“Well, Sir, well,” resumed the mild old man, “your wit becomes you; but as we may never meet again, I would fain pour into your bosom all the little knowledge which I possess upon this point; and so we will pass on to the Chronicles of London Bridge in the seventeenth century.“The inhuman cruelties which Queen Mary, Bishop Bonner, and others of their faith, practised upon the Protestants, may reasonably be supposed to have so embittered their minds, as to have excited in them no slight feelings of revenge, when, in their turn, they came into power. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine any other cause for the severities which they practised, or for the laws which were enacted to authorise them. The principal of these Statutes, you may remember, were five: one in the 27th of Elizabeth, 1585, chapter ii., entitled ‘An Act against Jesuits, Seminary Priests, and other such like disobedient persons;’ and a second passed in her 35th year, 1593, chapter ii., and called ‘An Act for restraining Popish Recusants to some certain place of abode.’ Under King James I., were introduced three others strengtheningand confirming the former, the first of which was made in the 1st year of his reign, 1604, chapter iv., being ‘An Act for the due execution of the Statutes against Jesuits, Seminary Priests, Recusants, &c.’: and in his third year, 1606, were passed two others, see chapters iv. and v., namely, ‘An Act for the better discovering and repressing of Popish Recusants;’ and ‘An Act to prevent and avoid dangers which grow by Popish Recusants.’ History, Master Barbican, blushes to record what cruelties were perpetrated under the sanction of those laws; and I should have omitted all notice of them, but that they are so interwoven with several anecdotes of London Bridge. My authority is a work, entitled ‘The Catholic Book of Martyrs, or a true British Martyrology commencing with the Reformation;’ by the Right Rev. Richard Challoner, Bishop of Debora; of which the new edition of 1825 is a singularly curious book. He states from Stow, in volume ii., page 9, that in 1578, February 3rd, John Nelson, a Priest, was executed at Tyburn, for denying the Queen’s supremacy, and that his head was erected on London Bridge; whilst, on page 74, is a similar relation of another Priest named James Fenn; but I proceed to notice a much more remarkable instance. In the year 1605, Father Henry Garnet, the Principal of the English Jesuits, was taken up and imprisoned in the Tower, for being a party concerned in the famous Gunpowder Plot: after many examinations, he acknowledged that Father Greenway, a Jesuit, had communicated it tohim under the seal of confession from Catesby, the Chief of the conspirators. Both the Priests were struck with horror at the design, and vainly endeavoured to prevent its execution. Greenway fled beyond the seas, but Father Garnet was taken, condemned, and executed in St. Paul’s Church Yard, on the 3rd of May, the Anniversary of the Invention, or Finding of the Holy Cross by the Empress Helena, the Mother of Constantine. ‘His head,’ says Bishop Challoner, in his ‘Catholic Book of Martyrs,’ volume iii., page ii., ‘was fixed on London Bridge, and it was much remarked, that his countenance, which was always venerable, retained, for above twenty days, the same lively colour which it had during life, which drew all London to the spectacle, and was interpreted as a testimony of his innocence; as was also an image of him wonderfully formed on an ear of straw, on which a drop of his blood had fallen.’ Dr. Challoner gives his authorities for this narrative at its commencement.“But to pass from these unhappy subjects to the story of London Bridge, and the River Thames, let me next observe that the year 1608 was remarkable for a great frost near this edifice, of which we have a very curious account in Edmond Howe’s ‘Continuation of the Abridgement of Stow’s English Chronicle,’ London, 1611, duodecimo, page 481; from which take the following extract. ‘The 8th of December began a hard frost, and continued vntill the 15th of the same, and then thawed: and the 22nd of December it beganagaine to freeze violently, so as diuers persons went halfe way ouer the Thames vpon the ice: and the 30th of December, at euery ebbe, many people went quite ouer the Thames in diuers places, and so continued from that day vntill the third of January: the people passed daily betweene London and the Bankside at euery halfe ebbe, for the floud remoued the ice and forced the people daily to tread new paths, except onely betweene Lambeth and the ferry at Westminster, the which, by incessant treading, became very firm and free passage, vntill the great thaw: and from Sunday, the tenth of January, vntill the fifteenth of the same, the frost grew so extreme, as the ice became firme, and remoued not, and then all sorts of men, women, and children, went boldly upon the ice in most parts; some shot at prickes, others bowled and danced, with other variable pastimes; by reason of which concourse of people, there were many that set vp boothes and standings vpon the ice, as fruit-sellers, victuallers, that sold beere and wine, shoomakers, and a barber’s tent, &c.’ He adds, that all these had fires; that the frost killed all the artichokes in the gardens about London; and that the ice lasted until the afternoon of the 2nd of February, when ‘it was quite dissolued and clean gon.’ There is a very rare tract, containing an account of this frost, mentioned by Gough in his ‘British Topography,’ volume i., page 731, which has a wood-cut representation of it, with London Bridge in the distance: and is entitled‘Cold doings in London, except it be at the Lottery: with newes out of the Country. A familier talk, between a Countryman and a Citizen, touching this terrible Frost, and the Great Lottery, and the effect of them.’ London, 1608, quarto. I may observe that the Lottery was then drawn at St. Paul’s, the prizes were all of plate, the highest being £150, and the price of each ticket was one shilling only. The same year of 1608 was also memorable for two tides flowing at London Bridge, on Sunday, the 19th of February. Edmond Howes records it in his Continuation of Stow’s ‘Annals,’ page 893, and states that ‘when it should haue beene dead low water at London Bridge, quite contrary to course it was then high water; and, presently, it ebbed almost halfe an houre, the quantitie of a foote, and then sodainly it flowed againe almost two foote higher than it did before, and then ebbed againe vntill it came neere the right course, so as the next floud began, in a manner, as it should, and kept his due course in all respects as if there had beene no shifting, nor alteration of tydes. All this happened before twelue of the clocke in the forenoone, the weather being indifferent calme; and the sixt of February, the next yeere following, the Thames againe shifted tydes very strangely.’“We know not, Mr. Barbican, at what exact period London Bridge was first occupied by shops, but in the Survey of Bridge-lands which I have already repeated to you, it appears very probable that some of the shops in the Bridge Street were actually erected on the Bridge. Houses with distinguishingsigns, however, must have been built upon this edifice at a very early period; for the first notice of one, which I can now recollect, is in the fire which brake out at the Pannier, at the North end of the Bridge in 1504; whilst the next is not older than 1619, and occurs in a letter written October the 6th, by George Herbert, the pious author of the ‘Temple,’ and printed at the end of Izaak Walton’s ‘Lives,’ fourth edition, London, 1675, 8vo., page 340. ‘I pray, Sir, therefore,’—says this epistle,—‘cause this inclosed to be carried to his brother’s house,’—Sir Francis Nethersole,—‘of his own name, as I think, at the sign of the Pedlar and his Pack on London Bridge, for there he assigns me.’ Norden, as I have already shewn you, says that this place was ‘furnished with all manner of trades;’ and as this is rather a curious, though an unexplored portion of Bridge story, I shall at once lay before you all the information which I have collected upon it, under the present period of time, since it is infinitely too small to be divided into different years. The principal ancient residences of the London Booksellers were, St. Paul’s Church Yard, Little Britain, Paternoster Row, and London Bridge; and of books published at the latter place let me first exhibit to you some titles, taken from that vast collection, which John Bagford made for a General History of Printing, preserved with the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum. The ensuing are from No. 5921, pages 5 b, 6 a, 7 a, and 9 b,“‘The Merchandises of Popish Priests; or, a Discouery of the Jesuites Trumpery, newly packed in England. Laying open to the world how cunningly they cheate and abuse people with their false, deceitfull, and counterfeit wares. Written in French, by John Chassanion, and truly translated into English. Printed at London, for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold at his Shop on London Bridge. 1629.’ Small quarto. Above the imprint is a rude wood-cut of a corded bale, labelled with the words ‘A Packe of Popish Trinkets,’ and exhibiting a crucifix, rosary, bell, book, taper, a chalice signed with the cross, and an Aspergillum for scattering holy-water.—‘The Wise Merchant, or the Peerless Pearl; set forth in some meditations, delivered in two Sermons upon Matth. xiii. 45, 46. By Thomas Calvert. London. Printed by H. Bell, for Charles Tyns, dwelling at the Three Bibles on London Bridge. 1660.’ octavo.—‘The Seaman’s Kalender: By Henry Phillippes, Philo-Nauticus. London. Printed by W. G., for Benjamin Hurlock, and are to be sold at his shop over-against St. Magnus Church, on London Bridge, near Thames Street. 1672.’ small quarto.—‘England’s Grievances, in times of Popery. London. Printed for Joseph Collyer, and Stephen Foster, and are to be sold at the Angel on London Bridge, a little below the Gate, 1679.’ small quarto.—‘The Saints’ Triumph; or, the Glory of Saints with Jesus Christ. Discoursed in a Divine Ejaculation; by J(ohn) B(unyan). Printed by J. Millet for J. Blare, at the looking Glass on London Bridge. 1688.’ small quarto. A rude, but characteristicalwood-cut portrait of Bunyan is indented in the margin of this title-page. We also find one Hugh Astley living ‘at St. Magnus corner,’ in 1607; and, in 1677, R. Northcott kept ‘the Marriner and Anchor upon Fish-street Hill, near London Bridge.’”“Whilst you are speaking of the Booksellers and Tradesmen who lived on old London Bridge, Mr. Postern,” observed I, as he came to a period, “let me add to your account some other circumstances which, at various times, and from different sources, I have collected illustrative of that subject. The sign of ‘the Three Bibles’ seems to have been a very favourite device upon that edifice, and, most probably, continued so until the houses were removed; for we trace it into the eighteenth century, at which time there were two shops so denominated; and one of them also appears to have been famous for the sale of a Patent Medicine, as you will find from the following particulars communicated to me by Mr. John Thomas Smith, Keeper of the Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. ‘The Mariner’s Jewel; or, a Pocket Companion for the Ingenious. By James Love, Mathematician. The sixth edition, corrected and enlarged. London. Printed for H. and J. Tracy, at the Three Bibles on London Bridge. 1724.’ duodecimo. At the end of the volume bearing this title, is an advertisement of a medicine, called ‘The Balsam of Chili,’ which is succeeded by the following curious note. ‘All persons are desired to beware of a pretended Balsam of Chili, which, for about these sevenyears last past, hath been sold, and continues to be sold, by Mr. John Stuart, at theOld Three Bibles, as he calls his sign, although mine was the sign of the Three Bibles twenty years before his. This pretended Balsam sold by Mr. Stuart, resembles the true Balsam in colour, and is put up in the same bottles; but has been found to differ exceedingly from the true sort by several persons, who, through the carelessness of the buyers intrusted, have gone to the wrong place. Therefore all persons who send, should give strict order to enquire for the name Tracy; for Mr. Stuart’s being the very same sign, it is an easy matter to mistake. All other pretended Balsams of Chili, sold elsewhere, are shams and impositions; which may not only be ineffectual, but prove of worse consequence. The right sort is to be had of H. Tracy, at the Three Bibles on London Bridge, at 1s.6d.a bottle, where it hath been sold these forty years.’ There also appear to have been two Booksellers’ shops known by the sign of ‘the Looking Glasson London Bridge;’ for you have already mentioned that ‘the Life and Death of John Overs’ was printed for T. Harris at such a sign, in 1744; and at the very same time, as well as earlier, one T. Hodges was an extensive publisher of popular books, ‘at the Looking Glass on London Bridge over against St. Magnus Church,’ as you will find in the title-pages to a multitude of small volumes of that period. One of the little tracts to which his name appears, is‘The whole Life and merry exploits of bold Robin Hood, Earl of Huntingdon,’ 1737. duodecimo; and we also read the name of S. Crowder and Company, London Bridge, attached to ‘The Delightful, Princely, and Entertaining History of the Gentle Craft; adorn’d with Pictures suitable to each story.’ 1760. duodecimo. I could easily, Mr. Postern, increase this list of books published on London Bridge, from the advertisements which continually appeared in the columns of ‘The Daily Post,’—‘The Daily Courant,’ and other Newspapers of the early part of the last century, but I rather wish to point out to you the names and signs of some other persons dwelling in the same place; for it seems to have been occupied by a variety of trades. Thus, in 1722, we have John Body, Silversmith, at the White Horse on London Bridge;—Hotham, Bookseller, at the Black Boy; and E. Herne, Milliner, at the Dolphin and Comb. The shop-bills of these tradesmen, however, from whence we generally derive this kind of information, are so exceedingly rare, that after a very careful search through that extensive collection belonging to the late Miss Banks, now preserved in the Print Room of the British Museum, I have found onlyone! although the Portfolios contain many thousands. But what I there sought for in vain, has been supplied to me from two private sources; for Henry Smedley, Esq., of Whitehall, and Mr. William Upcott, of the London Institution, are in possession of impressions of several, of which they have kindly permitted me to take the following copies.“1. A copper-plate shop-bill, card size, having the figure of a Roebuck enclosed in a rich architectural square frame, surmounted by a shield of arms, 3 roebucks statant regardant, probably a copy from the sign of the house. On the lower parts of the frame are the date ‘1714,’ and the initials ‘W. O.;’ beneath which is ‘William Osborne, Leather seller, at the Roe-buck upon London Bridge.’“2. A copper-plate shop-bill, 5 inches by 3½, having, within a rich cartouche frame, a pair of embroidered small-clothes and a glove; beneath is written ‘Walter Watkins, Breeches Maker, Leather Seller, and Glover, at the Sign of the Breeches and Glove, on London Bridge, Facing Tooley Street, Sells all sorts Leather Breeches, Leather, and Gloves, Wholesale and Retail, at reasonable rates.’“3. The copper-plate head of a bill, ‘London 17.., Bought of Churcher and Christie, Leather Sellers and Breeches Makers, at the Lamb and Breeches, London Bridge.’