The North Bridge and the Little Bridge were constantly under repair, as no doubt they had the hardest use. In one year the Mayor, Henry de Rodington, advanced more than £2 to mend the Leicester bridges, and the amount was afterwards repaid to him by the Guild. The money was raised in various ways; usually out of a tallage made for general purposes, but sometimes from a tallage specially assessed, as in 1302. But a good deal was raised from voluntary contributions.
In early days, when bridges were rare, and warmed a spark of gratitude in the traveller's heart, they used to be regarded with some feeling of piety, and the old religious associations of the bridge lingered in mediæval custom. The making and repairing of bridges was one of the seven works of Corporal Mercy, and Religious Guilds would subscribe freely to this object. Thus, in 1525-6, the Guild of Corpus Christi at Leicester gave 10s. 7d, "for reparations done at St. Sunday's Bridge." In fact, there are, underlying the common beliefs and practices concerning bridges and bridge-sacrifice, primitive religious traditions of immemorial antiquity. In mediæval times, when these old superstitions had been incorporated in the Christian faith, many persons built bridges for the salvation of their souls , and it was not unusual to dedicate a bridge to some saint, or to erect a chapel upon it, as at Nottingham and Northampton and Leicester. Private citizens would remember the bridges in their wills. Thomas de Beeby, for instance, a Leicester burgess who died about 1383, left a legacy of forty shillings to each of the North and West Bridges. And, nearly two centuries later, Thomas Davenport, who was chosen Mayor of Leicester in 1553, by his will gave £5 for amending the bridges and highways about Leicester, "the which is to be done at the sight of mine executors." These ancient sentiments could be appealed to when bridges wanted mending. Thus, in 1325, when John Brid built the West Bridge, he received the greater part of the money required from voluntary offerings; "£15 11s. 1012d. received of Ralph Gerin from oblations at the Cross, with the sale of wax at the feast of Holy Cross, as appears by an indenture, and 8s. 4d. for wax sold to William the Palmer,
109
