the very large vaults under it, where in the time of the staple of Calais great quantities of wool used to be lodged, and was anciently the property of the Plumtree family; the particulars of which will be given in the proper place.

To the pious christian this house will be for ever hallowed in his most sacred remembrance, as being the place where the scattered persecuted pious flock, that once worshipped in the church of St. Mary, used to meet their holy pastor, and there, in one of these caves, met to adore the God of their fathers, and to escape the watchful eyes of their savage persecutors, often assembled to pray for their enemies, and the afilicted church, in the dead of the night, during the unquiet reign of Charles II.

From Vout Hall down Low Pavement to Lister gate there was another gate in the wall opposite to Church gate, from thence it continued along the back of the houses on the north side of Castle gate and St. Nicholas' Church yard, keeping a westerly direction till it joined the Castle wall at Brewhouse yard, and in its circumference exceeding two miles.

From the commencement of the tenth, to the thirteenth century, Nottingham, as we shall see, was the scene of sieges and war, being several times ravaged by the sword, and reduced to ashes by fire. Its walls were dismantled, the gates broken down, and its unfortunate citizens put to death; more than once, has it been rendered desolate without inhabitant; such was the rapid succession, and the fatal nature of the disasters with which it was visited, that the wall, built by the Saxon Edward the Elder, in 921, (a) was either totally rased, or rendered useless in the twelfth century, and another wall was erected by the Norman king, Henry II. after the former had been demolished by Robert, duke of Gloucester, in his war with king Stephen, and the empress Maud.

Brief as was the period that Edward held authority over Nottingham, the works he caused to be erected, tended more to the benefit of the town, and security of its inhabitants, than those of any other king who had reigned before him. In 924, Edward the Elder, of revered memory, having completed the wall and fortifications of the town, for the greater security of its inhabitants, proceeded to erect a bridge over the Trent. The piers were

(a) Dr. Deering says, Edward built the wall in 910, but that could not possibly have been the case, for then Ethered was living, and after him Ethelfleda his widow reigned till 920, the time of her death, she then leaving the kingdom of Mercia to her brother Edward, who united it with Wessex under one crown, could not possibly have commenced building the wall till ten or eleven years after the time the Doctor has fixed

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composed of stone, and the platform, &c. was of wood, which was a work of the greatest utility, in as much as it united the northern and southern parts of the kingdom; this, or one in this place, was probably the first bridge erected over this celebrated river, (a) and afterwards contributed, in no small degree, to the wealth and importance of the town, which was a great thoroughfare between the two grand divisions of the island, for the marching of armies, with their materials, from the one to the other, and for the conveyance of merchandize to and from the north; which may well account for Nottingham having been in ancient times so frequently the scene of hostility and war.

The name of this bridge is variously spelt in old writings, as Heath-beth bridge, Heath-bethe brigg, Heth-bet bridge, Hebethe bridge, Heithebethe bridge, and in some writings in the possession of the Corporation is called Heck-beck bridge; which a learned gentleman, Mr. Plumtree, conceived the derivation of its name to be a compound Saxon word, Heath, High; Bath, Bath, so in our language it would signify High-bath bridge, a name which he supposes it might receive from its having adjacent bathing places-on the north for males, and on the south for females.

Simple as it may appear to the cursory reader, whoever inquires minutely into the origin of the Trent bridge, will soon find himself encompassed with no slight difficulty attending its history, and every account we have of it in our local authorities from Thoroton downward, are involved in obscurity and contradiction; we will lay the case before our readers in the clearest light we can, and in as few words as possible.

There is no doubt Edward the Elder erected a bridge over the Trent, as has been described, but then, there are two Trent bridges standing at the present day; did Edward build the one or the other, or both, or neither? if not, when was the Saxon bridge of Edward destroyed, and the present bridge built, and was there no bridge erected over the river in this place, before the time of Edward?

In the report presented by the present town clerk to the Corporation Commissioners at Nottingham, 27th October, 1833, it is stated, p 7, "that the Bridge estates were in the possession of the Corporation by a few very ancient grants, but whether any of

(a) The presumption is based on this fact, that any carriages or cattle passing over the bridge at Kelham, or Newark, had to pay tolls to the Burgesses of Nottingham, except the Nottingham Burgesses, who, when they passed over, were toll free, which clearly points out the priority of our bridge.

them were given by the grantors, as the chamber estates were, he could not tell; they were given for the sustentation of the old Heck beck bridge, which now forms a part of the flood road near the present bridge, it is not visible as a bridge, but the arches yet remain, and the road passes over them. The course of the river has been diverted, as we suppose, from its ancient channel towards the south; then, according to this, it would seem to imply that the bridge over the "old Trent" as it is called, in front of Mr. Armitage's house, is only a part of the old bridge erected by Edward, when the river pursued a channel considerably north of its present course; which no one who has ever examined the superficial appearance of the ground on the north bank towards Wilford, or the gravelly substance of which it is composed, will hardly doubt for a moment.

But while we are felicitating ourselves in having removed at least one difficulty in the way of presenting a clear description, and are setting down the old bridge over the old channel of the Trent, and the present as the new bridge over the new Trent, the 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 16th and 17th arches, from the north of the present, or as we were about relatively to denominate it, the new bridge, are of the same style, composed of the same kind of material, and from every appearance they present, must have been erected at the same time, and are unquestionably of as remote an antiquity as that which we call the old bridge itself.

