The Project Gutenberg eBook ofChronicles of London BridgeThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Chronicles of London BridgeAuthor: Richard ThompsonRelease date: November 27, 2014 [eBook #47475]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Veronika Redfern, Chris Curnow and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) frompage images generously made available by The InternetArchive (https://archive.org). Music transcribed by VeronikaRedfern.*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRONICLES OF LONDON BRIDGE ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Chronicles of London BridgeAuthor: Richard ThompsonRelease date: November 27, 2014 [eBook #47475]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Veronika Redfern, Chris Curnow and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) frompage images generously made available by The InternetArchive (https://archive.org). Music transcribed by VeronikaRedfern.
Title: Chronicles of London Bridge
Author: Richard Thompson
Author: Richard Thompson
Release date: November 27, 2014 [eBook #47475]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Veronika Redfern, Chris Curnow and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) frompage images generously made available by The InternetArchive (https://archive.org). Music transcribed by VeronikaRedfern.
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRONICLES OF LONDON BRIDGE ***
LONDON:PRINTED BY D. S. MAURICE, FENCHURCH STREET.
Historical Title-page
ChroniclesOFLONDON BRIDGE:BYAN ANTIQUARY.Antique Rosette DeviceLONDON:SMITH, ELDER, AND CO.CORNHILL.M.DCCC.XXVII.
ChroniclesOFLONDON BRIDGE:BYAN ANTIQUARY.
Antique Rosette Device
LONDON:SMITH, ELDER, AND CO.
CORNHILL.
M.DCCC.XXVII.
An Ornamental Group, consisting of the Armorial Ensigns, and of the City of London, the Company of Goldsmiths, and the Right Worshipful John Garratt. Engraven by A. J. Mason.
TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULJOHN GARRATT, ESQ.ALDERMAN OF THE WARD OF BRIDGE WITHIN;WHO, ASLORD MAYOR OF LONDON,LAID THE FIRST STONEOF THENEW LONDON BRIDGE,ON WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15th, 1825;These ChroniclesARE MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
Theplan of narrative adopted in the ensuing pages, is recommended by both the sanction and the example of very learned antiquity; since, without referring to the numerous classical volumes, which have been written upon the same principle, two of the most ancient and esteemed works on English Jurisprudence have honoured it with their selection. Of the accuracy of the historical events here recorded, the authorities so explicitly cited are the most ample proofs; and, that they might be the more generally interesting, whatever may have beentheir original language, the whole are now given in English: so that an argument should lose none of its effect from its too erudite obscurity, nor an illustration any of its amusement by requiring to be translated.
The collection and arrangement of these materials have been a labour so unexpectedly toilsome and extended, as, it is hoped, fully to excuse every delay in the work’s appearance; and, but for the valuable aid of those numerous friends who have so kindly assisted its progress, it must have still been incomplete. Of these, the first and the most fervent has beenJohn Garratt, Esq., who, by a singularly happy coincidence, was at once the founder of the New London Bridge, as Lord Mayor, and a native, and Alderman, of the Ward containing the Old one. Of other benefactors to these sheets, the names ofHenry Smedley, Esq.;H. P. Standley, Esq.;Henry Woodthorpe, Esq., Town Clerk;Mr. Joseph York Hatton;Mr. John Thomas Smith, of the British Museum;Mr. William Upcott, of the London Institution; andMr. William Knight, of the New Bridge Works; will sufficiently evince the importance of their communications; to whom, as well as to the many other friends, whose kindnesses I am forbidden to enumerate, I thus offer my sincerest acknowledgments. The Historians of the Metropolis have hitherto passed over the subject of this work far too slightingly: it will be my most ample praise to have endeavoured to supply that deficiency, by these
Chronicles of London Bridge.
June 15th, 1827.
“This is a Gentleman, every inch of him; a Virtuoso, a clean Virtuoso:—a sad-coloured stand of claithes, and a wig like the curled back of a mug-ewe. The very first question he speered was about the auld Draw-Brig, that has been at the bottom of the water these twal-score years. And how the Deevil suld he ken ony thing about the auld Draw-Brig, unless he were a Virtuoso?”
Captain Clutterbuck’s Introductory Epistle to the Monastery.