124 Transactions. 



of two water-cans aud a hoop. The cans were carried one in 

 either hand, the hoop being- used as a rest. 



The usual place for filling the carts was the watering-place 

 opposite the foot of Bank Street, and the process, a slow one, was 

 carried on in this way. The cart having been drawn well into the 

 stream, the waterman, holding in his hands a long pole, on one 

 end of which was fixed a tin vessel, stood on the cart, and pro- 

 ceeded to dip the tin vessel into the water, drawing up what was 

 caught and filling- it into the cart, one vesselful after another, till 

 the barrel was filled. 



In the state of accounts incurred by the Committee of Health 

 in connection with the cholera of 1832, the names of three water- 

 drawers appear, with their charges — William German, for water, 

 £3 19s 2d; Widow Brannaghan, water-drawer, lis 6d ; Robert 

 M'Phearson, for water, 2s. German is remembered as being help- 

 ful to aged and weak customers, carrying* the water for them to 

 the head of close or stair. His turnout, it is said, was not of a 

 high order, but between him and his aged and ill-fed horse sub- 

 sisted mutual affection, and he often desired to reward the faith- 

 ful animal with a feed of corn, but the fulfilment of the wish was 

 interfered with by a feeling of dryness with which he was himself 

 much troubled. As both could not be satisfied, resort was had to 

 an ancient method of ascertaining the will of providence — lots were 

 cast, and the lot of the horse was to lose invariably. 



German lived at the Townhead, a poor part of the town then, 

 and his cart at night stood in a recess off the street. Unsuspected 

 by him or his customers, the cart was sometimes utilised in a way 

 not very consistent with its main purpose. Many vagrants were 

 about, and as little provision existed for their housing at night any 

 kind of shelter was welcomed, and German's water-barrel found 

 occupants. A gentleman remembers that, when a boy, he had the 

 curiosity one night to .climb upon the cart, lift the leathern cover 

 of the top opening, and look in, when he was surprised to find the 

 barrel occupied by three beggar boys, evidently for the night. 



Prom our standpoint, at least, there is no difficulty in coming 

 to the conclusion that the old water supply of the town was wholly 

 faulty and inadequate. A glance at the Ordnance Map surveyed 

 in the year 1850, on which the pumps then existing are marked, 

 shows forcibly of how little account these could have been, even 

 if the wells had been, as they were not, fairly productive and pure. 



