piers with eight spaces or arches. But the depth of water, its constant rapidity, the occasional roughness of the tides, and the shocks of large bodies of ice at the breaking up of winter, occasioned such frequent and severe damage, that the repairs became a heavy burden to the owners of the contributory lands.* In a petition presented to Parliament at the end of the fourteenth century, the landholders who were taxed for the repairs of the bridge were represented as having been nearly reduced to ruin in consequence, and that the bridge at the same time was very unsafe for passengers. Under these circumstances, Sir Robert Knowles and Sir John de Cobham built at their joint expense the present bridge, thereby relieving private individuals from an oppressive tax, and conferring a lasting benefit on the public. In the reign of Richard II. a patent was obtained from the crown, which was afterwards confirmed by the Parliament, for constituting the proprietors a body corporate, under the title of Wardens and Commonalty, and a license granted enabling them to receive, and hold in mortmain, lands and tenements to the amount of two hundred pounds per annum. Sir John Cobham was the first and greatest benefactor, and his example was followed by such liberal donations from others that the estates usually termed proper, became in process of time justly adequate to the repairs of the bridge, without levying any assessment on the contributory lands.† Until the erection of that at Westminster, Rochester Bridge was justly considered the second in the kingdom; and even now, after the splendid structures which have sprung up in recent times, it is still an object of great elegance and beauty. Its original length was four hundred and sixty feet by fifteen in breadth. It consisted of eleven arches, the largest of which had a space of forty feet, and the others above thirty. At one of these spaces between the piers was formerly a drawbridge, by means of which the castellan who held command of the fortress could break off all communication with the opposite banks of the river. The greatest water-way is three hundred and forty feet. Joneval, in his Travels, makes a mistake in supposing that this bridge "is founded on a rock;" the piers rest on wooden piles, and to have laid the foundation of so massive a fabric in a river where the flux and reflux of the tide are so strong, must have been an arduous undertaking. Unfortunately Antiq. of Rochester. + Ibid. Kentish Traveller, p. 140. Joneval, p. 85. OF ROCHESTER.] ROCHESTER BRIDGE-HISTORICAL EVENTS. 165 the name of the architect has not descended to posterity, but the bridge is a lasting monument to his genius.* At the east end of the bridge was formerly a chapel, founded by Sir John Cobham, with an endowment of eighteen pounds a year, payable out of the bridge lands, for the support of three priests. According to the rules established by the founder, three masses were to be said daily; the first between five and six in the morning, the second between eight and nine, and the third between eleven and twelve o'clock, so that travellers might have an opportunity of being present at the sacred offices. But at each mass there was to be a special collect for all the benefactors to the bridge, living or dead, and for the souls of Sir John Cobham and others, whose names were to be recited. There was another chapel at the west end of this bridge, but its exact site is not known. Memorabilia.—When the Emperor Charles the Fifth made his second visit to England, in the summer of 1522, he arrived at Rochester on the second of June, where he was received by Henry the Eighth, and set out on the following day for London, or rather the royal palace of Greenwich. It was at Rochester, also, that King Henry had his first interview with Anne of Cleves, whose reception at Blackheath has been already described. Her picture, it is said, had been drawn in so flattering a manner by Holbein, that the amorous monarch, impatient to see the original, set out incognito for Rochester on the morning of her expected arrival in that city, and in the evening was among the first to bid her welcome. The painter, however, was detected in having practised a great deception: Anne was not the divinity represented on the canvas; Henry was disappointed, and is recorded to have vented his chagrin in terms far from complimentary to the Lady Anne, or the minister who had negotiated the alliance. This, however, he disguised; and before taking leave presented her with a "suit of sables, as a new year's gift." In April, 1556, Rochester was the theatre of one of those horrid scenes which disgraced the reign of Queen Mary. John Harpole, of St. Nicholas parish, and Joan Beach, of Tunbridge, were burnt alive as heretics, according Such were the general features of this bridge down to 1793, when a series of