382 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 290. 



begfinning is at Six a Clock in the Evening, and is ended 

 ■ at Nine. 



Note. — Their stay will be in this place but very short. 

 Tickets may be had at the Place of Performance. 



Vivat Reg'ina. 



One would be curious now to know how " An 

 Irish Woman," " Two Hugonots," and the " Scoth 

 Highlander and his Lass " got on. 



James Graves. 



Kilkenny. 



LONDON TOPOGEAPHY. 



The New Road in 1756. — Copy of a letter 

 written by a tenant of the Duke of Bedford to 

 induce his lordship to oppose that portion of the 

 New Road to Paddington, extending from Battle 

 Bridge to Tottenham Court : 



My Lord, — I am informed of a road intended 

 to be made at the back of your grace's estate, 

 which, from the dust and number of people, must 

 entirely spoil those fields, and make them no better 

 than one common land. I most humbly entreat 

 your grace to prevent such an evil ; for it will be 

 impossible for me to hold your grace's estate 

 without a large abatement of rent. I am, with 

 all submission, your grace's most dutiful and obe- 

 dient servant. Esther Capper. 



14 Feb. 1756. 



Mrs. Capper was in the occupation of a large 

 cow-farm, at a rental of 3/. an acre. 



The Building of Blackfriars Bridge. — The 

 evidence given before Committee on this subject 

 in 1757, exhibits, in many of its details, a state of 

 feeling so at variance with what we now see 

 around us, as hardly to be explained by the lapse 

 of a single century. Though London, properly 

 speaking, had but one bridge (for Westminster 

 bridge was some two miles distant) there was not 

 wanting a crowd of opposers, who could allege 

 most excellent reasons against any farther accom- 

 modation of the kind. One of their best weapons 

 was the prospective diminution of " the nursery" 

 of watermen, affording formerly large supplies for 

 the navy, sometimes 500 at a time, whenever the 

 Lords of the Admiralty chose to send for them by 

 virtue of an Act of 4 Queen Anne. At the pre- 

 sent time, there were at least 1500 London water- 

 men in the royal navy. Other alarmists professed 

 great fears for the safety of the west-country 

 barges ; and some of the frequenters of Covent 

 Garden were quite sure they should be so long 

 hindered in coming down the river as entirely 

 to lose their market. It was even propounded 

 whether or not it would interfere with tlie "liber- 

 ties of the Fleet." Finally, the economists enter- 

 tained an opinion that the taking down of the 

 houses on London Bridge would answer all the 

 purposes intended. 



On the other hand, Mr. Launcelot Dowbiggen, 

 who drew out the first plans for Blackfriars 

 Bridge, and offered to execute it, with ten arches, 

 for 140,000/., made the following complimentary 

 remarks on London citizens. He should not feel 

 himself at all obliged to employ freetnen simply 

 because it was on their river. In fact, he designed 

 to employ as few citizens as possible, for they were 

 not sufficiently expert in such works as bridge- 

 building ; neither would they work so cheaply as 

 foreigners (by "foreigners" was meant only, not 

 belonging to London guilds). The Court of 

 Aldermen, he admitted, did sometimes, though 

 very unwillingly, grant leave for foreigners to be 

 employed on city works ; but before he could 

 ever obtain this kind of aid, he was always obliged 

 to make oath that he wanted London freemen and 

 could not get them. 



Mr. John Besant, collector of land tax in Castle 

 Baynard Ward, said, That In the last twenty 

 years rents had in general fallen one thirfl, in St. 

 Paul's Churchyard fully fifty per cent ; that new 

 dwelling-houses on a grand scale were greatly 

 wanted by the citizens, and would be built at the 

 north approaches of the proposed bridge ; that 

 many merchants now lived with regret out of the 

 city, because there were no handsome houses to 

 accommodate them withal. He never looked upon 

 the city as a place of manufacture, but of buying 

 and selling. 



The proposal of a new bridge of course Involved 

 another discussion, as to the effects likely to be 

 produced by the alteration or possible removal of 

 old London Bridge. Mr. George Ludlow, lighter- 

 man, was of opinion that the starlings of that 

 bridge so checked the water, that, in the event of 

 their removal, a strong spring tide would infallibly 

 overflow the city of Westminster. Mr. Deputy 

 James Hodges, who had long lived on the bridge, 

 said. That bargemen would sometimes in the nighf 

 throw coal at such windows on the bridge as 

 showed candle-lights ; such lights tending to daz- 

 zle the eyes just before the dangerous moment 

 when the shadow of the overhanging houses left 

 them to shoot the arches in the dark. Mr. Peter 

 Colllnson said, That about the year 1718, all 

 the water being out of the river, he went dowu 

 amongst the piers of the old bridge, and had aa 

 opportunity of minutely examining their structure 

 (which he then described). 



It seems to have been the unanimous verdict of 

 all reasonable men, that the houses must be taken 

 down at once. The roadway between them was 

 barely wide enough for two vehicles to meet, and 

 was moreover on Sundays and Mondays thronged 

 with cattle. The evidence of surveyors all testi- 

 fied that the fabrics were rotten, and the leases 

 not worth renewal ; the only vocal utterance of a 

 dissentient kind being the complaint of the Rev. 

 Robert Gibson, praying that the assessment of 



