Only sixty years ago a
portion of the original structure remained; it was once covered with
houses; Peter the Dutchman's famous water-wheels plashed at its side;
from the dark street and projecting gables noted tavern-signs vibrated
in the wind. The exclusive thoroughfare from the city to Kent and
Surrey, what ceremonial and scenes has it not witnessed,--royal
entrances and greetings, rites under the low brown arches of the old
chapel, revelry in the convenient hostels, traffic in the crowded mart,
chimes from the quaint belfry, the tragic triumph of vindictive law in
the gory heads upon spikes! The veritable and minute history of London
Bridge would illustrate the civic and social annals of England; and
romance could scarce invent a more effective background for the varied
scenes and personages such a chronicle would exhibit than the dim local
perspective, when, ere any bridge stood there, the ferryman's daughter
founded with the tolls a House of Sisters, subsequently transformed into
a college of priests. By a law of Nature, thus do the elements of
civilization cluster around the place of transit; thus do the courses of
the water indicate the direction and nucleus of emigration,--from the
vast lakes and mighty rivers of America, whereby an immense continent is
made available to human intercourse, and therefore to material unity, to
the point where the Thames was earliest crossed and spanned.
Pages:
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249