class="smcap">Mr. John Thomas Smith, of the British Museum; Mr. William Upcott, of the London Institution; and Mr. William Knight, of the New Bridge Works; will sufficiently evince the importance of their communications; to whom, as well as to the many other friends, whose kindnesses I am forbidden to enumerate, I thus offer my sincerest acknowledgments. The Historians of the Metropolis have hitherto passed over the subject of this work far too slightingly: it will be my most ample praise to have endeavoured to supply that deficiency, by these

Chronicles of London Bridge.

June 15th, 1827.

DESCRIPTIVE LIST
OF
THE EMBELLISHMENTS.

1. Historical Title-page, displaying a rich Gothic edifice, surrounded by the Effigies, Armorial Ensigns, &c. of the most eminent persons connected with the history of London Bridge. The two upper figures represent Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Cardinal Hugo di Petraleone, who subscribed so liberally to its original foundation, (see page 61,) and the two lower ones, Kings John and Edward I., commemorative of the Bridge having been finished in the reign of the former, and of the several grants made to it by the latter. In the upper centre is suspended a banner, with the present Royal Arms of England, alluding to the foundation of the New London Bridge in the reign of George IV.; and beneath it, a representation in tapestry, of the triumphal entry of Henry V. across the ancient Bridge, in 1415, after the victory of Agincourt, described on pages 220-229: at the sides of which are groups of banners, &c., commemorative of some of the principal persons engaged in the battle. Below, are the Armorial Ensigns of King Henry II., the Priory of St. Mary Overies, the ancient device of Southwark, and the Monograms of Peter of Colechurch, and Isenbert of Xainctes; the benefactors and Architects of the First Stone Bridge at London. Beneath these is a monumental effigy of Peter of Colechurch; under which appear the ancient and modern Arms of the City of London, see page 177; those of Robert Serle, Mercer, and Custos of London in 1214, the principal citizen to whom the finishing of the Bridge was entrusted, see page 73; those of Henry Walleis, Lord Mayor in 1282, and an eminent benefactor to London Bridge, see pages 131, 132; and in the centre, the shield of John Garratt, Esq., Alderman of the Ward of Bridge-Within, and Lord Mayor in 1824-25, who laid the First Stone of the New Edifice: see pages