Chronicles
OF
LONDON BRIDGE.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY D. S. MAURICE, FENCHURCH STREET.
TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL
JOHN GARRATT, ESQ.
ALDERMAN OF THE WARD OF BRIDGE WITHIN;
WHO, AS
LORD MAYOR OF LONDON,
LAID THE FIRST STONE
OF THE
NEW LONDON BRIDGE,
ON WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15th, 1825;
These Chronicles
ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
The plan of narrative adopted in the ensuingpages, is recommended by both the sanction and theexample of very learned antiquity; since, withoutreferring to the numerous classical volumes, whichhave been written upon the same principle, two ofthe most ancient and esteemed works on EnglishJurisprudence have honoured it with their selection.Of the accuracy of the historical events here recorded,the authorities so explicitly cited are themost ample proofs; and, that they might be themore generally interesting, whatever may have been[viii]their original language, the whole are now given inEnglish: so that an argument should lose none ofits effect from its too erudite obscurity, nor anillustration any of its amusement by requiring tobe translated.
The collection and arrangement of these materialshave been a labour so unexpectedly toilsomeand extended, as, it is hoped, fully to excuse everydelay in the work’s appearance; and, but for thevaluable aid of those numerous friends who have sokindly assisted its progress, it must have still beenincomplete. Of these, the first and the most ferventhas been John Garratt, Esq., who, by a singularlyhappy coincidence, was at once the founderof the New London Bridge, as Lord Mayor, anda native, and Alderman, of the Ward containingthe Old one. Of other benefactors to these sheets,the names of