vaulted channels, beneath the pavements, communicating with each house by smaller ones, and with the respective streets by gratings, to carry off such as may be conveyed in that manner into the river. Mud, and other rubbish, are taken away in carts, by persons constantly employed for that purpose.

Considered in the aggregate, London comprises the city and its liberties, with the city and liberties of Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and nearly thirty of the contiguous villages of Middlesex and Surrey. The greatest portion of the whole is built on the northern bank of the Thames, or in Middlesex; whilst Southwark, with Lambeth, and several connecting villages, extend along the southern shore of the same river, in the county of Surrey. The extent east and west, from Poplar to Knightsbridge, is full seven miles and a half; while its breadth from north to south, or from Newington Butts to Islington, is nearly five miles. The circumference of the whole, allowing for various inequalities in the extension of streets, &c., at the extremities, is upwards of thirty miles. Hence it may be fairly estimated, that the buildings of this metropolis cover at least eighteen square miles, or 11,520 square acres. The river Thames occupies, for seven miles, a space of about one quarter of a mile, or 400 yards in width; or 1120 square

acres.

This metropolis may be said to consist of five great parts or portions; viz. the west end of the town, the city, the east end of the town, Westminster, and the Borough. The west end of the town is popularly regarded as extending from Charing Cross to Hyde-park, and from St. James's park to Paddington. It is considered the superior and most fashionable part of the town, is the general abode of the court, and is laid out in two great thoroughfares, Oxford Road or Street, and Piccadilly and Regent Street; with various handsome squares and streets, chiefly occupied by the town houses of the nobility and gentry, and fashionable shops. The city includes the central part, and is the empo

rium of commerce.

firm; and the corporation was unable, for several reigns, to establish its jurisdiction here. But, the privileges of the religious houses being at length renewed, the regents under Edward VI. (the great obstacle in their way), confirmed the complete annexation of the borough to the city by letters patent, dated 23d April, in the fourth year of that monarch's reign.

Many improvements have of late years been made, and many respectable houses erected in St. George's Fields. Hither also has been brought the Bethlem hospital for lunatics, formerly in Moorfields. Another part of the metropolis, the most regular and systematic of the whole in its arrangement, is the northern side, comprehending a large mass of new buildings between Holborn and Somers-town, and in the parishes of Mary-le-bone, and Paddington.

Amongst the many proofs of the early and extreme fondness for legislation which marks our history, may be mentioned the various laws which have been passed to prevent the growth of London. Queen Elizabeth led the way in this sage endeavour, and a statute of her reign commands (we believe it is not yet repealed), that persons of livelihood and means should reside in their countries, and not abide or sojourn in the city of London, so that countries remain unserved.' James I. predicted that England would shortly be London and London England;' and, in one of his numerous addresses to the people, stigmatises those swarms of gentry who, at the instigation of their wives, or to new-model and fashion their daughters (who if they were unmarried marred their reputations, and if married lost them), did neglect their country hospitality, and cumber the city, a general nuisance to the kingdom.' He urged the Star-chamber to regulate 'the exorbitancy of the new buildings about the city, which were but a shelter for those who, when they had spent their estates in coaches, lacqueys, and fine clothes, like Frenchmen, lived miserably in their houses like Italians.' A manuscript writer of the times complains of the breaking up of old family establishments, all crowding to upstart London.' 'Every one,' says he, strives to be a Diogenes in his house, and an emperor in the streets : not caring if they sleep in a tub, so they must be hurried in a coach, giving that allowance to horses and mares, that formerly maintained houses full of men; pinching many a belly to paint a few backs, and turning all the treasures of the kingdom into a few citizens' coffers, their woods into wardrobes, their leases into laces, and their goods and chattels into guarded coats and gaudy toys.'

