the course of the stream, the head of the tide will not be so high as it is in these days. We are fortunate in being here at full moon. Indeed everything is favourable to a sight worth seeing. The wave, gleaming
white in the distance, rolls nearer and nearer Now we hear the sound of its growing roar. The ships’ hawsers are made taut. Boats are turned with bow to meet the oncoming tide. Then the shrill voices of the
children cry “ nTide’s coming I ” and at last it sweeps past us, rocking the boats, or carrying them away like corks, washing the timbers of the shipping, rushing through the arches of the bridge.
What astonishes us most is the rapidity with which the channel of the river is filled. When we have descended from our point of vantage, and passed under the triple arch of the old Watergate, and said
farewell to Master Clerk, the water has already risen to a considerable height. We are just in time to see the barge on the Slip with its precious freight of the two stone effigies take the water,
and ride off on the tide on its way to
FRIARN STREET
29
Taunton. Bon voyage to the Knight and his lady.
And so to our inn, to supper, and to bed ! Do you ask what we had for supper ! I will tell you.
We feasted sumptuously on a hen in a pasty, a gift which kind Brother Nicholas had sent to the inn for us, four mutton bones boiled, a manchet, and a pottle of beer, which we shared with two other pilgrims.
We have not seen day dawn, but we are up betimes and have broken our fast before we leave the inn to be present in the church of the Grey Friars
at mass.
Our host sees us off at his door and points the way. It is not difficult to find. Freren Street or Friarn Street does but carry on the main street in Damyet. Not many yards away we pass the Wayhur or
Horsepond on our left and then come to the wall behind which the Friary and its Church stand between the street and the brook. We note that the houses here are smaller and meaner than we have yet met
with in the town, as indeed we Might
well
14
THE BRIDGE CHAPEL
words.
It tells us that the bridge was built at the expense of some member or members of the Trevet family, who lived in this neighbourhood Remember that, in this age, this is an act of piety.
To build a bridge or repair a road, and thus help Gods pilgrims is a holy deed Clime to us is a small Chapel built actually on the bridge, which places the structure under the protection of one of the saints, and where offerings lot its maintenance are collected. It is served, not by our friends of the Hospital, but by thegrey Friars, whose acquaintance e we have yet to make.
There are dwelling houses on the bridge beside the Chapel, and at one of them the tollman will rolled our bridge-pennies as we pass his door. I said that the bridge is the hub of the town. Truly, we are in the midst of a busy scene, and from out point of vantage can see much oi what is going on around us. On the stone Slip, which has but lately been built, and which is destined long to outlive the bridge itself, lies aeffigies en ROUTE
15
Barge.
A crowd, almost as large as that which we have seen in Eastover, is collected on the quay and is looking down on the work of a group of labourers, who are directed by a master mason in charge of the operation. They have brought from a ship, which has come up the river on the last tide, two stone effigies swathed in straw. The faces and hands, however, are visible, and we see that the Bristol carvers have fashioned here a Knight and his Lady, with faces and hands turned towards heaven. The labourers are now lifting them into the flat-bottomed barge.
On the next tide they will be carried up to Taunton, and thence will make their final journey in a waggon to the church for which they are destined. Below the bridge, moored against the quay-side lie ships, not a few.
That fine vessel Le Gabriel de Bridgwater belongs to Master Dennis Dwin, the Irish merchant. She is unloading her cargo of woad, a blue dye-stuff for the use of the Bridgwater cloth makers. The town crane is busy hoisting it ashore.La Marie de Tanton got rid of
