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COMMERCE 133
run to the opposite coast, or across
the dreaded Bay of Biscay to Bor¬
deaux. The Thames being thus a
great highway, whether inland or
away to the continent, it was jealously
guarded by the citizens from a very
early period, and the " Conservancy ”
IS an ancient institution, until a
recent period exclusively in the hands
of the corporation, but taken from
them in part by an Act of Parliament
passed in 1857 for no adequate
reason, beyond that spirit of fussi¬
NOS, 66 AND 67 CORNHILL
ness which now and then agitates our
: !
legislators. This Conservancy dates be¬
yond what is called "legal memory, or
the reign of Richard I. Its jurisdiction
extended to the Nore, or New Weir, a
fishing-place at the mouth of the Med¬
way, which we find first mentioned in
the will of one Eadmer Anhzende, who
left it to Rochester. It was with this
Eadmer that Gundulf, the great Bishop
of Rochester, lodged in London while he
was superintending the building of the
ae
—
APOTHECARIES HALL, WATER LANE, BLACKFRIARS