The government, however, did not confine itself to mere fulminations on this subject; for new buildings were not only forbidden within ten miles of London, but even pulled down when they had been erected. Charles I. issued various proclamations, in which he complained of the continued residence of the nobility and gentry in town, which raised the price of provisions, increased the number of mendicants, and brought so many loose and disorderly people into the metropolis, that it could not be governed by ordinary magistrates.' He ordered that persons of all ranks, who were not connected with

were the lives also lost upon this occasion; and severe the sufferings of the lower classes of people, although charity was again both active to save, and most liberal in its benefactions.

The frost of 1814 was, in some respects, even more memorable than those of 1683 and 1739. It was probably not so severe as either, and the injury which it committed was inconsiderable; but it served to exhibit in a remarkable manner the progress which a free people have made in those attainments, which help us to set the seasons themselves at defiance. As in the days of the gay Charles, mirth and jollity again joined hand in hand to soften the rigors of the icy year; but, among other novelties, we beheld what in Charles's days would have been more dreaded than even perpetual frost-a free press erected on the now solid deep, to commemorate the wonders of the scene.

River Thames.—The conservancy of the Thames belongs to the city of London westward as far as Staines, a little above which it enters the county of Middlesex. See THAMES. Nothing can be more picturesque than its now devious course towards the metropolis, graced with such fields, such woods, such stately piles, and such gardens,

That Thames with Roman Tiber may compare.' At Putney and Battersea, the Thames, which has received the tributary streams of the Colne, the Wey, the Crane, the Brent, and the Wandle, has become a large and busy stream, and at these places is crossed by two wooden bridges. At Vauxhall it is crossed by a light and beautiful iron bridge, and between this place and the tower by four other bridges.

After running through the metropolis the river rolls onward past Deptford, Greenwich, and Gravesend, until, joined by the Medway, they pay their joint tribute to the ocean, at the Nore. In London it is from 800 to 1500 feet, and at the Nore seven miles broad. It is navigable nearly 143 miles above London Bridge: its whole length is upwards of 180 miles; and the tides, which ebb and flow twice every twentyfour hours, affect it upwards of eighty miles from the sea. The Thames has also its spring tides, and is remarkable for the inequality of its tides, a subject much dwelt upon by the early historians, who considered every deviation from the ordinary flow and ebb as a prodigy. It is related, that on the 12th of October, 1411, and on the 17th of September, 1550, the Thames flowed thrice in one day. In the years 1564, 1574, 1608, 1609, 1622, 1653, 1654, and 1660, similar phenomena occurred, all of which might, no doubt, have been traced to very natural causes had they been observed at the time.

The Thames has sometimes overflowed its banks considerably in the metropolis. The most memorable instance of this sort was on the 1st of September, 1555, when, in consequence of heavy rains and a high wind, the river was forced into the king's palace at Westminster, and into Westminster Hall, a circumstance particularly unfortunate, as it was the day on which the lord mayor of London had to present the sheriff's to the barons of the exchequer. Stowe says,

a

all Westminster Hall was full of water,' but he does not inform us whether the city magistrates presented the sheriffs in a boat or not, though he informs us by report that morning, that, wherrie man rowed with his boate over Westminster Bridge into the Palace Court, and so through the staple gate, and all the wooll staple into the king's streete.' All the marshes on the Lambeth sides were also so overflowed, that the people from Newington Church could not pass on foote, but were carried by boates from the said church to the Pinfold, neere to St. George's in Southwark.'

In 1774 was another great overflow; and again on the 2d of February, 1791, when considerable damage was done to the wharfs along both sides of the river. Westminster, which always suffered most from an inundation of the Thames, saw boats plying, instead of hackney coaches, in Palace Yard and Privy Gardens, like Egypt watered by an over-bountiful river.

