or half burned, besides those that were wholly burned to ashes, and could not be found.’ “Such is Stow’s account of this melancholy event, which is best confirmed by the ‘_Annals of Waverley_,’ page 173; but they state also, that under this year, ‘1212, London, about the Bridge, was great part burned, together with the Priory of Southwark.’ Now, if we might credit the ‘_Historiæ Angliæ_’ of that wily, but elegant Italian, Polydore Vergil, we might be sure, that even at this period, London Bridge was built upon: ‘_Ipso illo anno_,’ says he, at page 276 of his book, setting out, however, with an erroneous date, ‘In that same year’--1211,--‘all the buildings that were erected upon London Bridge, were, even upon both sides, destroyed by fire: the which is esteemed a place of wonder.’ Polydore Vergil, you know, was an Historian of the reign of King Henry VIII. so we shall refer to him hereafter; and his work, now cited, was written at that Monarch’s request, so late as about the year 1521. It is esteemed chiefly for its elegant diction; and the best edition of it is considered to be that printed at Leyden, in 1651, octavo; though the foregoing reference is to the last impression of the Basil folio, A. D. 1570. “There does not appear, however, to have been any very effectual or speedy order taken for the restoration of London Bridge; for in the ‘_Rotuli Clausi_,’ or the Close Rolls, of the 15th Year of King John, 1213, Membrane the 3rd, is the following entry. ‘It is commanded to the Mayor and Sheriffs of London, that the halfpence which are now taken of foreign Merchants, shall be given to the work of London Bridge. Witness Myself at the Tower of London, on the 18th day of December, in the 15th year of our reign.’--You will find the Latin of this printed in the second impression of Thomas Hearne’s edition of the ‘_Liber Niger Scaccarii_,’ London, 1771, 8vo. volume i. page *471; and the original record may be seen in the Tower of London, written in so small, delicate, and abbreviated a character, that it hardly makes two lines on the narrow parchment roll. And now that we are speaking of the repairs of London Bridge, I should observe, that they are closely connected with the history of the Bridge-House and Yard in Tooley Street, Southwark; since Stow tells you in his ‘_Survey_,’ volume ii. page 24, that they were so called and appointed, as being ‘a storehouse for stone, timber, or whatsoever pertaineth to the buildings or repairing of London Bridge.’ He adds too, that this House ‘seemeth to have taken beginning with the first foundation of the Bridge either of stone or timber;’ and that it is ‘a large plot of ground on the bank of the River Thames, containing divers large buildings for the stowage’ of materials for the repairs of London Bridge. Of events which particularly concern this place, I shall, however, speak more fully in their proper order of time.