of saints, which at the Dissolution were eagerly seized by Dr. London,
the King's Commissioner. About the year 1870 the old bridge was pulled
down and the present hideous iron-girder erection substituted for it.
It is extremely ugly, but is certainly more convenient than the old
narrow bridge, which required passengers to retire into the angle to
avoid the danger of being run over.

These bridges can tell many tales of battle and bloodshed. There was a
great skirmish on Caversham Bridge in the Civil War in a vain attempt
on the part of the Royalists to relieve the siege of Reading. When
Wallingford was threatened in the same period of the Great Rebellion,
one part of the bridge was cut in order to prevent the enemy riding
into the town. And you can still detect the part that was severed.
There is a very interesting old bridge across the upper Thames between
Bampton and Faringdon. It is called Radcot Bridge; probably built in
the thirteenth century, with its three arches and a heavy buttress in
the middle niched for a figure of the Virgin, and a cross formerly
stood in the centre. A "cut" has diverted the course of the river to
another channel, but the bridge remains, and on this bridge a sharp
skirmish took place between Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, Marquis of
Dublin, and Duke of Ireland, a favourite of Richard II, upon whom the
King delighted to bestow titles and honours. The rebellious lords met
the favourite's forces at Radcot, where a fierce fight ensued. De Vere
was taken in the rear, and surrounded by the forces of the Duke of
Gloucester and the Earl of Derby, and being hard pressed, he plunged
into the icy river (it was on the 20th day of December, 1387) with his
armour on, and swimming down-stream with difficulty saved his life. Of
this exploit a poet sings:--

Here Oxford's hero, famous for his boar,