1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 125 



experienced and distinguished members of the Survey, Mr Horace 

 1>. Woodward. As the author remarks : — " The problem of choosing 

 a place of residence exercises the minds of many whose homes are not 

 fixed by the bonds of inheritance nor by the necessities of their mode 

 of livelihood. In every civilised country a constantly increasing 

 proportion of the population has to seek abode within a certain limit 

 in or near some large town or city. Together with this aggregation 

 of humanity around crowded centres it has slowly been realised that 

 especial attention requires to be paid to the sanitary conditions 

 which depend on the nature of the sub-soil. Around London, for 

 example, the idea has become widespread that a site on Chalk, on 

 gravel or sand, or on some other dry and porous material is to be 

 preferred to one on clay. Increasing attention is now given to the 

 sul^ject by Architects and Physicians. Nevertheless, a good deal of 

 misapprehension exists with regard to the advantages of gravel as 

 a sub-soil, and of the disadvantages of clay ; in certain circumstances 

 either may be good, or both may be bad as sites for houses. The object 

 of the present little work is therefore to supply such information as may 

 be needed by those who are compelled to be careful in the choice of 

 their place of residence. All house-hunters indeed would do well to 

 consider the general sanitary conditions connected with proposed 

 sites, and to bear in mind that a healthy habitation depends on 

 several considerations, apart from the nature of the sub-soil. There 

 are the elevation of the ground and other local circumstances, and, 

 more important still, the construction of the house itself, its damp- 

 proof basement, its airy and sunny position, and the system of 

 drainage. Lastly, the water supply is a question of vital importance." 



Commencing with ' Greater London,' that is, practically all 

 parishes included in a circle of 15 miles from Charing Cross, and 

 comprising a total area of 70 '1 square miles, Mr Woodward 

 points out that much of the surface soil is ' made earth,' and that 

 therefore geological maps possess but little value regarding sites for 

 building purposes. Such maps depict an area of gravel or sand or 

 brick-earth, while on the site of a particular row of buildings may 

 have been an ashpit, a brickyard, or even a plague burial-ground. 

 Thus a house standing on many feet of ' made ground ' over a 

 plague burial-ground is in a far worse sanitary condition than one 

 built on ' made ground ' over clay, or even one built on clean London 

 clay itself. 



The ' made ground ' of London accumulates at from 6 inches to 

 1 foot in a century, and has mostly been turned up over and over 

 again, and comprises brick-bats, dead cats, crockery, tobacco pipes, 

 tinned-meat cans, and various rejectamenta according to the special 

 predilections of the savages tliat dwell upon it. It preserves relics 

 of the Eoman occupation in abundance, and over that portion 

 devastated, but put into sanitary order by the Great Fire of 1666, 

 is to be seen a dark deposit of ash and burnt material to this day. 

 At the Bank of England there are 22 feet of this 'made ground.' 

 There may not be much danger on such a site as the Bailk of Eng- 

 land, but, as Mr Woodward points out, the iniquity of permitting 

 building in these days on the top of pits which have only recently 

 served as holes for decaying vegetable and animal rubbish cannot be 



