In all that has preceded we have been considering London as the creation of the river in its civil aspect alone; it remains to consider the town and the stream in their effect upon the military history of the country, and to that I shall now turn.
FOOTNOTE:
[4] The reader may see quoted in full in Sir Laurence Gomme’s The Governance of London (p. 346) the precedents upon which Coke founded his opinion in 1597, including the verdict of 29 Ed. I., concerning in particular the portage of salt upon the Thames.
“Quod nullus mensuarius sit de London usque Lachenlade nisi dicti mensuarii et bushelli de Ripa Reginae.”
V
LONDON AND THE LOWER THAMES IN WARFARE