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Fish Street Hill Monument, and St. Magnus' Church, with Procession of Firemen.

firemen are clothed in a uniform of dark gray, with their numbers in red on their left breasts. They wear strong leather helmets on their heads, which have been found of great service in protecting them from accidents occasioned by the fall of walls or other matters. The stations are in Ratcliffe, St. Mary Axe, Finsbury, Cheapside, Blackfriars, Holborn, Covent Garden, St. Giles's, Oxford street, Golden square, Portman square, Waterloo bridge road, Southwark bridge road, Tooley street, with extra engines in Shadwell, Westminster, Lambeth, and Rotherhithe. The number of men on the fire-engine establishment is between ninety and a hundred.

In addition to this special fire-preventive body, it is the duty of the metropolitan police to give assistance in case of fire. In 1830 there were three hundred and eighty fires attended by this body, and fifty-one lives saved; in 1831, the number of fires was three hundred and twenty-four, and the individuals saved sixty-eight; in 1832, there were two hundred and fifty-two fires, and forty-seven saved. This does not include the fires which occurred in the "city" of London.

There are no published details from which we can learn the extent of the pavements of London, or the annual expense of maintaining them. The management of them is in the hands of a great number of boards, each having particular districts, and acting under various acts of parliament. Mr. Williams, in his work on "Subways," taking for data the published accounts of the "city," and supposing it to be one fourth of the metropolis, makes a conjectural calculation that the amount annually collected and expended on the streets of London is two hundred and sixteen thousand pounds.

The reader is aware that most of the great continental cities are very indifferently supplied with foot-pavements. Paris, for instance, though it has been very much improved since the peace, is still “very perilous and noyous" to an American pedestrian of the present day.

We have given before some particulars respecting the state of the streets of London before they were generally lighted. Beckman, speaking of the time when the city was lighted with oil lamps, before the introduction of gas, says: "Oxford street alone is said to contain more lamps than all Paris. The roads, even seven or eight miles round London, are lighted by such lamps; and as these roads from the city to different parts are very numerous, the lamps, seen from a little distance, particularly in the county of Surrey, where a great many roads cross each other, have a beautiful and noble effect."

Mr. Williams, in 1828, says: "There are now in London four great gas-light companies, having altogether forty-seven gasometers at work, capable of containing, in the whole, nine hundred and seventeen thousand nine hundred and forty cubic feet of gas, supplied by one thousand three hundred and fifteen retorts; and these consuming thirty-three thousand chaldrons of coals in a year, and producing forty-one thousand chaldrons of coke; the whole quantity of gas generated annually being upward of three hundred and ninety-seven millions of cubic feet, by which sixty-one thousand two hundred and three private, and seven thousand two hundred and fiftyeight public or street lamps, are lighted in the metropolis. Besides these, there are several other minor companies and public establishments that light with gas." There are at present sixteen metropolitan gas-companies, supplying the entire extent of London. (For an illustration of a former mode of lighting the streets of London, see the engraving entitled The Watch, with cressets' and beacons." ")

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The first attempt to supply London with water, by means superior to those of the conduits, pumps, and water-bearers of former times, was made by a Dutchman named Peter Morrys, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He contracted with the corporation to raise water by an engine, to be erected in an arch of London bridge, and to send it through pipes into the city. Four arches of the bridge were successively assigned to him and his descendants for the purpose; and the London bridge waterworks were in existence and operation till within these few years, having been only removed when the bridge was taken down.

Next after him came the well-known Hugh Middleton, citizen and goldsmith, and afterward a baronet. His scheme was more magnificent, and having been executed with persevering earnestness as well as skill, it has effected the supply of a large portion of London for upward of two hundred years, and will doubtless continue to do so. This was the cutting of the canal, termed the New river. It derives its principal supplies from a spring at Chadwell, between Hertford and Ware, about twentyone miles north of London, and also from an arm of the river Lea, the source of

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The Watch, with "cressets," and "beacons."-Grouped from Hollar.

which is near the Chadwell spring, in the proportion of about two thirds of the former and one third of the latter. These united waters are conducted by an artificial channel, nearly four miles in length, to four reservoirs, called the New River Head, at Clerkenwell. The New River company having taken up the supply of that part of the city which used to be supplied from the London Bridge water-works, have erected an engine on the banks of the Thames, by which they are enabled, in case of any failure in the quantity supplied by the New river, to draw from the Thames to make up the deficiency. The Hampstead water-works were also incorporated with the New River, and a considerable quantity of water is brought from the ponds on Hampstead heath to a reservoir near Tottenham court road.

