“And now, before we enter upon an examination of the bed of the Thames
at London Bridge, and consider whether the River were turned, as
Stow thinks, to admit of its erection, let me cite you some ancient
authorities concerning St. Thomas’s Chapel. The first of these shall
be the ‘_Itinerary of Symon Fitz Simeon, and Hugo the Illuminator_,’
both of whom were Irish Monks, of the Order of Friars Minors, who
visited London on their pilgrimage to Palestine, in 1322. ‘This flux
and reflux,’--say they, at pages 4, 5,--‘continues to the sea from
the famous River named Thames, upon the which is a Bridge, filled
with inhabitants and wealth; and in the midst of them is a Church
dedicated to the blessed Thomas, Archbishop and Martyr, which is well
served continually.’ About the year 1418, also, William Botoner, a
Monk of Worcester, of the Parish of St. James in Bristol, who then
travelled from that City to St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, in his
‘_Itinerarium_,’ pages 301, 302, thus spake of London Bridge and the
Chapel. ‘The length of the Chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr, upon
London Bridge, is about twenty yards; having an under Chancel in the
vault, with a choir, but the length of the nave of the said Chapel
contains fourteen yards. The width of the middle steps is one yard. The
length of the Bridge on the South, from the posts to the first gate
newly founded by Henry the Cardinal, unto the two posts erected near
the Church of St. Magnus, consists of five hundred of my steps. _Item_:
there are five great windows on one side,’--of the Chapel,--‘each of
which contains three panes:’ or rather divisions. Of these Itineraries
I will observe nothing farther, than that they were published from the
original Manuscripts in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, by James
Nasmith, the Editor of Tanner’s ‘_Notitia Monastica_;’ in 1778, octavo;
under the title of ‘_Itineraria Symonis Simeonis, et Willielmi de
Worcestre_.’
“Of this Chapel, and also of the first Stone Bridge, there are two
large folio engravings, taken and published, by George Vertue, in
1744-48, which, after his decease, were, with many of his other plates
of Antiquities, presented by his widow to the Antiquarian Society in
1775. The first engraving measures 18-1/4 inches by 20 inches and 3/8,
and contains ‘A View of the West Front of the Chappel of St. Thomas,
on London Bridge; also the Inside View from West to East of the said
Chappel, as it was first built An°. 1209:’--and also ‘London Bridge as
it was first built, An°. 1209:’--a Ground plan, and some measurements
of the same, and a short Historical account of the structure, drawn
up by Sir Joseph Ayloffe, Bart. Vice-President of the Society of
Antiquaries. The publication line states, that it was ‘drawn, engrav’d,
and publish’d by G. Vertue, in Brownlow-Street, Drury-Lane, 1748.’ A
second edition was printed by the Society, in 1777.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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