t these merchants built two bridges, one
called Burford Bridge and the other across the ford at Culham. The
name Burford has nothing to do with the beautiful old town which we
have already visited, but is a corruption of Borough-ford, the town
ford at Abingdon. Two poets have sung their praises, one in atrocious
Latin and the other in quaint, old-fashioned English. The first poet
made a bad shot at the name of the king, calling him Henry IV instead
of Henry V, though it is a matter of little importance, as neither
monarch had anything to do with founding the structure. The Latin poet
sings, if we may call it singing:--

Henricus Quartus quarto fundaverat anno
Rex pontem Burford super undas atque Culham-ford.

The English poet fixes the date of the bridge, 4 Henry V (1416) and
thus tells its story:--

King Henry the fyft, in his fourthe yere
He hath i-founde for his folke a brige in Berkshire
For cartis with cariage may goo and come clere,
That many wynters afore were marred in the myre.

Now is Culham hithe[57] i-come to an ende
And al the contre the better and no man the worse,
Few folke there were coude that way mende,
But they waged a cold or payed of ther purse;
An if it were a beggar had breed in his bagge,
He schulde be right soone i-bid to goo aboute;
And if the pore penyless the hireward would have,
A hood or a girdle and let him goo aboute.
Culham hithe hath caused many a curse
I' blyssed be our helpers we have a better waye,
Without any peny for cart and horse.

Another blyssed besiness is brigges to make
That there the pepul may not passe after great schowres,
Dole it is to draw a dead body out of a lake
That was fulled in a fount stoon and felow of owres.

[57] Ferry.

The poet was grateful for the mercies conveyed to him by the bridge.
"Fulled in a fount stoon," of course, means "washed or baptized in a
stone font." He reveals the misery and danger of passing through a
ford "after great showers," and the sad deaths which befell
adventurous passengers when the river was swollen by rains and the
ford well-nigh impassable. No wonder the builders of bridges earned
the gratitude of their fellows. Moreover, this Abingdon Bridge was
free to all persons, rich and poor alike, and no toll or pontage was
demanded from those who would cross