B-Berry and I Look Back by Dornford Yates

Author:Dornford Yates
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: B-Berry and I Look Back
ISBN: 9780755127054
Publisher: House of Stratus
Published: 2013-06-10T04:00:00+00:00

14

“I have here,” said Berry, “a little monograph which I have composed upon that romantic structure which was for many years the wonder of Europe, Old London Bridge. But it mustn’t go into the memoir.”

“Why not?” said Jill.

“Because it’s too choice. That it should rub shoulders with the Old Bailey is unthinkable. A niche in the Poets’ Corner would be more appropriate. I mean, you wait till you hear it.”

“If it isn’t any better,” said Daphne, “than your stuff about Trustees, I entirely agree. Keep it for the Poets’ Corner.”

“Quite so,” said Berry. “And when you’ve heard it, you’ll go on your bended knees and beg for its inclusion in this most vulgar production, which may never see the light.”

“Pray proceed,” said Jonah. “Old London Bridge is part of the history of England, and it’s stuffed so full of romance that I don’t think you can have gone wrong.”

Berry was bristling.

“Am I to interpret that statement as an assurance that, when I have cast before you my pearls, you will not turn and rend me?”

“Sorry,” said Jonah, laughing. “What I really meant was that you are the very man to deal with this wonderful fabric as it deserves. There’s never been anything like it in all the world.”

Something mollified, Berry picked up his manuscript. After a moment or two, he began to read.

“Old London Bridge was the first stone bridge of importance built in the British Isles: it stood for more than six hundred years; and for more than five hundred of those years it was the only bridge over the Thames in the London district. Except at Lambeth, there was no recognized ferry – and that was avoided by the more prudent, for the ferry-boat frequently sank, on one occasion with the coach of his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. It follows that for more than five centuries, virtually all the traffic to and from London, desirous of crossing the Thames, used Old London Bridge.

“The Bridge owed its being entirely to the devotion and energy of a determined priest, whose name deserves to be remembered. Peter de Colechurch was solely responsible for its conception, for obtaining the necessary funds and for its construction for twenty-nine years. Unhappily, that great man died four years before it was completed: but completed it was in the year 1209, in the reign of King John; and so well and truly was it built that, in spite of the occasional ravages of fire and water, it was never out of service for more than a few days for more than six centuries.

“When we consider the elaborate calculations which precede the construction of a comparatively minor bridge today, to build a stone bridge more than nine hundred feet long over a tidal river towards the end of the twelfth century was an astounding achievement; and when we remember that, through all those years, that bridge stood fast against the constant, angry thrust of a mighty head of water, a man may be forgiven for wondering whether the progress of which we are so proud, rests indeed upon foundations as sure.

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