260 OLD LONDON BRIDGE. PART IV. 



and were for a long time principally inhabited by pin 

 and needlemakers. 



At a very early period the bridge showed signs of 

 weakness and required constant patching. Before the 

 end of its first century a patent was issued by Edward I., 

 authorising its speedy repair, in order to prevent its 

 sudden fall and " the destruction of innumerable people 

 dwelling thereon." Tolls were authorised to be taken 

 for every man crossing, a farthing ; for every horseman, 

 a penny ; arid for every pack carried on a horse, one half- 

 penny. There was not a word of vehicles, which did not 

 as yet exist. The repairs then done to the structure do 

 riot seem to have been of much effect; for in 1281 five 

 of the arches, with the buildings over them, were carried 

 away by a flood following a thaw, and the repairs had 

 to be begun again on a more extensive scale than before. 

 At a subsequent period Stowe's gate, tower, and arches, 

 at the Southwark side, also fell into the river. But after 

 repeated patching, the bridge nevertheless continued to 

 hang together for several centuries longer. It witnessed 

 the processions of priests, the jousting of knights, the 

 march of Kentish rebels, the triumphal march of 

 Henry V. into the City after the battle of Agincourt, 

 the funeral procession of the same monarch when borne 

 to his royal tomb in Westminster Abbey, and the entrance 

 to the metropolis of his successor after being crowned 

 King of France at Notre Dame. Generation after gene- 

 ration of toiling men and women passed over the bridge, 

 wearing its tracks deep with their feet, and sometimes 

 moistening them with their tears. Still the old bridge 

 stood on, almost down to our own day ; for we shall find, 

 in the lives of Smeaton and Eennie, that these eminent 

 engineers, amongst others, were called upon from time to 

 time to direct its repair ; until at last the old structure, 

 which had served its purpose so long, was condemned and 

 taken down, and the magnificent New London Bridge 

 erected in its stead. 



