“Even until the time, however, when London Bridge was entirely cleared of its houses, the street over it has always been described as dark, narrow, and dangerous. ‘The houses on each side,’—says Pennant, page 320,—‘overhung, and leaned in a most terrific manner. In most places they hid the arches, and nothing appeared but the rude piers.—I well remember the street on London Bridge, narrow, darksome, and dangerous to passengers, from the multitude of carriages: frequent arches of strong timber crossing the street, from the tops of the houses to keep them together, and from falling into the river. Nothing but use could preserve the repose of the inmates, who soon grew deaf to the noise of falling waters, the clamors of watermen, or the frequent shrieks of drowning wretches. Most of the houses were tenanted by pin or needle-makers, and economical ladies were wont to drive from the St. James’s end of the town, to make cheap purchases.’
“The ‘New and Universal History, Description, and Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, the Borough of Southwark, and their adjacent parts,’ by Walter Harrison, London, 1776, folio, furnishes some few additional features to this scene: although the work itself is, perhaps, anything but reputable; being chiefly a compilation from Stow and Strype, without much acknowledgment of the originals. Some particulars of London Bridge, however, the compiler himself actually knew, and on page 24, he says,—‘Across the middle of the street there were several lofty arches, extending from one side to the other, the bottom part of each arch terminating at the first story, and the upper part reaching near the top of the buildings. These arches were designed to support the houses on each side the street, and were therefore formed of strong timbers bolted into the houses, which, being covered with lath and plaister, appeared as if built with stone.’ The Rev. J. Motley, in his ‘Seymour’s Survey of London,’ volume i., page 48, also says,—‘On each side, between the houses, are left three vacancies, opposite to each other, two with stone walls, upon which are iron rails, that people passing along may take a view of the river East and West, and may also step out of the way of carts and coaches, the passage being formerly very narrow, and the floors of the houses that lay cross the streets being low, they not only rendered those places dark, but likewise obstructed the free passage of carts, if they were loaded any way high, and coaches, so that they could not pass by one another, which oftentimes occasioned great stops upon the Bridge, and was a great hindrance to passengers.’ As there was no regular foot-way over the Bridge, it was therefore the most usual and safest custom to follow a carriage which might be passing across it. The brief notice of London Bridge in Hoffmann’s ‘Lexicon Universale’ is not worth repeating, but you will find it in volume iii., page 833, column i., character ξ: and though a much better account of it in 1697 appears in Motraye’s ‘Voyages,’ volume i., page 150, it contains nothing new. He calls it ‘one of the strongest buildings which he had seen in this nation.’
“A very melancholy instance of suicide which took place in April, 1689, bears testimony to the power of the torrent at London Bridge at that period; and you will find it recorded in that very interesting work, entitled ‘The Travels and Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, Baronet,’ best edition, with a Preface by Edmund Lodge, Esq., London, 1813, 8vo. page 406.—‘About this time,’—says the Author of this volume,—‘a very sad accident happened, which, for a while, was the discourse of the whole town: Mr. Temple, son to Sir William Temple, who had married a French lady with 20,000 pistoles; a sedate and accomplished young gentleman, who had lately by King William been made Secretary of War; took a pair of oars, and drawing near the Bridge, leapt into the Thames and drowned himself, leaving a note behind him in the boat, to this effect: ‘My folly in undertaking what I could not perform, whereby some misfortunes have befallen the King’s service, is the cause of my putting myself to this sudden end; I wish him success in all his undertakings, and a better servant.’ Pennant, in repeating this anecdote in his ‘Account of London,’ page 323, adds that it took place on the 14th of April; that the unhappy suicide loaded his pockets with stones to destroy all chance of safety; and that his father’s false and profane reflection on the occasion was, ‘that a wise man might dispose of himself, and make his life as short as he pleased!’
“From a very remote period, the City of London has protected the persons and property of its Orphans; and so early as the year 1391 the Orphans’ Fund was possessed of very considerable wealth, since the sum of 2000 marks, or £1333. 6s. 8d., was then borrowed from it to procure corn during a dearth. In the year 1693, the City stood indebted to the same source, as well as to other creditors, in the amount of £747,500, and an Act of Parliament was at length procured, establishing a fund for their re-payment; by which all the City estates, excepting those belonging to the Hospitals, London Bridge, and such places as were liable to its repairs, were charged with raising the annual sum of £8000, clear of all deductions, as a perpetual deposit for paying an interest of 4 per cent. to the said creditors. The act itself is in volume iii. of Owen Ruffhead’s ‘Statutes at Large,’ London, 1770, 4to., the 5th of William and Mary, 1694, chapter x., section 2. In which year also, during the Mayoralty of Sir William Ashurst, the Common Council passed an Act, on Wednesday the 15th of June, that as the ensuing Midsummer day, the time for delivering the Bridge-House accounts, would fall on a Sunday, for ever after, in such a case, they were to be delivered the next day following. An original copy of which Act is in the xxv.th volume of London Tracts in the British Museum, folio.
