F).niifugiiini; by John Evelyn, l(J6l. 3-:5 



«?irccted police, not active by fits and starts, but permanent 

 and regular in its operations, all parliamentary interference in 

 these matters is utterly ineftectual, and even mischievous, when- 

 ever laws are infringed with impunity. 



It appears, to return to our subject, that in Mr. Evelyn's 

 time, brewers, dyers, lime-burners, and salt and soap-boilers, 

 were the principal nuisances ; and since then, says the editor of 

 the new edition of the Fumifugium, published in 1772, " we 

 have a great increase of glass-houses, founderies, and sugar- 

 bakers, to add to the black catalogue, at the head of which 

 must be placed the fire-engines of the water-works at London- 

 bridge and York-buildings, which leave the astonished spec- 

 tator at a lo s to determine whether they do not tend to poison 

 and destroy more of the inhabitants by their smoke and stench, 

 than they supply with water." To this sooty list, what astonish- 

 ing additions have been made within the last thirty years, in 

 and about London — how many new water companies, and 

 smoke-producing manufactories have been added to the cata- 

 logue. A newspaper cannot now be printed, nor a pound of 

 meat minced for sausages, without a steam-engine : to the same 

 smoky servant the druggist resorts to grind his rhubarb, and 

 sift magnesia ; and upon all possible occasions the service of 

 the other elem&nts is superseded by that of fire. The natural 

 consequence is, that the smoke of London, always grievous, is 

 now scarcely tolerable : to select a few of Mr. Evelyn's miseries, 

 " it obscures our churches, makes our palaces look old, fouls' 

 our clothes, and corrupts the waters, so that even the rain and 

 dew are contaminated. It is this which scatters and strews 

 about those black and smutty atoms upon all things where it 

 comes, insinuating itself into our most secret cabinets and precious 

 repositories ; yea, though a chamber be never so closely locked 

 up, men find, at their return, all things that are in it covered 

 with a black soot, and all the furniture as full of it as if it were 

 in the house of some miller, or a baker's shop, where the flour 

 gets into their cupboards and boxes, though never so close and 

 accurately shut." «' Finally, it is this which diflTuses and spreads 

 a yellownesse upon our choicest pictures and hangings ; which 

 does mischief at home, is avernus to fowl, and kills our bees 

 and flowers abroad, suffering nothing in our gardens to bud, 

 display themselves, or ripen." " Not therefore to be forgotten," 

 continues our author, after some further grumblings, " is that 

 which was by many observed ; that in the year 1644, when New- 

 castle was besieged and blocked up in our late wars, so as? 

 through thegreat dearth and scarcity of coals these fumous works 

 were either left oft' or diminished, divers gardens and orchards, 

 planted even in the very heart of London (as, in j)articu!ar, my 

 Lord Marriuis of Hertford's, in the Strand ; my Lord Bridge- 

 water's, and some others about Barbican), were observed lo 



Vol.. XM. 2 A 