About twenty years ago, considerable excitement prevailed in London respecting the quality of the water supplied by the different water companies to the inhabitants of the metropolis. The larger portion of them deriving their supplies from the Thames, it was contended that the river, receiving the drainage of about one hundred and forty sewers, as well as all the refuse of the various soap, lead, gas, and drug manufactories, was quite an unfit place from which to supply so essential an element of life. The subject was investigated by parliament, and also by Dr. Roget, Mr. Brande, and the late Mr. Telford, acting as a commission under the great seal. The committee of the house of commons gave it as their opinion, "that the then present state of the supply of water to the metropolis was susceptible of and required improvement; that many of the complaints relative to the quality of the water were

well founded; that the supply ought to be derived from other sources than those then resorted to; and that it should be guarded by such restrictions as would at all times insure the cleanliness and purity of an article of such prime necessity."

In 1831, Mr. Telford was directed by government to "make a survey, and report upon the best mode of supplying the metropolis with pure water." He did so in the beginning of 1834; but it does not appear that anything material has since been done in the matter.

There are eight water companies supplying London with water. These furnish to one hundred and ninety-one thousand and sixty-six houses a daily supply of twenty millions eight hundred and twenty-nine thousand five hundred and fifty-five imperial gallons.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE COURT.

THE London" season," or winter, was reckoned, during the last century, from about the month of November till that of May. It was regulated, as it is now, by the usual duration of the session of parliament. Affluent people, who divided their time between London and the country, had less inducement then to absent themselves from the metropolis after the winter had set in, than they have now; and the state of the roads and means of communication, rendered it convenient to the legislature to meet before travelling became, if not dangerous, at least very troublesome and annoying. Bath and Tunbridge Wells were fashionable resorts, and spread their attractions to induce their visiters to prolong their stay: but Ramsgate and Brighton were only obscure fishing villages, and Cheltenham was but starting into existence. The inclinations and tastes of the upper classes were much more frivolous than they are now-for he who compares habits and customs can not fail to remark that, however unequally, all classes are moving forward. We find frequent intimations in the novels and plays of the last century, of the aversion with which the "dull" country was regarded by the fashionables of the time, and their eager longings for the return of the London "season," with its round of heartless dissipation, its balls, and routs, and plays. Now, there is more intellect, more taste, more rational enjoyment of life among the upper classes; and the improvement which has been effected, gives us a hopeful earnest of what may still further be accomplished, not only among them, but in every rank and grade of society.

During the present century, the commencement of the London "season" has been gradually postponed. Since 1806, the opening of the session of parliament, has been veering from November to January: since 1822, it has almost settled into a rule (unless, of course, when interrupted by anything extraordinary) that it should not be opened till about the month of February, the session extending till July, or the begin ning of August. Thus the London "season" or winter, has been thrown into the months of spring and summer,

The "east" and "west" ends of London present a curious contrast with respect to the London season. In the city, trade and commerce flow on in their accustomed channels, unaffected by the vicissitudes of fashion. During the month of August, he who moves in fashionable circles may exclaim, "There is nobody in town!"—an expression which appears ridiculous and affected, amid the never-ending throngs of Fleet street or Cheapside. But at that period, in the fashionable streets and squares of the "west end," the expression has force and meaning. There, house after house appears deserted; the windows are closed with funeral-looking shutters; the streets, always more or less stately and quiet, are now silent and lonely; one would think that the inhabitants had fled from the approach of the plague, or of a hostile army. It is then that the haberdashers, and milliners, and tailors, and bootmakers, and artificial florists, not forgetting the "curiosity dealers," and all the other suppli ers of the wants and wishes of the wealthy, at the west end, feel that the London

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