Atlas, on whose shoulders broad the world itself was cast,
To hope to triumph o’er me were but labour spent in vain,
And thou, I deem, wilt wiser be if e’er we meet again.
‘And now, get thee hence, thou Geta, and fail not to proclaim to all
your pot-companions, your notable discovery of _twenty arches in London
Bridge_!’
“I have next, Mr. Barbican, to commend to your notice the account of
London Bridge and the Thames, given to us by that most learned man and
voluminous writer, Paulus Jovius, Bishop of Nocera, an historian who
was born at Como, in Italy, in 1483, and died in 1552. The passage to
which I allude, is in his ‘_Descriptio Britanniæ, Scotiæ, Hyberniæ, et
Orchadum_,’ Venice, 1548, small quarto, or octavo, page 12 a, beginning
‘_Sed harum et denique omnium et famam Londinum penitus obscurat_;’ but
I shall here again take the freedom to anticipate time a little, and
give you under one year a translation of Paulus Jovius, and Sir Paul
Hentzner’s description of the same object; since the former is cited by
the latter, and both are excellently well rendered into English in that
very curious and rare production of the Strawberry-Hill press, entitled
‘_A Journey into England, by Paul Hentzner, in the Year M.D.XC.VIII._,’
printed in 1757, octavo; on page 4 of which the passage thus commences.
‘On the South is a Bridge of stone, 800 feet in length, of wonderful
work; it is supported upon 20 piers of square stone, 60 feet high, and
30 broad, joined by arches of about 20 feet diameter. The whole is
covered on each side with houses, so disposed as to have the appearance
of a continued street, not at all of a Bridge. Upon this is built a
tower, on whose top the heads of such as have been executed for high
treason are placed upon iron spikes: we counted above thirty. Paulus
Jovius, in his description of the most remarkable towns of England,
says, ‘All are obscured by London; which, in the estimation of many,
is Cæsar’s City of the Trinobantes, the capital of all Britain, famous
for the commerce of many nations; its houses are elegantly built,
its churches fine, its towers strong, and its riches and abundance
surprising. The wealth of the world is wafted to it by the Thames,
swelled by the tide, and navigable to merchant ships, through a safe
and deep channel for 60 miles, from its mouth to the City. 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.
This river abounds in swans, swimming in flocks; the sight of them,
and their noise, are vastly agreeable to the fleets that meet them in
their course. It is joined to the City by a Bridge of stone wonderfully
built; is never encreased by any rains, rising only with the tide, and
is every where spread with nets, for the taking of salmon and shad.’
Thus far Paulus Jovius.’
“I have given you the whole of this passage, because it is curious in
itself, most elegantly translated by Lord Orford, and because, in the
accounts of ancient London which we derive from the foreigners who have
visited it, there is most commonly a delineation of some feature which
others have neglected; as I shall have several opportunities of shewing
you hereafter. I have only to add at present, that Paul Hentzner was an
eminent German Counsellor and traveller, who died in 1623; and whose
work, whence I have extracted the foregoing description, is entitled
‘_Itinerarium Germaniæ, Galliæ, Angliæ, et Italiæ_,’ &c. best edition,
Nuremberg, 1629, 4to. It was written during a journey which he made
through those countries with the young Count Rhediger, with whom he
had been at the University of Strasburg; its elegance of language is
particularly remarkable, and the part relating to England is generally
considered as the best.
“In the fourth year of the reign of King Edward the
Sixth,--1550,--those extensive Letters Patent were granted to
Southwark, by which the famous Fair was instituted in that Borough, to
be held on the 7th, 8th, and 9th of September. The Patent was dated
the 20th of April, and the sum of £647. 2_s._ 1_d._ was paid for it to
the King, by the Mayor and Corporation of London. At the time of this
Fair, anciently called ‘Our Lady Fair in Southwark,’ the Lord Mayor,
and Sheriffs, used to ride to St. Magnus’ Church after dinner, at two
o’clock in the afternoon; the former being vested with his collar of
SS., without his hood, and all dressed in their scarlet gowns, lined,
without their cloaks. They were attended by the Sword-Bearer wearing
his embroidered cap, and carrying ‘the Pearl Sword;’ and, at the
Church, were met by the Aldermen, all of whom, after Evening Prayer,
rode over the Bridge in procession, passed through the Fair, and
continued either to St. George’s Church, Newington Bridge, or to the
stones pointing out the City liberties at St. Thomas of Waterings. They
then returned over the Bridge, or to the Bridge-House, where a banquet
was provided, when the Aldermen took leave of the Lord Mayor, and, all
parties being returned home, the Bridge-Masters gave a supper to the
Lord Mayor’s officers. Stow and his continuators are my authorities for
these particulars; see volume ii. of his ‘_Survey_,’ pages 5, 249.
