is not contained in that venerable document, though it is supposed to have been included in the survey, but has not been registered with the rest. The account of lands on both sides of the river in Essex and in Kent, is minute and ample, and yet there is no notice of marsh lands, or lands enclosed or inned by embankments between the present eastern extremity of London and Gravesend. If there had been enclosed marshes on the sides of the Thames, or in manors bordering on the river, they would have been described in the survey; and as no such description is found, the conclusion that there were none is inevitable.

Soon after the conquest, the Norman arts were introduced, and the population received an accession from the continental territories of William of Normandy.

Gundulph, consecrated Bishop of Rochester, in the year 1077, was distinguished as an architect, and he was appointed by the Conqueror, principal surveyor at the erection of the citadel of the Tower of London; he was also employed upon the castle of Rochester. Under his auspices and direction, the mechanical arts received a great impulse; but still there is no evidence that in his time the system of embankment on the Thames had been introduced, though increased means for such an undertaking were then at hand. The observations of Dr. Campbell, given in a preceding page, suggesting that the work of wresting lands from the river Rother, was commenced by the clergy, to whom the property in those parts chiefly belonged, points to a course of inquiry into the origin and progress of the embankment of the river Thames.

1135. In this year the Abbey of Stratford, in Essex, was founded by William Montfichet, and he endowed it with his whole possessions in West Ham, consisting of arable and pasture lands, meadows, marshes,* &c.

This Abbey, says Leland, first set among the low marshes, was after with sore fludes, defayced, and removed to a celle or graunge longynge to it, caullyed Burgestede, in Essex, a mile or more from Billerica. The monks remained at Burgysted untyll

Lyson's Environs, vol. iv. p. 246.

entreté was made of one of the Richards (I.) kings of England, who toke the ground and Abbey of Stratford into his protection, and re-edifienge et, brought the foreseyde monks agayne to Stratford, where among the marsches they reinhabyted.* From this glimpse of the site at the time of the foundation, it seems that there were marshes or land recovered from the river, near the foot of the rising ground, which in such a position might have been easily effected; but from the circumstance of the monks being driven from the Abbey by the "sore fludes defacying it," it must also be presumed, that the work was no better performed than might be expected in the incipient stage of the practice of " inning,” and that this was not an attempt to raise an embankment to restrict the channel of the river, but merely an advance from the foot of the rising ground, to obtain ground for the Abbey. There is nothing to lead to the presumption, that the "sore fludes" that had "defacyed" the Abbey, had laid under water the whole level as it now appears from the river to the uplands.

66

A few years later, that is in the year 1178, “Richard de Lucy, justiciary of England, founded and endowed an Abbey of canons regular of the order of St. Augustine, at West Wood, in his village of Lesnes, the site being about a mile and three-quarters westward of Erith church," (at the foot of the rising ground, or as the writer of this account represents it)" at the edge of the marshes."+

This is the same course as that which was taken by the founder of the Abbey of Stratford, on the opposite side of the river, both with respect to the site chosen at the edge of the marsh, and as to the possession and management of the lands passing into the hands of the clergy, who, as Dr. Campbell observes, introduced the wresting of lands from the river Rother, in Romney marsh.

These coincidences suggest the probability, that the embankment of the Thames was commenced about the time when these Abbeys were founded, especially as no positive evidence appears that the work was commenced earlier; and these were not attempts to grapple with the difficulty of restricting the channel • Leland's Itinerary, vol. vii. p. 9. Lyson, vol. iv. p. 246. Hasted's History of Kent, 8vo. edit. vol. ii. p. 249.

of the river, but a beginning at the foot of the uplands to make gradual approaches to the great line of embankment that was ultimately executed.

In the twelfth century, when these Abbeys were founded, the Thames spreading without restraint to the hills on either side, must have run its languid course over a wide expanse of unoccupied water surface, among the hillocks and sand-hills, raised by its own diffusion. No busy towns were then to be seen; the places on the shores mentioned in the Norman survey, were the manors in which the present towns bearing the like names somewhat modified or corrupted, have since been built; which manors contained few habitations then, and these were spread over the lands upon detached sites. No smooth pastures, with lazy cattle grazing and fattening, then enlivened the landscape; no sounds of the labouring hammer, or of congregated mechanics, were then to be heard. No structures more stately than the Abbeys had preceded them on the margin of the river; and these were to be traced only by the curling smoke rising from their tranquil hearths amidst the sylvan scenery.

The commencement of the great scheme of a general embankment having been shown, the progress of it is now to be investigated, and upon this point the Statute Book affords some valuaable information.

