Note 11 — Chapter XIII · WATERLOO BRIDGE, THE LAW COURTS, ETC.

As the great Duke was the first to pay the halfpenny toll, it might be interesting to know who was the last passenger to pay it; for, of course, there must have been a halfpenny received which was the last. I understand that the late Mr. Thomas Purnell—whose incisive criticisms in the Athenæum some years, “fluttered the dovecots” of the dramatists, and which were signed “Q.”—claimed the distinction of being positively the last passenger that paid the halfpenny.