Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/127

 ii s. iv. AUG. 12, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

121

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1911.

121 Bois

CONTENTS.-No. 85.

NOTES: The Water Supply of London in 1641, Quotations in Jeremy Taylor, 122 Chesham Inscriptions, 123 Great Fosters, Egham, 125 " Plump " in Voting "Bed of roses" Avignon: Old Railway Notice-T. R. Malthus, 126 Turton^Gordon, 127.

QUERIES : " Theatregoer "Horses' Ghosts "De La "in English Surnames, 127 ' Testamenta Eboracensia ' James Hoi worthy, Artist Indian Queens, Place-Name Stonehenge: 'The Birth of Merlin,' 128 Water-Colour Artists Miss Hickey, Burke, and Reynolds Rev. Phocion Henley "Vive la Beige" Washington Irving's Sketch-Book,' 129 Fox and Knot Street Fort Russell, Hudson's Bay Aldus Manutius Timothy Alsop Camp- bell the Scottish Giant Aynescombe Morlena Fenwig, 130.

REPLIES : Municipal Records Printed, 131 Longinus and St. Paul" Gothamites "=Londoners " Gifla," 133 Half- acree Apparition at Pirton Princess Victoria's Visit to the Marquis of Anglesey King George V.'s Ancestors Thermometer, 134 Milky Way Cuckoo Rimes The Cuckoo and its Call Gray's Elegy,' 135 Authors Wanted " Tout comprendre " Elector Palatine c. 1685 Durable- ton Caracciolo Family ' Tweedside,' 136 Board of Green Cloth " Water-suchy "Spider Stories Saint-Just Corrie Bhreachan Grinling Gibbons, 137 Daniel Horry Deer - leaps Royal Exchange Sampson Family Irish Schoolboys" Wimple "Mummy used as Paint, 138.

NOTES ON BOOKS: 'The Veddas ' 'The National Review'' The Burlington Magazine.'

Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents.

THE WATER SUPPLY OF LONDON IN W41.

THE completion of the New River and the appreciation of its many advantages would, it can be assumed, give rise to many similar schemes, and a pamphlet now before me deals with one of the most interesting. It was printed for John Clarke, London, 1641, and the title reads :

" A Designe for bringing a Navigable River from Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire to St. Gyles in the Field ; the Benefits of it declared, and the objections against it answered."

. The King having approved of a measure for bringing water from Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, by Harrow-on -the-Hill, to St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Edward Forde, of Harting in Sussex, proposes to make this watercourse a navigable stream.

"Though it were first proposed to him, and hee no farther obliged, or any way prest to doe any

thing more in this worke, then to bring the Trench broad enough to serve the cities [sic\ onely with water,"

yet at his own charge, and giving security of " 8,000^. lands per annum " to complete it, he offers to undertake the greater work.

The advantages are that it will afford employment during construction ; that

"many parts of Hartfordshire, Buckingshire [*ic] and Middlesex, whose chiefest livelihood is the sending of meale to London, will have portage at farre cheaper rate, and a more plentiful! vent for it, then now they have " ;

that

"the soile of London, which is one of the chiefest measures of enriching the countrey, and indeed the onely meanes of bringing their lands to hart after it is worne out with chaulking and blowing,"

will be brought at a cheaper rate and in larger quantities ; that the highways will be less spoilt by " perpetual cartage " ; that the cattle on both sides of the stream will have the benefit of fresh water ; and that

"the City of London will also by this have the ornament of a navigable river on the north-west side, as it hath on the south by Thames, and on the east by Ware River."

The most interesting advantage occurs in Clause XI. :

"Those parts of London which are now very much scanted of water, will have it in a plentifull measure, and such as shall be alwayes cleere and fit for all uses : all land floods, and foule waters, which frequently occasion the muddiness of Sr. William fc] Middleton's water, being by artificall con- veyances, diverted and kept wholly out of the streame."

The objections were many, but the Lords of the Committee having heard and examined all, only one remained : " That the water being taken away at Rickmansworth will much prejudice all those that dwell upon the river below," by depriving them of their fish; by hindering winter land floods ; "by spoyling corn milles " ; by taking away fences; "by spoyling their paper mills." The promoter replied that this objection was based upon a mistake, because below the intake of the stream, and before the river reaches Uxb ridge, "there fall in to- gether five severall plentifull swift streames, upon every one of which stand several mills of good value," &c.

The objection of the paper-makers at Rickmansworth is met by the promise of compensation or the acquisition of the mill.

"There are but seven in all The water taken

for this worke cannot possibly bee missed by them unless it bee for the time of a moneth or two in a dry summer, when perhaps it may for that short time hinder the wo king of some few hammers."