“I have already mentioned several particulars of the Bridge-House revenues, and the salaries of the Wardens at various periods; and I shall now shew you the ancient estimation of several other offices of the same establishment. In the xxviii.th volume of London Tracts last cited, is a folio sheet, entitled ‘A List of the Rooms and Offices bought and sold in the City of London;’ the total amount of which is £145,586; and there occur in it the following valuations of places belonging to the Bridge. ‘1 Clerk of the Bridge House, £1250.—2 Carpenters of the Bridge-House, £200 each.—1 Mason of the Bridge-House, £200.—1 Plasterer to the Bridge-House, £200.—1 Pavier to the Bridge House, £250.—1 Plummer to the Bridge-House, £250.—2 Porters of the Bridge-House, £100 each.—1 Purveyor of the Bridge House, £200.—1 Shotsman of the Bridge-House, £200.’ The whole of this list is also printed in Motley’s ‘Seymour’s Survey of London,’ volume i., page 261: and at the end of the original is the following note, more particularly fixing the time when these offices were held in such estimation. ‘Whereas, James Whiston, in a late book, intituled ‘England’s Calamities Discovered,’ &c.—London, 1696, quarto,—‘set forth the mischievous consequences of buying and selling places in Cities, States, and Kingdoms: and the discovery of the disease being the first step towards the cure; for that end some persons, well-affected to the government of this City and Kingdom, have taken great pains to find out the number and value of ye places bought and sold within this City; which are to ye best information that can at present be got, as followeth.’—And now, pledge me once more, Mr. Geoffrey Barbican, in a farewell libation to the seventeenth century, for this notice brings us down to the year 1701.”
“Marry, Sir, and I’m heartily glad on’t,” said I, “for I began to be like honest Bunyan’s Pilgrims on ‘the Enchanted Ground,’ and to have much ado to keep my eyes open: but as I now really think there is some little prospect that your tale will have an end, I shall do mine endeavour to be wakeful during the next century and a quarter, which you have yet to lecture upon. And, in the meanwhile, like Peter the Ziegenhirt, in Otmar’s German story, which gave Geoffrey Crayon the idea of Rip Van Winkle, I shall take another draught of the wine-pitcher; and so once again, Mr. Barnaby, here’s to you.”
“My most hearty thanks are your’s,” replied he, “and let me add, for your consolation, that I really have comparatively but little to say in the next century; for a great portion of it was occupied in doubting whether the Bridge would stand, in surveying its buildings, in repairing it, in disputing concerning the erection of a new one, in receiving the reports of architects, and in adopting schemes for its alteration.
“The year 1701 may be considered as the important period, when the Water-works at London Bridge began to advance towards that extent and power at which they afterwards arrived. Peter Moris, the original inventor, had a lease from the City for 500 years, paying 10s. of yearly rent for the use of the Thames water, one arch of the Bridge, and a place on which he might erect his mill. The Citizens soon experiencing the benefit of his invention, granted him, two years after, a similar lease for a second arch, by which his wealth considerably increased; and, with various improvements, the property continued in his family until this time, when the proprietor finding his profits lessened by the works at the New River, it was sold to one Richard Soams, Citizen and Goldsmith, for £36,000. That it might be the more secure, Soams procured from the City, in confirmation of his bargain, another grant for the fourth arch,—the third belonging to a wharfinger,—and a new lease of the unexpired term, at the yearly rent of 20s., and a fine of £300. He then divided the whole property into 300 shares of £500 each, and formed it into a company; all which information you will find in Strype’s ‘Stow’s Survey,’ volume i., page 29; and in Maitland’s ‘History,’ volume i., pages 51, 52. Subsequently, however, a fifth arch was granted by the Court of Common Council, after a long debate, on June the 23rd, 1767; under an express condition that if, at any time, it should be found injurious to the navigation of the river, the City might revoke their grant, upon re-payment of the expenses. A particular description of these works, which I shall speak of hereafter, will be found in the ‘Philosophical Transactions, volume xxxvii. for the years 1731, 1732,’ London, 1733, 4to. No. 417, pages 5-12, written by Henry Beighton, with a plate, of which I possess the original drawing, executed very carefully in pen-and-ink.
“The earliest view of London Bridge in this century, I take to be that very barbarous print by Sutton Nicholls, an Engraver who resided in London, about the year 1710, was much employed by the booksellers, and who executed several of the plates in Strype’s edition of ‘Stow’s Survey.’ His prospect of the Bridge is a large and coarse engraving in two sheets, measuring 35 inches, by 22½, and is divided lengthways into two parts; the upper one entitled ‘The West side of London Bridge,’ on a ribbon, and the lower one the Eastern side, in the same manner. Both of these views are horizontal, and of most execrable drawing, especially with respect to the water and vessels; and the Print seldom produces more than a few shillings, though I should observe that there are two editions of it. One bearing the imprint of ‘Printed for and Sold by I. Smith, in Exeter Exchange in the Strand,’ which is the earliest and best; and another marked ‘Printed for, and Sold by, Tho. Millward and Bis. Dickinson, at Inigo Jones Head, next the Globe Tavern, in Fleet Street;’ which latter is probably still in existence, as impressions of it are by no means rare. Below the views are engraven ‘An Historical Description of the great and admirable Bridge in the City of London over the River of Thames,’ and Howell’s verses, which I have already cited to you. But although its present value is so trifling, it is yet far beyond the original price of it, for in the Harleian MSS., No. 5956, is an impression of the following curious original copper-plate Prospectus for its publication:—
“‘Proposals for Printing a Prospect of London Bridge, Thirty-five Inches Long, and Twenty-three Inches Broad.