While clashing swords upon his target sound,
And showers of arrows from his breast rebound,
Prepared for worst of fates, undaunted stood,
And urged his heart into the rapid flood.
The waves in triumph bore him, and were proud
To sink beneath their honourable load.

Religious communities, monasteries and priories, often constructed
bridges. There is a very curious one at Croyland, probably erected by
one of the abbots of the famous abbey of Croyland or Crowland. This
bridge is regarded as one of the greatest curiosities in the kingdom.
It is triangular in shape, and has been supposed to be emblematical of
the Trinity. The rivers Welland, Nene, and a drain called Catwater
flow under it. The ascent is very steep, so that carriages go under
it. The triangular bridge of Croyland is mentioned in a charter of
King Edred about the year 941, but the present bridge is probably not
earlier than the fourteenth century. However, there is a rude statue
said to be that of King Ethelbald, and may have been taken from the
earlier structure and built into the present bridge. It is in a
sitting posture at the end of the south-west wall of the bridge. The
figure has a crown on the head, behind which are two wings, the arms
bound together, round the shoulders a kind of mantle, in the left hand
a sceptre and in the right a globe. The bridge consists of three
piers, whence spring three pointed arches which unite their groins in
the centre. Croyland is an instance of a decayed town, the tide of its
prosperity having flowed elsewhere. Though nominally a market-town, it
is only a village, with little more than the ruins of its former
splendour remaining, when the great abbey attracted to it crowds of
the nobles and gentry of England, and employed vast numbers of
labourers, masons, and craftsmen on the works of the abbey and in the