Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/315

 NOTES BY THE WAY.

��The Thames

Embank- ment : recom- mended by Wren and Evelyn.

��Molborn Viaduct). Hood, writing to his wife from Rotterdam,

sings :

The flavour now of Fearon's,

That mingles in my dram, Reminds me you 're in England,

And I 'm in Rotterdam.

The Holborn Valley Viaduct, of which the foundation stone was The Viaduct

laid on the 3rd of June, 1867, by F. H. Fry, William Hay wood

being the chief engineer, was opened for foot passengers on the

14th of October, 1869, and inaugurated by Queen Victoria on the

6th of November in the same year, the new Blackfriars Bridge

being opened by the Queen on the same day.

The following year another great improvement was com- pleted, the Thames Embankment being opened on the 13th of July, 1870, by the Prince of Wales. This had indeed been long waited for, having been recommended by Wren and Evelyn in 1666 ; and if Wren's suggestions had been carried out, the Embank- ment as it is to-day would have been anticipated by over two hundred years. While the fire was still burning, both Wren and Evelyn set to work to make plans for a new city.

" Wren's was the first to be shown to the King ; and though there is much resemblance between it and Evelyn's, yet Wren's is evi- dently the more useful, as well as the finer plan of the two, and was the one which the King accepted ....

" The London bank of the Thames was to be lined with a broad quay, along which the Halls of the City Companies were to be built, with suitable warehouses in between for the merchants, to vary the effect of the edifices." * Sir Christopher Wren, his Family and Times,' by Lucy Phillimore.

Wren attempted to prosecute his design for the quay along the northern bank of the Thames, but the ground was rapidly encroached upon by buildings, and the King gave but uncertain support.

Deputy John Paterson was the author of a later scheme for the Embankment. A copy is in the GuildhaU Library. It is a

" Plan for raising 300,000?. for the Purpose of completing the Bridge at Blackfriars and redeeming the Toll thereon, embanking the North Side of the River Thames between Paul's Wharf and Milford Lane, redeeming the antient Toll upon London Bridge, repairing the Royal Exchange, and rebuilding the gaol of Newgate. Printed by Henry Kent. 1767."

From this I take the following extracts :

" But there is another improvement which the course of the river and present form of the shore between Paul's Wharf and Milford Lane make very desirable, if not absolute ly necessary.

" The wharfs within those limits, by their different and very unequal encroachments, not only form an irregular and disagreeable outline, but afford the owners of some an undue preference and advan-

��John

Paterson's later scheme.

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