In the winter of 1821 the Thames again burst its bounds; though neither promoted by an easterly wind, nor a sudden thaw. It appears by an official report presented by officers appointed to make a survey of the river, that the flood rose four inches higher than it did in 1774, as recorded by a stone let into a wall at Isleworth. The editor of the present work had on this occasion to pay a severe penalty for his general enjoyment of a very pleasant situation on the banks of the river. Its classic stream was not at this time strong without rage,' for it burst every barrier with which his cottage could be fenced; and flooding his library, to the depth of eighteen inches, scattered his papers remorselessly on the surface of six successive tides. Considerable damage was done above Westminster Bridge, yet the navigation of the river in the city district was never an hour impeded.

At Staines (Sax. stana a stone) is a stone which marks the limits of the city's authority, and bears the early date of 1280. During the mayorality of Sir Watkin Lewes, in 1781, it was placed on a new pedestal. The city jurisdiction extends eastward to Yendal or Yenleet, and includes also part of the Medway and the river Lea.

The conservancy of the Thames has been claimed by the city of London ever since the reign of Richard I., who, for a sum of 1500 marks, granted a charter which empowered the city to remove all weirs from the river. The authority claimed under this charter was afterwards confirmed by more explicit enactments. The power of the citizens not merely extended to the water and the fish, but to the actual bed of the river, so that, according to a manuscript in the papers of lord Burleigh, quoted by Strype, they have the ground and soil under the river,

whereupon if any that hath a house or land adjoining do make a strand, stairs, or such like, they pay forthwith a rent to the city of London.'

The authority of the city was long disputed by the lord high admiral of England, until the decision of a court of justice, and the confirmatory charter of James I., fixed the conservatorship of the Thames in the hands of the city, to be exercised by the lord mayor for the time being, or his deputy, an officer with the title of water bailiff,

who protects the rights of the city, and its authority over the river.

The lord mayor holds a court of conservancy eight times a year, at any place he pleases within the city jurisdiction, on the banks of the river, either in Middlesex, Surrey, Essex, or Kent. The jury attendant on the court is always summoned from the county in which it is held. In order to hold the court, the lord mayor, with the necessary officers, proceeds in state in the city barge, and is often accompanied by some of the barges of the companies, who render it an agreeable aquatic excursion. Once in every seven years his lordship traverses the whole limits of his jurisdiction on the Thames and the Medway. A material part of the duty of the water bailiff is to regulate the watermen who ply on the river, and who are a very numerous body, amounting to upwards of 12,000, two-thirds of whom are freemen of the city. As far back as 1556, they were incorporated by act of parliament, and have their rulers and overseers; but the general government and superintendance of the body is vested in the city magistracy, who are empowered, by a statute passed in the 34th of George III., to make rules and orders for the government of watermen, wherrymen, and lightermen, between Gravesend and Windsor, and to enforce observance of them by penalties and forfeitures. The wherries belonging to this fraternity are required to be twelve feet and a half long, and four feet and a half broad in the midship; they are all numbered, and the rates of fare fixed, for any exaction beyond which the offender may be punished, on complaint being made at Watermen's Hall (on St. Mary's Hill). In point of fact, however, but little regard is paid to the established list of fares, which are very generally exceeded, and as generally acquiesced in, from a feeling, we believe, that they are rather less than they ought to be. Among other regulations for the good conduct of the watermen, they are particularly cautioned against the use of improper and immodest language; and offenders in this respect are punishable by fine. By an act of parliament of the 11th & 12th of William III. the lightermen were united to the watermen, and placed equally under the jurisdiction of the city magistrates.

The Thames westward has several locks, without which, owing to the great number of shoals, it would not be navigable in summer. The locks within the city's jurisdiction, according to a return made to an order of the house of commons, yielded to the city a revenue of £12,506 7s. 1d. for the year ending the 29th of September, 1822. Upwards of £1000 had, however, to be deducted for the incidental repairs. The profits of the locks have been a good deal injured by canals, yet the interests of the city have been protected; since we find, in the same parliamentary return, that the Grand Junction Canal Company paid to the city £600 for compensation for loss of toll that year; the Regent's Canal Company £450; and even the Surrey Iron Railway Company £10.

