[40] Yarm on the Tees, 44 miles north-north-west of York. The “king’s highway” in question is the highroad from Scotland, leading to the south, through York and London. The bridge was re-built in 1400 by Skirlaw, Bishop of Durham.
[41] “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. i. p. 468. The right of pontage is frequently mentioned in the “Liber Custumarum,” edited by Riley, Rolls Series.
[42] “Sciatis quod, in auxilium Pontis London, reparandi et sustentandi, concessimus vobis quod . . . capiatis ibidem de rebus venalibus ultra pontem predictum et subtus eundem transeuntibus consuetudines subscriptas, videlicet . . .” Then follows a very long list of dues. Text in Hearne’s “Liber niger Scaccarii . . . Accedunt chartæ antiquæ,” London, 1774, vol. i. p. 478*.
[43] “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 88.
[44] See Hist. MSS. Commission, 9th Report, part i. p. 284. On the Rochester bridge, at first a wooden one, later rebuilt in stone, and on its upkeep, see “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. iii. p. 254, 21 Ric. II, 1397. A view of the bridge appears on several seals, some reproduced in De Gray Birch, “Seals in . . . the British Museum,” London, 1887, 2 vols., No. 5336. On this important bridge and its biography, see C. T. Flower, “Public Works in Mediæval Law,” 1905, Selden Society, I., p. 203. Like many others, this very frequented bridge, on the road from London to Canterbury, and which existed long before the Conquest, was first of wood, then of stone, and is now (since 1856) of iron.
[45] “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 100, year 1338.
[46] “King Edward kept his feast of Christmas (1281) at Worcester. From this Christmas till the purification of Our Lady, there was such a frost and snow, as no man living could remember the like, wherethrough five arches of London Bridge, and all Rochester Bridge were borne downe, and carried away with the streame, and the like hapned to many bridges in England.” Stow’s “Annales,” London, 1631, p. 201. See Appendix III.
[47] “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 91 (9 Edward III), 1335.
[48] Ibid., p. 350.
[49] “De pontibus et calcetis fractis et communibus transitibus, quis ea reparare debeat et sustinere.” “Fleta” (end of thirteenth century, below p. [111]), I. ch. 20, § 41.