The requisition, he continues, goes on to the dame to prepare for the
feast, and her answer is--

"London Bridge is broken down,
On Christmas Day in the morning."

The inference always was, that until the bridge was rebuilt some stop would
be put to the dame's Christmas operations; but why the falling of a part of
London Bridge should form part of a Christmas carol it is difficult to
determine.

A Bristol correspondent, whose communication is inserted in that delightful
volume the _Chronicles of London Bridge_ (by Richard Thomson, of the London
Institution), says,--

"About forty years ago, one moonlight night, in a street in Bristol, his
attention was attracted by dance {339} and chorus of boys and girls, to
which the words of this ballad gave measure. The breaking down of the
bridge was announced as the dancers moved round in a circle, hand in hand;
and the question, 'How shall we build it up again?' was chanted by the
leader, whilst the rest stood still."

Concerning the antiquity of this ballad, a modern writer remarks,--

"If one might hazard a conjecture concerning it, we should refer its
composition to some very ancient date, when, London Bridge lying in
ruins, the office of bridge master was vacant, and his power over the
river Lea (for it is doubtless that river which is celebrated in the
chorus to this song) was for a while at an end. But this, although the
words and melody of the verses are extremely simple, is all uncertain."