“4. Copper-plate shop-bill, 53⁄8inches by 3¾, with the device of a Crown and Anchor, in a square cartouche frame; below which appears ‘James Brooke, Stationer, at yeAnchor and Crown, near the Square, on London Bridge, sells all sorts of Books for Accounts, Stampt Paper, and Parchm.nts, variety of Paper Hangings for Rooms, and all sorts of Stationary Wares, Wholesale and Retail, at reasonable rates.’“5. A small copper-plate Tobacco-paper, with a coarse and rude engraving of a Negro smoking, andholding a roll of tobacco; above his head a crown, two ships in full sail behind, and the sun issuing from the right hand corner above. In the fore-ground are four smaller Negroes planting and packing tobacco, and beneath is written ‘Iohn Winkley, Tobacconist, near yeBridge, In the Burrough Southwark, London.’“6. An elegant ornamental copper-plate shop-bill, 55⁄8inches by 42⁄8, with an allegorical design of two figures representing Genius and Prudence, with books and articles of stationery below; and between them, a circle, with the words, ‘John Benskin, Stationer, at yeBible and Star on yeBridge, London.’“7. A copper-plate shop-bill, 6 inches by 3½, with a rich cartouche shield, enclosing three tufts of hair curled and tied; beneath is written ‘John Allan, at the Locks of Hair on London Bridge. Sells all sorts of Hair Curled or Uncurled, Bags, Roses, Cauls, Ribbons, Weaving, Sewing Silk, Cards and Blocks. With all goods made use of by Peruke Makers at the Lowest Prices.’“One of the most eminent and well-known tradesmen on London Bridge, however, was William Herbert, the Print-seller, and Editor of Joseph Ames’s ‘Typographical Antiquities;’ who, upon his return from India, having probably acquired a considerable knowledge of the relative situations of the coasts, countries, and rivers, which he had seen and surveyed abroad, thought himself qualified to undertake the occupation of an Engraver, and Publisher, of Maps and Charts. With this view he took a house uponLondon Bridge, and continued in it, until the houses were taken down in 1757-58; when he removed to Leadenhall Street, and thence to Goulston Square, White-Chapel. The very first night which Mr. Herbert spent in his house on London Bridge, there was a dreadful fire in some part of the metropolis, on the banks of the Thames; which, with several succeeding ones, suggested to him the plan of a floating fire-engine. He proposed it to Captain Hill, of the Royal Exchange Assurance, who told him that ‘there must be a fire every now and then for the benefit of the insurance:’ Herbert, however, published his proposal in the Gazetteer, and it was soon after adopted. You will find these anecdotes originally printed in the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine,’ for 1795, volume lxv., part i., page 262; supposed to have been written by Mr. Gough; whence they were incorporated into the Memoirs of Herbert, attached to the Rev. Dr. Dibdin’s edition of the ‘Typographical Antiquities,’ volume i., London, 1810, quarto, page 76. The pretty copper-plate shop-bill of Master Herbert is yet preserved in a most beautiful state, in the vast collection of the late Miss Banks, to which I have already alluded, volume iii., class,Print-sellers. It bears the date of 1749, and represents a country view, surrounded by columns, vases, temples, statues, &c. On the left are two figures, one in the full dress of the time, and the other in a morning dress, exhibiting a portrait to him. Round the whole print is a rich ancient frame, ornamented with flowers, laurel branches, busts, books,instruments, scrolls, and a globe standing in the centre beneath. At the top is an eagle supporting a large robe, or piece of drapery, which hangs half way down, and on which the following words are inscribed in ornamental writing. ‘Great variety of English Maps and Prints, plain and colour’d. Also French, and other Foreign Prints, chiefly collected from the works of the most celebrated artists. Sold by William Herbert, at the Golden Globe, under the Piazzas on London Bridge. N. B. Prints neatly framed and glazed for Exportation, Rooms and Staircases fitted up in the modern or Indian taste.’“Another source whence we derive much of our information concerning the old shopkeepers of London, and, of course, those of London Bridge, is to be found in that species of unauthorised coin commonly known by the name of Tradesmen’s Tokens. For many centuries, you remember, gold and silver money only was regularly current in this kingdom; for, though the earliest inhabitants of Britain probably used copper, there was none coined of an authorised mintage, until the time of Charles II. The silver pence, and even halfpence, which were previously current, were of so minute a size, that, as an eminent author on this subject observes, ‘a dozen of them might be in a man’s pocket, and yet not be discovered without a good magnifying glass;’ and, consequently, they were not adapted to any very extensive circulation. To remedy this, and to provide change for the increase of retail trade, these Tokens were originally issued;being pieces of coin of a low value, to pass between Grocers, Bakers, Vintners, &c., by which the lower classes might have smaller quantities of goods, than they would otherwise be obliged to procure. These Tokens were first issued about the latter end of the reign of Henry VII., or the beginning of the following one, when they were made of lead, tin, latten, and even of leather. In the time of Elizabeth their numbers increased; and, though the silver farthings, coined by James I., and Charles I., for a while supplied the want of small coins, yet, in the Civil Wars, the private Tokens multiplied to a great excess, and every petty tradesman had his pledges for a halfpenny payable in silver, or its value in goods, to bearer upon demand, at his shop: upon the credit of which it therefore depended, whether they should circulate through one or two streets, a whole town, or to some little distance in the country round. The London Gazettes for July the 25th, 1672, and February the 23rd, 1673, contained advertisements against these Tokens, and of the issuing of the first national copper coinage, referring to ‘the Farthing Office in Fen-Church Street,’ as the place of exchange. Previously, however, to the issue of a lawful coinage in 1797, the debased state of the copper money gave rise to another general striking of Provincial and Tradesmen’s Tokens, which was commenced by the famous Anglesey Penny in 1784. Such, then, is a general view of the nature and history of these coins, and we now proceed to notice those which record for us some particulars of London Bridge.“The general impresses of these Tokens consisted of the names, residences, initials, and signs of their owners, by whom they were issued and paid; and the quantity used in London was so great, that Sir Robert Cotton supposed, about 1612, that there were 3000 persons who cast leaden Tokens to the amount of £5. annually, upon the average; of which they had not one tenth remaining at the year’s end. Notwithstanding this immense quantity, we meet with but few relating to London Bridge; and yet, by the experience and kindness of Edward Hawkins, Esq., Assistant Keeper of the Coins and Medals of the British Museum, and of Mr. M. Young, the well-known Dealer in those articles, I am furnished with a list, and drawings, of most of those which are known to be extant, and of which I shall now give you a description.“1.A Brass Token,—Farthing size:Obverse, a Lion rampant,Legend,—‘Joh. Welday. at. yeLyon,’—Reverse,—‘on London Bridge. I.W. 1657.’“2.A Brass, or base copper Token,—Farthing size:Obverse, a Sugar Loaf,Legend,—‘Edw. Muns at the Sugar’—Reverse,—‘Loaf on London Bridge. 1668. His Halfepenny.’“3.A Copper Token,—Farthing size:Obverse, a Bear passant, chained,Legend,—‘Abraham Browne. at. ye’—Reverse,—‘Bridg foot. Sovthwark. His Half peny.’“4.A Brass, or base Copper Token,—Farthing size:Obverse, a Dog,Legend,—‘Joseph Brocket,’—Reverse,—‘Bridgfoot Southwark.B.IM.’“5.A Copper Token,—Farthing size:Obverse, a Bear passant, chained,Legend,—‘Cornelivs. Cook. at. the’—Reverse,—‘Beare. at. the. Bridg. fot.C.CA.’“6.A Brass Token,—Farthing size:Obverse, a Lion rampant,Legend,—‘At. the. Whit. Lyon,’—Reverse,—‘Neir London Bridge.C.T.A.’“7.A Copper Token,—Farthing size:Obverse, a Sugar loaf,Legend,—‘Henry. Phillips, at.’—Reverse,—‘Bridg. Foot. Sovthwark.P.H.S.’“Such, then, are some specimens of the Tradesmen’s Tokens current on London Bridge; and thoughthey are sufficiently rude in their workmanship, and base in their metal, yet with some collectors, they are of a far greater degree of rarity, and of value too, than the handsomest modern silver coin you could present them with. You will observe, however, that I have noticed those Tokens only, on which the Bridge is actually mentioned; but an extensive list of such as were issued in Southwark, will be found in Messrs. Manning’s and Bray’s ‘History of Surrey,’ already referred to, volume iii., Appendix, pages cxi-cxv. Let me add too, that my authorities for these historical notices of coins, have been ‘An Essay on Medals,’ by John Pinkerton, London, 1789, octavo, volume i.; and ‘Annals of the Coinage of Britain,’ by the Rev. Rogers Ruding, London, 1819, octavo, volume iii., pages 127, 319, 324, volume iv., page 61. I must not, however, conclude these particulars of the numismatic reliques of London Bridge, without observing to you that there are some Medalets also extant, commemorative of its buildings. Of these coins we find a list in James Conder’s elegant volumes, entitled ‘An Arrangement of Provincial Coins, Tokens, and Medalets, issued in Great Britain, Ireland, and the Colonies, within the last twenty years, from the farthing to the penny size.’ Ipswich, 1798, octavo. Medalets, you know, Mr. Postern, are of that description of coins which were struck by the Romans, and used for scattering to the people upon solemn occasions: and those of which I am now speaking are of the class distinguished bybearing the representation of public buildings. In volume i., pages 72 and 73, of Mr. Conder’s work, are mentioned the following Medalets of London Bridge, of the penny size, executed by P. Kempson.No. 40. A Bronzed or Copper Medalet:Obverse, a view of a Bridge,Legend,—‘London Bridge the first of stone, compleated 1209.’Legend on the Exergue,—‘The houses on the Bridge taken down, and the Bridge repair’d, 1758.’—Reverse, a figure of Britannia with spear and shield, seated on a rock, holding an olive-branch;—Legend, indented on a raised circle round the field, ‘British Penny Token.’ On the Exergue a cypher ‘P.K.—MDCCXCVII.’Legend on the edge,—‘I promise to pay on demand the Bearer one Penny.’No. 47. A Bronzed or Copper Medalet:Obverse, an ancient gateway,—Legend,—‘Bridge Gate as rebuilt 1728.’—Legend on the Exergue, ‘Taken down, 1766.’Reverse, an upright figure of Justice. Legend and date on the rim as before.There were also two Medalets of the halfpenny size, executed by P. Skidmore, of Coppice Row, Clerkenwell, which are likewise mentioned by Conder, in volume i., pages 103, 106.No. 267. A Bronzed or Copper Medalet:Obverse, a view of a church,—Legend,—‘St. Magnus London Bridge. 1676.’—Reverse, a cypher, ‘P.S.Co.,’ in a circle,Legend,—‘Dedicated to collectors of Medals and Coins.’No. 300. A Bronzed or Copper Medalet:Obverse, an ancient gateway,—Legend,—‘Bridge Gate, Bt. 1728:’ within the Archway the name of ‘Jacobs.’—Reverse, as before.“I am inclined to think, Mr. Barnaby Postern, that there have been several traditional mistakes perpetuated, as to persons supposed to have dwelt upon London Bridge; for, upon investigating the subject, I can find no authority to support my recording them as inhabitants of that part of London. The author of an exceedingly amusing work, entitled ‘Wine and Walnuts,’ London, 1823, octavo, in which are contained many witty scenes and curious conversations of eminent characters in the last century, has entitled the seventh chapter of his second volume ‘Old London Bridge; with portraits of some of its inhabitants.’ In this article, on page 81, we are told that ‘Master John Bunyan, one of your heaven-born geniuses, resided, for some time, upon London Bridge;’ though I cannot discover any such circumstance in either of the lives of that good man now extant, though he certainlypreached, for some time, at a Chapel in Southwark. Perhaps, however, this assertion may be explained by the following passage from the Preface affixed to the Index attached to the first volume of ‘The Labours of that eminent servant of Christ Mr. John Bunyan,’ London, 1692, folio. It is there stated, that in 1688 ‘he published six books, being the time of K. James 2d’s. liberty of conscience, and was seized with a sweating distemper, of which, after his some weeks going about, proved his death, at his very loving friend’s Mr. Strudwick’s, a Grocer,’—at the sign of the Star,—‘atHolborn Bridge, London, on August 31st.’ It is also recorded on the same page of ‘Wine and Walnuts,’ that ‘Master Abel, the great importer of wines, was another of the marvels of old London Bridge; he set up a sign, Thank God I amAbel, quoth the wag, and had, in front of his house, the sign of a bell.’ As I have also heard the same particulars repeated elsewhere, it is possible that there may be some traditionary authority for them; but upon carefully reading over the very rare tracts relating to Mr. Alderman Abel, preserved in the British Museum, I find nothing concerning his residence on London Bridge, and I should rather imagine, from their statements, that he lived at his Ticket, or Patent Office, situate in Aldermary Church-Yard. The same chapter, however, contains some authentic notices of Artists who really did live upon this venerable edifice. Of these, one of the most eminent was Hans Holbein, the great painter of the Court of Henry VIII.; butthough we can hardly suppose that he inhabited the Nonesuch House, yet his actual residence here is certified by Lord Orford, in his ‘Anecdotes of Painting,’ vide his ‘Works,’ edit. London, 1798-1822, quarto, volume iii., page 72, note. ‘The father of the Lord Treasurer Oxford’—says the noble author in that place,—‘passing over London Bridge, was caught in a shower; and stepping into a goldsmith’s shop for shelter, he found there a picture of Holbein,—who had lived in that house,—and his family. He offered the goldsmith £100. for it, who consented to let him have it, but desired first to shew it to some persons. Immediately after, happened the fire of London, and the picture was destroyed.’ Another famous Artist of London Bridge, who is mentioned in both the works which I last cited, was Peter Monamy; so excellent a painter of marine subjects, as to be considered but little inferior to Vandevelde himself. Lord Orford says of him, at page 421, that he ‘received his first rudiments of drawing from a sign and house-painter on London Bridge;’—and that ‘the shallow waves, that rolled under his window, taught young Monamy what his master could not teach him, and fitted him to paint the turbulence of the ocean.’ This artist died at Westminster in 1749. We are also informed, by Edward Edwards, in his ‘Continuation of Walpole’s Anecdotes of Painting,’ London, 1808, quarto, page 214, that Dominic Serres, the Marine Painter, who died in 1793, also once kept a shop upon London Bridge. To these celebrated men, the author of ‘Wine and Walnuts’ adds Jack Laguerre, the Engraver, ‘a great humourist, wit, singer, player, caricaturist, mimic, and a good scene-painter,’ son to that Louis, who painted stair-cases and saloons, where, as Pope says, ‘sprawl the saints of Verrio and Laguerre.’ His residence, according to our lively author, who states that he received his information from ‘old Dr. Monsey and others,’ was on the first floor of the dwelling of a waggish bookseller, and author of all-work, named Crispin Tucker; the owner of half-a-shop on the East side, under the Southern gate. The artist’sstudiowas, chiefly, in a bow-windowed back room, which projected over the Thames, and trembled at every half-ebb tide; in which Hogarth had resided in his early life, when he engraved for old John Bowles, of the Black Horse in Cornhill. It resembled, we are told, on page 135 of the work and volume which I have already quoted, one of the alchemist’s laboratories from the pencil of the elder Teniers. It was ‘a complete smoke-stained confusionary, with a German-stove, crucibles, pipkins, nests of drawers, with rings of twine to pull them out; here a box of asphaltum, there glass-stoppered bottles, varnishes, dabbers, gravers, etching-tools, walls of wax, obsolete copper-plates, many engraved on both sides, caricatures, and poetry scribbled over the walls; a pallet hung up as an heir-loom, the colours dry upon it, hard as stone; an easel; all the multifariousarcanaliaof engraving, and, lastly, a Printing-press!’ This curious picture is also from theinformation of Dr. Monsey, but I cannot produce you any other authority for its truth; and I shall likewise, therefore, leave you to read, and judge for yourself, the amusing account of Dean Swift’s and Pope’s visits and conversations with Crispin Tucker, of London Bridge, in chapters viii. and ix. of the work I have referred to.“It was, however, not only the ordinary buildings in the Bridge-street, which were formerly occupied as shops and warehouses, but even the Chapel of St. Thomas, which, in its later years, was called Chapel-House, and the Nonesuch-House, were used for similar purposes before they were taken down. Mr. John Nichols, in his ‘Literary Anecdotes,’ tells us, volume vi., part i., page 402, note, on the authority of Dr. Ducarel, that ‘the house over the Chapel belonged to Mr. Baldwin, Haberdasher, who was born there; and when, at seventy-one, he was ordered to go to Chislehurst for a change of air, he could not sleep in the country, for want of the noise,’—the roaring and rushing of the tide beneath the Bridge,—‘he had been always used to hear.’ My good friend, Mr. J. T. Smith, too, in his very interesting volume of the ‘Ancient Topography of London,’ which you have already quoted, page 26, has also the following observations concerning the modern use of this Chapel. ‘By theMorning Advertiser,’ says he, ‘for April 26th, 1798, it appears that Aldermen Gill and Wright had been in partnership upwards of fifty years; and that their shop stood on the centre ofLondon Bridge, and their warehouse for paper was directly under it, which was a Chapel for divine service, in one of the old arches; and, long within legal memory, the service was performed every sabbath and Saint’s day. Although the floor was always, at high-water mark, from ten to twelve feet under the surface; yet such was the excellency of the materials and the masonry, that not the least damp, or leak, ever happened, and the paper was kept as safe and dry as it would have been in a garret.’ In that ‘Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster,’ printed in 1734, and purporting to have been compiled by Robert Seymour, Esq., but which was in reality the production of the Rev. John Motley, the famous collector of Joe Miller’s Jests, it is stated in volume i., book i., page 48, that at that time one side of the Nonesuch House was inhabited by Mr. Bray, a Stationer, and the other by Mr. West, a Dry-Salter. So much then, Mr. Barnaby, for the few anecdotes which I have been able to collect of the dwellings and inhabitants of old London Bridge.”“And a very fair Memorial too, Master Geoffrey,” answered the Antiquary, “especially when we consider the extreme difficulty of procuring such information as this is: but, to carry on our history, I must now enter upon a less amusing subject; the summary of the Bridge Accounts for the years 1624 and 1625, taken from the printed sheet which I have so often cited. ‘1624. To John Langley, and Richard Foxe, Bridge-Masters, half a year’s fee at our Lady-day,£50: and for the other half year augmented by order of the Court of Aldermen, £66. 8s.4d., and for their Liveries, &c. £6. Total £122. 8s.4d.Rental £2054. 4s.2d.—1625. To the said Bridge-Masters, £133. 6s.8d.Liveries, &c. £6. Total to each of them, £69. 3s.4d.Rental, £2054. 4s.2d.’ These notices of the prosperity of this edifice, conduct us down to the time when so much of its glory was lost in devastating flames and mouldering ruins.“The year 1632-33 must be ever memorable in the history of London Bridge: for scarcely in the awful conflagration which consumed almost the whole City, did our brave old edifice suffer so severely. And now, Mr. Barbican, you must forgive me if I be a little prolix in describing that desolating fire, since it not only destroyed more than a third part of the Bridge Houses, but, at one time, its ravages were feared even in the City itself. I shall commence my account then by reminding you that Richard Bloome, one of Stow’s continuators, on page 61 of his ‘Survey,’ thus speaks of the calamity. ‘On the 13th day of February, between eleven and twelve at night, there happened in the house of one Briggs, a Needle-maker near St. Magnus Church, at the North end of the Bridge, by the carelessness of a Maid-Servant setting a tub of hot sea-coal ashes under a pair of stairs, a sad and lamentable fire, which consumed all the buildings before eight of the clock the next morning, from the North end of the Bridge to the first vacancy on both sides, containing forty-two houses; waterthen being very scarce, the Thames being almost frozen over. Beneath, in the vaults and cellars, the fire remained glowing and burning a whole week after.’“There are not wanting several general views of London taken before this fire, by which we are made acquainted with those extensive piles of dwellings it destroyed; several of which I have already mentioned to you. Another also, which is most excellent and rare, is that entitled in Latin, ‘London the most flourishing City of Britain, and the most celebrated emporium of the whole world.’ It was engraven by John Visscher in 1616, and published in Holland, ‘by Jud. Hondius at the sign of the Watchful Dog;’ a four sheet print measuring 7 feet 1½ inch by 1 foot 4¾ inches, with an English description beneath it. ‘A Capital View,’ adds Gough, in his ‘British Topography,’ already cited, volume i., page 749, ‘the plates destroyed in Holland about twenty years ago. T. Davies sold the only impression of it to the King for ten guineas.’ There is, likewise, a variation of this view, without a date, having eight Latin verses at either corner, with the name of ‘Ludovicus Hondius Lusitt.’ It is, says Mr. J. T. Smith, in his ‘Ancient Topography of London,’ page 25, ‘extremely well executed, and exhibits a wind-mill standing in the Strand, very near where the New Church is now erected; and another above the Water-works at Queenhithe.’ He considers it as earlier than the productions of Hollar, from the circumstance that the Palace of Whitehall appears in itsoriginal state, before the Banquetting House and York and Somerset Water-gates were erected by Inigo Jones. It is also shewn to be a view of the time of King James I., by a royal procession being introduced on the water, in which the royal barge is surmounted by the thistle. London Bridge forms a very large and important feature in this engraving, and I have been informed, that the edifice alone was copied in quarto, for the work entitled ‘London before the Great Fire;’ but as that publication stopped with the second number, it was never exhibited for sale.Of the very curious print by Visscher, however,—and I must not forget to observe that a fine impression of it is in the possession of John Dent, Esq.—there was also an imitation of the same size, but somewhat inferior, called, from the place where it was engraven, ‘the Venetian copy of Visscher’s View.’ It is, like its prototype, entitled in Latin, ‘London the most flourishing City in Britain,’ &c. to which is added, ‘Printed in Venice, by Nicolo Misserini, 1629, Franco Valegio fecit:’ it also contains a Latin dedication, and a description in Italian. There is an impression, probably, of this latter print, preserved in volume xiii. of the famous illustrated Pennant’s London, bequeathed by the late Charles Crowle, Esq. to the British Museum; but all the inscriptions have been cruelly cut away, and the print itself doubled in numerous folds to make it fit to the size of the volume! This engraving, however, bears the name of Rombout Vanden Hoege, and shews us, with great minuteness,on rather a large scale, theGroup of Buildings on London Bridge, burned down in 1632-33,which extended to the first opening, and which, from the very appearance which they present, must have contained a considerable number of inhabitants; but of the fire itself, and of all the distressing events attending it, I am about to give you a very particular and interesting account, from the pen of an eye-witness of the conflagration. This narrative is contained in a coarse paper Manuscript volume, of a small quarto size, written in the print-hand of the 17th century, with some lines of faded red ink andchalk interspersed. The volume contains 517 pages in all, and is entitled ‘A Record of the Mercies of God; or, a Thankefull Remembrance;’ it being a collection, or journal, of remarkable providences and reflections, made by one Nehemiah Wallington, a Puritan Citizen and Turner, who lived in Little East-cheap, and who was evidently a friend of Burton and Bastwick, he having been several times examined concerning them before the Court of Star-Chamber. In this most singular record then, at pages 479-488, is an article entitled ‘Of the great fire vpon the Bridge;’ preceded by Mottoes from Psalms lxvi. 5; lxxi. 17; cxi. 2; Isaiah xlv. 7; and Amos iii. 6; which runs in the following terms.“‘1633. It is the bounden dutie of vs all that haue beene the beholders of the wonderfull workes of the Lord our God, his mercyes and iudgements shewed heretofore; and now of late of a fearefull fire, wee should not forgett itt ourselues, and we should declare it to all others, euen to yegenerations to come.—On the xi. day of February, (being Monday, 1633) began, by God’s iust hand, a fearefull fire in the house of one Mr. Iohn Brigges, neere tenn of the clocke att night, it burnt down his house and the next house, with all the goods that were in them; and, as I heere, that Briggs, his wife, and childe, escaped with their liues very hardly, hauing nothing on their bodies but their shurt and smoke: and the fire burnt so fearcely, that itt could not be quenched till it had burnt downe all the houses on both sides ofthe way, from S. Magnes Church to the first open place. And allthough there was water enough very neere, yet they could not safely come at it, but all the conduittes neere were opened, and the pipes that carried watter through the streets were cutt open, and the watter swept down with broomes with helpe enough; but it was the will of God it should not preuaile. And the hand of God was the more seene in this, in as much as no meanes would prosper. For the 3 Engines, which are such excellent things, that nothing that euer was deuised could do so much good, yet none of these did prosper, for they were all broken, and the tide was verie low that they could get no watter; and the pipes that were cutt yeilded but littel watter. Some ladders were broke to the hurt of many, for some had their legges broke, some had their armes, and some their ribbes broken, and many lost their liues. This fire burnt fiercely all night, and part of the next day (for my man was there about twelue a cloke, and he said he did see the fardest house on fire) till all was burnt and pulled downe to the ground. Yet the timber, and wood, and coales in the sellers, could not be quenched all that weeke, till the Tuesday following, in the afternoone, the xix of February, for I was there then my selfe, and had a liue cole of fire in my hand, and burnt my finger with it. Notwithstanding there were as many night and day as could labour one by another to carry away timber, and brickes, and tiles, and rubbish cast downe into the liters. So that on Wensdaythe Bridge was cleared that passengers might goe ouer.’“‘At the begining of this fire, as I lay in my bed and heard yesweeping of the channels and crying for water, water, I arose about one of the cloke, and looked downe Fish-street-hill, and did behold such a fearfull and dreadfull fire vaunting it selfe ouer the tops of houses, like a Captaine florishing and displaying his banner; and seeing so much meanes and so little good, it did make me thinke of that fire which the Lord threateneth against Ierusalem, for the breach of his Sabbath day. He saith thus: ‘But if ye will not here me to sanctifie the Sabbath day, and to beare no burden, nor to goe through yegates of Ierusalem in the Sabbath day, then will I kindle a fire in yegates there, and it shall deuoure the palaces of Ierusalem, and it shall not be quenched.’ Iere. xvii. 27.“‘I did heere that on the other side of yeBridge, the Bruers brought abundance of watter in vessells on their draies, which did, with the blissing of God, much good; and this mircie of God I thought on, that there was but littel wind; for had yewind bin as high as it was a weeke before, I thinke it would have indangered yemost part of the Citie; for in Thames Street there is much pitch, tarre, rosen, and oyle, in their houses: Therefore, as God remembers mercy in iustice, let us remember thankefullnes in sorrow.‘Therefore will I praise the Lord with my whole heart, and I will speake of all thy marvellous workes;’ ‘for it is of the Lord’s mercy that wee are not consumed,’ Lament. iii., 22. The Names, and Trades, and number of the Houses burnt vpon the Bridg, heere you may see vnder nethe.—“‘1. Mr. William Vyner,—Haberdasher of smal Wares. 2. Mr. Iohn Broome,—Hosier. 3. Mr. Arther Lee,—Haberdasher of smal Wares. 4. Mris. Iohane Broome,—Hosier. 5. Mr. Ralph Panne,—Shewmaker. 6. Mr. Abraham Marten,—Haberdasher of Hattes. 7. Mr. Ieremiah Champney,—Hosier. 8. Mr. John Terrill,—Silke man. 9. Mr. Ellis Midmore,—Milliner. 10. Mr. Francis Finch,—Hosier. 11. Mr. Andrewe Bouth,—Haberdasher of small Wares. 12. Mr. Samuel Petty,—Glouer. 13. Mr. Valentin Beale,—Mercer. 14. Mris. —— Chambers,Senior. 15. Mr. Ieremiah Chamley,—Silke man. 16. The Blew Bore,—empti. 17. Mr. Iohn Gouer,—Stiller of Strong Waters. 18. Mr. Iohn Wilding,Iunior,—Girdler. 19. Mr. Daniel Conney,—Silke man. 20. Mr. Stephen Beale,—Lyning Draper. 21. Mris. Iane Langham,—Mercer. 22. Mr. Iames Dunkin,Wolling Draper. 23. Mr. Matthew Harding,—Salter. 24. Mr. Abraham Chambers,—Haberdasher of smal Wares. 25. and 26.—Mr. Lyne Daniel,—Haberdasher of Hattes,a double house. 27. Mris. —— Brookes,—Glouer. 28. Mr. —— Couerley,—Hosier. 29. Mr. Iohn Dransfielde,—Grocer. 30. Mr. Newman,emptie. 31. Mr. Edward Warnett, and 32. Mr. Samuel Wood,partoners,—Haberdashers of Small Wares. 33. Mr. Iohn Greene,—Haberdasher of Hattes. 34. Mr. HeughPowel,—Haberdasher of Hattes. 35. Mr. Samuel Armitage,—Haberdasher of Small Wares. 36. Mr. Iohn Sherley,—Haberdasher of Small Wares. 37. Mr. John Lawrymore,—Grocer. 38. Mr. Timothy Drake,—Woolling Draper. 39. Mr. Iohn Brigges,—Needle-maker.’—at whose house the fire commenced,—‘40. Mr. Richard Shelbuery,—Scriuener. 