“I have already mentioned several particulars of the Bridge-House revenues, and the salaries of the Wardens at various periods; and I shall now shew you the ancient estimation of several other offices of the same establishment. In the xxviii.th volume of London Tracts last cited, is a folio sheet, entitled ‘_A List of the Rooms and Offices bought and sold in the City of London_;’ the total amount of which is £145,586; and there occur in it the following valuations of places belonging to the Bridge. ‘1 Clerk of the Bridge House, £1250.--2 Carpenters of the Bridge-House, £200 each.--1 Mason of the Bridge-House, £200.--1 Plasterer to the Bridge-House, £200.--1 Pavier to the Bridge House, £250.--1 Plummer to the Bridge-House, £250.--2 Porters of the Bridge-House, £100 each.--1 Purveyor of the Bridge House, £200.--1 Shotsman of the Bridge-House, £200.’ The whole of this list is also printed in Motley’s ‘_Seymour’s Survey of London_,’ volume i., page 261: and at the end of the original is the following note, more particularly fixing the time when these offices were held in such estimation. ‘Whereas, James Whiston, in a late book, intituled ‘_England’s Calamities Discovered_,’ &c.--London, 1696, quarto,--‘set forth the mischievous consequences of buying and selling places in Cities, States, and Kingdoms: and the discovery of the disease being the first step towards the cure; for that end some persons, well-affected to the government of this City and Kingdom, have taken great pains to find out the number and value of y^e places bought and sold within this City; which are to y^e best information that can at present be got, as followeth.’--And now, pledge me once more, Mr. Geoffrey Barbican, in a farewell libation to the seventeenth century, for this notice brings us down to the year 1701.”
“Marry, Sir, and I’m heartily glad on’t,” said I, “for I began to be like honest Bunyan’s Pilgrims on ‘the Enchanted Ground,’ and to have much ado to keep my eyes open: but as I now really think there is some _little_ prospect that your tale will have an end, I shall do mine endeavour to be wakeful during the next century and a quarter, which you have yet to lecture upon. And, in the meanwhile, like Peter the Ziegenhirt, in Otmar’s German story, which gave Geoffrey Crayon the idea of Rip Van Winkle, I shall take another draught of the wine-pitcher; and so once again, Mr. Barnaby, here’s to you.”