[23] Stow’s “Survey,” i. p. 23. Stow, who examined the accounts of the bridge wardens for the year 1506 (22 Hen. VII), found that the bridge expenses were at that time £815 17s. 2d.
[24] King John became personally acquainted with those works only at a later date, viz. June 1206, when he landed at La Rochelle. He visited Saintes in July and August, and made again some stay at La Rochelle in October and November before sailing back to England. See his Itinerary in “A Description of the Patent Rolls in the Tower,” by Thomas Duffus Hardy, London, 1835.
[25] See Appendix I. p 425.
[26] Stow’s “Survey,” ed. Kingsford, I. p. 23.
[27] Ibid., same edition, I. 25; II. 274. “Chronicles of London Bridge,” by an Antiquary [Richard Thomson], London, 1827, pp. 187–193.
[28] As to the toll collected there from certain foreign merchants A.D. 1334, see “Liber Albus,” ed. Riley, Introduction, p. l.
[29] “Scaligerana,” under the word “Londres.” The editions I have seen give “mers de navires,” the true reading being certainly “mâts.” An enlarged portion of Visscher’s panoramic view of London, 1616, showing the “Bridge Gate” towards Southwark, with numerous mast-like poles and heads on the top of them, serves as a frontispiece for vol. iii. of my “Literary History of the English People.”
[30] “Euphues and his England,” 1st ed. 1580; Arber’s reprint, 1868, p. 434. See besides the large coloured drawing of about the year 1600 (also the sketch above, p. [45]), in the third part of Harrison’s “Description of England,” edited by F. J. Furnivall for the New Shakspere Society, 1877; and Mr. Wheatley’s notes on Norden’s Map of London, 1593, in vol. i. p. lxxxix of the same work. Visitors coming to London never failed to notice the bridge as one of the curiosities of the town. Dunbar, the Scottish poet, in his “London,” written in the early years of the sixteenth century, compliments the city on its beauties, and especially its bridge:
“Upon thy lusty brigge of pylers white
Been merchauntis full royall to behold.”