41. Mr. Edward Greene,—Hosier. 42. Mr. —— Hazard,—the Curate, and 43. Mr. —— Hewlett,—the Clarke,—at S. Magnus Cloyster.’“This narrative has, however, already appeared in print in the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ for November, 1824, pages 387, 388; the extract having been furnished by the possessor of the volume, Mr. William Upcott, of the London Institution.“Of the ground-plot of London Bridge, after the damage done by this fire, there is yet extant a very curious survey, preserved under the care of Mr. Smith, in the British Museum. It consists of an unpublished drawing on parchment, measuring four feet five inches in length, by ten inches in breadth: and it, perhaps, belonged to Sir Hans Sloane, as it is kept with some other fragmenta of his property. In this drawing, the piers are represented in a tint of yellow, placed upon sterlings of Indian ink; and it was executed, as I suppose, soon after this fatal conflagration, since there is a note written in an ancient hand attached to the seventh pier from the City end, stating that ‘the Fire burnt to the prickt line,’ which is drawn from it; and which accords with all the subsequentviews taken of the platform, and houses on the Bridge.“I am next to speak,” continued my unwearied Historian, “of the manner in which this terrible destruction of London Bridge was repaired: and concerning this we are informed by Richard Bloome, a Continuator of Stow, who tells us in his ‘Survey,’ volume i., page 61, that after the fire, ‘this North end of the Bridge lay unbuilt for many years, only deal boards were set up on both sides, to prevent people’s falling into the Thames, many of which deals were, by high winds, oft blown down, which made it very dangerous in the nights, although there were lanthorns and candles hung upon all the cross beams that held the pales together.’ We have two views of London Bridge, in which the Northern end of it appears in this state, but in each of them the temporary erection is quite of a different nature; and it is somewhat singular that the writer whom I last cited, should positively speak as follows, concerning the early restoration of the destroyed houses, when there seems no real authority to support his assertions. ‘For about the year 1645,’—says he,—‘the North end of this part last burned, began to be rebuilt; and in the year 1646 was finished: the building was of timber, very substantial and beautiful, for the houses were three stories high, besides the cellars, which were within and between the piers. And over the houses were stately platforms leaded, with rails and ballusters about them, very commodious and pleasant for walking, and enjoying so fine a prospect up and down the River; and some had pretty little gardens witharbours. This half being finished, the other half was intended to be rebuilt answerable to this, which would have been a great glory to the Bridge and honour to the City, the street, or passage, being twenty feet broad; whereas the other part, at the South end, was not above fourteen, and, in some places, but twelve.’“Now, notwithstanding this particular description of these new buildings, neither of the engravings which I have alluded to have any indications of them; although one of them was published in 1647, and the other in 1666. The first of these represents the North end of London Bridge, from St. Magnus’ Church to the houses beyond the first opening, as occupied by acoveredpassage formed of planks, leaving recesses standing out from the main erection, which was supported by buttresses of wood fastened to platforms on the outside of the Bridge.“We derive this view of the dilapidations of LondonBridge from a very rare and magnificent print, well known to collectors and antiquaries, by the name of the ‘Long Antwerp view of London;’ for which, Mr. Geoffrey Barbican, if you ever meet with it, you may consider twenty guineas as a very moderate price. This famous engraving is an etching by the matchless Wenceslaus Hollar; it is in seven sheets, measuring two yards and an half in length, by 17½ inches in height: it bears a dedication to Queen Henrietta Maria, and William Prince of Orange, with a copy of Latin verses written by Edward Benlowes, Esq.; and, though it was sold in London, the following publication line appears on one side written in Latin:—‘Sold at Amsterdam by Cornelius Danckers, in Calf Street, at the sign of the Image of Gratitude, in the year 1647.’ The e is, by the way, a pretty fair, but smaller copy of this view of London and Westminster in two sheets, in a series of prints commonly called ‘Boydell’s Perspectives,’ measuring 37½ inches, by 10¼ inches, signed ‘R. Benning, del. et sculp.,’ and entitled ‘A View of London as it was in the year 1647.’ The publication line is, ‘Sold by J. Boydell, Engraver, at the Unicorn in Cheapside, London, 1756.’ You will find both the original, and the copy, in the xiii.th and xiv.th volumes of Mr. Crowle’s Illustrated Pennant, which I have already cited to you, and the view takes in from above the Parliament House at Westminster to beyond St. Catherine’s; but the Bridge is thekeimelionof the plate, for that noble edifice is represented with all its buildings, from St. Magnus’ Church, down to the SouthwarkTower, the size of 10 inches in length, with the principal buildings about two inches square. The other view to which I have alluded, was also etched by Hollar, upon two sheets measuring 27 inches by 4¼: and it consists of two prospects, one over the other, on the same plate, the upper one representing, ‘London from St. Mary Overies Steeple in Southwark, in its flourishing condition before the Fire;’ and the lower one entitled, ‘Another prospect of the said City, taken from the same place, as it appeareth now after the said calamity and destruction by Fire.’ Copies of these interesting etchings are, however, neither dear nor uncommon; though, if you would have so fine an impression as that in the Print Room of the British Museum, you will scarcely procure it under three Guineas. In the upper of these prospects, the Northern end of London Bridge is shewn to be a passage fenced by wooden palings without any houses, excepting one building, which occupies the whole width of the Bridge; having a gate in it surmounted by the King’s Arms, and standing immediately before the old Church of St. Magnus.“Independently of these views, we have another very strong evidence that this part was not built upon even in the year 1665, contained in that most interesting and curious work, the ‘Memoirs and Diary of Samuel Pepys, Esq., F.R.S. and Secretary to the Admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James II.’ Edited by Richard, Lord Braybrooke, London, 1825, 4to. volume 1., page 388: where, under the date of January 24th, 1665-66, that observant journalist has the following entry. ‘My Lord,’—Edward Montague, Earl of Sandwich,—‘and I, the weather being a little fairer, went by water to Deptford; and the wind being again very furious, so as we durst not go by water, walked to London round the Bridge, no boat being able to stirre; and, Lord! what a dirty walk we had, and so strong the wind, that in the fields we many times could not carry our bodies against it, but were driven backwards. It was dangerous to walk the streets, the bricks and tiles falling from the houses, that the whole streets were covered with them; and whole chimneys, nay, whole houses, in two or three places, blowed down. But above all,the pales on London Bridge, on both sides, were blown away;’—almost the very words, you observe, which I have quoted you from Richard Bloome,—‘so that we were forced to stoop very low, for fear of blowing off the Bridge. We could see no boats in the Thames afloat, but what were broke loose, and carried through the Bridge, it being ebbing water. And the greatest sight of all was, among other parcels of ships drivenhere and there in clusters together, one was quite overset, and lay with her masts all along in the water, and her keel above water.’ The desolation, and wintry chillness of this picture, is enough to make one shiver even in the Dog-days.”When the worthy old Chronicler had arrived at the conclusion of this narrative, as usual I took up the story, and began thus:—“This, Mr. Barnaby Postern, was indeed a fatal destruction, and one would imagine that it was no such happy event as to cause a jesting ballad to be made to commemorate it; but yet, though in the following verses there are some discordant circumstances, and even the date is at variance with that which you have already given, there can be little doubt but that they relate to the Fire of which you have now spoken. You will find them printed at the end of a very rare, but, at the same time, a very worthless publication, entitled ‘The Loves of Hero and Leander, a mock Poem: Together with choice Poems and rare pieces of drollery, got by heart, and often repeated by divers witty Gentlemen and Ladies that use to walke in the New Exchange, and at their recreations in Hide Park.’ London, 1653, 12mo., pages 44-48. There is also another edition of 1682; but I pray you to remember, that many of the fescennine rhymes, some of which would have done honour to Hudibras, and many of the witty points of this song, are, in that latter copy, most vilely perverted; I shall give it you, therefore, as it stands in the former impression.‘SomeChristian peopleallgive earUnto the grief of us:Caused by the death of three children dear.The which it happen’d thus.And eke there befel an accident,By fault of a Carpenter’s son,Who to saw chips his sharp ax-e-lentWoe worth the time may Lon——May London say: Woe worth the Carpenter!And all suchblock-headfools;Would he were hanged up like asarpenthereFor meddling with edge tools.For into the chips there fell a spark,Which put out in such flames,That it was known into South-warkWhich lies beyond the Thames.ForLoe! the Bridge was wondroushighWith water underneath:O’er which as many fishes flyAs birds therein do breathe.And yet the fire consumed the Brigg,Not far from place of landing;And though the building was full big,It fell down,—not with standing.And eke into the water fellSo many pewter dishes,That a man might have taken up very wellBoth boil’d and roasted fishes!And thus the Bridge of London Town,For building that was sumptuous,Wasallby firehalfburnt down,For being toocontumptious!Thus you haveallbuthalfmy song,Pray list to what comesater;For now I havecool’dyou with thefire,—I’llwarmyou with thewater!I’ll tell you what the River’s name’sWhere these children did slide—a,It was fair London’s swiftest ThamesWhich keeps both Time and Tide—a.All on the tenth of January,To the wonder of much people;’Twas frozen o’er that well ’twould bearAlmost a country steeple!Three children sliding thereabout,Upon a place too thin;That so at last it didfall out,That they did allfall in.A great Lord there was that laid with the King,And with the King great wager makes;But when he saw that he could not winHe sigh’d,—and would have drawn stakes.He said it would bear a man for to slide,And laid a hundred pound;The King said it would break, and so it did,For three children there were drown’d.Of which, one’s head was from his should—ers stricken,—whose name was John;Who then cried out as loud as he could‘Oh Lon-a! Lon-a! Lon-don!’‘Oh! tut—tut—turn from thy sinful race!’Thus did his speech decay;I wonder that in such a caseHe had no more to say.And thus being drown’d, Alack! Alack!The water ran down their throats,And stopp’d their breath three hours by the clock,Before they could get any boats!Ye parents all that children have,And ye that have none yet,Preserve your children from the grave,And teach them at home to sit.For had these at a sermon been,Or else upon dry ground,Why then I never would have been seen,If that they had been drown’d!Even as a huntsman ties his dogs,For fear they should go fro him;So tye your children with severity’s clogs,Untie ’em—and you’llundo ’em.God bless our noble Parliament,And rid them from all fears;God blessallthe Commons of this land,And God bless—someof the Peers!’
“Well, Sir, well,” resumed the mild old man, “your wit becomes you; but as we may never meet again, I would fain pour into your bosom all the little knowledge which I possess upon this point; and so we will pass on to the Chronicles of London Bridge in the seventeenth century.
“The inhuman cruelties which Queen Mary, Bishop Bonner, and others of their faith, practised upon the Protestants, may reasonably be supposed to have so embittered their minds, as to have excited in them no slight feelings of revenge, when, in their turn, they came into power. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine any other cause for the severities which they practised, or for the laws which were enacted to authorise them. The principal of these Statutes, you may remember, were five: one in the 27th of Elizabeth, 1585, chapter ii., entitled ‘An Act against Jesuits, Seminary Priests, and other such like disobedient persons;’ and a second passed in her 35th year, 1593, chapter ii., and called ‘An Act for restraining Popish Recusants to some certain place of abode.’ Under King James I., were introduced three others strengtheningand confirming the former, the first of which was made in the 1st year of his reign, 1604, chapter iv., being ‘An Act for the due execution of the Statutes against Jesuits, Seminary Priests, Recusants, &c.’: and in his third year, 1606, were passed two others, see chapters iv. and v., namely, ‘An Act for the better discovering and repressing of Popish Recusants;’ and ‘An Act to prevent and avoid dangers which grow by Popish Recusants.’ History, Master Barbican, blushes to record what cruelties were perpetrated under the sanction of those laws; and I should have omitted all notice of them, but that they are so interwoven with several anecdotes of London Bridge. My authority is a work, entitled ‘The Catholic Book of Martyrs, or a true British Martyrology commencing with the Reformation;’ by the Right Rev. Richard Challoner, Bishop of Debora; of which the new edition of 1825 is a singularly curious book. He states from Stow, in volume ii., page 9, that in 1578, February 3rd, John Nelson, a Priest, was executed at Tyburn, for denying the Queen’s supremacy, and that his head was erected on London Bridge; whilst, on page 74, is a similar relation of another Priest named James Fenn; but I proceed to notice a much more remarkable instance. In the year 1605, Father Henry Garnet, the Principal of the English Jesuits, was taken up and imprisoned in the Tower, for being a party concerned in the famous Gunpowder Plot: after many examinations, he acknowledged that Father Greenway, a Jesuit, had communicated it tohim under the seal of confession from Catesby, the Chief of the conspirators. Both the Priests were struck with horror at the design, and vainly endeavoured to prevent its execution. Greenway fled beyond the seas, but Father Garnet was taken, condemned, and executed in St. Paul’s Church Yard, on the 3rd of May, the Anniversary of the Invention, or Finding of the Holy Cross by the Empress Helena, the Mother of Constantine. ‘His head,’ says Bishop Challoner, in his ‘Catholic Book of Martyrs,’ volume iii., page ii., ‘was fixed on London Bridge, and it was much remarked, that his countenance, which was always venerable, retained, for above twenty days, the same lively colour which it had during life, which drew all London to the spectacle, and was interpreted as a testimony of his innocence; as was also an image of him wonderfully formed on an ear of straw, on which a drop of his blood had fallen.’ Dr. Challoner gives his authorities for this narrative at its commencement.
