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The Town of Cowper, Or, the Literary and Historical Associations of Olney and Its Neighbourhood
The Town of Cowper Or the Literary and Historical Associations of Olney and Its Neighbourhood Author:Thomas Wright General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1893 Original Publisher: S. Low, Marston, and company, limited Subjects: Olney (England) History / Europe / Great Britain Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Literary Criticism / Poetry Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This ... more »is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: II. OLNEY BRIDGE AT THE TIME OF COWPER. " Hark ! 'tis the twanging horn. O'er yonder bridge, That, with its wearisome but needful length, Bestrides the wintry flood." -- Task, Book iv. Among the curious relics of former days in the neighbourhood of Olney, one of the most interesting is the narrow, irregular, and comparatively ancient bridge that crosses the mill-stream and unites the parishes of Olney and Emberton. This structure has altered but little of late years; but its continuation, the famous bridge of twenty-four arches, referred to in the above familiar passage about the post-boy with the welcome news- sheet, has long since disappeared. From an entry in the parish register we surmise that the existing old bridge was erected in 1619. The upper part is of brick, the lower of stone. It possesses three arches ; the most ancient arch, the one nearest the town, has conspicuous though dilapidated dripstones, and, like other old bridges, its ascent is rather steep. On the left side of the road as you approach the bridge from the town, where is now a shrubbery, there was in Cowper's time a large shallow expansion of the river; and opposite, on the other side of the road, stood the Anchor Inn, the occupier of which was usually collector of what, from its belonging to the Duchy of Lancaster, was called the Duchy Toll. There was no gate; but when ...« less