“Such is this ballad account of the matter; and, in quitting my notice of the manuscript that contains it, I have but to say that, it is written on old discoloured parchment, in a square gothic text, the ink of which is turned brown by time, with many contractions, and much vile spelling; and that its other contents are all exceedingly curious and valuable; and, as the ‘_Harleian Catalogue_,’ volume i., at page 585, tells us, they are ‘partly in old French, partly in Latin, and partly in English, partly in verse, and partly in prose.’ You will find, however, the whole of this long Poem printed in the late Joseph Ritson’s interesting volume, entitled, ‘_Ancient Songs from the time of King Henry the Third to the Revolution_,’ London, 1790, 8vo., pages 5-18. Maitland himself also relates the fate of Sir William Wallace, at page 109 of his ‘_History_,’ verifying his narrative by references to several of the Cloisteral Historians; nor does there, I believe, exist any earlier notice of the Tower on London Bridge having been used for the terrific purpose of exhibiting the heads of such as were executed for High Treason, which procured for it the name of Traitors’ Gate. You will remember I have already proved that edifices were standing upon London Bridge at a very early period; and, were it required, here is an additional proof of it, not to be disputed. Stow, when he is speaking of the Towers upon the Bridge, in his ‘_Survey_,’ volume i., pages 61 and 64, gives us not a word concerning their age, so of that I must treat hereafter, when we come down to the years in which they were repaired, or rebuilt; and I will, therefore, here remark only, that the heads were at this time erected on a Tower at the North end, and that they were not removed to the Southern extremity, where they so long remained, until about the year 1579. “I am for _your_ sake, my good friend, truly sorry that my next notice of London Bridge must be another Patent Roll, of the 14th year of King Edward II.,--1320,--Part the First, Membrane the 19th; but, it shews, at any rate, the state of the edifice in that year: and you will find it referred to in Stow’s ‘_Survey_,’ volume i., page 60; in Maitland’s ‘_History_,’ volume i., page 47; in the original Latin in Hearne’s ‘_Liber Niger_,’ volume i., page *477; and in English it ran as follows. “‘Concerning the subsidies of the Messengers for the work of the Bridge of London, complaining to be admitted.