Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/124

102 our public ways. He has hitherto met with little encouragement, the subject being too generally considered dry and uninteresting, but we trust that ere long he will be induced to put together the materials he has collected, and to connect the history of the bridges with that of the roads themselves, and the chapels which were found at intervals along their course. These seem in some degree to have served the purpose of the inns of a subsequent age. They are accordingly found to have been usually placed at such convenient intervals as would form stages in the progress from the monastery to the distant city. In many instances, but by no means always, chantries were founded in these chapels, and sometimes the chapels were built for this purpose, or were rebuilt by the munificence of the same donor who founded the chantry, but the two things, though frequently confounded together, are distinct in themselves, and it by no means always follows that a chapel is necessarily of the same age as the foundation of a chantry. In the case of the chapel on Wakefield bridge this popular error has led to an erroneous conclusion respecting the age of the building; a royal chantry was founded and endowed in this chapel after the battle fought near the spot between the conflicting forces of York and Lancaster in 1460, and this date has been universally assigned to the building itself, but the Messrs. Buckler endeavoured to shew by architectural evidence, that the structure is of the age of Edward II. The general style of the building and the specimens of sculpture agree with this date, but it is to be regretted that the authors have not furnished the public with a few more architectural details, especially sections of mouldings.

"The Bridge at Wakefield is of considerable length, and was, till within little more than half a century, a footway about sixteen feet in width between the parapets, with triangular recesses over the side piers.

"Nine arches with their supporting piers were required to carry the way over the river at this place. . . . . The basement upon which the Chapel is raised from the bed of the river to the level of the bridge, offered no temptation to mischief, and consequently retains its pristine simplicity unimpaired; its firm