“Although, as I have fully shewn you, London Bridge was, in general, most intimately connected with the principal executions of the times, yet I do not read that it was rendered remarkable, in the days of Queen Mary, by being made the scene of any of the numerous Protestant martyrdoms, which have eternally blotted her short, but sanguinary reign. There is, however, in Fox, a short anecdote connected with our present subject, which I quote the more readily, as it also bears a reference to the Church of St. Magnus. Upon the death of Pope Julius III., in 1555, Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor, wrote to Bonner, Bishop of London, to command him, in Queen Mary’s name, to order those prayers to be used throughout his diocese, which the Roman Church has appointed during a vacancy in the Papal See. ‘Vpon this commandment,’--says John Fox, in his immortal ‘_Acts and Monuments of Martyrs_;’ London, 1610, volume iii., page 1417, column 2,--‘on Wednesday in Easter weeke,’--which, in 1555, was the 17th of April,--‘there were hearses set vp, and diriges sung for the said Julius, in diuers places. At which time it chanced a woman to come into Saint Magnus Church, at the Bridge-foot in London, and there seeing an hearse and other preparation, asked what it meant: and other that stood by, said that it was for the Pope, and that she must pray for him. ‘Nay,’ quoth she, ‘that I will not, for he needeth not my prayer: and seeing he could forgiue vs all our sins, I am sure he is cleane himselfe: therefore I neede not to pray for him.’ She was heard speake these words of certaine that stood by: which by and by carried her vnto the cage at London Bridge, and bade her coole her selfe there.’ In some of the editions of Fox there is an engraving representing this circumstance, which shews that the Stocks and Cage stood by one of the archways on the Bridge, and in one of the vacant spaces which looked on to the water. [Illustration] I will but add, that Cages and Stocks were ordered to be set up in every Ward of the City by Sir William Capell, Draper, and Lord Mayor, in 1503. “I cannot illustrate the year 1556 farther than by an extract from the Account-Rolls of the Bridge-Keepers, taken from the printed document already mentioned; and the general particulars are as follow. ‘1556. Andrew Woodcock and William Maynard, Bridge-Masters, received for this year’s fee, each, £26. 13_s._ 4_d._--£53. 6_s._ 8_d._ Horse-keeping, to each, £2.--£4. Livery, each £1.--£2. Total, to each of them, £29. 13_s._ 4_d._ Sum of the whole £59. 6_s._ 8_d._ Rental, £1069. 11_s._ 6-1/4_d._’