14 ROMXEY MAUSH AX1> PART I. 



It was long, however, before the banks effectually re- 

 sisted the higher tides in the Thames, and scarcely a season 

 passed without some breach occurring, followed by an 

 inundation of the marsh-lands which had been won. 

 There were frequent burstings of the bank on the south 

 side between London Bridge and Greenwich ; the district 

 of Bermondsey, then green fields, being especially liable 

 to be submerged. Commissions were appointed on such 

 occasions, with full powers to distrain for rates and to 

 impress labourers in order that the requisite repairs 

 might at once be carried out. In some cases the waters 

 for a long time proved the victors, and carried everything 

 before them. Thus, in the reign of Henry Till., the 

 marshes of Plumstead and Lesnes, now used as a prac- 

 tising-ground by the Woolwich garrison, were completely 

 drowned by the waters which had burst through Erith 

 Breach, and for a considerable time all measures taken to 

 reclaim them proved ineffectual. The low lands lying 

 immediately to the east of the royal palace at Greenwich, 

 called Combe Marshes, were also inundated, and they 

 were only reclaimed by the help of one Acontius, an 

 Italian ; in reward for which an allotment was made to 

 him of some six hundred acres of the recovered land. 

 Another Italian, Baptista Castilione, with other under- 

 takers, won back a further portion ; and at length the 

 banks were all securely raised again along the south 

 side of the river. 



The maintenance of the embankment along the north 

 shore seems to have been a work of still greater diffi- 

 culty, and destructive inundations were frequent down 

 to a comparatively recent period. Thus we hear of 

 breaches occurring at Wapping and Limehouse as late 

 as the sixteenth century, and the Isle of Dogs was 

 often overflowed and recovered with difficulty. Lower 

 down the river, the long bank which protects the Dagen- 

 ham and Barking Levels was particularly liable to be 

 burst through, by which the whole valley of the Lea, as 



