LONDON BRIDGE (1066)
It was almost an hundred years ago,
When Ethelred was King. This town of London
Was held by Danes. Olaf the King of Norway
Came with his host to fight for Ethelred
And with his galleys rowed beneath the bridge,
Lashed cables round the piers, and caught the tide
That lent the strength of Ocean to their strength
Rowing down-stream. Ah, how the strong oars beat
The waters into foam—and how the Danes
Above upon the bridge fought furiously
With stones and arrows—but the bridge went down—
The bridge went down. So Ethelred was King.
And now the bridge has been built up again.
’Tis not a thing of timbers, or hewn stone;
It is a weaving of men’s hopes and dreams
From shore to shore. It is a thing alive.
The men of Surrey and the men of Kent,
The men of Sussex and Northumberland,
The shepherds of the downs, the Wealden forges,
Fishermen, packmen, bargemen, masons, all
The traffickers of England, made our bridge.
It is a thing enchanted by the thoughts
Of all our people.
XIV
AT BARTLEMY FAIR
HOW BARTY APPLEBY WENT TO THE FAIR AT SMITH FIELD AND CAUGHT A MISCREANT
The farmer’s life is a very varied one, as any one who ever lived on a farm is aware. In some seasons the work is so pressing that the people hardly stop to eat or sleep. At other times Nature herself takes a hand, and the farmer has a chance to mend walls, make and repair harness, clear woodland and do some hedging and ditching while the land is getting ready for the next harvest. This at any rate was the way in medieval England, and the latter part of August between haying and harvest was a holiday time.
Barty Appleby liked Saint Bartholomew’s Day, the twenty-fourth of August, best of all the holidays of the year. It was the feast of his name-saint, when a cake was baked especially for him. Yule-tide was a merry season, but to have a holiday of one’s very own was even pleasanter.
On the day that he was twelve years old Barty was to have a treat which all the boys envied him. He was to go to Bartlemy Fair at Smithfield by London. David Saumond, the stone-mason who had built their orchard-wall, was going beyond London to Canterbury to work at the cathedral. Farmer Appleby had a sister living in London, whom he had not seen for many years, and by this and by that he decided to go with David as far as London Bridge.