88 



LIFT, OF Sill IIUOTI MYDDFJ/roN. 



PART II. 



the Lord Mayor had to interfere, and issued his pro- 

 clamation forbidding persons from resorting to the con- 

 duits armed with clubs and staves. This, however, did 

 not remedy the deficiency. It is true the Thames, 

 " that most delicate and serviceable river," as Nichols 

 terms it, 1 was always available ; but an increasing 

 proportion of the inhabitants lived at a distance from 

 the river. Besides, the attempt was made by those 

 who occupied the lanes leading towards the Thames to 

 stop the thoroughfare, and allow none to pass without 

 paying a toll. A large number of persons then obtained 

 a living as water carriers, 2 selling the water by the " tan- 

 kard " of about three gallons ; and they seem to have 

 Ion ned a rather unruly portion of the population. 



The difficulty of supplying a sufficient quantity of 

 water to the inhabitants by means of wells, conduits, and 

 water carriers, continued to increase, until the year 1582, 

 when Peter Morice, a Dutchman, undertook, as the in- 

 habitants could not go to the Thames for their water, 

 to carry the Thames to them. With this object he 

 erected an ingenious pumping engine in the first arch of 

 London Bridge, worked by water wheels driven by the 

 rise and fall of the tide, which then rushed with great 

 velocity through the arches. This machine forced the 

 water through leaden pipes, which were laid into the 

 houses of the citizens ; and the power with which Morice' s 

 forcing pumps worked was such, that he was enabled 



1 ' Progresses of James I.,' vol. ii., 

 699. The Corporation records con- 

 tain numerous references to the pre- 

 servation of the purity of the water in 

 the river. The Thames also furnished 

 a large portion of the food of the city, 

 then abounding in salmon and other 

 fish. The London fishermen consti- 

 tuted a large class, and we find nu- 

 merous proclamations made relative 

 to the netting of the " salmon and 

 porpoises " wide nets and wall nets 

 being especially prohibited. Fleets of 

 swans on the Thames were a pictu- 



resque feature of the river down even 

 to the time of James II. 



2 The water carrier was commonly 

 called a " Cob," and Ben Jonson 

 seems to have given a sort of celebrity 

 to the character by his delineation of 

 " Cob" in his ' Every Man in his Hu- 

 mour.' Giftbrd, in a note on the play, 

 pointed out that there is an avenue 

 still called " Cob's Court," in Broad- 

 way, Blackfriars ; not improbably (he 

 adds) from its having formerly l>r<n 

 inhabited principally by the class of 

 water carriers. 



