245 



with hirire ; i uvular projections, not only to divide the 

 force of the current but to admit of spaces for foot- 

 pnsse n^ers to retire into, and thus avoid danger from 

 e;ir rinses and horsemen when passing along the narrow 

 roadway. Indeed, its extreme narrowness, notwith- 

 standing the attempts made to widen it, eventually led 

 to the removal of the bridge, and the substitution of a 

 new one of a single arch on the same site some twenty 

 years ago. 



The great convenience of bridges gradually led to 

 their erection along many of the principal routes through 

 the country. In the first place they superseded fords; 

 and when the art of bridge-building had become more 

 advanced, they superseded ferries always an incon- 

 venient, and often a dangerous, method of crossing rapid 

 rivers. The bridge brought the inhabitants of certain 

 districts into immediate connection with those on the 

 opposite bank of the river flowing between them, and 

 enabled them freely to hold intercourse and exchange 

 produce with each other; and the public advantages 

 of this improved means of communication were found 

 so irreat as to lead many benevolent and thoughtful 

 men, in those early days, to bequeath large sums of 

 money, for the purpose of building and maintaining 

 bridges ; in like manner as public benefactors, in after- 

 times, left money to build and endow churches and hos- 

 pitals. Yet popular tradition in some places attributes 

 these structures to a very different origin. Thus the 

 fine old bridge of three arches over the river Lune at 

 K i rkby Lonsdale, in Westmoreland, is said to have been 

 the work of the devil. 1 



The religious orders seem early to have taken in 



1 Il<i\v this tradition could have 



others. The roadway is, however, 



originated does not a]>)>rar. The inconveniently narrow, like all the 



liridiie is very lofty, and of excellent i old bridges. It is evidently of the 



workmanship. It consists of thin- Norman period, and the erection of a 



semi-circular ril>l>cd arches, the centre very clever architect, 

 one Ix'iiiir much higher than the 



