WILLIAM SMITH. 239 



persons passing over Blackfriars Bridge ; the 

 Albion Mills (worked by steam power) had just 

 before been burnt down. 



" Criminals were hanged at Tyburn, where there 

 were cow-houses with wood seats on top for persons 

 to see the executions. 



" From Manchester Square to the Edgeware 

 Road and Paddington, there were footpaths 

 entirely across open fields. The buildings on the 

 side of the square were unfinished ; but, as more 

 connected with what relates to the earth, I saw how 

 the ground was made in Manchester Square, for a 

 poor fellow, in turning his cartload of slush, had 

 let his horse and cart slip down, so that he was up 

 to his middle in mud, endeavouring to extricate his 

 horse just as I passed by. This was on the east 

 side of the square." 



In 1783, and from this time to 1787, the young 

 man, without instruction or sympathy, prosecuted 

 irregularly, but with ardour and success, the studies 

 to which his mind was awakened. He began to 

 draw, attempted to colour, became tolerably versed 

 in the geometry and calculations then thought 

 sufficient for engineers and surveyors, and by these 

 acquirements, at the age of eighteen, so strongly 

 recommended himself to Mr. Edward Webb, of 

 Stow-on-the-Wold, who had been invited to make 

 a complete survey of the parish of Churchill, for 

 the purpose of enclosure, that he became assistant 

 to that most able and excellent man, and was taken 

 into his family. 



