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The river itself, as far as the eye could reach citywards, was so thickly covered with watermen's boats and with pleasure-barges, all fringed with coloured lanterns, and gently agitated by the waves, that it resembled a glowing and limitless garden of flowers stirred to soft motion by summer winds.
But while watermen are watermen's judges, I shall laugh at those who carry their complaints to the hall. The usual plea in behalf of abusive watermen is, that they are drunk, ignorant, or poor; but will that satisfy the party aggrieved, or deter the offender from reoffending?
Three Companies had their Halls on the riverside the Watermen's at the bottom of Cold Harbour Lane; the Dyers' at the bottom of Angel Alley; and the Vintners' which still stands close to Southwark Bridge. Nearly at the end of the street was Baynard's Castle. You may still see the name on the gate of a wharf, and it also gives its name to the ward.
They have driven the watermen's wherries off the river almost as effectually as the railways have driven the stage-coaches from the road; but, like them, they have multiplied the passengers by the thousand, and have awakened the public to a new sense of the value of the river as a means of transit from place to place.
I felt mortified to be of so little use in the boat; but, there were few better oarsmen than my two friends, and they rowed with a steady stroke that was to last all day. At that time, the steam-traffic on the Thames was far below its present extent, and watermen's boats were far more numerous.
"Nice little thing she is too," said the waterman, watching the other out of the corner of his eye as he bent to his oars. "Rides the water like a duck. Her cap'n knows a thing or two, I'll bet." "He knows watermen's fares," replied the passenger coldly. "Look out there!" cried a voice from the schooner, and the mate threw a line which the passenger skilfully caught.
Here I used to enjoy myself in playing about the bridge stairs, and often in the watermen's wherries, with other boys. On one of these occasions there was another boy with me in a wherry, and we went out into the current of the river: while we were there two more stout boys came to us in another wherry, and, abusing us for taking the boat, desired me to get into the other wherry-boat.
At that time the contrast was far greater; there being no small steam-boats on the river, no landing places but slippery wooden stairs and foot-causeways, no railroad on the opposite bank, no hanging bridge or fish-market near at hand, no traffic on the nearest bridge of stone, nothing moving on the stream but watermen's wherries and coal-lighters.
Smith was not a very able-bodied man, in consequence of many years' service in unhealthy climates, he said; and he complained of his trade as a "poor one," and very different from what it had been in his father's time, and before new London Bridge was built, which "anybody and anything could get through" now without watermen's assistance.
The public buildings in this ward are Tallow-chandlers' Hall, Skinners' Hall, Innholders' Hall, Plumbers' Hall, Joiners' Hall, Watermen's Hall, and the church of Allhallows the Great. Thomas Apostles. The public buildings in this ward are Vintners' Hall, Cutlers' Hall, the churches of St. Michael Royal and St. James, Garlick Hill.
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