74 ON TREE-TRUNK WATER-PIPES. 



centuries before the introduction of iron ones, from its compara- 

 tively slow growth, and its position in an agricultural district far 

 from the iron-producing parts of England, seems likely to have 

 used wooden pipes many years after they were superseded in such 

 places as London, Hull, and Newcastle-on-Tyne. Feeling this> 

 I wrote to Mr. H. Laver, F.S.A., etc., asking him if he could 

 give me any information on this point. He very kindly endeav- 

 oured to ascertain the date of the change from wood to iron, but 

 witliout success. When the Corporation at Colchester took 

 over the management of the Waterworks, they do not appear to 

 have preserved the various documents of the Water Company 

 preceding them to the degree necessary for the settlement ot this 

 question. Thus, in the case of Colchester, we learn by accident 

 of the use there of tree-trunk pipes in 1620, but, on the other 

 hand, accident has prevented us from ascertaining whether they 

 were still employed in the earlier years of the reign of Queen 

 ^ ictoria. However, it is the impossibility of knowing where 

 any evidence of the late survival of these pipes may exist, that 

 makes the collection of what is available desirable. 



\\ e have seen that a chief detect of tree-trunk pipes was 

 their liability to decay at the joints. A result of this, says the 

 writer in Rees' Cyclopcedia, is that " the pavement of the streets is 

 constantly broken up, the way impeded, and the supply of water 

 suspended." The streets of London, as most of us know, have 

 been more blocked than usual since the beginning of the present 

 century, by excavations for various purposes. It is somewhat 

 amusing to find that Londoners a century ago must have had 

 little, if any, advantage over us in this respect. If the total 

 amount of the traffic then was much less than at present, it was 

 much more concentrated in a limited number of streets. And 

 the streets then, as now, most subject to excavations, must have 

 been the chief business streets, which would need repairs much 

 oftener than the others. As a dug-out canoe, carried down by a 

 flood and buried in silt, may be preserved for centuries if allowed 

 to remain undisturbed under the same conditions, yet rot 

 speedily if they are much varied ; so with tree-trunk water- 

 pipes beneath a street. Those beneath the busy thoroughfares,, 

 which were frequently needing repairs, might rot from ten to 

 fifty times as fast as those under quiet streets but a few 

 yards away. 



