1869.] The Future Water-supply of London. 245 



supply of 400 million gallons per day of pure water could be pro- 

 vided in this manner, and that the supply so obtained would have 

 the great advantage of being always cool. I cannot pretend to 

 give an opinion on the merits of this scheme, which rest almost 

 entirely on engineering questions. As to the question, whether 

 such a gigantic filtration would be certain to remove all noxious 

 matters from the water, that is a point which could not be decided 

 off-hand. 



Out of the four schemes which propose to draw the London 

 water-supply from distant collecting-grounds, two (those of Mr. 

 Bateman, and Messrs. Hemans and Hassard) have already been 

 noticed in these pages. Mr. Bateman, it will be remembered, pro- 

 poses to go to the sources of the Severn, and store up the water of 

 the North Wales mountains in enormous reservoirs; while Messrs. 

 Hemans and Hassard would impound and increase, by intercejjting 

 conduits, the waters of lakes Haweswater, Ullswater, and Thirl- 

 mere. Mr. Remington's scheme I am but imperfectly acquainted 

 with, but Mr. Fulton's deserves a v/ord of notice. He has selected, 

 in the basin of the river Wye, in South Wales, a larger collecting- 

 ground than either of the above-mentioned ones. He divides the 

 gathering ground into four districts, having a total area of 440 square 

 miles ; the whole capable, he estimates, of supplying London with 

 393 million gallons per diem ; but he proposes, in the first instance, 

 to utilize only one of these districts, and to content himself with a 

 daily supply of 130 million gallons. To guard against deficiency 

 of supply, he proposes to construct impounding reservoirs in each 

 district, capable of containing 150 days' supply. The water is to 

 be conducted by a conduit, which shall pass near Bromsgrove, War- 

 wick, Banbury, and Watford, to Totteridge, near Barnet, where 

 service reservoirs will be constructed. The conduit will be 180 

 miles in length. The cost for a supply of 130 million gallons 

 a-day, the conduit being large enough for 230, is estimated at 

 7,000,000/. The great merit of the scheme appears to me to 

 lie in the thin population of the Wye basin and the absence of large 

 towns on the line of the proposed conduit, which might claim a 

 prior right to the gathering grounds. 



With this meagre sketch of the present claimants for the honour 

 of supplying London I must conclude. To the report of the Eoyal 

 Commission we must now look for further light on the subject, with 

 the hope that their labours will result in securing to London that 

 priceless treasure — an unimpeachable and abundant water-supply. 

 That is the object to be striven for ; and the richest city in the 

 world will surely allow no paltry motives of economy to prevent the 

 attainment of that which is so essential to the health and well-being 

 of her children. 



VOL. VI. s 



