CHAP. i. WATKI; SITIM.Y OF LONDON IN I:AI:LV TIMES. 87 



the flow of water through them. We find a curious 

 instance of this in the City Records, from which it 

 appears tliat, on the 12th November, 1478, one William 

 Tampion, resident in Fleet Street, had cunningly tapped 

 the conduit where it passed his door, and conveyed 

 tlie water into a well in his own house, "thereby occa- 

 sioning a lack of water to the inhabitants/' Campion 

 was immediately had up before the Lord Mayor and 

 Aldermen, and after being confined for a time in the 

 Comptour in Bread Street, the following further punish- 

 ment was inflicted on him. He was set upon a horse with 

 a vessel like unto a conduit placed upon his head, which 

 being filled with water running out of small pipes from 

 the same vessel, he was taken round all the conduits of 

 the city, and the Lord Mayor's proclamation of his offence 

 and the reason for his punishment was then read. When 

 the conduit had run itself empty over the culprit, it was 

 filled again. The places at which the proclamation was 

 read were the following, at Leadenhall, at the pillory 

 in Cornhill, at the great conduit in Chepe, at the little 

 conduit in the same street, at Ludgate and Fleet Bridge, 

 at the Standard in. Fleet Street, at Temple Bar, and at 

 St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street ; from whence he 

 was finally marched back to the Comptour, there to 

 abide the will of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen. 1 



The springs from which the conduits were supplied 

 in course of time decayed; perhaps they gradually 

 diminished by reason of the sinking of wells in their 

 neighbourhood for the supply of the increasing sub- 

 urban population. Hence a deficiency of water began 

 to be experienced in the city, which in certain seasons 

 a Imns t amounted to a famine. There were frequent 

 contentions at the conduits for " first turn," and when 

 water was scarce, these sometimes grew into riots. The 

 \\a1er carriers came prepared for a fight, and at length 



* Corporation Records.' Index No. I., fo. 184 b. 



