remarkable circumstance connected with London Bridge, I shall hasten to
the year 1799, when it again became the subject of considerable inquiry
and speculation, the particulars of which are so fully recorded in
that Report to which I have now referred you: pages 5 and 6, section
2, and ‘_Appendix_,’ B. 1,-B. 11, pages 21-49, plates v.-vii. The amount
of these proceedings was, that after a minute survey of the Bridge and
River, by Mr. George Dance, Clerk of the Works, and Mr. John Foulds,
his assistant, and Engineer to the Water-works, executed between
the months of May and July, it was ascertained, that, provided the
Sterlings were kept in repair, the structure itself was likely to stand
for ages. These defences, they added, had then been recently altered
and improved in shape, size, and construction, so as to retain the
chalk, &c. with which they were then filling; and though there were
many fractures in the building, they had not increased in the last 30
years. The average cost of its repairs had exceeded £4200 annually,
for the last six years, and the Wardens’ receipts for the same period
had varied from £9772: 2_s._ 1-1/2_d._ to £24,848: 10_s._ 4-1/2_d._
These financial particulars are recorded at length in the Report
whence we derive our information; ‘_Appendix_,’ B. 10, pages 38-49, in
a document entitled ‘_An account of the produce of the Estates of the
City of London, called the Bridge-House Estates, and the application
thereof, from the year 1756 to Christmas 1798_;’ which may properly be
considered as a continuation of that paper which furnished us with the
ancient revenues and expenditures. I should observe, however, that the
Report still represents the dangers of the Bridge navigation; stating,
that, although the stream was 10 feet deep under the Middle Arch at
low-water, yet, at the distance of only a few yards below it, there
were not more than 18 inches. These Reports contain also the following
engravings.
“1. ‘_Ground-plan and Elevation of London Bridge in its present state,
2nd July, 1799, taken by Mr. Dance. R. Metcalf Sculp._’ A most curious
and interesting print, measuring 8 feet 5 inches, by 2 feet; shewing
the sizes of the several locks; the different heights of the tides; the
singular forms of the Sterlings; a Section through one of the arches
and roadway, and the measurement of every part set down in figures. See
Plate v. in the large folio of Drawings, &c. belonging to the Second
Report. If to these particulars we add the Water-works, the line of
Soundings taken along the points of the Sterlings, a Section of the
bed of the River beneath them, and Mr. Smeaton’s new foundation of the
Great Arch, we shall have the most accurate materials for constructing
the GROUND-PLAN AND ELEVATION OF OLD LONDON BRIDGE.
[Illustration]
“2. Another print belonging to this Report, consists of the ‘_Soundings
of the Great Arch of London Bridge, taken from the top of the
Sterlings, 29th May, 1799, by J. Foulds and I. K._:’ to which are
added the depths of the River, at, and between, London Bridge and
Billingsgate, taken at low-water. Plate vi. in the same volume. The
printed Report also contains three other engravings connected with
this subject, from drawings made by Mr. Smeaton, to illustrate his
observations on London Bridge, in March, 1763, and afterwards preserved
by Sir Joseph Banks, with the original manuscript of his Report. They
will be found at page 25, B. 5, of the ‘_Appendix_,’ and they consist
of--1. ‘_Section of the Water-way at London Bridge as it was before the
opening of the Great Arch, and at the beginning of Feb. 1763_:’--2.
‘_Plan of the Sterlings of London Bridge, before the opening of the
Great Arch_;’--3. ‘_Plan of the proposed Water-way under the Great Arch
of London Bridge_,’ shewing the bed of rubble, &c. laid down for lining
the foundation, and the additions to the two centre Sterlings. All
these engravings, however, you will find reduced upon one plate, by W.
Lowry, and inserted in Smeaton’s ‘_Reports_’ already cited, volume ii.,
page 1.
“And now, Mr. Geoffrey Barbican, though I am rapidly advancing towards
the end of my Chronicles, like the tired post-horse, which exerts
all his remaining strength when he sees his resting-place is not far
distant, though I may not delay my course to enlarge upon any part of
our subject, yet I think it not only a fair opportunity, but a positive
duty, to collect all the omissions that I can remember from the former
part of my history; ‘unconsidered trifles,’ as _Autolycus_ says, and
add them to the end of the 18th Century, which is to us the great
barrier between ancient and modern times.
