that this part was not built upon even in the year 1665, contained in
that most interesting and curious work, the ‘_Memoirs and Diary of
Samuel Pepys, Esq., F.R.S. and Secretary to the Admiralty in the reigns
of Charles II. and James II_.’ Edited by Richard, Lord Braybrooke,
London, 1825, 4to. volume 1., page 388: where, under the date of
January 24th, 1665-66, that observant journalist has the following
entry. ‘My Lord,’--Edward Montague, Earl of Sandwich,--‘and I, the
weather being a little fairer, went by water to Deptford; and the
wind being again very furious, so as we durst not go by water, walked
to London round the Bridge, no boat being able to stirre; and, Lord!
what a dirty walk we had, and so strong the wind, that in the fields
we many times could not carry our bodies against it, but were driven
backwards. 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. And the greatest sight of all was, among other
parcels of ships driven here and there in clusters together, one was
quite overset, and lay with her masts all along in the water, and
her keel above water.’ The desolation, and wintry chillness of this
picture, is enough to make one shiver even in the Dog-days.”
When the worthy old Chronicler had arrived at the conclusion of this
narrative, as usual I took up the story, and began thus:--“This, Mr.
Barnaby Postern, was indeed a fatal destruction, and one would imagine
that it was no such happy event as to cause a jesting ballad to be made
to commemorate it; but yet, though in the following verses there are
some discordant circumstances, and even the date is at variance with
that which you have already given, there can be little doubt but that
they relate to the Fire of which you have now spoken. You will find
them printed at the end of a very rare, but, at the same time, a very
worthless publication, entitled ‘_The Loves of Hero and Leander, a mock
Poem: Together with choice Poems and rare pieces of drollery, got by
heart, and often repeated by divers witty Gentlemen and Ladies that use
to walke in the New Exchange, and at their recreations in Hide Park_.’
London, 1653, 12mo., pages 44-48. There is also another edition of
1682; but I pray you to remember, that many of the fescennine rhymes,
some of which would have done honour to Hudibras, and many of the witty
points of this song, are, in that latter copy, most vilely perverted; I
shall give it you, therefore, as it stands in the former impression.
‘_Some_ Christian people _all_ give ear
Unto the grief of us:
Caused by the death of three children dear.
The which it happen’d thus.
And eke there befel an accident,
By fault of a Carpenter’s son,
Who to saw chips his sharp ax-e-lent
Woe worth the time may Lon----
May London say: Woe worth the Carpenter!
And all such _block-head_ fools;
Would he were hanged up like a _sarpent_ here
For meddling with edge tools.
For into the chips there fell a spark,
Which put out in such flames,
That it was known into South-wark
Which lies beyond the Thames.
For _Loe_! the Bridge was wondrous _high_
With water underneath:
O’er which as many fishes fly
As birds therein do breathe.
And yet the fire consumed the Brigg,
Not far from place of landing;
And though the building was full big,
It fell down,--_not with standing_.
And eke into the water fell
So many pewter dishes,
That a man might have taken up very well
Both boil’d and roasted fishes!
And thus the Bridge of London Town,
For building that was sumptuous,
Was _all_ by fire _half_ burnt down,
For being too _contumptious_!
Thus you have _all_ but _half_ my song,
Pray list to what comes _ater_;
For now I have _cool’d_ you with the _fire_,--
I’ll _warm_ you with the _water_!
I’ll tell you what the River’s name’s
Where these children did slide--a,
It was fair London’s swiftest Thames
Which keeps both Time and Tide--a.
All on the tenth of January,
To the wonder of much people;
’Twas frozen o’er that well ’twould bear
Almost a country steeple!
Three children sliding thereabout,
Upon a place too thin;
That so at last it did _fall out_,
That they did all _fall in_.
A great Lord there was that laid with the King,
And with the King great wager makes;
But when he saw that he could not win
He sigh’d,--and would have drawn stakes.
He said it would bear a man for to slide,
And laid a hundred pound;
The King said it would break, and so it did,
For three children there were drown’d.
Of which, one’s head was from his should--
ers stricken,--whose name was John;
Who then cried out as loud as he could
‘Oh Lon-a! Lon-a! Lon-don!’
‘Oh! tut--tut--turn from thy sinful race!’