“But to pass from these unhappy subjects to the story of London Bridge, and the River Thames, let me next observe that the year 1608 was remarkable for a great frost near this edifice, of which we have a very curious account in Edmond Howe’s ‘Continuation of the Abridgement of Stow’s English Chronicle,’ London, 1611, duodecimo, page 481; from which take the following extract. ‘The 8th of December began a hard frost, and continued vntill the 15th of the same, and then thawed: and the 22nd of December it beganagaine to freeze violently, so as diuers persons went halfe way ouer the Thames vpon the ice: and the 30th of December, at euery ebbe, many people went quite ouer the Thames in diuers places, and so continued from that day vntill the third of January: the people passed daily betweene London and the Bankside at euery halfe ebbe, for the floud remoued the ice and forced the people daily to tread new paths, except onely betweene Lambeth and the ferry at Westminster, the which, by incessant treading, became very firm and free passage, vntill the great thaw: and from Sunday, the tenth of January, vntill the fifteenth of the same, the frost grew so extreme, as the ice became firme, and remoued not, and then all sorts of men, women, and children, went boldly upon the ice in most parts; some shot at prickes, others bowled and danced, with other variable pastimes; by reason of which concourse of people, there were many that set vp boothes and standings vpon the ice, as fruit-sellers, victuallers, that sold beere and wine, shoomakers, and a barber’s tent, &c.’ He adds, that all these had fires; that the frost killed all the artichokes in the gardens about London; and that the ice lasted until the afternoon of the 2nd of February, when ‘it was quite dissolued and clean gon.’ There is a very rare tract, containing an account of this frost, mentioned by Gough in his ‘British Topography,’ volume i., page 731, which has a wood-cut representation of it, with London Bridge in the distance: and is entitled‘Cold doings in London, except it be at the Lottery: with newes out of the Country. A familier talk, between a Countryman and a Citizen, touching this terrible Frost, and the Great Lottery, and the effect of them.’ London, 1608, quarto. I may observe that the Lottery was then drawn at St. Paul’s, the prizes were all of plate, the highest being £150, and the price of each ticket was one shilling only. The same year of 1608 was also memorable for two tides flowing at London Bridge, on Sunday, the 19th of February. Edmond Howes records it in his Continuation of Stow’s ‘Annals,’ page 893, and states that ‘when it should haue beene dead low water at London Bridge, quite contrary to course it was then high water; and, presently, it ebbed almost halfe an houre, the quantitie of a foote, and then sodainly it flowed againe almost two foote higher than it did before, and then ebbed againe vntill it came neere the right course, so as the next floud began, in a manner, as it should, and kept his due course in all respects as if there had beene no shifting, nor alteration of tydes. All this happened before twelue of the clocke in the forenoone, the weather being indifferent calme; and the sixt of February, the next yeere following, the Thames againe shifted tydes very strangely.’
“We know not, Mr. Barbican, at what exact period London Bridge was first occupied by shops, but in the Survey of Bridge-lands which I have already repeated to you, it appears very probable that some of the shops in the Bridge Street were actually erected on the Bridge. Houses with distinguishingsigns, however, must have been built upon this edifice at a very early period; for the first notice of one, which I can now recollect, is in the fire which brake out at the Pannier, at the North end of the Bridge in 1504; whilst the next is not older than 1619, and occurs in a letter written October the 6th, by George Herbert, the pious author of the ‘Temple,’ and printed at the end of Izaak Walton’s ‘Lives,’ fourth edition, London, 1675, 8vo., page 340. ‘I pray, Sir, therefore,’—says this epistle,—‘cause this inclosed to be carried to his brother’s house,’—Sir Francis Nethersole,—‘of his own name, as I think, at the sign of the Pedlar and his Pack on London Bridge, for there he assigns me.’ Norden, as I have already shewn you, says that this place was ‘furnished with all manner of trades;’ and as this is rather a curious, though an unexplored portion of Bridge story, I shall at once lay before you all the information which I have collected upon it, under the present period of time, since it is infinitely too small to be divided into different years. The principal ancient residences of the London Booksellers were, St. Paul’s Church Yard, Little Britain, Paternoster Row, and London Bridge; and of books published at the latter place let me first exhibit to you some titles, taken from that vast collection, which John Bagford made for a General History of Printing, preserved with the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum. The ensuing are from No. 5921, pages 5 b, 6 a, 7 a, and 9 b,
“‘The Merchandises of Popish Priests; or, a Discouery of the Jesuites Trumpery, newly packed in England. Laying open to the world how cunningly they cheate and abuse people with their false, deceitfull, and counterfeit wares. Written in French, by John Chassanion, and truly translated into English. Printed at London, for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold at his Shop on London Bridge. 1629.’ Small quarto. Above the imprint is a rude wood-cut of a corded bale, labelled with the words ‘A Packe of Popish Trinkets,’ and exhibiting a crucifix, rosary, bell, book, taper, a chalice signed with the cross, and an Aspergillum for scattering holy-water.—‘The Wise Merchant, or the Peerless Pearl; set forth in some meditations, delivered in two Sermons upon Matth. xiii. 45, 46. By Thomas Calvert. London. Printed by H. Bell, for Charles Tyns, dwelling at the Three Bibles on London Bridge. 1660.’ octavo.—‘The Seaman’s Kalender: By Henry Phillippes, Philo-Nauticus. London. Printed by W. G., for Benjamin Hurlock, and are to be sold at his shop over-against St. Magnus Church, on London Bridge, near Thames Street. 1672.’ small quarto.—‘England’s Grievances, in times of Popery. London. Printed for Joseph Collyer, and Stephen Foster, and are to be sold at the Angel on London Bridge, a little below the Gate, 1679.’ small quarto.—‘The Saints’ Triumph; or, the Glory of Saints with Jesus Christ. Discoursed in a Divine Ejaculation; by J(ohn) B(unyan). Printed by J. Millet for J. Blare, at the looking Glass on London Bridge. 1688.’ small quarto. A rude, but characteristicalwood-cut portrait of Bunyan is indented in the margin of this title-page. We also find one Hugh Astley living ‘at St. Magnus corner,’ in 1607; and, in 1677, R. Northcott kept ‘the Marriner and Anchor upon Fish-street Hill, near London Bridge.’”
“Whilst you are speaking of the Booksellers and Tradesmen who lived on old London Bridge, Mr. Postern,” observed I, as he came to a period, “let me add to your account some other circumstances which, at various times, and from different sources, I have collected illustrative of that subject. The sign of ‘the Three Bibles’ seems to have been a very favourite device upon that edifice, and, most probably, continued so until the houses were removed; for we trace it into the eighteenth century, at which time there were two shops so denominated; and one of them also appears to have been famous for the sale of a Patent Medicine, as you will find from the following particulars communicated to me by Mr. John Thomas Smith, Keeper of the Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. ‘The Mariner’s Jewel; or, a Pocket Companion for the Ingenious. By James Love, Mathematician. The sixth edition, corrected and enlarged. London. Printed for H. and J. Tracy, at the Three Bibles on London Bridge. 1724.’ duodecimo. At the end of the volume bearing this title, is an advertisement of a medicine, called ‘The Balsam of Chili,’ which is succeeded by the following curious note. ‘All persons are desired to beware of a pretended Balsam of Chili, which, for about these sevenyears last past, hath been sold, and continues to be sold, by Mr. John Stuart, at theOld Three Bibles, as he calls his sign, although mine was the sign of the Three Bibles twenty years before his. This pretended Balsam sold by Mr. Stuart, resembles the true Balsam in colour, and is put up in the same bottles; but has been found to differ exceedingly from the true sort by several persons, who, through the carelessness of the buyers intrusted, have gone to the wrong place. Therefore all persons who send, should give strict order to enquire for the name Tracy; for Mr. Stuart’s being the very same sign, it is an easy matter to mistake. All other pretended Balsams of Chili, sold elsewhere, are shams and impositions; which may not only be ineffectual, but prove of worse consequence. The right sort is to be had of H. Tracy, at the Three Bibles on London Bridge, at 1s.6d.a bottle, where it hath been sold these forty years.’ There also appear to have been two Booksellers’ shops known by the sign of ‘the Looking Glasson London Bridge;’ for you have already mentioned that ‘the Life and Death of John Overs’ was printed for T. Harris at such a sign, in 1744; and at the very same time, as well as earlier, one T. Hodges was an extensive publisher of popular books, ‘at the Looking Glass on London Bridge over against St. Magnus Church,’ as you will find in the title-pages to a multitude of small volumes of that period. One of the little tracts to which his name appears, is‘The whole Life and merry exploits of bold Robin Hood, Earl of Huntingdon,’ 1737. duodecimo; and we also read the name of S. Crowder and Company, London Bridge, attached to ‘The Delightful, Princely, and Entertaining History of the Gentle Craft; adorn’d with Pictures suitable to each story.’ 1760. duodecimo. I could easily, Mr. Postern, increase this list of books published on London Bridge, from the advertisements which continually appeared in the columns of ‘The Daily Post,’—‘The Daily Courant,’ and other Newspapers of the early part of the last century, but I rather wish to point out to you the names and signs of some other persons dwelling in the same place; for it seems to have been occupied by a variety of trades. Thus, in 1722, we have John Body, Silversmith, at the White Horse on London Bridge;—Hotham, Bookseller, at the Black Boy; and E. Herne, Milliner, at the Dolphin and Comb. The shop-bills of these tradesmen, however, from whence we generally derive this kind of information, are so exceedingly rare, that after a very careful search through that extensive collection belonging to the late Miss Banks, now preserved in the Print Room of the British Museum, I have found onlyone! although the Portfolios contain many thousands. But what I there sought for in vain, has been supplied to me from two private sources; for Henry Smedley, Esq., of Whitehall, and Mr. William Upcott, of the London Institution, are in possession of impressions of several, of which they have kindly permitted me to take the following copies.
“1. A copper-plate shop-bill, card size, having the figure of a Roebuck enclosed in a rich architectural square frame, surmounted by a shield of arms, 3 roebucks statant regardant, probably a copy from the sign of the house. On the lower parts of the frame are the date ‘1714,’ and the initials ‘W. O.;’ beneath which is ‘William Osborne, Leather seller, at the Roe-buck upon London Bridge.’
“2. A copper-plate shop-bill, 5 inches by 3½, having, within a rich cartouche frame, a pair of embroidered small-clothes and a glove; beneath is written ‘Walter Watkins, Breeches Maker, Leather Seller, and Glover, at the Sign of the Breeches and Glove, on London Bridge, Facing Tooley Street, Sells all sorts Leather Breeches, Leather, and Gloves, Wholesale and Retail, at reasonable rates.’
“3. The copper-plate head of a bill, ‘London 17.., Bought of Churcher and Christie, Leather Sellers and Breeches Makers, at the Lamb and Breeches, London Bridge.’
“4. Copper-plate shop-bill, 53⁄8inches by 3¾, with the device of a Crown and Anchor, in a square cartouche frame; below which appears ‘James Brooke, Stationer, at yeAnchor and Crown, near the Square, on London Bridge, sells all sorts of Books for Accounts, Stampt Paper, and Parchm.nts, variety of Paper Hangings for Rooms, and all sorts of Stationary Wares, Wholesale and Retail, at reasonable rates.’
“5. A small copper-plate Tobacco-paper, with a coarse and rude engraving of a Negro smoking, andholding a roll of tobacco; above his head a crown, two ships in full sail behind, and the sun issuing from the right hand corner above. In the fore-ground are four smaller Negroes planting and packing tobacco, and beneath is written ‘Iohn Winkley, Tobacconist, near yeBridge, In the Burrough Southwark, London.’
“6. An elegant ornamental copper-plate shop-bill, 55⁄8inches by 42⁄8, with an allegorical design of two figures representing Genius and Prudence, with books and articles of stationery below; and between them, a circle, with the words, ‘John Benskin, Stationer, at yeBible and Star on yeBridge, London.’
“7. A copper-plate shop-bill, 6 inches by 3½, with a rich cartouche shield, enclosing three tufts of hair curled and tied; beneath is written ‘John Allan, at the Locks of Hair on London Bridge. Sells all sorts of Hair Curled or Uncurled, Bags, Roses, Cauls, Ribbons, Weaving, Sewing Silk, Cards and Blocks. With all goods made use of by Peruke Makers at the Lowest Prices.’
“One of the most eminent and well-known tradesmen on London Bridge, however, was William Herbert, the Print-seller, and Editor of Joseph Ames’s ‘Typographical Antiquities;’ who, upon his return from India, having probably acquired a considerable knowledge of the relative situations of the coasts, countries, and rivers, which he had seen and surveyed abroad, thought himself qualified to undertake the occupation of an Engraver, and Publisher, of Maps and Charts. With this view he took a house uponLondon Bridge, and continued in it, until the houses were taken down in 1757-58; when he removed to Leadenhall Street, and thence to Goulston Square, White-Chapel. The very first night which Mr. Herbert spent in his house on London Bridge, there was a dreadful fire in some part of the metropolis, on the banks of the Thames; which, with several succeeding ones, suggested to him the plan of a floating fire-engine. He proposed it to Captain Hill, of the Royal Exchange Assurance, who told him that ‘there must be a fire every now and then for the benefit of the insurance:’ Herbert, however, published his proposal in the Gazetteer, and it was soon after adopted. You will find these anecdotes originally printed in the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine,’ for 1795, volume lxv., part i., page 262; supposed to have been written by Mr. Gough; whence they were incorporated into the Memoirs of Herbert, attached to the Rev. Dr. Dibdin’s edition of the ‘Typographical Antiquities,’ volume i., London, 1810, quarto, page 76. The pretty copper-plate shop-bill of Master Herbert is yet preserved in a most beautiful state, in the vast collection of the late Miss Banks, to which I have already alluded, volume iii., class,Print-sellers. It bears the date of 1749, and represents a country view, surrounded by columns, vases, temples, statues, &c. On the left are two figures, one in the full dress of the time, and the other in a morning dress, exhibiting a portrait to him. Round the whole print is a rich ancient frame, ornamented with flowers, laurel branches, busts, books,instruments, scrolls, and a globe standing in the centre beneath. At the top is an eagle supporting a large robe, or piece of drapery, which hangs half way down, and on which the following words are inscribed in ornamental writing. ‘Great variety of English Maps and Prints, plain and colour’d. Also French, and other Foreign Prints, chiefly collected from the works of the most celebrated artists. Sold by William Herbert, at the Golden Globe, under the Piazzas on London Bridge. N. B. Prints neatly framed and glazed for Exportation, Rooms and Staircases fitted up in the modern or Indian taste.’
