The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-17 00:00:00

THAMES.

Mr. George Wickes, a cow-keeper, in Mill-yard,
Whitechapel, appeared before Mr. Yardley to answer
a complaint made by Brown, the beadle of White-
chapel, by order of the trustees acting under the
local Act, for suffering an accumulation of dung,
manure, offal, and filth on his premises, detrimental
to the health of the persons living in the immediate
neighbourhood.
Mr. Henderson, solicitor, appeared on the part of
the trustees.

This was a proceeding under the Act for the more
speedy removal of certain nuisances, and the preven-
tion of contagious and epidemic diseases, the 11th and
12th of Vic., cap. 123. A plan of the premises was
put in, from which it appeared that Wickes occupied
one of the arches of the Blackwall Railway, on the
eastern side of Mill-yard, and in this limited space
kept 17 cows and six horses. Swine were also oc-
casionally kept in the same place, which had been
visited by the parish officers, by the Committee of
Health, and others, who were of opinion it was a
nuisance, and prejudicial to the health of the in-
habitants.

Mr. W. IL Black, one of the keepers of the public
records, and minister of a chapel in Mill-yard, which
has existed 155 years, said he had an official resi-
dence adjoining the chapel and immediately conti-
guous to the nuisance, which he described as most
intolerable, and constantly emitting a most noxious
and disgusting effluvia. He was unable to open the
front door and the windows looking south without
being annoyed by a most dreadful and overpowering
stench. There was a great accumulation of cow dung
and filth of every description on the premises. There
were no styes in the yard or arch, and the pigs were
suffered to roam about the place, which increased the
nuisance. Liquid matter of a most offensive descrip-
tion was constantly oozing through a defective wall
into the yard behind a small house, occupied by a
person named Macdonald, where fever now existed.
The cow-yard was unpaved, and it was a complete
swamp of fetid matter. The drainage was also ex-
oeedingly defective. Mr. Black concluded a longas a
description of the evil by declaring that it w
complication of nuisances quite intolerable, and
ought
not to exist in a close neighbourhood amidst human
habitations.

Mr. YARDLEY asked Mr. Black whether the refuse
of the animals was removed daily, or allowed to
accumulate.

Mr. Black replied that the matter accumulated
for several days, and was 'allowed to ferment.
When he came home in the afternoon he was fre-
quently so overcome by nausea as to be .unable to eat
his dinner.

Mr. YARDLEY said be should pause a long time
before he came to a conclusion that the keeping cows
and horses was to be prohibited within the bills of
mortality ; but the defendant's cowyard might cease
to be a nuisance without having to abandon his
business, and the first step was to remove the offensive
matter daily, and prevent fermentation.
The defendant said he was anxious to do everything
to accommodate his neighbours, and would obey any
reasonable order of the magistrate.
Mr. YARDLEY' said this was not a matter of per-
sonal accommodation, but a question where the
public health was concerned. He must, therefore,
insist, in the first instance, that the waste of the
cowyard be removed daily, and the yard be washed
down.

The defendant pleaded hard that he should be
allowed every alternate day to remove the offensive
matter, but the Magistrate was inexorable.
Mr. Straw, a trustee and guardian of the parish,
said that until the place was paved it would continue
to be a nuisance. He also complained that the drain-
age was defective, and that the liquid manure over-
flowed and ran down an artificial descent into the
street. It was alike disgusting to the smell and the
sight.
The defendant said there was a hole in the wall
separating his place from a neighbour's, and the con-
tents of a cesspool and the water from a tank was
continually running into his yard. He had recently
expended 101. in repairing his drain.
Mr. YARDLEY said he must pave the; yard and
secure good drainage, or he must remove his business
elsewhere.

Mr. Henderson, who appeared in the double
capacity of solicitor and commissioner of paving, said
the exhalations from the defendant's premises were
absolutely poisonous, and arose principally from the
keeping of pigs, than which nothing could be more
nauseous in such a crowded locality. He submitted
that some steps should be taken to limit the number
of animals in such a confined space as one of the
railway arches. The atmosphere was tainted by the
accumulation of so many animals and so much de-
composed animal matter in such a limited space. The
population of the immediate district was so dense
that it resembled a rabbit warren. The old notion that a
cow-yard in a populous neighbourhood was healthy
had long since been exploded.
Mr. YARDLEY said he could prevent the defendant
keeping swine in the place, but he could not prevent
him keeping cows, as long as he removed the offensive
matter daily.
The defendant said his cow-yard was not unhealthy,
and asked the magistrate to look at him. He was the
biggest man in the parish, arid in c ipital health, only
a little lame.—(Laughter )
Ono of the defendgag neighbogre acid the cow-

yard was not a nuisance, and that he lived opposite
to it, and enjoyed good health. The greatest nuisance
was the filthy habits of the lower orders of Irish
living in Mill-yard ond vicinity.
Mr. YAUDLEY then made the required order on the
defendant, "!'n promised to remove all the objections
made to his place.