Tl.e following year the king again wrote to the mayor, hi» escheator in the city of London, informing him that he had been given to understand that the bridge in the said court of the Temple, leading to the river, was so broken and decayed, that his clerks and law officers, and others, could no longer get across it, and were consequently prevented from passing by water to Westminster. " W e therefore," he proceeds, " being desirous of providing such a remedy as we ought for this evil, command you to do whatever repairs are necessary to the said bridge, and to defray the cost thereof out of the proceeds of the lands and rents appertaining to the said Temple now in your custody ; and when we shall have been informed of the things done in the matter, the expense shall be allowed you in your account of the same proceeds. '« Witness ourself at Westminster, the 15th day of January, and fourth year of our reign." * Two years afterwards (6 E. HI, A. D. 1333) the king committed the custody of the Temple to " his beloved clerk," William de Langford, " and farmed out the rents and proceeds thereof to him for the term of ten years, at a rent of 24/. per annum, the said William undertaking to keep all the houses and tenements in good order and repair, and so deliver them up at the end of the term."+ In the mean time, however, the pope, the bishops, and the Hospitallers had been vigorously exerting themselves to obtain a transfer of the property, late belonging to the Templars, to the order of the Hospital of Saint John. The Hospitallers petitioned the king, setting forth that the church, the cloisters, and other places within the Temple, were consecrated and dedicated to the service of God, that they had been unjustly occupied and de ' Clans. 4. E. III. m. 7, Acta /igmeri, torn. iy. p. t64.' f PaL6. E. II1. p. 2. m. 22. in original, apud Bolls Garden ex parte Remembr. Thesanr.