“And firstly, I would observe, that so early as the year 1179-80, the
inhabitants of the vicinity of London Bridge appear to have formed
themselves into several of those fraternities anciently called Guilds;
though, having done so without lawful authority, they were fined in
various penalties. Whilst they all bore, however, the title of _Gilda
de Ponte_, or Bridge-Guild, we can only suppose that the members of
them lived in the Bridge-street, since the stone edifice had been at
that time no more than three or four years begun. You will find these
particulars recorded by Madox, in his ‘_History of the Exchequer_,’
chapter xiv., section xv., pages 390, 391, note z, and cited from
the Great Roll of the 26th year of Henry II.; the following being
those articles which immediately refer to the present subject. ‘The
Bridge-Guild, whereof Thomas Cocus is Alderman, oweth 1 mark,’--13_s._
4_d._: ‘the Bridge-Guild, whereof Ailwin Fink is Alderman, oweth 15
marks:’--‘the Bridge-Guild, whereof Robert de Bosco is Alderman, oweth
10 marks:’--‘the Bridge-Guild, whereof Peter Fitz Alan was Alderman,
oweth 15 marks.’
“In speaking, too, of the reign of Queen Mary, I omitted to mention
that short notice with which John Fox has furnished us, of certain
‘vaine pageants,’ exhibited to her upon London Bridge. You will find
the passage in the second volume of that edition of his ‘_Acts and
Monuments_’ which I have already cited, page 1338, and it runs thus.
‘And the next day, being Saturday, the xix. of August--1554,--the
King and Queene’s Majesties rode from Suffolk Place, accompanied with
a great number as well of noblemen as of gentlemen, through the City
of London to White Hall, and at London Bridge, as he entered at the
Draw-Bridge, was a great vaine spectacle set vp, two images presenting
two Giants, one named Corineus and the other Gogmagog, holding between
them certain Latin verses, which, for the vain ostentation of flattery,
I overpasse.’ I can discover no other particulars of this exhibition,
but the preceding paragraph was copied, by Holinshed, into his
‘_Chronicles_,’ volume ii., page 1120.
“In mentioning the tradesmen who resided on London Bridge, I ought,
also, to have pointed out to your notice that paragraph concerning
them, first inserted in Strype’s edition of _Stow’s Survey_, edit.
1720, Book i.; chapter xxix., volume 1, page 242; where it is
said that ‘Men of trades, and sellers of wares in this City, have
oftentimes,’--since the days of Fitz Stephen--‘changed their places
as they have found to their best advantage. For, whereas, Mercers and
Haberdashers used then to keep their shops in West-Cheap, of later time
they held them on London Bridge, where, partly, they do yet remain.’
“One would expect to find frequent references to London Bridge, in
the works of our ancient Dramatists, yet my memory supplies me with
but very few instances; though I may observe, that Shakspeare has
an allusion to the heads of traitors erected over the gate of this
edifice, in Act iii. Scene 2, of ‘_King Richard the Third_,’ where
_Catesby_ says to _Hastings_:
‘The Princes both make high account of you,--
For they account his head upon the Bridge. [_Aside._’
Another passage, referring to this custom, is also to be found in the
second Act of George Wilkins’s ‘_Miseries of Inforced Marriage_,’ first
printed in quarto, 1607, and inserted in Dodsley’s ‘_Select Collection
of Old Plays_,’ London, 1780, duodecimo, volume v., page 27; where
_Ilford_ says to _Wentloe_, ‘S’foot! you chittiface, that looks worse
than a collier through a wooden window, an ape afraid of a whip, or a
knave’s head, shook seven years in the weather on London Bridge;--do
you catechise me?’ In Act v., Scene 1, of Shakerley Marmion’s
‘_Antiquary_,’ originally printed in 1641, quarto, and published in the
preceding collection, volume x., page 97, is likewise the following
passage, the idea of which appears to be taken from the noisy situation
of the houses on the Old Bridge: ‘That man that trusts a woman with a
privacy, and hopes for silence, may as well expect it at the fall of
a bridge.’ But ‘rare Ben Jonson,’ in his ‘_Staple of News_,’ Act ii.,
Scene 1, has a reference to those frequent, and almost useless, repairs
of this edifice, of which we have recounted so many; since he makes
_Shunfield_ say of _Old Pennyboy_,
‘He minds
A courtesy no more than London Bridge,
What Arch was mended last.’
