And here seems the best place to introduce a short notice of one of the most noble-hearted men, and one of the most munificent foundations that even London has to boast of. Thomas Guy, the founder of Guy's Hospital, was a benefactor not only to the Borough, not only to the sick for whose benefit the endowment was made, but to the whole world, by the splendid School of Medicine he here inaugurated. Guy's Hospital was the first of all the Hospitals of London, designed and built for that special purpose. Guy at whose sole cost and charge it was founded, was born in the year 1645, in the Parish of St. John's, Horsleydown, in Southwark. In the year 1660, he was bound apprentice to a bookseller; in 1668 he started in business at the little corner house of Lombard Street and Cornhill. He was extensively engaged in printing Bibles, having obtained from the University of Oxford an assignment of their privilege. In 1695 he entered the House of Commons as Member for Tamworth, and sat in every Parliament from that date till the first of Queen Anne.

He stinted himself that he might have the more to give, not ostentatiously, but privately and without parade. To many of his poor relations he made yearly allowances; debtors, he released from prison; deserving young men he assisted with loans, unburdened with interest, to enable them to set up in business. When he met with any sick and in want, he was not content with giving them an order to St. Thomas's Hospital, of which he was a Governor, but had them clothed and supplied with necessaries at his own expense; in fact, in his own person he seems to have practised all the seven works of mercy. He was a great benefactor to St. Thomas's Hospital, building and endowing three wards at his own expense for sixty-four patients.

In 1720 his wealth being much increased by the

advantageous sale of some large investments in South Sea Stocks, he made a noble use of this money, which came to him before the bursting of the unhappy bubble. That same year he leased a piece of land from St. Thomas's Hospital for 999 years, and the ground was at once cleared; he lived to see the building completed, but died the same year at the age of eighty years. In little more than a week

after his death, the Hospital was opened, and sixty patients admitted. After bequeathing numerous legacies and annuities, he left the residue of his property to the Hospital which bears his name. He is one whose good deeds went before him instead of lamely halting after him, and they still continue to bear fruit to our own time.

CHAPTER XVII.

OLD LONDON BRIDGE.

ND now that my story is nearing its close, we come back again to the point from which we started— old London Bridge.

We have watched the tide of life ebbing and flowing over it century after century, now the steady stream of commerce, now the gay pageant, and now the rush of battle. But old age and infirmity have broken it down,

and like all other human things it must vanish, and "leave not a wrack behind."

But a new London Bridge could never be to London and Southwark what the old one was. Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges were now built, and both trade and pleasure would choose the nearer and more direct routes. But before it disappears with all its associations and its picturesque and terrible memories, let us look back a moment on the history of this spot, perhaps with the exception of Jerusalem and Rome, the most famous in the records of the world, which for well nigh one thousand years served as the chief means of communication between the two divisions of our great city, and note a few matters of interest which have been overlooked, or lightly touched in the general story.

In Chapter II. some account has been given of the early history of London Bridge. We do not know who originally built it, though tradition points to the Canons of St. Mary Overies; and it is supposed that the tolls taken on the Bridge replaced the income derived from the ferry. Then came its destruction by St. Olave, and (though we have no actual record of this) its rebuilding by Canute. We next had to notice its overthrow in 1091 by wind and tide; and again, after being restored by William Pont de l'Arche, its destruction by fire in 1136. Again it was rebuilt first of wood and then of stone, Peter of Colechurch being Architect; and so at last we find ourselves fairly landed on what is always called "Old London Bridge." Between the years 1170-1182 when the wooden bridge was still in existence, and the stone bridge rising by its side, there lived and wrote one of those dear old gossiping Chroniclers, Fitz Stephen who gives us the first account extant of London.

He

mentions a curious custom of the times, that at Eastertide the people would throng the bridge, brimful of laughter when the sport of boat-tilting was exhibiting on the river. "In Easter holidays" he says, "they fight battles upon the waters. A shield is hanged upon a pole fixed in the middle of the stream. A boat is prepared without oar, to be borne along by the violence. of the water; and in the forepart thereof standeth a young man, ready to give charge upon the shield with his lance. If so be that he break his lance against the shield, and doth not fall, he is thought to have performed a worthy deed. If without breaking his lance he runs strongly against the shield, down he falleth into the water; for the boat is violently forced with the tide; but on each side of the shield ride two boats furnished with young men, who recover him who falleth soon as they may."

The foundations of Peter's new Bridge were piles driven into the bed of the river, much no doubt as we saw done twenty years ago for the foundations of new Blackfriars Bridge: upon these, only three feet below low water mark were laid the stone piers. Stowe gives the following account of the building, "Now touching the foundation of the stone bridge, it followeth; about the year 1176, the stone bridge over the river Thames at London was began to be founded by the aforesaid Peter of Colechurch, near unto the bridge of timber, but somewhat more towards the west, for I read that Buttolfe Wharf was, in the Conqueror's time, at the head of London Bridge, The King (Henry II) assisted this work; and Richard Archbishop of Canterbury, gave one thousand marks towards the foundation. The course of the river for the time was turned another way about, by a trench cast for that purpose, beginning, as is supposed, east about Redriffe and ending

in the west about Patricksey, now termed Battersey. This work, to wit, the arches, chapel and stone bridge over the river Thames, having been thirty-three years in building was in the year 1209 finished by the worthy merchants of London, Serle Mercer, William Almaine, and Benedict Botewrite, principal masters of that work; for Peter of Colechurch, deceased four years before, and was buried in the chapel on the bridge in the year 1225." Before the bridge was finished two kings had passed away, Henry II and the valiant King Richard. So that when Richard and his crusaders marched to Dover, where they took ship for France, on their way to Palestine, they must have passed over Peter of Colechurch's first or wooden bridge. And doubtless in that time of misrule and disorder it was hard to find the funds for carrying on the works.

When Peter died and the bridge was still unfinished, King John must needs interfere and chose to recommend to the mayor and citizens one "Isembert, Maister of the schools at Xaintes," to superintend the completion of the work, in the following letter, says Chamberlain, which is preserved in the Tower of London.

"John, by the grace of God, King of England, etc., to his faithful and beloved the mayor and citizens of London, greeting:

"Considering how the Lord in a short time hath wrought in regard to the Bridges of Xaintes and Rochelle, by the care and pains of our faithful, learned and worthy clerk, Isembert,* master of the schools of Xaintes, we, therefore, by the advice of our reverend father in Christ, Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, and that of others, have desired, directed and enjoined him to use his best endeavours in

Query? Was he an ancestor of the Isambard branch, who 700 years after constructed the Thames Tunnel.