CHAP. IJ. OLD LONDON BlUIXii:. 259 



The drawbridge was another curious feature. It occu- 

 pied the fourteenth arch from the north end, and pro- 

 vided an opening of about thirty feet. It was used for 

 purposes of defence as well as to provide for the passage 

 of masted ships. When Jack Cade was told of the army 

 marching against him, Shakespeare makes him say, 

 " Let's go fight with them ; but first go and set London 

 Bridge on fire." But Cade's project having failed, his 

 head was taken off and placed upon a pole, amongst those 

 of other traitors, over the southern gatehouse, with his 

 face looking towards Kent. The bridge was also used 

 as a place of public punishment. Persons found guilty 

 of practising witchcraft were compelled to do penance 

 there. No less a personage than Eleanor Cobham, 

 Duchess of Gloucester, was exposed upon the bridge in 

 1440, for the alleged crime of witchcraft. 



OLD LONDON BRIDGE, 160. 

 [By E. M. Wimperis, after the Painting by Claude de Jongh.] 



The bridge had a long history and many vicissitudes. 

 It had scarcely been completed ere the timber-houses 

 upon it were consumed by a great fire, and the bridge 

 was thus at once stripped of its cumbrous load. But, as 

 the revenues required for its maintenance and repair 

 were in a great measure derived from the rental of the 

 houses, which let for high sums, they were shortly after 

 erected in even more cumbersome forms than before, 