“Our voyage down the stream of history, and of time, has at length
conducted us to the reign of Queen Mary, and the year 1554; when her
proposed marriage with Philip II., of Spain, alarmed all the nation,
lest the Inquisition should be established in England, and the people
become the vassals of the Spanish crown. But although the Protestants
were the most alarmed at this marriage, when the treaty was made public
the complaints and murmurs against it became almost universal; and,
finally, produced a conspiracy against Mary, of which it was certainly
either the cause, or the pretence. One of the principal leaders of this
plot was Sir Thomas Wyat, a gentleman of Kent, who had frequently been
Ambassador to Spain, where the cruelty and subtilty of the people had
alarmed him for the future fate of his own country. As the insurrection
was intended to be general, _his_ sphere of action was to be Kent;
whilst Sir Peter Carew excited a rising in Cornwall, and the Duke of
Suffolk in Warwickshire, as being the centre of the kingdom. From too
hasty preparations, however, and too rapidly assembling his forces, the
designs of Carew were discovered before they were entirely perfected;
one of his accomplices was arrested; and he saved himself only by
deserting the enterprise and escaping to France. This unexpected
discovery accelerated all the other measures; for, though it was
intended to await the arrival of King Philip, to give a colour to the
rebellion, Wyat, notwithstanding he was unprepared, marched his few
followers to Maidstone, and gave out that he took up arms to preserve
England from being invaded. He had little success on his way to London,
but the City Trained-bands being, by a manoeuvre, induced to desert to
him, he arrived with about 4000 men in Southwark, on Saturday, February
the 3rd, 1553-54. The prudence of that excellent man, Sir Thomas White,
then Lord Mayor, had, however, already prepared for his coming; added
to which, the Queen, who remained in Guildhall, appointed Lord William
Howard Lieutenant of the City. The Draw-Bridge at London Bridge was
then cut down and thrown into the River; the Bridge gates were shut;
ramparts and fortifications were raised around them; ordnance was
planted to defend them; and the Mayor and Sheriffs, well armed for the
conflict, commanded all persons to shut their shops and windows, and to
stand ready harnessed at their doors for any event which might occur.
As Wyat found there was no opposition made to him in Southwark, some
of his soldiers completely sacked the Bishop of Winchester’s Palace,
and destroyed his extensive library; whilst at the Bridge foot he laid
two pieces of ordnance, and dug an extensive trench between the Bridge
and his forces. In order to gain an entrance to the Bridge, Sir Thomas
brake down the wall of a house adjoining the gate, by which he ascended
the leads over the gate, and then coming down into the Porter’s lodge,
about eleven at night, he found the Porter sleeping, but his wife, with
several others, watching over a coal fire. On beholding Wyat, they
suddenly started, when he commanded them to be silent, as they loved
their lives, and they should have no hurt; and, they timidly yielding
to him, he and some others went upon the Bridge to reconnoitre. On the
other side of the Draw-Bridge he saw the Lord Admiral, the Lord Mayor,
Sir Andrew Judd, and one or two more in consultation, for defence of
the Bridge, as we may suppose, by fire or torch light; and after, for
some time, carefully observing their deliberations, he returned to his
party, unseen and in safety. 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.