Thus did his speech decay;
I wonder that in such a case
He had no more to say.
And thus being drown’d, Alack! Alack!
The water ran down their throats,
And stopp’d their breath three hours by the clock,
Before they could get any boats!
Ye parents all that children have,
And ye that have none yet,
Preserve your children from the grave,
And teach them at home to sit.
For had these at a sermon been,
Or else upon dry ground,
Why then I never would have been seen,
If that they had been drown’d!
Even as a huntsman ties his dogs,
For fear they should go fro him;
So tye your children with severity’s clogs,
_Untie ’em_--and you’ll _undo ’em_.
God bless our noble Parliament,
And rid them from all fears;
God bless _all_ the Commons of this land,
And God bless--_some_ of the Peers!’
“And now, Sir, I shall, by your favour, say a few words with respect
to the tune to which these verses were formerly sung; which I am the
better enabled to do by the researches of a gentleman, to whom, in
several other particulars of our history, I have been considerably
indebted. By his information, I shall first inform you, that the
foregoing Song exists in its original state, in the Pepysian Collection
of Ballads preserved in Magdalen College, Cambridge, volume ii., page
146; where it is called ‘_The Lamentation of a bad market, or the
drownding of three children on the Thames. To the tune of the Ladies’
Fall. Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clarke._’ Now
the old verses, entitled ‘_A Lamentable Ballad of the Lady’s Fall_,’
you will find, with some account of it prefixed, in Bishop Percy’s
‘_Reliques of Ancient English Poetry_,’ volume iii., book ii., article
x., page 137, fourth edition, London, 1794, octavo; or, indeed, you
may consult any edition but the last. From the Editor’s notice of this
latter poem, we learn that it was sung to the tune of the verses called
‘_The Shepherd’s Slumber_;’ better known by the first three words of
the commencing stanza.
‘In pescod time, when hound to horne
Gives eare till buck be kill’d;
And little lads with pipes of corne,
Sate keeping beasts a-field.’
“I have not, Mr. Barnaby, found the musical notation of _this_ song,
though I am almost inclined to think it was sung to the very common
tune of ‘_Flying Fame_,’ so familiar to every body under the name of
‘_Chevy Chace_;’ for in volume iv., page 1, of Tom D’Urfey’s collection
of Songs called ‘_Wit and Mirth_,’ London, 1719, 12mo., you may see
this very ballad on London Bridge, entitled ‘_Three children sliding
on the Thames. Tune, Chevy chace_.’ Listen then, my good Sir, whilst,
with my very unmelodious voice, I attempt to give you some idea of
it;--the music I have alluded to, runs thus:--
[Music:
‘Some Chris-tian peo-ple all give ear,
Un-to the grief of us:
Caused by the death of three Chil-dren dear.
The which it hap-pened thus.’”]
“Thank ye, thank ye, honest Master Geoffrey Barbican,” said my visitor,
as I concluded; “my thanks to you, both for your music and poetry;
for I verily think as you do, that the verses which you have repeated
relate to this conflagration of 1633, although there was the difference
of a month between the actual fact, and your rhyming record of it. It
appears to me, too, as if I recognized in the 16th stanza,--where the
last words of the drowning victim are uttered by his head in broken
accents,--the original of Gay’s description of the death of Doll, the
Pippin-woman, contained in the 2nd book of his ‘_Trivia_,’ since she
died in much the same place and manner.
“The rental of the Bridge House was, doubtless considerably lessened
by this destructive fire; but in the printed document of the
Bridge-Masters’ Accounts, there is not any notice of the amount of
rents for some years after it. In 1636, however, we are informed that
the salaries, horsekeeping, and liveries, of John Potter, and David
Bourne, the Wardens, amounted to £71. 3_s._ 4_d._ each; and in the
following year the rental is stated to have been only £1836. 7_s._
6_d._, whilst the fees, &c. of John Hawes and Noadiah Rawlins amounted
to £72. In that Manuscript treatise on the payment of Tythes, which
I have mentioned to you as being in the Archiepiscopal Library at
Lambeth, Cornelius Burgess, the then Rector of St. Magnus, observes
that ‘the best third part of the Parish was consumed by the late fire
on London Bridge: yet no part of the annual charges lying on the
Parsonage is abated. And it is yet capable of a large improvement, by
reason that a good part of it being Citty land, provisions have been
accordingly made to keepe downe the tithes generally throughout the
Parish to vnreasonable low proportions, some very few houses excepted.’
