This chapel retains little of its original work, and was rebuilt when
the bridge was widened in the time of James I. Formerly there was a
niche for a figure looking up the stream, but this has gone with much
else during the drastic restoration. That a bridge-chapel existed here
is proved by Aubrey, who mentions "the chapel for masse in the middest
of the bridge" at Bradford.
[Illustration: The Crane Bridge, Salisbury]
Sometimes bridges owe their origin to curious circumstances. There was
an old bridge at Olney, Buckinghamshire, of which Cowper wrote when he
sang:--
That with its wearisome but needful length
Bestrides the flood.
The present bridge that spans the Ouse with three arches and a
causeway has taken the place of the long bridge of Cowper's time. This
long bridge was built in the days of Queen Anne by two squires, Sir
Robert Throckmorton of Weston Underwood and William Lowndes of Astwood
Manor. These two gentlemen were sometimes prevented from paying visits
to one another by floods, as they lived on opposite sides of the Ouse.
They accordingly built the long bridge in continuation of an older
one, of which only a small portion remains at the north end. Sir
Robert found the material and Mr. Lowndes the labour. This story
reminds one of a certain road in Berks and Bucks, the milestones along
which record the distance between Hatfield and Bath? Why Hatfield? It
is not a place of great resort or an important centre of population.
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