South London . Southwark was de-serted. When things settled dov/n a little, workmen weresent across from London, and the broken places were all traces of the canal disappeared. Thirty-six 3ears later, in 1052, Earl Godwine arrived atSouthwark with a fleet and an army. He had no difficultyin passing the Bridge ; he waited till flood-tide, and thensailed through on the south side. It is quite impossible toexplain this statement, or to make it agree with the difficultyfelt by Cnut. The Bridge may have sustained some damage;there may have been a drawbridge; or Godwines ships may EARL
South London . Southwark was de-serted. When things settled dov/n a little, workmen weresent across from London, and the broken places were all traces of the canal disappeared. Thirty-six 3ears later, in 1052, Earl Godwine arrived atSouthwark with a fleet and an army. He had no difficultyin passing the Bridge ; he waited till flood-tide, and thensailed through on the south side. It is quite impossible toexplain this statement, or to make it agree with the difficultyfelt by Cnut. The Bridge may have sustained some damage;there may have been a drawbridge; or Godwines ships may EARLY HISTORY 43 have been smaller : one knows nothing. I merely state thefact as the Chronicler gives it. One more glimpse of the Bridge from Southwark beforewe pass on to more modern times. After Hastings, William marched northwards. Arrivednear London, he advanced to Southwark, where he found theBridge closed to him—closed, I believe, by knocking awaysome of the upper beams. This, of course, he expected ; his. friends within the City, of whom he had many, kept him ac-quainted with the changing currents of popular opinion. Itis commonly stated that the citizens were terrified by thesight of Southwark in flames at his command. Southwarkin flames! A few fishermens huts were all that remained ofthe suburb, whose population since the time of the PaxRomana had been so precarious and so changeful. Fivehundred years of battle, war between kings and tribes, in-vasion and ravage by Dane and Norseman, had not left of 44 SOUTH LONDON Southwark, once so beautiful a suburb, anything more thanthese poor huts and ruins of huts. WilHams soldiers burnedthem, because wherever a soldier of that period appeared, thethatch always caught fire spontaneously. William saw theflames, and regarded them not, any more than he regardedthe flames that followed in his track all the way from gazed across the river, and remembered that twice hadLondon defied all the strength of Swegen ; that three tim
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbesantwa, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1912