According to Newcourt, in his ‘_Repertorium Ecclesiasticum_,’ volume
i., page 396, these tythes before this conflagration amounted to £109.
for 90 houses, of which about 40 houses were destroyed; though, in the
Manuscript valuation of 1638, they are reduced to £81. 12_s._ 8_d._
“The destruction of London Bridge, however, was not allowed to pass
without a more appropriate memorial than the song which you have
repeated; for in the parochial records of the Church adjoining, it
is stated, that Susanna Chambers by her will, dated the 28th day of
December, 1640, left ‘unto the Parson of the Parish Church of St.
Magnus, on, or near, London Bridge, or unto such other Preacher of
God’s word as my said son Richard Chambers, his heirs, administrators,
and assignees shall yearly appoint, the yearly sum of twenty shillings
of lawful English money, for a Sermon to be preached on the 12th day of
February, in every year, within the said Parish Church of St. Magnus,
London Bridge, or any other near thereunto, in commemoration of God’s
merciful preservation of the said Church of St. Magnus from ruin in the
late and terrible fire of London Bridge; and also the sum of seventeen
shillings and sixpence to the poor of that Parish of St. Magnus; and
two shillings and sixpence to the clerk and sexton.’ This gift is
mentioned by most of the London Historians; and I would observe to you
that I am informed, with regard to the present state of this bequest,
that the money for the Sermon, the Clerk, and the Sexton, has not been
claimed within the memory of the oldest inhabitant of the Parish: but
that the poor have, ever since, duly received their legacy. Whilst I am
speaking of St. Magnus’ Church, I may also remark, that in consequence
of the dissolution of the Fraternity belonging to it, which I have
before mentioned, there has been a perpetuity of £21. 6_s._ 8_d._ paid
by the Exchequer ever since the time of Queen Mary.
“In the 43rd volume of that most extraordinary collection of Tracts,
which the late excellent King George III. presented to the British
Museum, there is a pamphlet of four leaves commemorating a remarkable
flow of the Thames at London Bridge, the title to which is given by
Gough in his ‘_British Topography_,’ volume i., page 731: and it
bears the same proportion to its contents, as the show-cloth of a
travelling menagerie does to the actual exhibition. ‘_A Strange Wonder,
or the Citie’s Amazement. Being a Relation occasioned by a wonderfull
and vnusuall accident, that happened in the River of Thames, Friday,
Feb. 4, 1641. There flowing Two Tydes at London Bridge, within the
space of an houre and a halfe, the last comming with such violence
and hideous noyse, that it not onely affrighted, but even astonished
above 500 watermen that stood beholding it on both sides the Thames.
Which latter Tyde rose sixe foote higher then the former Tyde had done,
to the great admiration of all men._’ London, 1641. Small quarto.