improvements was commenced under the direction of Mr. Alexander, a London architect. The breadth of the road-way then was increased from fifteen to twenty-seven feet, by springing new arches in every opening of the bridge from the points of the piers in the old work, without any new foundations. The centre arch was then formed by throwing the two middle arches into one, and is nearly as large as that of Blackfriars, London; so that great convenience has been offered to the navigation in the Medway above Rochester. The balustrade is formed of white freestone, very substantial and elegant in appearance, with commodious footpaths on either side; and the whole expense was defrayed from the improved income of the bridgeestates, without establishing any toll upon the thoroughfare. Since that period it has undergone various minor repairs, and with the Castle in the background, and the various trading craft passing and repassing with every tide, few objects can be more pleasing and picturesque than the bridge of Rochester. to the sentence of Maurice Gryffith, bishop of the see, for denying the authority of the Church, and the transubstantiation of the sacramental elements.-See History of Rochester, with biographical notices of the bishops. Queen Elizabeth, who took great pride in superintending the naval department, in which she foresaw the only sure bulwark of her empire, made it her custom to visit, among many other places in Kent, Chatham Dock-yard. On one occasion she spent four days at the Crown Inn of Rochester; but on the fifth accepted the hospitality of one of her loyal subjects, Mr. Watts, at his house at Boley Hill, near the Castle; to which, according to tradition, she gave the title of Satis, as expressive of her satisfaction with her entertainment. On the return of King Charles the Second to England, he was received at Rochester with demonstrations of loyalty, and conferred the honour of knighthood on two gentlemen of the place, named Clarke and Swan. The Mayor and Corporation at the same time presented his Majesty with a silver basin and ewer, which were "graciously accepted." Here, also, James the Second arrived after his abdication, and continued for a week under the protection of a Dutch garrison; but, apprehensive of his personal safety, he went privately on board a tender, set sail, and, with the Duke of Berwick and others of his suite, landed at Ambleteuse in Picardy. Another object of no little interest, on the opposite side of the river, is Upnor Castle, famous in history for the attack made upon it by Admiral Van Ruyter.* Having burnt the storehouses, and blown up the fortifications at Sheerness, Van Ruyter despatched the second Admiral, Van Ghent, up the Medway, which Monk, Duke of Albemarle, had secured as well as the circumstances of the case would allow. But a strong east wind and springtide bringing up the enemy with resistless force, a chain was immediately broken; three Dutch ships, taken in the war and stationed to guard the chain, were set fire to by Van Ghent to retrieve his country's honour; and, pressing forward between the sinking ships, he brought six of his men-of-war and fire-ships in front of Upnor Castle. Major Scott, who had command of the fort, gave them as warm a reception as the condition of the place would permit, and was well seconded by Sir Edward Spragge, who had escaped from Sheerness, and now opened his guns upon the enemy from a battery at Cockham Wood. The Dutch, however, seized the hull of the Royal Charles, and on their return burnt the Royal Oak, and much damaged two other ships of the line. Captain Douglas, who commanded the Royal Oak, was burnt in his ship, although he might easily have escaped. But "No!" In the Dutch life and achievements of Van Ruyter, a goodly 4to, there is a large engraving of Rochester, Upnor Castle, and the bridge, with a most exaggerated picture of the engagement. Hist. of Rochester. Hist. of the War--Reign of Queen Elizabeth. OF ROCHESTER.] DOUGLAS--HOGARTH-GADSHILL. 167 said this intrepid commander, when he perceived the danger and was urged to strike, "No-it was never known that a Douglas left his post without orders;" and thus resolved, he perished in the flames. Among the numerous tourists who have made Rochester and its Castle the subjects of remark, is the celebrated Hogarth, who, in company of four of his intimate friends, Tothall, Scott, Thornhill, and Forrest, made an excursion of four days to this part of the county in May, 1732, which is amusingly detailed in a short folio brochure, accompanied with ten illustrations and caricatures of their adventures, and published in 1781. Classical Scenes.