water is furnished by eight principal companies and two or three minor ones, and is estimated at 330,000,000 of hogsheads yearly, being at the rate of thirty gallons for each individual of the population. Yet a recent inquiry has shown that there are 70,000 houses occupied by halfa-million inhabitants that have no supply whatever. This also has a prospect of being speedily remedied. The Act to encourage the establishment of public baths and washhouses was passed in August, 1846. On the requisition of any ten rate-payers, a vestry may be convened, at which two-thirds of the number present may decide on their erection, and charge the cost on the poor-rate. The number that have been lately built and conducted even with a profit, show that a very important step has at last been taken in the right direction. The removal of intramural slaughter-houses and burial-grounds will be the next work for the present generation to accomplish. To supply the vast demand of the metropolis, nearly two millions of animals are sold at Smithfield in a year, to about four thousand butchers. The City corporation derives a profit of £4,000 from Smithfield market; but it is obvious that better accommodation must shortly be afforded to the herds and flocks of live stock, the 160 salesmen, the 900 licensed drovers, and the multitude of drovers whose purchases form an annual aggregate of £7,000,000. The cemeteries, now fast forming around the suburbs, will do much to rid London of a very obnoxious evil. Who would not rather rest from "life's fitful fever" in some sequestered spot, fanned by the pure breeze, watered by the clear dew, and illumined by heaven's unintercepted light, than be laid amidst the harsh clamour of the sunless town? It is not a too sanguine prediction, if we foretel that the establishment of the Great National Cemetery at Erith will lessen, by many hundreds, the mortality of the metropolis. Our retrospective glance at "London as it Was," would be incomplete, without taking some notice of the localities where our forefathers sought their amusement, and which the reader may profitably and pleasantly contrast with the different opportunities afforded at the present day. The north side of London was famous for suburban houses of entertainment. Show-booths were erected in this immediate neighbourhood for merryandrews and morris-dancers. The London Spa, in Exmouth-street, Clerkenwell, originally built in 1206; Phillips's new Wells; the Mulberry-gardens; the new Tunbridge-wells, a fashionable resort of the nobility and gentry during the early part of the eighteenth century; the Sir Hugh Myddelton's-head; and Sadler's Musichouse, now better known as Sadler's-wells, were all in this vicinity. Bagnigge-wells, once the reputed residence of Nell Gwynne, and White Conduit-house, are both no more; the latter was finally demolished in 1849. Canonbury-house, where Goldsmith lodged, and Highbury-barn, where he so often dined, are still in existence; but the rest have long since changed their attractions, and the very sites of many are forgotten. As population increased, the houses of entertainment spread south, east, and west. The Apollo-gardens, St. George's-fields; the "Dog and Duck," adjoining; Cumberland-gardens, Vauxhall; and the more celebrated Ranelagh and Marylebone-gardens, are all extinct; but the amusements now provided in their place are, if less distinguished by boisterous hilarity, infinitely better calculated to please a more refined taste. With these preliminary observations, we will now proceed to consider London under its present aspect. |