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Into the expense of the German war sustained by Great Britain, we must also throw the charge of transporting the English troops; the article of forage, which alone amounted, in the course of the last campaign, to one million two hundred thousand pounds, besides pontage, waggons, horses, and many other contingencies.
Moreover, this Abingdon Bridge was free to all persons, rich and poor alike, and no toll or pontage was demanded from those who would cross it. Within the memory of man there was a beautiful old bridge between Reading and Caversham. It was built of brick, and had ten arches, some constructed of stone.
About the time of the Restoration some of these were ruinous, and obstructed the passage by penning up the water above the bridge so that boats could not pass without the use of a winch, and in the time of James II the barge-masters of Oxford appealed to Courts of Exchequer, asserting that the charges of pontage exacted on all barges passing under the bridge were unlawful, claiming exemption from all tolls by reason of a charter granted to the citizens of Oxford by Richard II. They won their case.
It is needless to say, that the bridge-ward had usually the better in these questions, since he could at pleasure detain the traveller on the opposite side; or, suffering him to pass half way, might keep him prisoner in his tower till they were agreed on the rate of pontage. It is thus noticed in Gordon's Iter Septentrionale:
These different taxes were known in England by the names of passage, pontage, lastage, and stallage. Sometimes the king, sometimes a great lord, who had, it seems, upon some occasions, authority to do this, would grant to particular traders, to such particularly as lived in their own demesnes, a general exemption from such taxes.
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