The earliest printed statutes relating to embankments, are of the reign of Henry III., but these refer to laws of an antecedent period.

It is provided by the great charter of the ninth of Henry III., A. D. 1225, that "no town nor freeman shall be destrained to make bridges nor banks, but such as of old time, and of right, have been accustomed to make them in the time of King Henry (II.) our grandfather." Chap. xv.

Again, "no banks shall be defended from henceforth but such as were in defence in the time of King Henry our grandfather, by the same places, and the same bounds, as they were wont to be in his time." Chap. xvi.

These solemn and emphatic references to the provisions of the law respecting embankments and bridges, of the reign of the Second

Henry, contain a manifestation that it was in his time, namely, between the years 1154 and 1189, that the work of embankment had become an object of public importance, requiring the direction and aid of the law.

This date of the earliest laws upon the subject, accords so exactly with the period of the first operations at Stratford and at Lesnes, as to strengthen in a material degree the conclusion that has been arrived at, that the embankments of the Thames were commenced early in the twelfth century.

When the work of "inning" had been pursued for a century, experience had developed salutary principles upon which to legislate soundly, and the code of regulations upon which all modern laws upon the subject have been founded, was framed by Henry de Bath, justiciary of England, from 1238 to 1255, in the reign of Henry III.,* a proceeding which proves that the practice of embanking had been vigorously pursued in the interval.

It is related by Stow,† that in the year 1236, "the river of Thames overflowing the banks, caused the marshes about Woolwich to be all on a sea, wherein boats and other vessels were carried with the stream; so that besides cattle, the greatest number of men, women, and children inhabitants there, were drowned." From this it appears that embankments had been executed at Woolwich before the year 1236, but there is no evidence that it was earlier than the reign of Henry II.

1255. According to a valuation of the manors belonging to the Bishop of Rochester taken in this year, the manor of Stone,+ contained 236 acres of arable land, and 14 acres of meadow or grass in the marsh, the embankment, therefore, had then been commenced in Long Reach.

• The regulations framed by Henry de Bath, were for Romney Marsh Level, and by the statute of the 6th of Henry VI. chap. 4, A. D. 1427, called the statute of Sewers, it is provided, that ordinances shall be made for the defence of sea banks, according to the laws and customs of Romney Marsh. + Stow's survey of London, edition of 1603, re-printed under the editorial care of J. Thoms, Esq., F.S.A. London, 1842, p. 173.

Manerium de Stone continet ccxxxvi acras terre arabilis et estimaverunt singulas acras ad tres denarios. Summa acrarum terre arabilis ibidem ccxxxvi. Summa precij lix solidos. Item, in eodem manerio sunt xiii acre prati in marisco, et estimaverunt singulas acras ad vid Summa acrarum prati xiii. Summa precij viis.-Registrum Roffense, p. 63.

1279. The next and concluding testimony upon this point is very important, for it conveys direct proof of the time when a considerable embankment was commenced and finished, and confirms what has been said concerning the first works of the Abbots of Lesnes and Stratford, these being considered but as approaches from the uplands towards the deep current.

Lambarde says that the annales of St. Augustine do report, that in the year 1279, the Abbot and Convent of Lyesnes (Lesnes near Erith,) enclosed a great part of their marshes in Plumsted, and that within twelve years after, they inned the rest also to their great benefit,* and this it may be contended, means, that between the years 1279 and 1291, the wall of Plumsted level that restricts the channel of the river, was completed.

Upon the foregoing evidence on the subject, it must be presumed, that the embankments of the Thames between London and Gravesend, were commenced early in the twelfth century, by easily executed approaches; were extended in the reign of Henry II., between the years 1154 and 1189; and generally completed in the following century.

The records of the appointment of commissioners,† charged to view the banks and to have them repaired, are confirmatory of the evidence of the period when the banks of the respective levels were completed, for none of the commissions are of a date anterior to the periods when, it has been said, they were originally constructed.

Prynne, who had ample means of investigating this point, being keeper of the Records in the Tower of London, published a list of these appointments, the earliest of which is dated 6th Henry III. A. D. 1226-7. These have reference to embankments generally.

The earliest appointments of Commissioners for the superintendence of the embankments of the Thames are to be found recorded in Sir William Dugdale's History of Imbanking, and his intro

* Lambarde's perambulation of Kent, edit. 1596, p. 440.

+ The Commissioners were appointed at the pleasure of the Crown, until the statute of 6th Henry VI. cap. 5, which provided for subsequent appointments, and defined the authorities of the Commissioners.

Prynne's animadversions on the 4th Institute, pp. 200-381.