“Another source whence we derive much of our information concerning the old shopkeepers of London, and, of course, those of London Bridge, is to be found in that species of unauthorised coin commonly known by the name of Tradesmen’s Tokens. For many centuries, you remember, gold and silver money only was regularly current in this kingdom; for, though the earliest inhabitants of Britain probably used copper, there was none coined of an authorised mintage, until the time of Charles II. The silver pence, and even halfpence, which were previously current, were of so minute a size, that, as an eminent author on this subject observes, ‘a dozen of them might be in a man’s pocket, and yet not be discovered without a good magnifying glass;’ and, consequently, they were not adapted to any very extensive circulation. To remedy this, and to provide change for the increase of retail trade, these Tokens were originally issued;being pieces of coin of a low value, to pass between Grocers, Bakers, Vintners, &c., by which the lower classes might have smaller quantities of goods, than they would otherwise be obliged to procure. These Tokens were first issued about the latter end of the reign of Henry VII., or the beginning of the following one, when they were made of lead, tin, latten, and even of leather. In the time of Elizabeth their numbers increased; and, though the silver farthings, coined by James I., and Charles I., for a while supplied the want of small coins, yet, in the Civil Wars, the private Tokens multiplied to a great excess, and every petty tradesman had his pledges for a halfpenny payable in silver, or its value in goods, to bearer upon demand, at his shop: upon the credit of which it therefore depended, whether they should circulate through one or two streets, a whole town, or to some little distance in the country round. The London Gazettes for July the 25th, 1672, and February the 23rd, 1673, contained advertisements against these Tokens, and of the issuing of the first national copper coinage, referring to ‘the Farthing Office in Fen-Church Street,’ as the place of exchange. Previously, however, to the issue of a lawful coinage in 1797, the debased state of the copper money gave rise to another general striking of Provincial and Tradesmen’s Tokens, which was commenced by the famous Anglesey Penny in 1784. Such, then, is a general view of the nature and history of these coins, and we now proceed to notice those which record for us some particulars of London Bridge.
“The general impresses of these Tokens consisted of the names, residences, initials, and signs of their owners, by whom they were issued and paid; and the quantity used in London was so great, that Sir Robert Cotton supposed, about 1612, that there were 3000 persons who cast leaden Tokens to the amount of £5. annually, upon the average; of which they had not one tenth remaining at the year’s end. Notwithstanding this immense quantity, we meet with but few relating to London Bridge; and yet, by the experience and kindness of Edward Hawkins, Esq., Assistant Keeper of the Coins and Medals of the British Museum, and of Mr. M. Young, the well-known Dealer in those articles, I am furnished with a list, and drawings, of most of those which are known to be extant, and of which I shall now give you a description.
“1.A Brass Token,—Farthing size:Obverse, a Lion rampant,Legend,—‘Joh. Welday. at. yeLyon,’—Reverse,—‘on London Bridge. I.W. 1657.’
“2.A Brass, or base copper Token,—Farthing size:Obverse, a Sugar Loaf,Legend,—‘Edw. Muns at the Sugar’—Reverse,—‘Loaf on London Bridge. 1668. His Halfepenny.’
“3.A Copper Token,—Farthing size:Obverse, a Bear passant, chained,Legend,—‘Abraham Browne. at. ye’—Reverse,—‘Bridg foot. Sovthwark. His Half peny.’
“4.A Brass, or base Copper Token,—Farthing size:Obverse, a Dog,Legend,—‘Joseph Brocket,’—Reverse,—‘Bridgfoot Southwark.B.IM.’
“5.A Copper Token,—Farthing size:Obverse, a Bear passant, chained,Legend,—‘Cornelivs. Cook. at. the’—Reverse,—‘Beare. at. the. Bridg. fot.C.CA.’
“6.A Brass Token,—Farthing size:Obverse, a Lion rampant,Legend,—‘At. the. Whit. Lyon,’—Reverse,—‘Neir London Bridge.C.T.A.’
“7.A Copper Token,—Farthing size:Obverse, a Sugar loaf,Legend,—‘Henry. Phillips, at.’—Reverse,—‘Bridg. Foot. Sovthwark.P.H.S.’
“Such, then, are some specimens of the Tradesmen’s Tokens current on London Bridge; and thoughthey are sufficiently rude in their workmanship, and base in their metal, yet with some collectors, they are of a far greater degree of rarity, and of value too, than the handsomest modern silver coin you could present them with. You will observe, however, that I have noticed those Tokens only, on which the Bridge is actually mentioned; but an extensive list of such as were issued in Southwark, will be found in Messrs. Manning’s and Bray’s ‘History of Surrey,’ already referred to, volume iii., Appendix, pages cxi-cxv. Let me add too, that my authorities for these historical notices of coins, have been ‘An Essay on Medals,’ by John Pinkerton, London, 1789, octavo, volume i.; and ‘Annals of the Coinage of Britain,’ by the Rev. Rogers Ruding, London, 1819, octavo, volume iii., pages 127, 319, 324, volume iv., page 61. I must not, however, conclude these particulars of the numismatic reliques of London Bridge, without observing to you that there are some Medalets also extant, commemorative of its buildings. Of these coins we find a list in James Conder’s elegant volumes, entitled ‘An Arrangement of Provincial Coins, Tokens, and Medalets, issued in Great Britain, Ireland, and the Colonies, within the last twenty years, from the farthing to the penny size.’ Ipswich, 1798, octavo. Medalets, you know, Mr. Postern, are of that description of coins which were struck by the Romans, and used for scattering to the people upon solemn occasions: and those of which I am now speaking are of the class distinguished bybearing the representation of public buildings. In volume i., pages 72 and 73, of Mr. Conder’s work, are mentioned the following Medalets of London Bridge, of the penny size, executed by P. Kempson.
No. 40. A Bronzed or Copper Medalet:Obverse, a view of a Bridge,Legend,—‘London Bridge the first of stone, compleated 1209.’Legend on the Exergue,—‘The houses on the Bridge taken down, and the Bridge repair’d, 1758.’—Reverse, a figure of Britannia with spear and shield, seated on a rock, holding an olive-branch;—Legend, indented on a raised circle round the field, ‘British Penny Token.’ On the Exergue a cypher ‘P.K.—MDCCXCVII.’Legend on the edge,—‘I promise to pay on demand the Bearer one Penny.’
No. 47. A Bronzed or Copper Medalet:Obverse, an ancient gateway,—Legend,—‘Bridge Gate as rebuilt 1728.’—Legend on the Exergue, ‘Taken down, 1766.’Reverse, an upright figure of Justice. Legend and date on the rim as before.
There were also two Medalets of the halfpenny size, executed by P. Skidmore, of Coppice Row, Clerkenwell, which are likewise mentioned by Conder, in volume i., pages 103, 106.
No. 267. A Bronzed or Copper Medalet:Obverse, a view of a church,—Legend,—‘St. Magnus London Bridge. 1676.’—Reverse, a cypher, ‘P.S.Co.,’ in a circle,Legend,—‘Dedicated to collectors of Medals and Coins.’
No. 300. A Bronzed or Copper Medalet:Obverse, an ancient gateway,—Legend,—‘Bridge Gate, Bt. 1728:’ within the Archway the name of ‘Jacobs.’—Reverse, as before.
“I am inclined to think, Mr. Barnaby Postern, that there have been several traditional mistakes perpetuated, as to persons supposed to have dwelt upon London Bridge; for, upon investigating the subject, I can find no authority to support my recording them as inhabitants of that part of London. The author of an exceedingly amusing work, entitled ‘Wine and Walnuts,’ London, 1823, octavo, in which are contained many witty scenes and curious conversations of eminent characters in the last century, has entitled the seventh chapter of his second volume ‘Old London Bridge; with portraits of some of its inhabitants.’ In this article, on page 81, we are told that ‘Master John Bunyan, one of your heaven-born geniuses, resided, for some time, upon London Bridge;’ though I cannot discover any such circumstance in either of the lives of that good man now extant, though he certainlypreached, for some time, at a Chapel in Southwark. Perhaps, however, this assertion may be explained by the following passage from the Preface affixed to the Index attached to the first volume of ‘The Labours of that eminent servant of Christ Mr. John Bunyan,’ London, 1692, folio. It is there stated, that in 1688 ‘he published six books, being the time of K. James 2d’s. liberty of conscience, and was seized with a sweating distemper, of which, after his some weeks going about, proved his death, at his very loving friend’s Mr. Strudwick’s, a Grocer,’—at the sign of the Star,—‘atHolborn Bridge, London, on August 31st.’ It is also recorded on the same page of ‘Wine and Walnuts,’ that ‘Master Abel, the great importer of wines, was another of the marvels of old London Bridge; he set up a sign, Thank God I amAbel, quoth the wag, and had, in front of his house, the sign of a bell.’ As I have also heard the same particulars repeated elsewhere, it is possible that there may be some traditionary authority for them; but upon carefully reading over the very rare tracts relating to Mr. Alderman Abel, preserved in the British Museum, I find nothing concerning his residence on London Bridge, and I should rather imagine, from their statements, that he lived at his Ticket, or Patent Office, situate in Aldermary Church-Yard. The same chapter, however, contains some authentic notices of Artists who really did live upon this venerable edifice. Of these, one of the most eminent was Hans Holbein, the great painter of the Court of Henry VIII.; butthough we can hardly suppose that he inhabited the Nonesuch House, yet his actual residence here is certified by Lord Orford, in his ‘Anecdotes of Painting,’ vide his ‘Works,’ edit. London, 1798-1822, quarto, volume iii., page 72, note. ‘The father of the Lord Treasurer Oxford’—says the noble author in that place,—‘passing over London Bridge, was caught in a shower; and stepping into a goldsmith’s shop for shelter, he found there a picture of Holbein,—who had lived in that house,—and his family. He offered the goldsmith £100. for it, who consented to let him have it, but desired first to shew it to some persons. Immediately after, happened the fire of London, and the picture was destroyed.’ Another famous Artist of London Bridge, who is mentioned in both the works which I last cited, was Peter Monamy; so excellent a painter of marine subjects, as to be considered but little inferior to Vandevelde himself. Lord Orford says of him, at page 421, that he ‘received his first rudiments of drawing from a sign and house-painter on London Bridge;’—and that ‘the shallow waves, that rolled under his window, taught young Monamy what his master could not teach him, and fitted him to paint the turbulence of the ocean.’ This artist died at Westminster in 1749. We are also informed, by Edward Edwards, in his ‘Continuation of Walpole’s Anecdotes of Painting,’ London, 1808, quarto, page 214, that Dominic Serres, the Marine Painter, who died in 1793, also once kept a shop upon London Bridge. To these celebrated men, the author of ‘Wine and Walnuts’ adds Jack Laguerre, the Engraver, ‘a great humourist, wit, singer, player, caricaturist, mimic, and a good scene-painter,’ son to that Louis, who painted stair-cases and saloons, where, as Pope says, ‘sprawl the saints of Verrio and Laguerre.’ His residence, according to our lively author, who states that he received his information from ‘old Dr. Monsey and others,’ was on the first floor of the dwelling of a waggish bookseller, and author of all-work, named Crispin Tucker; the owner of half-a-shop on the East side, under the Southern gate. The artist’sstudiowas, chiefly, in a bow-windowed back room, which projected over the Thames, and trembled at every half-ebb tide; in which Hogarth had resided in his early life, when he engraved for old John Bowles, of the Black Horse in Cornhill. It resembled, we are told, on page 135 of the work and volume which I have already quoted, one of the alchemist’s laboratories from the pencil of the elder Teniers. It was ‘a complete smoke-stained confusionary, with a German-stove, crucibles, pipkins, nests of drawers, with rings of twine to pull them out; here a box of asphaltum, there glass-stoppered bottles, varnishes, dabbers, gravers, etching-tools, walls of wax, obsolete copper-plates, many engraved on both sides, caricatures, and poetry scribbled over the walls; a pallet hung up as an heir-loom, the colours dry upon it, hard as stone; an easel; all the multifariousarcanaliaof engraving, and, lastly, a Printing-press!’ This curious picture is also from theinformation of Dr. Monsey, but I cannot produce you any other authority for its truth; and I shall likewise, therefore, leave you to read, and judge for yourself, the amusing account of Dean Swift’s and Pope’s visits and conversations with Crispin Tucker, of London Bridge, in chapters viii. and ix. of the work I have referred to.
“It was, however, not only the ordinary buildings in the Bridge-street, which were formerly occupied as shops and warehouses, but even the Chapel of St. Thomas, which, in its later years, was called Chapel-House, and the Nonesuch-House, were used for similar purposes before they were taken down. Mr. John Nichols, in his ‘Literary Anecdotes,’ tells us, volume vi., part i., page 402, note, on the authority of Dr. Ducarel, that ‘the house over the Chapel belonged to Mr. Baldwin, Haberdasher, who was born there; and when, at seventy-one, he was ordered to go to Chislehurst for a change of air, he could not sleep in the country, for want of the noise,’—the roaring and rushing of the tide beneath the Bridge,—‘he had been always used to hear.’ My good friend, Mr. J. T. Smith, too, in his very interesting volume of the ‘Ancient Topography of London,’ which you have already quoted, page 26, has also the following observations concerning the modern use of this Chapel. ‘By theMorning Advertiser,’ says he, ‘for April 26th, 1798, it appears that Aldermen Gill and Wright had been in partnership upwards of fifty years; and that their shop stood on the centre ofLondon Bridge, and their warehouse for paper was directly under it, which was a Chapel for divine service, in one of the old arches; and, long within legal memory, the service was performed every sabbath and Saint’s day. Although the floor was always, at high-water mark, from ten to twelve feet under the surface; yet such was the excellency of the materials and the masonry, that not the least damp, or leak, ever happened, and the paper was kept as safe and dry as it would have been in a garret.’ In that ‘Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster,’ printed in 1734, and purporting to have been compiled by Robert Seymour, Esq., but which was in reality the production of the Rev. John Motley, the famous collector of Joe Miller’s Jests, it is stated in volume i., book i., page 48, that at that time one side of the Nonesuch House was inhabited by Mr. Bray, a Stationer, and the other by Mr. West, a Dry-Salter. So much then, Mr. Barnaby, for the few anecdotes which I have been able to collect of the dwellings and inhabitants of old London Bridge.”
“And a very fair Memorial too, Master Geoffrey,” answered the Antiquary, “especially when we consider the extreme difficulty of procuring such information as this is: but, to carry on our history, I must now enter upon a less amusing subject; the summary of the Bridge Accounts for the years 1624 and 1625, taken from the printed sheet which I have so often cited. ‘1624. To John Langley, and Richard Foxe, Bridge-Masters, half a year’s fee at our Lady-day,£50: and for the other half year augmented by order of the Court of Aldermen, £66. 8s.4d., and for their Liveries, &c. £6. Total £122. 8s.4d.Rental £2054. 4s.2d.—1625. To the said Bridge-Masters, £133. 6s.8d.Liveries, &c. £6. Total to each of them, £69. 3s.4d.Rental, £2054. 4s.2d.’ These notices of the prosperity of this edifice, conduct us down to the time when so much of its glory was lost in devastating flames and mouldering ruins.
