‘The Princes both make high account of you,—
For they account his head upon the Bridge. [Aside.’
Another passage, referring to this custom, is also to be found in the second Act of George Wilkins’s ‘Miseries of Inforced Marriage,’ first printed in quarto, 1607, and inserted in Dodsley’s ‘Select Collection of Old Plays,’ London, 1780, duodecimo, volume v., page 27; where Ilford says to Wentloe, ‘S’foot! you chittiface, that looks worse than a collier through a wooden window, an ape afraid of a whip, or a knave’s head, shook seven years in the weather on London Bridge;—do you catechise me?’ In Act v., Scene 1, of Shakerley Marmion’s ‘Antiquary,’ originally printed in 1641, quarto, and published in the preceding collection, volume x., page 97, is likewise the following passage, the idea of which appears to be taken from the noisy situation of the houses on the Old Bridge: ‘That man that trusts a woman with a privacy, and hopes for silence, may as well expect it at the fall of a bridge.’ But ‘rare Ben Jonson,’ in his ‘Staple of News,’ Act ii., Scene 1, has a reference to those frequent, and almost useless, repairs of this edifice, of which we have recounted so many; since he makes Shunfield say of Old Pennyboy,
‘He minds
A courtesy no more than London Bridge,
What Arch was mended last.’
“In William Gifford’s ‘Works of Ben Jonson,’ London, 1816, octavo, volume v., page 215, he has rather a violent note upon this passage, in which he says, ‘Two hundred years have nearly elapsed since this was written, and the observation still holds. This pernicious structure has wasted more money in perpetual repairs, than would have sufficed to build a dozen safe and commodious Bridges; and cost the lives, perhaps, of as many thousand people. This may seem little to those whom it concerns, but there is blood on the City, and a heavy account is before them. Had an Alderman or a turtle been lost there, the nuisance would have been long since removed.’ As I have already referred to the heads of the Regicides, &c. standing over the Bridge-gate at the time of the Great Fire, I may observe, that ‘glorious John Dryden,’ in his ‘Annus Mirabilis,’ stanza 223, has this solemn mention of them, with a fine allusion to the infernal hymns chanted on a Witches’ sabbath:
‘The ghosts of traitors from the Bridge descend,
With bold fanatic spectres to rejoice;
About the fire into a dance they bend,
And sing their sabbath-notes with feeble voice.’
See ‘The Works of John Dryden,’ edited by Walter Scott, Esq., London, 1808, octavo, volume ix., pages 144, 186, Note xlv.
“In recording these analecta of Old London Bridge, I may also take the opportunity of observing to you, that from about July to September, you may see almost every ‘jutty, frieze, and coigne of ’vantage, made the pendent bed and procreant cradle’ of the small yellow flowers and pointed leaves of the Sisymbrium Irio, or London Rocket. It probably made its first appearance on this edifice soon after the Great Fire of 1666, since the famous Botanist, Robert Morison, who lived at the period, has a singular dialogue upon it in his rare and curious ‘Præludia Botanica,’ printed in 1669; where he states, that in 1667-68 it sprang up in such abundance from the City ruins, that in many places it might have been mown like corn, though London Bridge is not specially referred to. A coloured engraving of the plant, with the foregoing particulars, will be found in William Curtis’s ‘Flora Londinensis,’ London, 1767, folio. Fasciculus vi., plate 48, marked 311.
“I have but few other fragments to mention; and the first of them relates to the very extensive use which is made of London Bridge as a thoroughfare. What it must have been formerly, when it was the only passage across the Thames, we know not; but after the introduction of a toll, the rent at which I have told you it was farmed, affords some general idea of its importance. In July, 1811, however, when the Southwark Bridge was projected, the Directors of that Company attended one whole day, to ascertain the probable amount of passengers, &c. over London Bridge; when it was found that 89,640 persons on foot, 769 waggons, 2924 carts and drays, 1240 coaches, 485 gigs and taxed carts, and 764 horses, went across it.
“But, to descend from the roadway to the foundation, I shall next remark, that the natural soil of the Thames, where the present London Bridge is erected, consists chiefly of black gravel, for about 2 feet in depth, below which it is gravel with red sand: and this we learn from a table of ‘Borings of the River betwixt London and Blackfriars’ Bridges, performed betwixt the 19th of May and the 16th of June, 1800, by John Foulds and assistants;’ printed in the ‘Third Report’ of the Port of London Committee, ‘Appendix,’ A. 2, page 39.