“On the night previously to their departure, Monday, the 5th of
February, as ‘Thomas Menschen, one of the Lieutenant’s men of the
Tower,’--says Stow, in his ‘_Annals_,’ page 619,--‘rowed with a
sculler over against the Bishop of Winchester’s Palace, there was
a water-man of the Tower stayres, desired the sayd Lieutenant to
take him in, who did so, which being espied of Wyatt’s men, seauen
of them with harquebusses called to them to land againe, but they
would not, whereupon each man discharged their piece, and killed
the sayd Waterman, which foorthwith falling downe dead, the sculler
with much paine rowed through the Bridge to the Tower wharfe, with
the Lieutenant’s man and the dead man in his boat; which thing was
no sooner knowne to the Lieutenant, but even the same night, and the
next morning, hee bent seauen great pieces of ordnance, cvluerings
and demi-canons, full against the foote of the Bridge, and against
Southwarke, and the two steeples of Saint Olaues and Saint Mary
Oueries, besides all the pieces on the White Tower, one culuering on
the Diueling Tower, and three fauconets ouer the Water-gate: which
so soone as the inhabitants of Southwarke vnderstood, certaine both
men and women came to Wyat in most lamentable wise, saying, ‘Sir, wee
are all like to bee vtterly vndone, and destroyed for your sake, our
houses shall by and by bee throwne downe vpon our heads, to the vtter
spoyle of this borrough, with the shot of the Tower, all ready bent
and charged towards vs, for the loue of God therefore take pittie vpon
vs:’ at which wordes hee being partly abashed, stayed a while, and then
sayd: ‘I pray you my friends bee content a while, and I will soone ease
you of this mischiefe, for God forbid that you, or the least here,
should be killed, or hurt, in my behalfe.’ And so, in most speedie
manner, hee marched away.’
“He next proceeded to Kingston, where he devised the means of crossing
the river, though the bridge was destroyed; and on the 7th of February
he entered London. His unhappy story is no farther connected with that
of London Bridge; and it will therefore be sufficient to observe that
he was executed on the 11th of April, on Tower-hill, his quarters being
set up in several places, and his head on the gibbet at Hay-hill, near
Hyde Park; whence, however, it was soon after stolen and carried away.
In addition to Stow’s ‘_Annals_,’ let me observe that I have also
quoted from Holinshed’s ‘_Chronicle_,’ volume iii., page 1097.
“Although, as I have fully shewn you, London Bridge was, in general,
most intimately connected with the principal executions of the times,
yet I do not read that it was rendered remarkable, in the days of
Queen Mary, by being made the scene of any of the numerous Protestant
martyrdoms, which have eternally blotted her short, but sanguinary
reign. There is, however, in Fox, a short anecdote connected with our
present subject, which I quote the more readily, as it also bears
a reference to the Church of St. Magnus. Upon the death of Pope
Julius III., in 1555, Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester and Lord
Chancellor, wrote to Bonner, Bishop of London, to command him, in Queen
Mary’s name, to order those prayers to be used throughout his diocese,
which the Roman Church has appointed during a vacancy in the Papal See.
‘Vpon this commandment,’--says John Fox, in his immortal ‘_Acts and
Monuments of Martyrs_;’ London, 1610, volume iii., page 1417, column
2,--‘on Wednesday in Easter weeke,’--which, in 1555, was the 17th of
April,--‘there were hearses set vp, and diriges sung for the said
Julius, in diuers places. At which time it chanced a woman to come into
Saint Magnus Church, at the Bridge-foot in London, and there seeing
an hearse and other preparation, asked what it meant: and other that
stood by, said that it was for the Pope, and that she must pray for
him. ‘Nay,’ quoth she, ‘that I will not, for he needeth not my prayer:
and seeing he could forgiue vs all our sins, I am sure he is cleane
himselfe: therefore I neede not to pray for him.’ She was heard speake
these words of certaine that stood by: which by and by carried her
vnto the cage at London Bridge, and bade her coole her selfe there.’
In some of the editions of Fox there is an engraving representing this
circumstance, which shews that the Stocks and Cage stood by one of the
archways on the Bridge, and in one of the vacant spaces which looked on
to the water.
[Illustration]
I will but add, that Cages and Stocks were ordered to be set up in
every Ward of the City by Sir William Capell, Draper, and Lord Mayor,
in 1503.
“I cannot illustrate the year 1556 farther than by an extract from the
Account-Rolls of the Bridge-Keepers, taken from the printed document
already mentioned; and the general particulars are as follow. ‘1556.
Andrew Woodcock and William Maynard, Bridge-Masters, received for this
year’s fee, each, £26. 13_s._ 4_d._--£53. 6_s._ 8_d._ Horse-keeping,
to each, £2.--£4. Livery, each £1.--£2. Total, to each of them, £29.
13_s._ 4_d._ Sum of the whole £59. 6_s._ 8_d._ Rental, £1069. 11_s._
6-1/4_d._’