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river above and below the intended bridge,
would have amounted to treble the sum
of erecting the bridge itself; and that the
space of thirty-three years, which the
bridge took up in building, is sufficient to
destroy so wild a notion; since if the
people concerned in erecting it had dry
ground to build upon, it might have
been finished in a tenth part of the time,
and in a much more durable manner.
The same gentleman observes, that hav-
ing carefully surveyed the bridge in the
year 1730, in company with Mr. Spar-
ruck, the water carpenter thereof, he ob-
served in many places where the stones
were washed from the sterlings, the vast
frames of piles, whereon the stone piers
were founded. The exterior part of these
piles were extremely large, and driven as
close as art could effect, and on the top
were laid long beams of timber of the
thickness of ten inches, strongly bolted;
whereon was placed the base of the stone
piers, nine feet above the bed of the ri-
ver, and three below the sterlings; and
that on the outside of this foundation
were driven the piles called the ster-
lings.
Mr. Sparruck informed him, that he
and the bridge-mason had frequently tak-
en out of the lowermost layers of stones
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| L O N | 129 |
in the piers, several of the original stones,
which had been laid in pitch instead of
mortar; and that this occasioned their
being of opinion, that all the outside
stones of the piers, as high as the sterlings,
were originally laid in the same matter,
to prevent the waters damaging the work.
This Mr. Maitland naturally supposes, was
done at every tide of ebb, till the work
was raised above the high water mark.
It is remarkable, that the master mason
of this great work erected at his own ex-
pence a chapel on the east side of the
ninth pier from the north end, and en-
dowed it for two priests, four clerks, &c.
This chapel, which was dedicated to St.
Thomas, was a beautiful arched Gothic
structure, sixty-five feet long, twenty feet
and a half broad, and fourteen in height.
Great part of this edifice lately remained
very perfect; it was paved with black and
white marble, and in the middle was a
sepulchral monument in which was pro-
bably interred Peter, curate of Colechurch,
the architect, or master mason, who began
the work, but died before it was com-
pleted. Clusters of small pillars arise at
equal distances on the sides, and bending
over the roof, meet in the center of the
arch, where they are bound together by
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