Identifier: oldnewlondonnarr03thor (find matches)
Title: Old and new London : a narrative of its history, its people, and its places
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors: Thornbury, Walter, 1828-1876
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Cassell, Petter, & Galpin
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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to Hammer-smith, Chiswick, or Mortlake for half a-crown; toBrentford, Isleworth, or Richmond for tluee andsixpence; to Twickenham for four shillings ; toKingston for five; to Hampton Court for six ; to goods in the tilt-boat from London to Gravesend.For this passage the charge was for each singleperson, ninepence ; for a hogshead of liquor, twoshillings ; for a firkin of goods, twopence; for halfa firkin, a penny; for a hundredweight of drygoods, fourpence; for a sack of corn, salt, &c.,sixpence ; for an ordinary hamper, sixpence;and it is added, for the information of those whomit may concern, that the hire of the whole tilt-boat was ^i 2S. 6d. By a tilt boat of courseis meant a boat with a covering ; the term stillsurvives, as we need hardly remind our readers,in the term tilt cart. It is interesting to com-pare these rates of transit by oars and scullersalong the silent highway of old Father Thameswith the fares charged nowa-days to \oyagers along The Thames.) THE WATERMEN. 307
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io8 OLD AND NKW LONDON. (Tlie Thames. the same route in cheap steamers, although thelatter have so maliciously doubled their chargesbetween London and Westminster. The olden recreations on the noble Jhames are of great celebrity. Fitzstephen tells us of theancient Londoners fighting battles on Kasterholidays on the water, by striking a shield with alance. There was also a kind of water tourna-ment, in which the combatants, standing on twowherries, rowed and ran against the other, fightingwith staves and swords. In Gowers time thesovereign was rowed in his tapestried barge, pro-bably the first royal barge upon the Thames; andupon this great highway Richard IL, seeing thegood old rhymer, called him on board the royalvessel, and there commanded him to make abook after his hest, which was the origin of the Confessio Amantis. At this period a portionof London Bridge was movable, so that vesselsof burthen might pass up the river, to unload atQueenhithe and elsewhere; and stairs, watergates,

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