The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-16 00:00:00

LONDON-ITS RIVERS AND
DITCHES.
. _

The following interesting details are extracted from a
lecture on "Loudon and its Antiquities," by Mr. Frank
J. Scud.ancre. Speaking of ancient London, he thus
proceeds:—
It was long before the city was completely drained
of the waters with which the ground was so plentifully
saturated. The great fen, entitled Moorfields, was in-
deed without the city wall, whence it extended almost
to the high grounds of Islington, but there were seve-
ral marshy spots even within the precincts of the
city. The ground on which Bartholomew Hospital
stands was reclaimed from the waters; and w!en Sir
Chris. Wren built the church of St. Lawrence Jewry,
he was compelled to drive piles into the moist ground
before he could lay the foundation. The name of Fen-
church-street sufficiently denotes the character of the
soil, and from this street issued a small stream, or bourne
as it was called, which ran through Lombard-street and
Sherborne-lane into the Thames, and from this circuitous
route gave the name cf Langbourne or Longbourne
Ward, to that division of the city. Another stream
rose in Moorfields, and ran across the Poultry, down
Walbrook, and Bread-street-hill into the Thames, with
such velocity, that the spot where it entered that river
was called Dowgate or l)owngate, which name it retains
to this day. It must be remembered, however, that in
those times London stood on a hill which sloped towards
the river, but that after the great fire Sir Christopher
Wren caused the ground to be raised in Thames-street
several feet, and lowered proportionately in Cannon-
street, so that the declivity no longer retains its original
angle. It is recorded of this turbulent little brook, that

in the year 1571 it caught a boy by the legs as he was
attempting to leap over the channel which was swollen
by a heavy shower of rain, and carried him onward to
the Thames with such velocity, that he must certainly
have been drowned if he had not been killed by
coming in contact with a cart-wheel. Nevertheless
barges used to ascend this stream and the highest
point of their progress is marked by the name Barge-
yard, Bucklersbury. But the most important of these
tributary streams was the Fleet River, which took
its rise near Battle-bridge, and being swelled by
the little brooks called Old Bourne and Turnmill, ran
into the Thames near to the Blackfriars Priory. Before
the year 1290, barges used to ascend the stream as far as
Holborn-bridge, and it was otherwise useful for
cleansing the district through which it passed ;
but the inhabitants of the Temple, who were not
less celebrated then than now, for taking care of
their own interests, turned off its waters into another
channel for the purpose of working the mills which
they possessed in great abundance along the banks
of the Thames, which felonious misappropriation
of the waters caused first the mouth, and subsequently
the whole course of the stream to be so choked up with
filth, that the priests of White Friars were almost stifled
by the pestilential odours, which overpowered the smell
of the incense during Divine service, and were otherwise
detrimental to the health of the citizens. As a matter of
course this nuisance lasted for a long time, for English-
men love so well to exercise their national passion for
grumbling, that they are never in a very great hurry
to remove the cause of offence. In this instance they
followed out that principle with remarkable pertinacity,
for it was not until five hundred years after the first
complaint that the ditch was completely covered over
and rendered wholesome. Those who now observe, from
Blackfriars-bridge, that vast stream of black mud issu-
ing from a dark arch, and just visible at low water, will
hardly believe it to have been so exposed even as late as
the year 1763, that a tipsy barber from the country,
going along near there one winter's night of that year,
missed his way, walked into the ditch, at d was frozen to
death in an upright position. Besides these streams there
were several wells or springs in different parts of the
metropolis. There was one in Whitefriars, just by the
present St. Bride's church, Fleet-street, and called St.
Bride's Well, whence Bridewell Palace, which stood
hard by, derived its name. This residence of our ear-
liest monarchs was subsequently begged from Henry
VIII. by Bishop Ridley for charitable purposes, since
which time the name of Bridewell has gained more ce-
lebrity in connexion with the hospital and asylum,
than had been previously conferred upon it by its
royal inmates. There was another well in the parish
of St. John, Clerkenwell, called the Skinners' Well,
or Clerks' Well, round which the parish clerks of London
used to exhibit their sacred plays or mysteries in the sum-
mer evenings. In theyear 1409, they exhibited the "Cre-
ation of the World," which lasted eight days, and attracted
the nobility from all parts of England. These worthy clerks
must have been sadly at a loss for proper scenery, nor in-
deed could the exhibition have been tolerated except by
persons passionately fond of stage representation ; but
in an age when printing was unknown, and the Bible
not translated, the great attraction must have been the
novelty of the subjects, and the whole representations
were perhaps beneficial, inasmuch as they kept alive in
the minds of the people some few truths which would
otherwise have been lost in the wilderness of tradition.
To supply the city with plenty of fresh water was
the constant care of all public-spirited Mayors and
Aldermen, and to this end numerous conduits were
built, in various places, to which water was brought
in leaden pipes from the most covenient springs.
The chief of these was the Standard in Cheapside,
which served also as a rendezvous for the citia, ns in
times of danger or insurrection. Here they cut off
the Bishop of Exeter's head, in 1325, and here Lord Say
and Sele was beheaded in the rebellion of Jack Cade.
In the centre of the four ways of Leadenhall, Cornhill,
Gracechurch, and Bishopsgate streets, was a conduit
called the Water Standard, placed there in 1582,
and supplied with water from the Thames, by one
of the earliest forcing-pumps ever used in England.
Stow tells us " that a Dutchman of the name of
Peter Morris contrived a forcing-pump by means
of which he conveyed the waters of the Thames,
in leaden pipes, over the steeple of St. Magnus
church, London-bridge; and from thence to divers houses
in Thames-street and Grass-street, up to the north-west
corner of Leadenhall, the highest ground in the City,
where the waste of this main pipe rising into this
standard, provided at the charge of the City, with four
spouts running four ways, plentifully served at every
tide the commodity of the neighbours near adjoining,
and also cleansed the channels of their streets."

We who live under the New River dispensation, and
have the water laid on in our bedrooms, ready warmed
fur shaving purposes, cannot properly appreciate the
blessings which these conduits conferred upon the City ;
but the romantic mind may revert with pleasure to the
quaint old streets, with their wooden houses, from whose
walls a few lanthorns, suspended on poles, shed a dim
religious light ; whilst, to complete the picture, was the
fountain, bubbling up so coolly in the hot summer
nights, and little groups of citizens lounging near its
waters for gossip, love, and pastime.