110 



HUGH MYDDKITOX, M.P. 



PAKT 



expense, and the risk of carrying out the undertaking 

 wliieh they regarded as so gigantic. On the 28tli 

 of March, 1609, the corporation accordingly formally 

 agreed to his proposal to bring a supply of water 

 from Amwell and Chadwell, in Hertfordshire, to Isling- 

 ton, as being " a thing of great consequence, worthy of 

 acceptation for the good of the city;" but subject to his 

 beginning the works within two months from the date 

 of their acceptance of his offer, and doing his best to 

 finish the same within four years. 1 A regular indenture 

 was drawn up and executed between the parties on the 

 21st of April following; 2 and Myddeltoii began the 

 works and "turned -the first sod" in the course of the 

 following month, according to the agreement. The 

 principal spring was at Chadwell, near Ware, 3 and the 

 operations commenced at that point. The second spring 

 was at A mwell, near the same town ; both being about 

 twenty miles from London as the crow flies. 



The works were no sooner begun than a host of oppo- 

 i'hents sprang up. The owners and occupiers of lands 

 through which the New River was to be cut, strongly 

 objected to it as destructive of their interests. In the 

 petition presented by them to parliament, they alleged 

 that their meadows would be turned into " bogs and 



1 ' Common Council Journals, Cor- 

 poration of London,' 28 March, 1609. 



2 Curiously enough, there is no re- 

 cord in the Repertories or Journals of 

 the Corporation of this document, 

 which was afterwards cancelled by 

 mutual agreement, and a second 

 (based upon the first, and a letter of 

 attorney) was executed on the -8th 

 March, 1611, and sealed on the 14th 

 April following. 



3 " Ware [in Herts], so named from 

 a sort of dam anciently made there to 

 stop the current [of the river Lea] ; 

 commonly called a Weir or Ware, 

 which, as it is confirmed by an abun- 

 dance of waters thereabouts, that 

 might put them under a necessity of 

 such contrivances, so particularly I mm 



the inundation in the year 1408, when 

 it was almost all drowned ; ' since 

 which time,' says Norden, 'and be- 

 fore, there was great provision made 

 by weirs and sluices for the better 

 preservation of the town, and the 

 grounds belonging to the same/ The 

 plenty of waters hereabouts gave occa- 

 sion to that ingenious and useful pro- 

 ject of cutting the channel from hence 

 to London, and conveying thither the 

 Xe\v 1 {iver, to the great convenience 

 and advantage of that city, which 

 river was at lirst called also 'Myddel- 

 ton's Waters,' from Sir Hugh Myddel- 

 toii, a great undertaker in that work/' 

 Camden's ' I>rit,' by Gibson, vol. i., 

 319, 320. 