“The year 1632-33 must be ever memorable in the history of London Bridge: for scarcely in the awful conflagration which consumed almost the whole City, did our brave old edifice suffer so severely. And now, Mr. Barbican, you must forgive me if I be a little prolix in describing that desolating fire, since it not only destroyed more than a third part of the Bridge Houses, but, at one time, its ravages were feared even in the City itself. I shall commence my account then by reminding you that Richard Bloome, one of Stow’s continuators, on page 61 of his ‘Survey,’ thus speaks of the calamity. ‘On the 13th day of February, between eleven and twelve at night, there happened in the house of one Briggs, a Needle-maker near St. Magnus Church, at the North end of the Bridge, by the carelessness of a Maid-Servant setting a tub of hot sea-coal ashes under a pair of stairs, a sad and lamentable fire, which consumed all the buildings before eight of the clock the next morning, from the North end of the Bridge to the first vacancy on both sides, containing forty-two houses; waterthen being very scarce, the Thames being almost frozen over. Beneath, in the vaults and cellars, the fire remained glowing and burning a whole week after.’
“There are not wanting several general views of London taken before this fire, by which we are made acquainted with those extensive piles of dwellings it destroyed; several of which I have already mentioned to you. Another also, which is most excellent and rare, is that entitled in Latin, ‘London the most flourishing City of Britain, and the most celebrated emporium of the whole world.’ It was engraven by John Visscher in 1616, and published in Holland, ‘by Jud. Hondius at the sign of the Watchful Dog;’ a four sheet print measuring 7 feet 1½ inch by 1 foot 4¾ inches, with an English description beneath it. ‘A Capital View,’ adds Gough, in his ‘British Topography,’ already cited, volume i., page 749, ‘the plates destroyed in Holland about twenty years ago. T. Davies sold the only impression of it to the King for ten guineas.’ There is, likewise, a variation of this view, without a date, having eight Latin verses at either corner, with the name of ‘Ludovicus Hondius Lusitt.’ It is, says Mr. J. T. Smith, in his ‘Ancient Topography of London,’ page 25, ‘extremely well executed, and exhibits a wind-mill standing in the Strand, very near where the New Church is now erected; and another above the Water-works at Queenhithe.’ He considers it as earlier than the productions of Hollar, from the circumstance that the Palace of Whitehall appears in itsoriginal state, before the Banquetting House and York and Somerset Water-gates were erected by Inigo Jones. It is also shewn to be a view of the time of King James I., by a royal procession being introduced on the water, in which the royal barge is surmounted by the thistle. London Bridge forms a very large and important feature in this engraving, and I have been informed, that the edifice alone was copied in quarto, for the work entitled ‘London before the Great Fire;’ but as that publication stopped with the second number, it was never exhibited for sale.
Of the very curious print by Visscher, however,—and I must not forget to observe that a fine impression of it is in the possession of John Dent, Esq.—there was also an imitation of the same size, but somewhat inferior, called, from the place where it was engraven, ‘the Venetian copy of Visscher’s View.’ It is, like its prototype, entitled in Latin, ‘London the most flourishing City in Britain,’ &c. to which is added, ‘Printed in Venice, by Nicolo Misserini, 1629, Franco Valegio fecit:’ it also contains a Latin dedication, and a description in Italian. There is an impression, probably, of this latter print, preserved in volume xiii. of the famous illustrated Pennant’s London, bequeathed by the late Charles Crowle, Esq. to the British Museum; but all the inscriptions have been cruelly cut away, and the print itself doubled in numerous folds to make it fit to the size of the volume! This engraving, however, bears the name of Rombout Vanden Hoege, and shews us, with great minuteness,on rather a large scale, theGroup of Buildings on London Bridge, burned down in 1632-33,which extended to the first opening, and which, from the very appearance which they present, must have contained a considerable number of inhabitants; but of the fire itself, and of all the distressing events attending it, I am about to give you a very particular and interesting account, from the pen of an eye-witness of the conflagration. This narrative is contained in a coarse paper Manuscript volume, of a small quarto size, written in the print-hand of the 17th century, with some lines of faded red ink andchalk interspersed. The volume contains 517 pages in all, and is entitled ‘A Record of the Mercies of God; or, a Thankefull Remembrance;’ it being a collection, or journal, of remarkable providences and reflections, made by one Nehemiah Wallington, a Puritan Citizen and Turner, who lived in Little East-cheap, and who was evidently a friend of Burton and Bastwick, he having been several times examined concerning them before the Court of Star-Chamber. In this most singular record then, at pages 479-488, is an article entitled ‘Of the great fire vpon the Bridge;’ preceded by Mottoes from Psalms lxvi. 5; lxxi. 17; cxi. 2; Isaiah xlv. 7; and Amos iii. 6; which runs in the following terms.
Of the very curious print by Visscher, however,—and I must not forget to observe that a fine impression of it is in the possession of John Dent, Esq.—there was also an imitation of the same size, but somewhat inferior, called, from the place where it was engraven, ‘the Venetian copy of Visscher’s View.’ It is, like its prototype, entitled in Latin, ‘London the most flourishing City in Britain,’ &c. to which is added, ‘Printed in Venice, by Nicolo Misserini, 1629, Franco Valegio fecit:’ it also contains a Latin dedication, and a description in Italian. There is an impression, probably, of this latter print, preserved in volume xiii. of the famous illustrated Pennant’s London, bequeathed by the late Charles Crowle, Esq. to the British Museum; but all the inscriptions have been cruelly cut away, and the print itself doubled in numerous folds to make it fit to the size of the volume! This engraving, however, bears the name of Rombout Vanden Hoege, and shews us, with great minuteness,on rather a large scale, theGroup of Buildings on London Bridge, burned down in 1632-33,
which extended to the first opening, and which, from the very appearance which they present, must have contained a considerable number of inhabitants; but of the fire itself, and of all the distressing events attending it, I am about to give you a very particular and interesting account, from the pen of an eye-witness of the conflagration. This narrative is contained in a coarse paper Manuscript volume, of a small quarto size, written in the print-hand of the 17th century, with some lines of faded red ink andchalk interspersed. The volume contains 517 pages in all, and is entitled ‘A Record of the Mercies of God; or, a Thankefull Remembrance;’ it being a collection, or journal, of remarkable providences and reflections, made by one Nehemiah Wallington, a Puritan Citizen and Turner, who lived in Little East-cheap, and who was evidently a friend of Burton and Bastwick, he having been several times examined concerning them before the Court of Star-Chamber. In this most singular record then, at pages 479-488, is an article entitled ‘Of the great fire vpon the Bridge;’ preceded by Mottoes from Psalms lxvi. 5; lxxi. 17; cxi. 2; Isaiah xlv. 7; and Amos iii. 6; which runs in the following terms.
“‘1633. It is the bounden dutie of vs all that haue beene the beholders of the wonderfull workes of the Lord our God, his mercyes and iudgements shewed heretofore; and now of late of a fearefull fire, wee should not forgett itt ourselues, and we should declare it to all others, euen to yegenerations to come.—On the xi. day of February, (being Monday, 1633) began, by God’s iust hand, a fearefull fire in the house of one Mr. Iohn Brigges, neere tenn of the clocke att night, it burnt down his house and the next house, with all the goods that were in them; and, as I heere, that Briggs, his wife, and childe, escaped with their liues very hardly, hauing nothing on their bodies but their shurt and smoke: and the fire burnt so fearcely, that itt could not be quenched till it had burnt downe all the houses on both sides ofthe way, from S. Magnes Church to the first open place. And allthough there was water enough very neere, yet they could not safely come at it, but all the conduittes neere were opened, and the pipes that carried watter through the streets were cutt open, and the watter swept down with broomes with helpe enough; but it was the will of God it should not preuaile. And the hand of God was the more seene in this, in as much as no meanes would prosper. For the 3 Engines, which are such excellent things, that nothing that euer was deuised could do so much good, yet none of these did prosper, for they were all broken, and the tide was verie low that they could get no watter; and the pipes that were cutt yeilded but littel watter. Some ladders were broke to the hurt of many, for some had their legges broke, some had their armes, and some their ribbes broken, and many lost their liues. This fire burnt fiercely all night, and part of the next day (for my man was there about twelue a cloke, and he said he did see the fardest house on fire) till all was burnt and pulled downe to the ground. Yet the timber, and wood, and coales in the sellers, could not be quenched all that weeke, till the Tuesday following, in the afternoone, the xix of February, for I was there then my selfe, and had a liue cole of fire in my hand, and burnt my finger with it. Notwithstanding there were as many night and day as could labour one by another to carry away timber, and brickes, and tiles, and rubbish cast downe into the liters. So that on Wensdaythe Bridge was cleared that passengers might goe ouer.’
“‘At the begining of this fire, as I lay in my bed and heard yesweeping of the channels and crying for water, water, I arose about one of the cloke, and looked downe Fish-street-hill, and did behold such a fearfull and dreadfull fire vaunting it selfe ouer the tops of houses, like a Captaine florishing and displaying his banner; and seeing so much meanes and so little good, it did make me thinke of that fire which the Lord threateneth against Ierusalem, for the breach of his Sabbath day. He saith thus: ‘But if ye will not here me to sanctifie the Sabbath day, and to beare no burden, nor to goe through yegates of Ierusalem in the Sabbath day, then will I kindle a fire in yegates there, and it shall deuoure the palaces of Ierusalem, and it shall not be quenched.’ Iere. xvii. 27.
“‘I did heere that on the other side of yeBridge, the Bruers brought abundance of watter in vessells on their draies, which did, with the blissing of God, much good; and this mircie of God I thought on, that there was but littel wind; for had yewind bin as high as it was a weeke before, I thinke it would have indangered yemost part of the Citie; for in Thames Street there is much pitch, tarre, rosen, and oyle, in their houses: Therefore, as God remembers mercy in iustice, let us remember thankefullnes in sorrow.‘Therefore will I praise the Lord with my whole heart, and I will speake of all thy marvellous workes;’ ‘for it is of the Lord’s mercy that wee are not consumed,’ Lament. iii., 22. The Names, and Trades, and number of the Houses burnt vpon the Bridg, heere you may see vnder nethe.—
“‘1. Mr. William Vyner,—Haberdasher of smal Wares. 2. Mr. Iohn Broome,—Hosier. 3. Mr. Arther Lee,—Haberdasher of smal Wares. 4. Mris. Iohane Broome,—Hosier. 5. Mr. Ralph Panne,—Shewmaker. 6. Mr. Abraham Marten,—Haberdasher of Hattes. 7. Mr. Ieremiah Champney,—Hosier. 8. Mr. John Terrill,—Silke man. 9. Mr. Ellis Midmore,—Milliner. 10. Mr. Francis Finch,—Hosier. 11. Mr. Andrewe Bouth,—Haberdasher of small Wares. 12. Mr. Samuel Petty,—Glouer. 13. Mr. Valentin Beale,—Mercer. 14. Mris. —— Chambers,Senior. 15. Mr. Ieremiah Chamley,—Silke man. 16. The Blew Bore,—empti. 17. Mr. Iohn Gouer,—Stiller of Strong Waters. 18. Mr. Iohn Wilding,Iunior,—Girdler. 19. Mr. Daniel Conney,—Silke man. 20. Mr. Stephen Beale,—Lyning Draper. 21. Mris. Iane Langham,—Mercer. 22. Mr. Iames Dunkin,Wolling Draper. 23. Mr. Matthew Harding,—Salter. 24. Mr. Abraham Chambers,—Haberdasher of smal Wares. 25. and 26.—Mr. Lyne Daniel,—Haberdasher of Hattes,a double house. 27. Mris. —— Brookes,—Glouer. 28. Mr. —— Couerley,—Hosier. 29. Mr. Iohn Dransfielde,—Grocer. 30. Mr. Newman,emptie. 31. Mr. Edward Warnett, and 32. Mr. Samuel Wood,partoners,—Haberdashers of Small Wares. 33. Mr. Iohn Greene,—Haberdasher of Hattes. 34. Mr. HeughPowel,—Haberdasher of Hattes. 35. Mr. Samuel Armitage,—Haberdasher of Small Wares. 36. Mr. Iohn Sherley,—Haberdasher of Small Wares. 37. Mr. John Lawrymore,—Grocer. 38. Mr. Timothy Drake,—Woolling Draper. 39. Mr. Iohn Brigges,—Needle-maker.’—at whose house the fire commenced,—‘40. Mr. Richard Shelbuery,—Scriuener. 41. Mr. Edward Greene,—Hosier. 42. Mr. —— Hazard,—the Curate, and 43. Mr. —— Hewlett,—the Clarke,—at S. Magnus Cloyster.’
“This narrative has, however, already appeared in print in the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ for November, 1824, pages 387, 388; the extract having been furnished by the possessor of the volume, Mr. William Upcott, of the London Institution.
“Of the ground-plot of London Bridge, after the damage done by this fire, there is yet extant a very curious survey, preserved under the care of Mr. Smith, in the British Museum. It consists of an unpublished drawing on parchment, measuring four feet five inches in length, by ten inches in breadth: and it, perhaps, belonged to Sir Hans Sloane, as it is kept with some other fragmenta of his property. In this drawing, the piers are represented in a tint of yellow, placed upon sterlings of Indian ink; and it was executed, as I suppose, soon after this fatal conflagration, since there is a note written in an ancient hand attached to the seventh pier from the City end, stating that ‘the Fire burnt to the prickt line,’ which is drawn from it; and which accords with all the subsequentviews taken of the platform, and houses on the Bridge.
“Of the ground-plot of London Bridge, after the damage done by this fire, there is yet extant a very curious survey, preserved under the care of Mr. Smith, in the British Museum. It consists of an unpublished drawing on parchment, measuring four feet five inches in length, by ten inches in breadth: and it, perhaps, belonged to Sir Hans Sloane, as it is kept with some other fragmenta of his property. In this drawing, the piers are represented in a tint of yellow, placed upon sterlings of Indian ink; and it was executed, as I suppose, soon after this fatal conflagration, since there is a note written in an ancient hand attached to the seventh pier from the City end, stating that ‘the Fire burnt to the prickt line,’ which is drawn from it; and which accords with all the subsequentviews taken of the platform, and houses on the Bridge.
