The Sun.
London, England, 1825-12-02 00:00:00

-
[MORNING HERALD.]

We trust that our efforts relative to the Turn-
pike System round London will not have been
wholly unavailing. The Hyde Park Gate is
driven a little farther off, though by no means far
enough; and we now perceive that notice is given
of an intended application to Parliament fora new
Act to regulate the road leading from Oxford-
street to Uxbridge, in which a clause is to he in-
troduced " to exempt certain carriages from toll."
What the nature or extent of the proposed exemp-
tion is to be, we are not told ; but we presume that
it is intended, in some degree at least, to obviate
the intolerable grievance experienced by persons
living a short way down the road, who, as we
have frequently pointed out, actually pay almost
as much toll for going less than one mile upon it,
in a hackney roach, as a chaise and pair travel-
ling all the way from Piccadilly to Hounslow.
The Tyburn Gate, it should be remembered, has
nothing to do with the Uxbridge Trust ; but is
put there, as we are informed, to enable the
Trustees of the Edgeware-road to pay 5001. a
year to the pai:ish of Marlebone towards the paving
of Oxford-street. We give the managers of the
Uxbridge road due credit for, at length, yield-
ing to public opinion on the subject. We will not say
that they are making a virtue of necessity ; but
this we will say, that merely exempting hackney

coaches from the toll will not be sufficient ; it
would, indeed, be partial and ridiculous. No-
thing
,but the removal of the two first turnpike
gates on this road can, or ought to satisfy the
public, especially that part of it who live on the
road. And we strongly recommend this latter not
to be lulled into security by any specious promises
that are held out ; but to meet and petitionParlia-
went upon the subject ; and not to allow those trus-
tees to legislate for themselves, as is too much
the case in passing Private Acts. WP trust that
the whole subject will be brought before the
House of Commons the next Session, and that
effectual means will be taken to rid the inha-
bitants of the metropolis, not only of the high
tolls on this particular road, but of Turnpike
Gates altogether.

LONDON BRIDGE.—The following account of
the first London Bridge, built of stone, is from
STOWE'S Survey of London :—" A ferry being
kept in the place where the bridge now is built,
at iength the ferryman and his wife deceasing,
left the said ferry to their only daughter, a
maiden named Mary, which with the goods left
by her parents, as also with the profits rising of
the said ferry, built a house of sisters, in the place
where now standeth the east part of St. Mary
Overie's church 4 above the quire, where she was
buried ; unto which house she gave the profits and
oversighs of the ferry. But afterwards the said
house of sisters being converted into a college of
priests, the priests built the bridge of timber, as
all other great bridges of the land were, and from
time to time kept the same in good reparations,
till at length considering the great charges of re-
pairing the same, there was, by the aid of the citi-
zens and others,a bridge built with arches of stone.
Now,touching the foundation of the stone-hridge,it
followeth thus :—About the year 1176, the stone
bridge over the river of Thames, at London, was
begun to be founded by Peter, of Cole-church,
near unto the bridge of timber, but somewhat
more towards the west, for I read that Botolph
wharf was, in the Conqueror's time at the head
of London Bridge. The King assisted this work,
a Cardinal then being legate here ; and Richard,
Arbishop of Canterbury,gave one thousand marks
towards the foundation. The course of the river,
for the time, was turned another way about, by
a trench cast fot that purpose, beginning, as is
supposed, east about Rotherhithe, and ending in
the west about Patricksey, now called Battersea,
This work, to wit, the arches, chapel, and stone
bridge over the Thames, at London, having been
38 years in building, as, in the year 1209,
finished by the worthy merchants of London,
Serie Mercer, William Almaine, and Benedict
Botewright, principal masters of the work, for
Peter of Cole-church, deceased four years before
the work was finished, and was buried in the
chapel built on the same bridge in the year
1205."

BEAas.—A North American Paper states, that
bears have appeared lately in great numbers in
the vicinity of Penobscot, in the State of Maine.
The following is an account of an attack made
by one of them upon an inhabitant of that dis-
trict :—A few evenings since, Mr. Adam Inman,
of Orono, on his way home from this place, when
about two miles distance, was alarmed by a rust.
ling among the uuderbush near the road in which
he was travelling. On listening, he was con-
vinced that some wild animal had scented the
provisions with which his pack was stowed, and
was making haste to partake of them. He im-
mediately faced about, dropped on one knee, and
presented his f 0%% ling-piece, ►ell charged with
ball and buck shot, determined not to give up
the hard-earned fruits of his industry to the
freebooter without a struggle to protect them.
The animal made his way directly to the
road, and rapidly advanced upon his wary
enemy. Inman, knowing from his footsteps
that he was near (though the extreme dark-
ness of the night prevented him from seeing him)
inclined his head as near the ground as possible,
in the hope of getting a sight of the foe before
he should close with him. In a moment a bear,
blacker than the shades that surrounded him, and
one of the largest of the species, reared on his
hind feet immediately before-him, and with open
mouth rushed upon his prey. At this critical
moment Inman's presence of mind did not for.
sake him, but, deliberately levelling his piece,
he shot the sable robber through the heart, and
laid him dead at his feet. So near was the bear,
that his hair was burnt by the powder of Mr.
Inman's gun. His weight was '250 lb. and his
skin measures nearly six feet in length."

LONGEVITY.—There have been buried in the
parish of Blewberry, Berks, within twelve
months, two persons 92 years of age, and one
93. The writer of this was riding along the
turnpike-road some time since, and hearing the
bell give notice of a death, inquired of an old
man at work on the road, who was dead ? The
old man said, with a sigh, it was his mother.
How old are you ? Seventy-two was the reply.
How old is your eldest son ? I have two sons
above fifty years of ege, and grand-children al-
most out of number ; and my mother, who now
lies dead, is upwards of ninety-three years of
age.—( Reading Mercury.)