Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/178

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. AUG. 24, 1907.

At the luncheon no fewer than thirty-one representatives of the press were present.

It seems like going back to the Middle Ages to be reminded by the article in The 'City Press that the present Fire Brigade has been created since its first issue. In 1857 the fire insurance offices were re- sponsible for the brigade, which they -worked under an old Act of Parliament. The brigade was an amalgamation of a number of smaller ones at the close of 1832, when that bravest of men, James Braid- wood, was appointed to the control. He was in command when the old Houses of Parliament were reduced to ashes, also at the conflagration which consumed the Royal Exchange, as well as at the fire at the Tower. Many readers of 'N. & Q.' will recall the acclamations with which the crowds greeted him when he drove up to take personal charge at a fire of unusual magnitude.

I can well remember Braidwood's presence at a large fire next door to The Athenceum office in Wellington Street. The building was used for the manufacture of papier mache. It had large showrooms, the upper part in front being used as a residence. When Braidwood arrived, he said to my father, " I am afraid this row of houses, extending to York Street, will be down." Had this happened, Mr. Bohn's valuable tock of books would have perished, as his

E remises ran all along the back. The sky- ghts of his storeroom were already broken, and his porters were busy extinguishing the burning embers as they fell into the room. My father's reply to Braidwood was, " Come with me." He took him to a back room at the top of the house, full of Athenceum stock, and said, " Bring your hose up the stairs, break this window away, and play upon the fire from this point." This was done, and when the fire was got under, Braidwood took my father by the hand and said, " Carrying out your suggestion has saved your house and the whole of this block." When my father had arranged about the hose, he and a clerk quietly set to work to get together complete sets of The Athenceum, ,and had them so placed as to be ready for immediate removal. At this period (it was during the war in the Crimea) the fire engines were largely worked by volunteers from the crowds assembled, and the men sang popular songs as they pumped. When it was seen that the fire was being subdued they would all join in ' Rule, Britannia,' closing with ' God save the Queen,' amid hearty cheers, when the fire was extinguished. All London mourned when Braidwood

" died in action as such a man would wish to die " in the great fire at Tooley Street on the 22nd of June, 1861. In the year following a Committee of the Commons reported in favour of the formation of a brigade under the control of the police ; but it was not until the 1st of January, 1866, that the establishment was trans- ferred to the Board of Works, and shortly afterwards Capt. Shaw, who succeeded Braidwood, drew up statistics of fires in London from 1840 to 1866. In a review of this work which appeared in The Athenceum of the 2nd of November, 1867, Capt. Shaw is quoted as making the startling statement " that one- third, or more, of all the fires in London are regarded by insurance offices and the Fire Brigade as involved in sus- picion." When the Metropolitan Fire Brigade was formed the fire-escape system was included. This had previously been a matter of private enterprise, Mr. Sampson Low, jun., of the well-known publishing firm of Sampson Low, Son & Marston, being one of its chief promoters. It was whoSy supported by public subscriptions, and it was only after Low had bestowed years of labour upon it that it was brought to the high state of efficiency in which it was handed over to the Board of Works. Low died on the 5th of March, 1871. His father, who survived him until the 16th of April, 1886, founded The Publishers' 1 Circular in 1837, and in its thousandth number (May 16th, 1879) he gave a short account of its history. It is now edited by my friend Mr. R. B. Marston.

Through the kindness of Mr. G. Laurence Gomme, the Clerk of the London County Council, I am able to give some particulars as to the strength of the London Fire Brigade. The total number of the staff is 1,390. 980 being firemen. The material includes 78 land fire stations, 3 floating stations, 77 land steam fire engines, 5 motor engines, 10 manual engines, 49 miles of hose, 1,246 fire alarms, and many other appliances. The fire-escape arrangements include 15 hand-fire-escape stations in the streets, 73 horsed escapes, 2 motor escapes, and 115 manual escapes. The number of slight fires during last year was above the average of the previous four years, but the serious fires were only 65, against 76 in 1902,

Among the writers of congratulations received by The City Press we find the City's grand old man Sir Andrew Lusk, firmly con- vinced that the Corporation " occupies to-day a stronger position than ever in the affections of the public " ; and Mr. C. T. Todd, the