“I am next to speak,” continued my unwearied Historian, “of the manner in which this terrible destruction of London Bridge was repaired: and concerning this we are informed by Richard Bloome, a Continuator of Stow, who tells us in his ‘Survey,’ volume i., page 61, that after the fire, ‘this North end of the Bridge lay unbuilt for many years, only deal boards were set up on both sides, to prevent people’s falling into the Thames, many of which deals were, by high winds, oft blown down, which made it very dangerous in the nights, although there were lanthorns and candles hung upon all the cross beams that held the pales together.’ We have two views of London Bridge, in which the Northern end of it appears in this state, but in each of them the temporary erection is quite of a different nature; and it is somewhat singular that the writer whom I last cited, should positively speak as follows, concerning the early restoration of the destroyed houses, when there seems no real authority to support his assertions. ‘For about the year 1645,’—says he,—‘the North end of this part last burned, began to be rebuilt; and in the year 1646 was finished: the building was of timber, very substantial and beautiful, for the houses were three stories high, besides the cellars, which were within and between the piers. And over the houses were stately platforms leaded, with rails and ballusters about them, very commodious and pleasant for walking, and enjoying so fine a prospect up and down the River; and some had pretty little gardens witharbours. This half being finished, the other half was intended to be rebuilt answerable to this, which would have been a great glory to the Bridge and honour to the City, the street, or passage, being twenty feet broad; whereas the other part, at the South end, was not above fourteen, and, in some places, but twelve.’
“Now, notwithstanding this particular description of these new buildings, neither of the engravings which I have alluded to have any indications of them; although one of them was published in 1647, and the other in 1666. The first of these represents the North end of London Bridge, from St. Magnus’ Church to the houses beyond the first opening, as occupied by acoveredpassage formed of planks, leaving recesses standing out from the main erection, which was supported by buttresses of wood fastened to platforms on the outside of the Bridge.
“Now, notwithstanding this particular description of these new buildings, neither of the engravings which I have alluded to have any indications of them; although one of them was published in 1647, and the other in 1666. The first of these represents the North end of London Bridge, from St. Magnus’ Church to the houses beyond the first opening, as occupied by acoveredpassage formed of planks, leaving recesses standing out from the main erection, which was supported by buttresses of wood fastened to platforms on the outside of the Bridge.
“We derive this view of the dilapidations of LondonBridge from a very rare and magnificent print, well known to collectors and antiquaries, by the name of the ‘Long Antwerp view of London;’ for which, Mr. Geoffrey Barbican, if you ever meet with it, you may consider twenty guineas as a very moderate price. This famous engraving is an etching by the matchless Wenceslaus Hollar; it is in seven sheets, measuring two yards and an half in length, by 17½ inches in height: it bears a dedication to Queen Henrietta Maria, and William Prince of Orange, with a copy of Latin verses written by Edward Benlowes, Esq.; and, though it was sold in London, the following publication line appears on one side written in Latin:—‘Sold at Amsterdam by Cornelius Danckers, in Calf Street, at the sign of the Image of Gratitude, in the year 1647.’ The e is, by the way, a pretty fair, but smaller copy of this view of London and Westminster in two sheets, in a series of prints commonly called ‘Boydell’s Perspectives,’ measuring 37½ inches, by 10¼ inches, signed ‘R. Benning, del. et sculp.,’ and entitled ‘A View of London as it was in the year 1647.’ The publication line is, ‘Sold by J. Boydell, Engraver, at the Unicorn in Cheapside, London, 1756.’ You will find both the original, and the copy, in the xiii.th and xiv.th volumes of Mr. Crowle’s Illustrated Pennant, which I have already cited to you, and the view takes in from above the Parliament House at Westminster to beyond St. Catherine’s; but the Bridge is thekeimelionof the plate, for that noble edifice is represented with all its buildings, from St. Magnus’ Church, down to the SouthwarkTower, the size of 10 inches in length, with the principal buildings about two inches square. The other view to which I have alluded, was also etched by Hollar, upon two sheets measuring 27 inches by 4¼: and it consists of two prospects, one over the other, on the same plate, the upper one representing, ‘London from St. Mary Overies Steeple in Southwark, in its flourishing condition before the Fire;’ and the lower one entitled, ‘Another prospect of the said City, taken from the same place, as it appeareth now after the said calamity and destruction by Fire.’ Copies of these interesting etchings are, however, neither dear nor uncommon; though, if you would have so fine an impression as that in the Print Room of the British Museum, you will scarcely procure it under three Guineas. In the upper of these prospects, the Northern end of London Bridge is shewn to be a passage fenced by wooden palings without any houses, excepting one building, which occupies the whole width of the Bridge; having a gate in it surmounted by the King’s Arms, and standing immediately before the old Church of St. Magnus.
“We derive this view of the dilapidations of LondonBridge from a very rare and magnificent print, well known to collectors and antiquaries, by the name of the ‘Long Antwerp view of London;’ for which, Mr. Geoffrey Barbican, if you ever meet with it, you may consider twenty guineas as a very moderate price. This famous engraving is an etching by the matchless Wenceslaus Hollar; it is in seven sheets, measuring two yards and an half in length, by 17½ inches in height: it bears a dedication to Queen Henrietta Maria, and William Prince of Orange, with a copy of Latin verses written by Edward Benlowes, Esq.; and, though it was sold in London, the following publication line appears on one side written in Latin:—‘Sold at Amsterdam by Cornelius Danckers, in Calf Street, at the sign of the Image of Gratitude, in the year 1647.’ The e is, by the way, a pretty fair, but smaller copy of this view of London and Westminster in two sheets, in a series of prints commonly called ‘Boydell’s Perspectives,’ measuring 37½ inches, by 10¼ inches, signed ‘R. Benning, del. et sculp.,’ and entitled ‘A View of London as it was in the year 1647.’ The publication line is, ‘Sold by J. Boydell, Engraver, at the Unicorn in Cheapside, London, 1756.’ You will find both the original, and the copy, in the xiii.th and xiv.th volumes of Mr. Crowle’s Illustrated Pennant, which I have already cited to you, and the view takes in from above the Parliament House at Westminster to beyond St. Catherine’s; but the Bridge is thekeimelionof the plate, for that noble edifice is represented with all its buildings, from St. Magnus’ Church, down to the SouthwarkTower, the size of 10 inches in length, with the principal buildings about two inches square. The other view to which I have alluded, was also etched by Hollar, upon two sheets measuring 27 inches by 4¼: and it consists of two prospects, one over the other, on the same plate, the upper one representing, ‘London from St. Mary Overies Steeple in Southwark, in its flourishing condition before the Fire;’ and the lower one entitled, ‘Another prospect of the said City, taken from the same place, as it appeareth now after the said calamity and destruction by Fire.’ Copies of these interesting etchings are, however, neither dear nor uncommon; though, if you would have so fine an impression as that in the Print Room of the British Museum, you will scarcely procure it under three Guineas. In the upper of these prospects, the Northern end of London Bridge is shewn to be a passage fenced by wooden palings without any houses, excepting one building, which occupies the whole width of the Bridge; having a gate in it surmounted by the King’s Arms, and standing immediately before the old Church of St. Magnus.
“Independently of these views, we have another very strong evidence that this part was not built upon even in the year 1665, contained in that most interesting and curious work, the ‘Memoirs and Diary of Samuel Pepys, Esq., F.R.S. and Secretary to the Admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James II.’ Edited by Richard, Lord Braybrooke, London, 1825, 4to. volume 1., page 388: where, under the date of January 24th, 1665-66, that observant journalist has the following entry. ‘My Lord,’—Edward Montague, Earl of Sandwich,—‘and I, the weather being a little fairer, went by water to Deptford; and the wind being again very furious, so as we durst not go by water, walked to London round the Bridge, no boat being able to stirre; and, Lord! what a dirty walk we had, and so strong the wind, that in the fields we many times could not carry our bodies against it, but were driven backwards. It was dangerous to walk the streets, the bricks and tiles falling from the houses, that the whole streets were covered with them; and whole chimneys, nay, whole houses, in two or three places, blowed down. But above all,the pales on London Bridge, on both sides, were blown away;’—almost the very words, you observe, which I have quoted you from Richard Bloome,—‘so that we were forced to stoop very low, for fear of blowing off the Bridge. We could see no boats in the Thames afloat, but what were broke loose, and carried through the Bridge, it being ebbing water. And the greatest sight of all was, among other parcels of ships drivenhere and there in clusters together, one was quite overset, and lay with her masts all along in the water, and her keel above water.’ The desolation, and wintry chillness of this picture, is enough to make one shiver even in the Dog-days.”
When the worthy old Chronicler had arrived at the conclusion of this narrative, as usual I took up the story, and began thus:—“This, Mr. Barnaby Postern, was indeed a fatal destruction, and one would imagine that it was no such happy event as to cause a jesting ballad to be made to commemorate it; but yet, though in the following verses there are some discordant circumstances, and even the date is at variance with that which you have already given, there can be little doubt but that they relate to the Fire of which you have now spoken. You will find them printed at the end of a very rare, but, at the same time, a very worthless publication, entitled ‘The Loves of Hero and Leander, a mock Poem: Together with choice Poems and rare pieces of drollery, got by heart, and often repeated by divers witty Gentlemen and Ladies that use to walke in the New Exchange, and at their recreations in Hide Park.’ London, 1653, 12mo., pages 44-48. There is also another edition of 1682; but I pray you to remember, that many of the fescennine rhymes, some of which would have done honour to Hudibras, and many of the witty points of this song, are, in that latter copy, most vilely perverted; I shall give it you, therefore, as it stands in the former impression.
‘SomeChristian peopleallgive earUnto the grief of us:Caused by the death of three children dear.The which it happen’d thus.And eke there befel an accident,By fault of a Carpenter’s son,Who to saw chips his sharp ax-e-lentWoe worth the time may Lon——May London say: Woe worth the Carpenter!And all suchblock-headfools;Would he were hanged up like asarpenthereFor meddling with edge tools.For into the chips there fell a spark,Which put out in such flames,That it was known into South-warkWhich lies beyond the Thames.ForLoe! the Bridge was wondroushighWith water underneath:O’er which as many fishes flyAs birds therein do breathe.And yet the fire consumed the Brigg,Not far from place of landing;And though the building was full big,It fell down,—not with standing.And eke into the water fellSo many pewter dishes,That a man might have taken up very wellBoth boil’d and roasted fishes!And thus the Bridge of London Town,For building that was sumptuous,Wasallby firehalfburnt down,For being toocontumptious!Thus you haveallbuthalfmy song,Pray list to what comesater;For now I havecool’dyou with thefire,—I’llwarmyou with thewater!I’ll tell you what the River’s name’sWhere these children did slide—a,It was fair London’s swiftest ThamesWhich keeps both Time and Tide—a.All on the tenth of January,To the wonder of much people;’Twas frozen o’er that well ’twould bearAlmost a country steeple!Three children sliding thereabout,Upon a place too thin;That so at last it didfall out,That they did allfall in.A great Lord there was that laid with the King,And with the King great wager makes;But when he saw that he could not winHe sigh’d,—and would have drawn stakes.He said it would bear a man for to slide,And laid a hundred pound;The King said it would break, and so it did,For three children there were drown’d.Of which, one’s head was from his should—ers stricken,—whose name was John;Who then cried out as loud as he could‘Oh Lon-a! Lon-a! Lon-don!’‘Oh! tut—tut—turn from thy sinful race!’Thus did his speech decay;I wonder that in such a caseHe had no more to say.And thus being drown’d, Alack! Alack!The water ran down their throats,And stopp’d their breath three hours by the clock,Before they could get any boats!Ye parents all that children have,And ye that have none yet,Preserve your children from the grave,And teach them at home to sit.For had these at a sermon been,Or else upon dry ground,Why then I never would have been seen,If that they had been drown’d!Even as a huntsman ties his dogs,For fear they should go fro him;So tye your children with severity’s clogs,Untie ’em—and you’llundo ’em.God bless our noble Parliament,And rid them from all fears;God blessallthe Commons of this land,And God bless—someof the Peers!’
‘SomeChristian peopleallgive earUnto the grief of us:Caused by the death of three children dear.The which it happen’d thus.
And eke there befel an accident,By fault of a Carpenter’s son,Who to saw chips his sharp ax-e-lentWoe worth the time may Lon——
May London say: Woe worth the Carpenter!And all suchblock-headfools;Would he were hanged up like asarpenthereFor meddling with edge tools.
For into the chips there fell a spark,Which put out in such flames,That it was known into South-warkWhich lies beyond the Thames.
ForLoe! the Bridge was wondroushighWith water underneath:O’er which as many fishes flyAs birds therein do breathe.
And yet the fire consumed the Brigg,Not far from place of landing;And though the building was full big,It fell down,—not with standing.
And eke into the water fellSo many pewter dishes,That a man might have taken up very wellBoth boil’d and roasted fishes!
And thus the Bridge of London Town,For building that was sumptuous,Wasallby firehalfburnt down,For being toocontumptious!
Thus you haveallbuthalfmy song,Pray list to what comesater;For now I havecool’dyou with thefire,—I’llwarmyou with thewater!
I’ll tell you what the River’s name’sWhere these children did slide—a,It was fair London’s swiftest ThamesWhich keeps both Time and Tide—a.
All on the tenth of January,To the wonder of much people;’Twas frozen o’er that well ’twould bearAlmost a country steeple!
Three children sliding thereabout,Upon a place too thin;That so at last it didfall out,That they did allfall in.
A great Lord there was that laid with the King,And with the King great wager makes;But when he saw that he could not winHe sigh’d,—and would have drawn stakes.
He said it would bear a man for to slide,And laid a hundred pound;The King said it would break, and so it did,For three children there were drown’d.
Of which, one’s head was from his should—ers stricken,—whose name was John;Who then cried out as loud as he could‘Oh Lon-a! Lon-a! Lon-don!’
‘Oh! tut—tut—turn from thy sinful race!’Thus did his speech decay;I wonder that in such a caseHe had no more to say.
And thus being drown’d, Alack! Alack!The water ran down their throats,And stopp’d their breath three hours by the clock,Before they could get any boats!
Ye parents all that children have,And ye that have none yet,Preserve your children from the grave,And teach them at home to sit.
For had these at a sermon been,Or else upon dry ground,Why then I never would have been seen,If that they had been drown’d!
Even as a huntsman ties his dogs,For fear they should go fro him;So tye your children with severity’s clogs,Untie ’em—and you’llundo ’em.
God bless our noble Parliament,And rid them from all fears;God blessallthe Commons of this land,And God bless—someof the Peers!’