The immense property continually lying in shipping in the river Thames was long subject to the most daring depredation. The robbers

were indeed so numerous, that they were divided into classes. The river pirates formed the most desperate class. They plundered ships and small craft in the night; and have been known to weigh a ship's anchor, and hoist it with the cable into the boat; and when discovered, to tell the captain what they had robbed him of, and row away bidding him a good night. The night plunderers consisted of watchmen, who, formed into gangs of five or six each, used to lighten every vessel they could get to of some portable articles of her cargo, while a receiver was always in readiness to purchase the spoils of the night. These night plunderers have frequently been known to cut lighters adrift, and follow them down the river, to a place where they could more successfully carry off the cargo, which they have sometimes done completely. The light horsemen confined their depredations to West India ships, and originated in the connivance of the revenue officers at a connexion established between the mates of the vessels and some receivers on shore. In all West India ships there is a quantity of sugar spilt in unloading the cargo, which is claimed as a perquisite by the mates, and sold. The purchasers of these sweepings, however, by a bribe of forty or fifty guineas, often succeeded in getting on board the ships, and opening the hogsheads and taking as much as they could, by the assistance of coopers and watermen, carry away with them. They were provided with black bags, which they called black strap, and these were often filled and emptied during a night. Puncheons of rum were also drawn by means of a small pump. The heavy horsemen, another class of river plunderers, went on board ships, either by connivance, or in the day, under the pretext of selling some articles. They were provided with peculiar dresses, which had pockets all round, and bag bladders and pouches affixed in various parts, which they filled with sugar, coffee, cocoa, or any portable articles they could lay their hands on. In the night they would frequently plunder more largely, and boats, rowed by what were called game watermen, were constantly near the ships, ready to receive the stolen property and conduct them on shore. So active were the heavy horsemen, that they frequently made five guineas a night; and an apprentice to the game waterman has been known to keep a country house and a saddle horse. The mud larks, the scuffle hunters, the copemen, and several other classes of depredators, were not confined to any particular branch of plunder, but were ready, either as principals or auxiliaries on all occasions.

The coal-heavers, of whom there were 1200 or 1400 constantly engaged on the river, were in the constant practice of each man taking his sack of two or three bushels of coals when he went on shore during the unloading of a ship. Neither the captain nor the owner of the ship and cargo durst resist their taking what they considered as a perquisite, and when they found a boat ready to sink with their plunder, they conceived themselves the injured party.

Some idea may be formed of the success of these plunderers, when it is stated, that the loss of various classes of property on the river, pre

vious to the formation of the docks and the establisment of marine police, was £500,000 annually, of which, according to an averaged estimate of some years, the West India trade suffered annually to the amount of £232,000; the East Indies, £25,000; the United States, £30,000; and the coal trade alone, £20,000. Such was the state of the cargoes in the river Thames, until, in the year 1797, Mr. Harriott formed a plan of marine police, which, by the aid of Mr. Colquhoun, he was enabled to carry into effect; and so successful was the system thus formed that in the first year the saving to the West India merchants alone was upwards of £100,000, and to the revenue more than half that sum. In the same period, no less than 2200 culprits were convicted for misdemeanors on the river; while now the instances of street robberies are so rare, or so unimportant, that they are scarcely ever recorded.

