294 Notices respecting New Books. 



' It lowei'ed the river so much upon the reflux, that craft 

 Gould not navigate it in the accustomed manner*.' 



" At low water the exposure of stinking mud is now almost 

 an intolerable nuisance to those living on the banks of the 

 Thames above London bridge. Hereafter the whole bed of 

 the river will be hi some places nearly exposed. 



" This evil may lead to its remedy, and to a great improve- 

 ment of the metropolis, viz. the taking from the river a width 

 for a quay and street extending in length from Southwark 

 bridge to the New Road at Millbank, and in width to low 

 water; leaving the necessary docks accessible to coal and other 

 barges under bridges excavated to such a depth below the level 

 of low water, that the filth from the sewers may be at all times 

 covered with water. The river is wide enough between South- 

 wark bridge and Millbank to allow of the accession of this 

 land to the metropolis ; and the alteration would improve the 

 navigation between those places, and reUeve the thoroughfares 

 of Cheapside, Fleet Street, and the Strand. The acquired 

 ground would probably pay the expense. 



" Since writing the above, the author has read ' Observations 

 on the probable Consequences of the Demolition of London 

 Bridge,' by Sir Henry C. Englefield, in which he infers, from 

 the different distances to which the spring and neap tides now 

 flow, that the removal of London bridge would occasion the 

 tide to flow about three miles higher than it does at present. 

 He deduces, that the bridge considered as a bar, has become, 

 fi-om lapse of time, an essential part of the river ; that the 

 bridge prevents the tide from attaining so high a level above 

 bridge as it otherwise would do ; that it checks, in a consider- 

 able degree, the velocity of the flood-tide ; that it prevents the 

 tide from flowing so high up the country as it naturally would 

 do ; that the velocity of the reflux is in like manner checked ; 

 and that the water above bridge never ebbs out so low, by 

 nearly the quantity of the whole fall, as it would do were the 

 dam removed. ' That any additional depth at high water 



* It is manifest from the Trinity House Sections, that if low water should 

 be lowered the whole fall at London bridge, the river eastward of Black- 

 friars bridge to London bridge will be reduced to a brook at low water of 

 ordinary spring tides. And it may be concluded that between Westminster 

 and Blackfriars bridges, where the river is very wide and shallow, it will 

 assume the state of a ditch in an offensive swamp ; for now, eight of the 

 arches of Westminster bridge, five of Waterloo, and three of Blackfriars, 

 are nearly dry at low water of spring tides. 



See Proceedings and Evidence relative to London Bridge 1799 to 1819, 

 and an Appendix 1820 to 1821, published by the City of London; and Re- 

 ports of the House of Commons ordered to be printed 25th May 1821, 

 and 6th June 1821 ; and Reports Improvement of London, May 1796, and 

 June 1799. 



would 



