‘However, in this calm,’--says Lord Clarendon, who relates these circumstances in his ‘_History_,’ volume iii., part i., book x., page 104,--‘they sent over Colonel Rainsborough with a brigade of horse, and foot, and cannon, at Hampton Court, to possess Southwark, and those works which secured that end of London Bridge; which he did with so little noise, that in one night’s march he found himself master, without any opposition, not only of the Borough of Southwark, but of all the works and forts which were to defend it; the soldiers within shaking hands with those without, and refusing to obey their officers which were to command them: so that the City, without knowing that any such thing was in agitation, found in the morning that all that avenue to the Town was possessed by the enemy; whom they were providing to resist on the other side, being as confident of this that they had lost, as of any gate in the City.’ “Bulstrode Whitelock, in his ‘_Memorials of the English Affairs_,’ London, 1732, folio, page 263, enables us to add to this account, that on Colonel Rainsborough’s advance to Southwark, he found the Bridge gates shut, the Portcullis lowered, and a guard within; but upon placing a counter-guard with two pieces of ordnance, against the gate, in a short time the great fort was surrendered; about two in the morning of Monday, the 2nd of August, 1647. “A curious invention, which, very probably, was never carried into execution, was, in the year 1643, connected with the history of London Bridge; being the scheme of an unsuccessful engineer named Captain John Bulmer. You may see an original copy of his ‘_Propositions in the Office of Assurance, London, for the Blowing up of a Boat and a man over London Bridge_,’ in the King’s Collection of Tracts in the British Museum, Miscellaneous Pieces, volume 3*, folio, article 88. In this statement, which consists of a broadside of one page, he thus commences. ‘In the name of God, Amen, John Bulmer, of London, Esquire: Master and Surveiour Generall of the King’s Maiestie’s Mines Royall, and Engines for Water-workes, propoundeth--by God’s assistance,--that he, the said John Bulmer, shall and will, at and in a flowing water, set out a Boat or Vessell with an Engine, floating with a man or a boy in and aboard the said Boat, in the River of Thames, over against the Tower-wharfe, or lower. Which said Boat, with the said man or boy in or aboard her, shall the same tide, before low-water againe, by art of the said John Bulmer, and helpe of the said engine, be advanced and elevated so high, as that the same shall passe and be delivered over London Bridge, together with the said man or boy in and aboard her, and floate againe in the said River of Thames, on the other side of the said Bridge, in safety.’ He then proceeds to covenant for himself, his heirs, &c., to perform this within the space of one month, after he shall have intimated at the Assurance Office that he is about to put it in practice.