“In William Gifford’s ‘_Works of Ben Jonson_,’ London, 1816, octavo,
volume v., page 215, he has rather a violent note upon this passage, in
which he says, ‘Two hundred years have nearly elapsed since this was
written, and the observation still holds. This pernicious structure has
wasted more money in perpetual repairs, than would have sufficed to
build a dozen safe and commodious Bridges; and cost the lives, perhaps,
of as many thousand people. This may seem little to those whom it
concerns, but there is blood on the City, and a heavy account is before
them. Had an Alderman or a turtle been lost there, the nuisance would
have been long since removed.’ As I have already referred to the heads
of the Regicides, &c. standing over the Bridge-gate at the time of the
Great Fire, I may observe, that ‘glorious John Dryden,’ in his ‘_Annus
Mirabilis_,’ stanza 223, has this solemn mention of them, with a fine
allusion to the infernal hymns chanted on a Witches’ sabbath:
‘The ghosts of traitors from the Bridge descend,
With bold fanatic spectres to rejoice;
About the fire into a dance they bend,
And sing their sabbath-notes with feeble voice.’
See ‘_The Works of John Dryden_,’ edited by Walter Scott, Esq., London,
1808, octavo, volume ix., pages 144, 186, _Note_ xlv.
“In recording these analecta of Old London Bridge, I may also take the
opportunity of observing to you, that from about July to September,
you may see almost every ‘jutty, frieze, and coigne of ’vantage, made
the pendent bed and procreant cradle’ of the small yellow flowers
and pointed leaves of the _Sisymbrium Irio_, or London Rocket. It
probably made its first appearance on this edifice soon after the
Great Fire of 1666, since the famous Botanist, Robert Morison, who
lived at the period, has a singular dialogue upon it in his rare and
curious ‘_Præludia Botanica_,’ printed in 1669; where he states, that
in 1667-68 it sprang up in such abundance from the City ruins, that in
many places it might have been mown like corn, though London Bridge
is not specially referred to. A coloured engraving of the plant, with
the foregoing particulars, will be found in William Curtis’s ‘_Flora
Londinensis_,’ London, 1767, folio. Fasciculus vi., plate 48, marked
311.
“I have but few other fragments to mention; and the first of them
relates to the very extensive use which is made of London Bridge as a
thoroughfare. What it must have been formerly, when it was the only
passage across the Thames, we know not; but after the introduction
of a toll, the rent at which I have told you it was farmed, affords
some general idea of its importance. In July, 1811, however, when the
Southwark Bridge was projected, the Directors of that Company attended
one whole day, to ascertain the probable amount of passengers, &c.
over London Bridge; when it was found that 89,640 persons on foot, 769
waggons, 2924 carts and drays, 1240 coaches, 485 gigs and taxed carts,
and 764 horses, went across it.
“But, to descend from the roadway to the foundation, I shall next
remark, that the natural soil of the Thames, where the present London
Bridge is erected, consists chiefly of black gravel, for about 2 feet
in depth, below which it is gravel with red sand: and this we learn
from a table of ‘_Borings of the River betwixt London and Blackfriars’
Bridges, performed betwixt the 19th of May and the 16th of June, 1800,
by John Foulds and assistants_;’ printed in the ‘_Third Report_’ of the
Port of London Committee, ‘_Appendix_,’ A. 2, page 39.
“Another point, connected with this part of the edifice, concerning
which I am very desirous of giving some little information, is the
etymology of the word Sterling, or perhaps Starling, according to the
general pronunciation; yet what can I presume to say upon it, when we
find that, in the meaning of a defence to bridges, it is unnoticed
in the learned glossaries of Somner, Minsheu, Stephen Skinner, Sir
Henry Spelman, John Jacob Hoffman, Du Fresne, Edward Phillips, Francis
Junius, Doctors Johnson and Jamieson, and Archdeacon Nares? In the
last edition of ‘_Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary_,’ indeed, by the Rev. H.
