30 
table, and not to a table for use in our usual sense of the word. 
It can easily be imagined that such a furniture would suit exactly 
in our present case. 
One reason perhaps why so little is known of this bridge is, that. 
whilst the citizens of Bath had the duty of keeping it in repair, it. 
was not quite within the city bounds. The suburb of South Gate. 
Street was included for taxing purposes, but it was not until the: 
extension of the bounds by the Charter of Elizabeth in 1590, that: 
the Bridge was absorbed. This Charter starts the boundary, 
from the “south end” of the bridge where the “two images of 
a lion and a bear engraven in stone are erected,” and then passing 
through the river westward presently turns eastward to Walcot 
church and then back through the river again to the “south 
end” of the bridge. In the drawings the lion and the bear are 
seen on two columns, officially there as being the supporters of 
the Bath arms. The idea of Warner that the Bridge was first 
built in 1340 cannot be accepted, as certainly there was a bridge 
before that date. Thus in the time of Edward i., A.D. 1273, as 
recorded in the Hundred Rolls, a jury, when reporting on the 
neglect of the city walls, found that “Robert Cherin had a 
tenement within the city and a meadow without, for which he 
kept the gate on the bridge in time of war.” The gate here 
mentioned is the same as shown in the drawings. This gate is 
also mentioned in Cox’s Magna Britannia of 1727, where it is said, 
—a street leads to South Gate and then along the suburbs to the 
“ Bridge laid over the Avon in the middle of which is an old 
gateway.” This however was not exact asthe drawings show the 
gate not in the middle but on the next arch southward of it. 
Having no documentary evidence to determine absolutely the 
date or time of building of this bridge, an examination of the 
drawings must be made to help as much as possible. Taking 
first the East view, that is the view from the east side or looking 
west, it will be seen that two of the piers are round, perhaps 
because the rush of the river was not fierce thereabouts, and on 