This tract is subsequently named ‘_True Newes from Heaven_,’ and the
author takes occasion, from the event which he records, to lament the
vices and confusion of his time. The fact itself occupies but a small
portion of his text; and he relates it thus.--‘Fryday, Februarie
4, 1641, it was high water at one of the clocke at noone, a time--by
reason so accommodated for all imployments by water or land,--very fit
to afford witnesse of a strange and notorious accident. After it was
full high water, and that it flowed its full due time as all Almanacks
set downe; and water-men, the vnquestionable prognosticators in that
affaire, with confidence mainetaine it stood a quiet still dead water,
a full houre and halfe, without moving or returning any way never so
litle: Yea, the water-men flung in stickes to the streame, as near as
they could guesse, which lay in the water as vpon the earth, without
moving this way or that. Dishes likewise, and wodden buckets, they
set a swimming, but it proved a stilling, for move they would not
any way by force of stream or water; so that it seemed the water was
indeed asleepe or dead, or had changed or borrowed the stability of
the earth. The water-men not content with this evidence, would needs
make the vtmost of the tryall, that they might report with the more
boldnesse the truth of the matter: and with more credible confidence
they tooke their boates and lanched into the streame or very channell:
but the boates that lay hailed up on the shore moved as much, except
when they used their oares; nay,--a thing worthy the admiration of
all men,--they rowed under the very arches, tooke up their oares and
slept there, or, at least, lay still an houre very neare, their boates
not so much as moved through any way, either upward or downeward: the
water seeming as plaine, quiet, even, and stable as a pavement under
the arch, where, if any where in the Thames, there must be moving by
reason of the narrownesse of the place. In this posture stood the water
a whole houre and halfe, or rather above, by the testimony of above
five hundred water-men, on either side the Thames, whom not to believe
in this case were stupiditie, not discretion. At last, when all men
expected its ebb, being filled with amazement that it stood so long as
hath been delivered, behold a greater wonder, a new Tyde comes in! A
new Tyde with a witnesse, you might easily take notice of him; so lowde
he roared, that the noise was guessed to be about Greenwich when it was
heard so, not onely clearly, but fearfully to the Bridge; and up he
comes tumbling, roaring, and foaming in that furious manner, that it
was horror unto all that beheld it. And as it gave sufficient notice to
the eare of its comming, so it left sufficient satisfaction to the eye
that it was now come; having raised the water foure foote higher then
the first Tyde had done, foure foote by rule! as by evident measure did
appear, and presently ebbed in as hasty, confused, unaccustomed manner.
See here, Reader! a wonder, that--all things considered,--the oldest
man never saw or heard of the like.’
“Lord Clarendon, in his ‘_History of the Rebellion_,’ volume i., part
ii., book iv. page 521, Oxford, 1819, 8vo., states that when John
Hampden and the four other members of Parliament were accused of High
Treason, and were, by their own party, brought back in triumph from the
City, January the 11th, 1641-42, ‘from London-Bridge to Westminster,
the Thames was guarded with above a hundred lighters and longboats,
laden with small pieces of ordnance, and dressed up with waistclothes
and streamers, as ready for fight,’ These forces, together with
the City Trained-bands under Major General Skippon, were not less
to honour, than to defend, the return of the accused Members. The
same noble Historian tells us farther, in the same volume and part,
book v. page 661, that about the end of March in the same year, the
Justices, and principal gentlemen of the County of Kent, prepared a
Petition to the two Houses of Parliament, that the Militia might not
be otherwise exercised in that County than according to Law, and that
the Common Prayer Book might still be observed. This was construed by
the Parliament into a commotion in Kent; the Earl of Bristol and Judge
Mallet were committed to the Tower only for having seen it; and strong
guards were placed at London Bridge, where the petitioners approaching
the City were disarmed, and forced to return, and only a very few
permitted to proceed with the petition to Westminster.
“That it was the unhappy custom, even late in the seventeenth century,
to erect heads over the South Gate on London Bridge, we have, Alas!
too many proofs; though, indeed, it seems to have been only the case
with such as were considered traitors, as were those unfortunate Romish
Priests executed under the Statutes of Elizabeth and James I. When
Bishop Challoner is speaking, in his work already cited, volume iii.,
page 112, of the death of Bartholomew Roe, a Priest of the Order of
St. Benedict, in January, 1642, he states that, on the morning of his
execution, he exhorted the Catholics who were present at his Mass in
the prison, and desired them ‘that as often as in passing through the
City, they should see that hand of his fixed on one of the Gates, or in
crossing the water, should see his head on London Bridge, they would
remember those lessons which he had preached to them, of the importance
of holding fast the Catholic faith, and of leading a Christian and
holy life.’ In October, 1642, the head of Thomas Bullaker, a Priest
of the Order of St. Francis, was also set up on London Bridge. See
Bishop Challoner, page 132, in the same volume: and another unhappy
instance of a similar execution is to be found in Dr. Challoner’s
life of Henry Heath, a Father of the Order of St. Francis, contained
on pages 141, 143, of the same volume of his work. Having left Douay
and landed in England, this Priest travelled to the metropolis in the
greatest poverty. ‘At London he arrives wearied, as well he might,
having travelled barefoot forty miles that day, and it being the Winter
season. It is now time to take up his quarters, and give some little
rest and refreshment to the body. But how shall this be done, for money
he has none, nor acquaintance? however, he ventures to call at the Star
Inn, near London Bridge, but the people of the house finding that he
had no money, turned him out of doors at eight o’clock in a cold winter
night.’ In this distress, he laid down to rest at a Citizen’s door,
where the owner of the house had him seized for a shoplifter, and, when
examined by the watch, some writings in defence of the Romish faith
being found in his cap, he owned himself to be a Priest. He was then
tried and convicted upon the Statute of Elizabeth, and was executed
on April the 17th, 1643, at Tyburn, and his head erected upon London
Bridge.
