CHAP. I. 



OLD 



247 



jin obstruction, that at length a special clotli-liall was 

 built, to which the clothiers removed about the end of 

 last century. 



The erection of Wade Bridge over the river Camel, 

 in Cornwall, is an example of the origin of many of 

 these structures in early times. The benevolent vicar 

 of Kgloshayle, lamenting the number of lives that were 

 annually lost in crossing the ferry, determined to raise a 

 fund sufficient to build a bridge, and success crowned 

 his efforts. It was erected in 1485, and claimed the 

 distinction, with Burton, of being the longest in Eng- 

 land. It consisted of seventeen arches, and was a highly 

 picturesque object, though it has since been replaced by 

 a more convenient structure. The vicar must have been 

 a man of great energy, for it is recorded of him that he 

 deigned the bridge and worked diligently upon it until 

 it was finished. 1 At his death he left an endowment of 

 20/. a vear towards its maintenance. 



. 



Rochester Bridge was an important part of the great 

 highway between London and the Continent, and a 

 Eoman timber roadway on stone piers formed part 

 of the ancient Watling-street. The bridge long con- 

 tinued to be of timber, and we find Simon de Mont- 

 fort burning it down in 1264. Twenty years later, 

 having been repaired in the interval, it was seriously 

 dam; i god by the breaking up of the ice, the force of 

 which, rushing down the Medway, carried away several 

 of the piers. It was patched up from time to time until 

 the reign of Ivlwarcl III., when the gallant Sir Eobert 

 Ki miles, who had raised himself by his valour from the 

 rank of a private soldier to that of a commander in the 

 roval army during the wars in France, returning to 

 England, and determining to leave behind him some 



1 It is said lit- 1i;ul great difficulty 

 in siruriii'.: foundations, owing to the 



sandy natuiv of the ground, until he 

 hail ivroiirse to "packs of wool," 

 which In- placed under the piers. 



The same tradition was handed down 

 of London Bridge, but the expedient 

 could not possibly have answered the 

 porpon. 



