A. D. 978-1016. 277 



we have the earlieil certahi notice of London bridge ; for we are told, 

 that in coming from WinchelT:er to London many of the Danes were 

 drowned in the Thames, becaufc they negleded the bridge *, 



Amidfl the delolations of this unhappy reign, but mofl probably in 

 the early part of it, fome attention was paid to regulations for internal 

 and coafting trade, both of which were apparently on a fmall fcale for 

 articles of fubfillence ; and England had even fome paflive foreign trade, 

 as appears from the twenty-third chapter of the laws ena<5ted by Ethel- 

 red and his wife men at Vcnetyng or Wanating {IVantnge in Berk-fhire), 

 according to whicii every boat arriving at Bilynggefgate paid for toll 

 or cuftom one halfpenny ; a larger boat with fails, one penny ; a keel 

 or hulk, four pennies ; a veflel with wood, one piece of wood ; a boat 

 with fifh coming to the bridge, one halfpenny, or one penny, according 

 to her fize. The men of Rouen, who brought wine and large fifli -(-, 

 thofe of Flanders, Ponthieu, Normandy, and France, fliowed their goods, 

 and cleared the duties % ; as did alfo thofe of Hegge §, Liege, and Nivell. 

 The emperor's men who came with their Ihips were deemed worthy of 

 good (or favourable) laws ; but they were not to foreftall the market to 

 the prejudice of the citizens, and they were to pay their duties. At 

 Chriftmas thofe German merchants paid two grey cloths and one brown 

 one, ten pounds of pepper, five pair of men's gloves, and two vefTels |[ 

 of vinegar. The fame dues were alfo levied from them at Eafter. 

 [Bromton, col. 897.] 



The merchants, called in this hi^N x\\t emperor'' s men, are fuppofed to 

 have been the predeceffors of thofe who were afterwards called the Mer- 

 chants oj'ihe T'euionic gUdhall. ^^. . . : 



AtJ the- iame time the number; Qf coiners in England was reduced to 

 three for every principal port,- or towr^,' and one for every fmaller one, 

 who fliQuld be anfwerable for their \yprkmen as to the quality and juft 

 weight of the money. The mark.et \yeights were slfo ordered to be uni- 

 form with. that of the moneys viz., (fifteen, c/-^ (a Danifh denomination) 

 to each pound. {Bromton, coL.i<^^\\' 



* A bridge at I.oirdon is mentioned in a Ihw of ' of wllicli i:i remarked to have been fiifficicnt for two 



Ethelred of uncertain date, but fuppofed by Spcl- carnages) Oiaf made fall his (liips at liigli water 



mail \_Concilia, p. J32] to be prior to his treaty to ttit wooden piles of it, and then, rowing them 



with 0!af in 994. Stow [Survey of London, p. 1^%, vigoroitfly dbwir the river with the ebb tide, he 



«/. lOiS!] dates this firft notice of the bridge in <hook down the bridge, and London thereupon 



994, but the SasLon Chronicle exprefsly in I013. fubmitted to EtKehed. [////?. Olqfi Snnai, c. 1 1.] 



WilHani of Malmibury [/. 38 b] feems to have This (Iratagem, I bth'eve, is Act mentioned by any 



confounded the two fieges of London by Swein, of the Englilh hiilorians. ^ 



and thus milled Stow. We may however prcfume, f « Crafpifce.' See the Gloffary to the Scrlp- 



from fundry notices in Domefday book, that bridges tores decern, in vo. Crafpifcis. 



had long been common even in the inland and re- J ' Monftrabant res fuas, el extolneabant.' 



mote parts of England. J So it is printed in Bromton's Chronicle. This 



Snotro Sturlefon relates that Olaf Haraldfon law is not publirtied by Lambard, Wheloc, SpeU- 



aflifted Ethelred to recover London from the Dan- man, or Wilkins. 



ifh king Cnnt, the foiv of Swein. Meeting with || • Duos cabillinos colennos,' the meaning of- 



an obllrurtion from London bridge (the breadth which the glofiarift is unable to explain. 