J. Todd, this signification is inserted, though the Editor candidly
adds, ‘I know not the etymology;’ and, therefore, it seems alike futile
to search after, and presumptuous to conjecture it; howbeit, take
what hints I have met with upon the subject. And firstly, in a small
tract entitled ‘_A short Review of the several Pamphlets and Schemes
that have been offered to the Public, in relation to the building of
a Bridge at Westminster_,’ by John James, of Greenwich; London, 1736,
octavo, at page 16, we find the following conjecture. ‘It is very
probable, that the _Stallings_,--as I choose to call them, our workmen
after the Normans, having, perhaps, taken the name from the French
word, _créche_, which signifies a manger, or crib in a stall,--may
have been much enlarged since the first building of the Bridge.’ For
my own part, however, I am greatly inclined to think that the term is
of Northern origin, not very much corrupted, since the Danish word
_Staer_, and the German, _Starr_, or _Starck_, a defence, evidently
appear to be the root of it; and Christian Ludwig, in his ‘_Dictionary
of English, German, and French_,’ Leipsic, 1763, quarto, volume i.,
page 840, translates the word Starling by _Stahr_, explaining it to
be ‘a spur to the pillar of a stone bridge, for dividing the water.’
It is common, in most Dictionaries, to consider the word Sterling as
referring only to that authorized coin, originally manufactured by
the Flemings or Easterlings, whose name it has made immortal. Even in
this sense, however, it is still connected with the history of London
Bridge; since in Thomas Hearne’s ‘_Collection of Curious Discourses_,’
edit. London, 1771, octavo, volume ii., article xliii., page 316, is a
paper on the derivation of the expression Sterling Money, written by
that eminent Antiquary Arthur Agarde, containing a singular anecdote
on this subject; which, however, I shall give from the original
manuscript in the Cottonian collection, marked ‘_Faustina_,’ E V.,
article 10, folio 52 a. ‘I suppose,’ says he, ‘the name came by meanes
the Easterlinges from vs, being Germaynes, brought vp in the mynes of
syluer and copper there, were vsed here in Englaunde for the reducynge
and refyninge the diuersyte of coynes into a perfecte Standarde. As
in the beginning of the Quenes Mat^s raigne, they were brought hyther
by Alderman Lodge, (w^{th} whom I was famylyarlye acquaynted,) by her
Mat^s order, for the refining of o^r base coignes: And this he toulde
me, That the mooste of them in meltinge fell sycke to deathe w^{th}
the sauoure, so as they were advised to drynke in a dead man’s skull
for theyre recure. Whereupon he, w^{th} others who had thoversyght of
that worke, procured a warrant from the Counsaile to take of the heades
vppon London Bridge, and make cuppes thereof, whereof they dranke and
founde some reliefe, althoughe the mooste of them dyed.’ This wild and
romantic circumstance probably took place about the year 1560 or 1561,
when Queen Elizabeth had all the base coin in the Realm brought to
the Tower and melted there; when it is supposed that the fumes of the
arsenic which it contained induced the illness of the foreigners: see
Ruding’s ‘_Annals of the Coinage_,’ which I have already quoted, volume
iii., page 38, _note_. When, to these particulars, I have added, that
you will find a view of part of Old London Bridge with the houses, in
the sixth plate of Hogarth’s ‘_Marriage à la Mode_,’ my reminiscences
of this edifice are concluded to the end of the eighteenth century.”
“Well, sir, well,” said I, fetching a long breath, which sounded a good
deal like a yawn, “I know what you would say,--another libation of
Sack, to the memory of Old London Bridge; in the which I more readily
join you, seeing that your history of it is rapidly closing, and that
we are something like the Merchant Abudah, in Ridley’s Tales of the
Genii, when he first saw the distant light after his wanderings in the
murky caverns of Tasgi: though, indeed, Master Barnaby, I should ask
you, on your veracity, if we really are coming to a conclusion, or am I
only deceiving myself in thinking so?”
“No, truly,” answered the Antiquary, “I have but little more to
speak, and you but little to hear; for, excepting the usual accidents
of London Bridge, which I shall omit to notice, the great employment
of the last quarter of a century has been coming to the resolution
of building a new one, and considering the best means of doing it.
Whilst, however, I give you my hearty thanks for your attention and
assistance during upwards of eight hundred years of our Bridge-history,
I would only remind you of the great mass of information which we
have collected upon it, much of which was either never before brought
together, or adapted to it.”
