62 ON TREE-TRUNK WATER-PIPES. 



by William Maitland, F.R.S., and otlievs, published in 1756, that 



when in the time of James ist there was a demand for additional 



water supply, which led to the formation of the New River by 



Sir Hugh Aliddleton (1609-13), the water thus brought to 



Islington was there " engulph'd by fifty-eight large wooden 



pipes." These .pipes were each of a seven inch bore. Maitland 



mentions the places from which water had been brought for the 



supply of London : — 



*' From London Bridge eight main ]:)ipes of a seven inch bore ; from 

 Hampstead and Highgate two mains of seven inches ; Irom St. Mary-le-bone 

 two mains of seven inches ; from Hide Park three mains of six inches ; from 

 Chelsea five mains, viz., one of six, three of seven, and one of eight inches." We 

 are also informed that these main pipes "are branched out into avast number 

 of smaller pipes, which convey the water through all parts of the City and 

 Suburbs; into the houses of which it is carried by small leaden pipes," 



It is evident that this fragment of a pipe from Wigmore 

 Street did not belong to a main, as the diameter of its channel is 

 only about three inches. Mr. Willoughby tells me that similar 

 pipes of larger bore were seen crossing at right angles those lying 

 alon^^ Wigmore Street. It is of course impossible to say whether 

 these pipes are those which were laid down when Wigmore 

 Street, Cavendish Square and other streets adjacent were built, 

 or not. These streets seem to have been built between the years 

 1720 and 1740, and are shown on Rocque's Map of London and its 

 .environs, made between the years 1741-5. 



In Rees' Cyclopocdia (London i8ig) wooden waterpipes are said 

 to have been usually made of elm or alder ; oak, though other- 

 wise preferable being much more difficult to bore, and conse- 

 quently more expensive. The defects of wooden pipes are said 

 to be their want of strength to resist pressure and their liability 

 to decay at the joints. A patent taken out in 1806 for improved 

 wooden water pipes had not been a success ; and we learn that, 

 " within these few years past," the great London water com- 

 panies had adopted cast-iron pipes for their mains, and were 

 •daily increasing their numbers, though popular prejudice was at 

 first strongly excited against iron, as being likely to give the 

 water a metallic flavour, which would be injurious to health. 



Our Secretary, Mr. W. Cole, having suggested to me that our 

 member, Mr. H. G. Morris, of the Kent Water Company, 

 probably knew something about these wooden pipes, I applied to 

 that gentleman, and he was ood enough to favour me with the 



