Fitzstephen's account of the river

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Fitzstephen, although so highly eulogistic of London, makes one unfortunate admission: "The only inconveniences of London are the immoderate drinking of foolish people and the frequent fires."

Covering with eating houses and wine shops, the old bank on the city side must have presented a very animated scene, and have re-echoed to the sound of revelry by night.

There is yet another river scene which the old monk gives us a graphic description:

"In the Easter holidays they (the young men) play at a game resembling a naval engagement. A target is firmly fastened to the trunk of a tree which is fixed in the middle of the river, and in the prow of a boat driven along by oars and the current stands a young man who is to strike the target with his lance.

If, in hitting it, he break his lance and keep his position unmoved, he gains his point and attains his desire but if his lance be not shivered by the blow, he is tumbled into the river and his boat passes by, driven along by its own motion.

Two boats are however placed there one on each side of the target, and in them a number of young men do take up the striker when he first emerges from the stream, vel summa rursus cum bullit in unda, when a second time he rises from the wave."

One can readily imagine how crowded the old river bridge of timber would have been, and the shores on each side, with the number of spectators in boats watching a sport not altogether unattended by danger, a spice of which always seems necessary to the popular enjoyment, whether it is "looping the loop" or some other modern entertainment of a like kind.

This particular one described by the old monk differed slightly from water quintain, in which the target was movable and swung round with a heavy bag of sand, which unless the performer dexterously ducked would topple him over into the water also.

He gives also a very full description of sliding, skating, and curling on the ice, and although he places the locale on "the great marsh which washes the walls of the city on the north side," doubtless the same scene might have been witnessed on the Thames, for in 1063 it was frozen over for fourteen weeks. This William "Stephanides" or Fitzstephen, was born in the reign of Stephen, and wrote his account in the reign of Henry the Second.

The old timber bridge spanning the river must have required continual repairs, witnessing many stirring scenes, and great changes since the days of the Romans.

In 1114, in the fourteenth year of the reign of Henry the First there was a great drought, and the river was so dried up at low water that under some of the old timber staging no water flowed, and between the Tower and the bridge and under the bridge, not only was it possible for men to cross on horseback, but men, women, and children did also wade over on foot.

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