“On the 7th of March, 1642, the two Houses of Parliament ordered that
the City of London should be fortified, for its better security and
safety; and on the day following the order was printed, in small
quarto, a copy of which is in the King’s Collection of Tracts in the
British Museum, volume 97; and of which, if I repeat you a portion
of the title, you will receive all the information contained in the
pamphlet itself. ‘_An Ordinance and Declaration of the Lords and
Commons assembled in Parliament, that the Lord Mayor and Citizens
of the City of London, for the better securing and safetie thereof,
shall have full power and authority, according to their discretion,
to trench, stop, and fortifie all high-waies leading into the said
City, as well within the Liberties, as without, as they shall see
cause. And for the better effecting thereof, shall impose upon all the
inhabitants within the same, upon every house worth £5. a year, six
pence, and every house of greater rent, after the rate of two pence in
the pound._’ Another copy of this ordinance was printed in April, 1643,
and is to be found in volume 104 of the same collection. Maitland, in
his ‘_History_,’ volume i., pages 368, 369, also mentions an act of
Common Council passed for the same purpose, February the 23rd, 1642-43:
and gives a plan of the fortifications erected round the City. It was
enacted, says he, that ‘all the passages and ways leading to the City
should be shut up, excepting those entering at Charing Cross, St.
Giles’s in the Fields, St. John’s Street, Shoreditch, and Whitechapel;
and that the exterior ends of the said streets should be fortified
with breast-works and turnpikes, musket-proof; and all the sheds and
buildings contiguous to London-Wall without, be taken down; and that
the City Wall, with its bulwarks, be not only repaired and mounted
with artillery, but, likewise, that divers new works be added to the
same at places most exposed.’ When this act had been confirmed by the
above ordinances of Parliament, the fortifications were commenced and
carried on with considerable rapidity; men, women, and children, were
employed upon the works; and, in a short time, an earthern rampart,
with redoubts, horn-works, batteries, forts, and bulwarks, was
erected round the Cities of London and Westminster, and the Borough
of Southwark. We have no particular account, however, of the manner
in which London Bridge was fortified at this period; and the great
events which took place in the history of the Civil Wars seem to have
swallowed up every circumstance connected with this edifice. We learn,
indeed, that in the year 1647, the Parliamentary Army entered the City,
whilst the Corporation was engaged in an irresolute debate as to the
measures to be adopted for its defence: when frequent conciliatory
messages passed between the chief Officers and London; and, the less to
alarm the Metropolis, the soldiers were quartered at some distance from
it. ‘However, in this calm,’--says Lord Clarendon, who relates these
circumstances in his ‘_History_,’ volume iii., part i., book x., page
104,--‘they sent over Colonel Rainsborough with a brigade of horse, and
foot, and cannon, at Hampton Court, to possess Southwark, and those
works which secured that end of London Bridge; which he did with
so little noise, that in one night’s march he found himself master,
without any opposition, not only of the Borough of Southwark, but of
all the works and forts which were to defend it; the soldiers within
shaking hands with those without, and refusing to obey their officers
which were to command them: so that the City, without knowing that any
such thing was in agitation, found in the morning that all that avenue
to the Town was possessed by the enemy; whom they were providing to
resist on the other side, being as confident of this that they had
lost, as of any gate in the City.’
“Bulstrode Whitelock, in his ‘_Memorials of the English Affairs_,’
London, 1732, folio, page 263, enables us to add to this account,
that on Colonel Rainsborough’s advance to Southwark, he found the
Bridge gates shut, the Portcullis lowered, and a guard within; but
upon placing a counter-guard with two pieces of ordnance, against the
gate, in a short time the great fort was surrendered; about two in the
morning of Monday, the 2nd of August, 1647.