How then is this difficulty to be removed? Mr. Blackner, &c. have assumed, that that which is now called the "old Trent," never was perminently the Trent, but only a temporary channel, cut for the purpose of turning the river into from its present, and as they think, ancient channel, while the present bridge was building, leaving that part of the river dry. But would they have cut an artificial channel so serpentine as that which we call the "old Trent?" And would they have built a temporary bridge of stone, of an equal solidity, and equally expensive with that which they intended should be the perminent bridge itself?-this cannot be admitted.

Having carefully examined these venerable and useful structures, and consulted the oldest and most intelligent residents, (a) and other gentlemen in the town of considerable antiquarian research, so far at least, we are warranted in offering our own

(a) Amongst others we feel particularly indebted to the kindness of Mr. Cooper, Mr. Chapman, Mr. Barnsdall and Mr, Hopkins who has been surveyor of the Trent Navigation upwards of 47 years, for the information they have cheerfully supplied on this intricate subject.

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opinion, which is founded upon their suggestions,-that the two bridges, as they are called, were anciently united, and constituted in fact only one bridge, spaning the river, which was probably much wider then than it is now; and some of the ancient arches at the south end, might have been erected as dry arches, which would have been useful in a time of flood. Some of the old inhabitants now living, can well remember several acres of that which is now excellent pasture land, (beyond where the Trent Water Work Company have their establishment,) lying "high and dry," was a marshy bog. Now when we consider the many ages the process of depositing gravel on this side of the bank has been going on, it ceases to be a matter of wonder, that the stream should have considerably narrowed itself, and left the northern arches dry.

Dr. Deering, (p. 164), tells us that when the great frost broke up, in 1683, which continued from September to the March following, the ice tore away part of the bridge built by Edward, since which time it has been entirely re-built of stone, supported by twenty arches. But here the doctor must have been mistaken, for the present bridge has only seventeen arches, including six dry arches-four of brick, and two of stone. If it had been said by him, that the part which had been destroyed by the ice, in 1683 had been repaired then, (and certainly five of the arches of the present bridge are much more modern than the rest, except the ninth,) and that these, with the dry ones, and also the two present arches over the old Trent, would not then make the number of arches twenty, counting the two bridges as one continuous bridge, which we believe anciently to have been the case.

The following fact must not be lost sight of: when Colonel Hutchinson formed his military works on the rye-hills, or royals, as the high part of the meadows, at the back of the toll-bar, is called, for the purpose of dislodging the royalists of Newark from the fort on the south end of the bridge; who, when they saw the undaunted bravery, and deliberate courage of the Colonel and his men, became panic struck, and deserted the fort in the evening, leaving behind them eighty sheep, one hundred loads of coal, twenty quarters of oats, much hay, and a great quantity of lead, and to prevent any immediate pursuit, they broke up two arches of the bridge.

But when was the first bridge erected over the Trent? Dr. Thoroton informs us that in his time it was composed of twenty irregular arches, apparently built or repaired at different periods. The doctor tells us also, there was a bridge over the Trent in the time of Edward the Elder, and is implicitly followed by Deering

and Blackner. But was it the bridge erected by the monarch of Wessex and Mercia? Was that the first bridge erected in this place over the Trent? Certainly not; the Romans, who had stations at Bridgford, Causennis, or Nottingham, Hollywood, near Arnold, Mansfield Woodhouse, Lutudurum, or Chesterfield, &c. would find a bridge over the Trent here both convenient and necessary. The appearance of the remains of an old Roman road crossing the park, near the Druid's caves, passing not far from the east side of the barracks, over the forest, and straight forward to Arnold, &c. renders it almost a matter of certainty that there must have been a bridge here over the Trent in their time. Still great praise is due to the son of Alfred the Great, who either built another on the same site, or else considerably repaired the Roman bridge, which, after having stood five or six centuries, must have been considerably delapidated, to say nothing of the injuries it might have been subject to from the invasion of the Saxon and Danish conquerors. Of this we are sure, that in the time of Edward I., A.D. 1274, there was a chapel on Hethbeth-brigg, and that as Dr. Thoroton informs us, a jury found it not to the king's loss if he granted a license to John le Paumer, of Nottingham, and to Alice his wife; who was sister and heiress of Hugh de Stapleford, of Nottingham, to give £6. 13s. 5d. rent, with the appurtenances in Nottingham, to a certain chaplain, to celebrate divine offices for their souls, &c. in the chapel of St. Mary, on Hethbethbrigg, where there is one arch yet known by the name of " chapel arch." To read the contradictory statements and conjectures of Dr. Deering and Mr. Blackner, is quite amusing; the former places the chapel, proseuch, or oratory, on the east side, at the south end of the bridge, on a plot of ground called lady-bay, which forms the eastern boundary of the town, to which he supposes it gave name. Mr. Blackner, on the contrary, places the chapel on the west side, at the north end of the bridge, and the pasture, called lady-bay, was probably so named from my lady's bay mare pasturing there, or a mare called lady-bay.

Dr. Deering contends that the Trent bridge, except the piers, was wholly made of wood till 1683, at which time it was destroyed in the manner before stated, after which it was entirely re-built; to which statement Mr. Blackner consents, and further tells us, in support of Deering's assertion, there is a stone in the eastern wall of the bridge, with an inscription, containing the names of a mayor and two chamberlains, in a defaced condition; and the figures, according to Dr. Deering's statement, may be the date of the bridges completion. And though nine years is a longer time than may appear necessary for erecting such a bridge, pray what nine