“Why, really,” said I, with that kind of half agreement with which
men admit a truth not discovered by themselves, “there is something
in your remark; and he who next writes the history of London Bridge
will have some difficulty in finding new materials for it, at least
in any ordinary authorities. But then, you know, others, who are not
acquainted with the mass of matter relating to it, may accost us with
the old Italian saying of, ‘Where the Devil did you get all this
rubbish from?’”
“Out upon them for unthankful knaves, then,” replied Master Postern;
“let us console ourselves with the thought that virtue rewards itself;
and so, as I see that you are again set in a position either for
listening or sleeping, I shall, for the last time, take up my tale.” To
this remark I nodded assent, and the old Gentleman thus went on.
“The present century, Mr. Barbican, commenced with some active
exertions for the immediate erection of a new London Bridge, upon
the most extensive and elaborate scale; of the numerous schemes
for which, however, I can give you little more than a catalogue,
referring you for full particulars to various parts of ‘_The Third
Report from the Select Committee upon the Improvement of the Port
of London_,’ 1800, Folio, and the large volume of engraved ‘_Plans
and Drawings_’ belonging to it. It is stated in sections i. ii. of
the former authority, pages 4-6, that the great, continual, and
ineffectual expenses of the old Bridge, its irremediable insecurity,
and the dangers of its navigation, had induced the Committee to collect
information and provide designs for the building of a new one. In this
edifice it was proposed to construct a free passage for vessels not
exceeding 200 tons’ burthen, to that part of the River between London
and Blackfriars’ Bridges; where it was supposed, upon examination, that
they would always have a depth of from 12 to 15 feet above low-water,
formed and maintained at only a slight expense after the shoals had
been cleared away. To ascertain the number of ships which might be
expected to use this passage, the Committee procured an account of the
Foreign and Coasting Trade of London for 1799, with the measurements
of their masts, by which it appeared that an Arch of 65 feet above
high-water mark, at medium Spring-Tides, would allow vessels of 200
tons to pass it with their top-masts struck; and that of Coasters
under that burthen the number was 7248. Such, then, being the general
design, the Artists, who proposed sending in drawings, were directed
particularly to consider a convenient passage over the Bridge, with as
little acclivity as possible, as well as its access to the principal
avenues of London; to the attainment of these objects with the least
interference with private property; to the embellishment of the
Metropolis of London; and to the length of time, and expense of the
whole work. The designs presented were of three different characters:
being, firstly, for a Bridge with a lofty Centre Arch, and a descending
causeway leading to some principal street on each side of the River;
secondly, for a similar Bridge, having its approaches at right angles,
and parallel to the shores, to be raised on Arches on a new embankment
in front of the old wharfs, &c.; and, thirdly, for two Parallel
Bridges, enclosing a space sufficient for so many vessels as would
probably pass in one tide, their passage being through corresponding
drawbridges, one of which should always remain lowered for the use of
passengers. See the ‘_Third Report_,’ already cited, page 7; and having
mentioned these particulars, let us now take a glance at some of the
plans themselves.
“1. Mr. Ralph Dodd, Engineer, proposed the erection of a stone Bridge
of six Arches, 60 feet wide, and a centre one of iron 300 feet span,
and about 100 high, to admit shipping up the River; calculating that
the space between London and Blackfriars’ Bridges contained 3,353,180
square feet, and would accommodate nearly 1000 vessels. As this Bridge
was to be erected on the old foundations, and even to be built in such
a manner over the original structure as not to interfere with the
passage across it, it was to consist of two separate tiers, somewhat
in the manner of an aqueduct, excepting at the Centre Arch; the lower
range consisting of small elliptical Arches lying horizontally, and the
upper,--which was to be about 100 feet high,--of segmental Arches. The
whole was to be adorned with an entablature and ballustrade, statues,
sculptures on the lower Piers, and Corinthian columns above them; and
its declivity to extend from the upper corner of Monument Yard to St.
Thomas’s Street, Southwark, at an inclination of about 2-1/2 inches in
a yard. A pictorial elevation and ground-plan of this design, with its
relative bearing to the old Bridge, are to be seen in Plates ii. and
vii. of the Plans and Drawings belonging to the Third of the Port of
London Reports. Vide also the ‘_Report_’ itself, section 3, page 7, and
‘_Appendix_,’ B. 1, page 49.