VIEW OF BRADING HAVEN, TEMPORARILY RECLAIMED BY SIR HUGH MYDDELTON, AS SEEN FROM THE VILLAGE OF BRADING. [By Percival Skelton, after his original Drawing ] LIFE OF SIR HUGH MYDDELTON. CHAPTER I. WATER SUPPLY OF LONDON IN EARLY TIMES. WHILE the engineer has so often to contend with all his skill against the powers of water, and to resist it as a fierce enemy, he has also to deal with it as a useful agent, and treat it as a friend. Water, like fire, though a bad master, is a most valuable servant; and it is the engineer's business, amongst other things, to render the element docile, tractable, and useful. Even in the Fens, water was not to be entirely got rid of. Were this possible, the Great Level, instead of a boggy reed swamp, would be merely converted into an arid, dusty desert. Provision had, therefore, to be made for the accommodation and retention of sufficient water to serve for irrigation and the watering of cattle, at the same time that the lines of drains or cuts were so laid out as to be available for purposes of navigation. But water is also one of the indispensable necessaries of life for man himself, an abundant supply of it being essential for human health and comfort. Hence all the ancient towns were planted by the banks of rivers, principally because the inhabitants required a plentiful supply of water for their daily use. Old London had not only the advantage of its pure, broad stream flowing along its southern boundary, so useful as a water road, but it also possessed an abundance of wells, from which a supply of pure water was obtained, adequate for the requirements of its early population. population. The river of Wells, or Wallbrook, flowed through the middle of the city; and there were numerous wells in other quarters, the chief of which were Clerke's Well, Clement's Well, and Holy Well, the names of which still survive in the streets built over them. As London grew in size and population, these wells were found altogether inadequate for the wants of the inhabitants; besides, the water drawn from them became tainted by the impurities which filter into the soil wherever large numbers are congregated. Conduits were then constructed, through which water was led from Paddington, from James's Head, Mewsgate, Tyburn, Highbury, and Hampstead. There were sixteen of such public conduits about London, and the Conduit Streets which still exist throughout the metropolis mark the sites of several of these ancient works.' The copious supply of water by these conduits was all the more necessary at that time, as London was for the most part built of timber, and liable to frequent fires, to extinguish which promptly, every citizen was bound to have a barrel full of water in readiness outside his door. The corporation watched very carefully over their protection, and inflicted severe punishments on such as interfered with 1 The conduits used, in former times, to be yearly visited with considerable ceremony. For instance, we find that "On the 18th of September, 1562, the Lord Mayor (Harper), the Aldermen, with many worshipful persons, and divers of the Masters and Wardens of the twelve companies, rode to the Conduit's-head [now the site of Conduit Street, New Bond Street], for to see them after the old custom. And afore dinner they hunted the hare and killed her, and thence to dinner at the head of the Conduit. There was a good number entertained with good cheere by the Chamberlain, and, after dinner, they hunted the fox. There was a great cry for a mile, and at length the hounds killed him at the end of St. Giles's. Great hallooing at his death, and blowing of hornes; and thence the Lord Mayor, with all his company, rode through London to his place in Lombard Street."-Stowe's Survey of London.' It would appear that the ladies of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen attended on these jovial occasions, riding in waggons. the flow of water through them. We find a curious instance of this in the City Records, from which it appears that, on the 12th November, 1478, one William Campion, resident in Fleet Street, had cunningly tapped the conduit where it passed his door, and conveyed the water into a well in his own house, "thereby occasioning a lack of water to the inhabitants." Campion was immediately had up before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and after being confined for a time in the Comptour in Bread Street, the following further punishment was inflicted on him. He was set upon a horse with a vessel like unto a conduit placed upon his head, which being filled with water running out of small pipes from the same vessel, he was taken round all the conduits of the city, and the Lord Mayor's proclamation of his offence and the reason for his punishment was then read. When the conduit had run itself empty over the culprit, it was filled again. The places at which the proclamation was read were the following,-at Leadenhall, at the pillory in Cornhill, at the great conduit in Chepe, at the little conduit in the same street, at Ludgate and Fleet Bridge, at the Standard in Fleet Street, at Temple Bar, and at St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street; from whence he was finally marched back to the Comptour, there to abide the will of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen.' The springs from which the conduits were supplied in course of time decayed; perhaps they gradually diminished by reason of the sinking of wells in their neighbourhood for the supply of the increasing suburban population. Hence a deficiency of water began to be experienced in the city, which in certain seasons almost amounted to a famine. There were frequent contentions at the conduits for "first turn," and when water was scarce, these sometimes grew into riots. The water carriers came prepared for a fight, and at length |