-To every reader of Shakspeare the names of Gadshill, Falstaff, and Prince Hal, will conjure up many ludicrous associations; and few travellers will enter Rochester from the west, without a short halt on this poetical ground, the spot where Prince Henry and his dissolute associates robbed the Sandwich carriers, and the auditors who were carrying money to the royal exchequer. Theobold mentions that he had read an old play, in which the scene opens with Prince Henry's robberies, and Gadshill is there named as one of the gang.* A comfortable inn, with a characteristic sign of Falstaff on one side, and Prince Hal on the other, invites him to alight for half an hour, and over a "cup of sack" peruse that mirth-moving scene in the first Part of "Henry the Fourth," which has conferred immortality on the spot : ACT II. SCENE II. -The Road by Gadshill. Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS; BARDOLPH and PETO at some distance. Poins. Come, shelter, shelter; I have removed Falstaff's horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet. Warton also mentions his having seen a ballad by Faire, called "Gadshill," under the year 1588; and adds in a note-See Clavell's "Recantation," a poem in 4to, London. 1634. Clavell was a robber, and here recites his adventures on the highway. His first depredations were on Gadshill. Further particulars in the Kentish Traveller's Companion, ed. 1799.-Simmons and Kirby. Pr. Henry. Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal: what a brawling dost thou keep! Pr. Henry. He is walked up to the top of the hill; I'll go scek him. [Pretends to seek POINS.] Falst. I am accursed to rob in that thief's company; the rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know not where. If I travel but four foot by the squire further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death for all this, if I 'scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have foresworn his company hourly any time this two-and-twenty years; and yet I am bewitched with the rogue's company. If the rascal hath not given me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hang'd; it could not be else; I have drunk medicines.-Poins! Hal! a plague upon you both. Bardolph! Peto! I'll starve ere I rob a foot further. An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to turn true man, and leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that ever chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground is three score and ten miles afoot with me; and the stonyhearted villains know it well enough. A plague upon't, when thieves cannot be true to one another! [His companions whistle.] Whew! a plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you rogues: give me my horse, and be hanged! Pr. Henry. Peace, ye fat-guts! lie down; lay thine ear close to the ground, and list if thou canst hear the tread of travellers. Falst. Have ye any levers to lift me up again, being down? 'Sblood, I'll not bear mine own flesh so far afoot again for all the coin in thy father's exchequer. What a plague mean ye to colt me thus? Pr. Henry. Thou liest; thou art not colted-thou art uncolted. Falst. I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse, good king's son! Pr. Henry. Out, you rogue! shall I be your ostler? Falst. Go hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters. If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I have not ballads made on you all, and sung to filthy tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison. When a jest is so forward, and afoot to,—I hate it. [Enter GADSHILL.] Gads. Stand! Falst. So I do, against my will. But we must here close the quotation. The reader will readily imagine himself a spectator of the scene, where the thieves rob the true men, and where retaliation is made upon the thieves by "two of their own gang, in forcibly taking from them their rich booty;" and he will again enjoy the conceit of Falstaff with his cups of limed sack, telling "incomprehensible falsehoods," in order to cover his own cowardice; his long rencounter with the two "rogues in buckram suits, growing up into eleven," all of whom he peppered and payed till three misbegotten knaves in "Kendal green (“for it was so dark, Hal, thou couldst not see thy hand!") came at his back and let drive at him!" Thus, on the stage, in the closet, on the road-as a local writer has well observed-Falstaff's adventure at Gadshill is likely to be "not only an argument for a week, laughter for a month, but a good jest forever.” AUTHORITIES:-) -Radcliffe.-Caumont.- Culmien. Grose.-Denne. - Kilburne. - Local Pamphlets.- Hasted. France Monumentale. - Matth. Paris. Dallaway. - Milit. Archit. - Discourses, Antiquities -Hist. Angl.-Hist. of Eng. Civil and Milit.-Pic- of Kent, Hardynge. Registrum Roffense, by torial Hist. of Engl.-Holinshed.-Fabyan.-Hist. Thorpe. - Eadmer. - Polyd. Virg.-Selecta Monuand Antiq. of Rochest.-Hist. of the Castle and menta. Camden. Somner. Battely. Antiq. Cathed.-Lambard, 1576.—Kentish Tourist.-King. Itiner., etc. ect. |