Various amusements have at different times taken place on the Thames, adapted to the taste and character of the age. The water quintain has, however, altogether ceased, and at present rowing and sailing matches seem the only sports with which it is occupied. Of these, one of the most remarkable is the competition for a coat and silver badge, which Dogget the player appointed to be rowed for, annually, by six watermen, on the 1st of August, being the anniversary of the accession of the House of Hanover to the throne. The competitors set out on a signal given, at that time of the tide when the current is strongest against them, and row from the Old Swan, near London Bridge, to the White Swan, in Chelsea. Smaller rivers and supply of water.-Nothing has contributed so essentially towards preserving the health of the inhabitants of London from disease, or their property from conflagration, as the abundant supply of water with which every street, and even every house, is furnished. Before the metropolis had become extensive, it was watered by several small brooks, independent of the Thames. One of these, which was successively called the river of Wells, Turnmill Brook, and the river Fleete, or Fleet Ditch, ran from Bagnigge Wells, through Clerkenwell, between Saffron Hill and Turnmill Street, under Holborn Bridge, and down Fleet Market into the Thames. It was once very considerable, turned a great number of mills in its course, and must have been navigable from the Thames to Holborn at the least; for, in a parliament, held at Carlisle in 1307, the earl of Lincoln complained, that 'whereas, in times past, the course of water running at London under Oldbourn-bridge and Fleet-bridge into the Thames, had been of such breadth and depth, that ten or twelve ships' navies at once, with merchandizes, were wont to come to the aforesaid bridge of Fleet, and some of them to Oldbourn Bridge; now the same course, by filth of the tanners and such others, was sore decayed.' Tradition would carry the navigation much higher, since it relates, that an anchor was found in this river at Pancras-wash, where the road branches off to Somer's-town. This river is now, by rapid rains or sudden thaws, sometimes much overflowed, as was the case in 1809 and 1817-18.

Another small river, called Wallbrook, from the wall thrown over it, ran through the city in a serpentine direction, from the north down by the present Mansion House, and the street now called Wallbrook, into the Thames. This brook, which was necessarily crossed by numerous bridges, was vaulted over with brick, and in many parts covered with houses.

A third rivulet, which was called Langbourn, on account of its length, originated in an overflowing spring in Fenchurch Street, which ran down Lombard Street, and turned south down Sherbone Lane (then called Sharebourne, from its sharing or dividing the bourne or brook into small rills of water), whence it flowed into the Thames. This brook was stopped at the source, though its name is still retained in Langbournward.

Oldbourn, now Holborn, was a brook which issued from a spring near Middle Row, and ran down at Holborn Bridge, into the river Fleet.

In the suburbs were several very excellent wells, as Holywell, Skinner's-well, Clement'swell, Clerkenwell (so called from the parishclerks of London assembling there annually to act plays or interludes, founded on Scripture), with several other smaller wells. To the wells and the brooks are to be added pools, which, though not contributing to the health of the city, supplied water for various uses. Of these the principal was in Smithfield, and was called Horsepool, on account of the inhabitants watering horses there. This pool, which was at one time walled round with brick, was filled up in the improvements that took place in Smithfield after the fire of London. Near St. Giles's church, Cripplegate, there was a large pool, in which Anne of Lodbury was drowned in the year 1244. North of Holywell there was a pool, called Agnes le Clair; and, not far from it, another sheet of water, which was called Perilous Pond, on account of several youths who went to swim in it having been drowned. This Perilous Pond has since been converted into a bath, under the name of Peerless Pool.

The pools being filled up, and the brooks covered, the inhabitants found it necessary to look to other sources, for a supply of water. In 1236 one Gilbert Sandford obtained a grant from Henry III., to allow him to convey water from the town of Tyburn, by pipes of lead, into the city. The work was soon carried into effect, and a leaden pipe, of six inches bore, conveyed the water, from six wells in the neighbourhood of Tyburn, to conduits that were erected to receive it in various parts of the city. The first, and one of the principal conduits, was in West Cheap, now Cheapside, and was erected in 1285: it was a cistern of lead, castellated with stone. Other conduits and bosses were erected in several parts of the town.

In 1438 Sir William Eastfield, knight of the Bath, then lord-mayor, brought water from Highbury Barn, as well as from Tyburn, to London, and caused conduits to be erected in Fleet Street, Aldermanbury, and Cripplegate.

In 1535 the common council granted a sum of money for bringing water from Hackney to Aldgate, where a conduit was erected; and,