126 



SIR HUGH MYDDELTOX, M.P. 



PART II. 



however, did not forget the circumstance, attributing his 

 accident to the neglect of Sir Hugh and the Corporation 

 of London in not taking measures to properly fence 

 the river ; for when the Lord Mayor, Sir Edward Bark- 

 ham, accompanied hy the Recorder, Sir Heneage Finch, 

 attended the -King at Greenwich, in June, 1622, to he 

 knighted, James took occasion, in rather strong terms, 

 to remind the Lord Mayor and his brethren of his recent 

 mischance in " Myddelton's Water." 



It is scarcely necessary to point out the great benefits 

 conferred upon the inhabitants of London by the con- 

 struction of the New Eiver, through the provision by its 

 means of an abundant and unremitting supply of pure 

 water for domestic and other purposes. 1 Along this new 

 channel were poured into the city several millions of 

 gallons daily ; and the reservoirs at New River Head 

 being, as before stated, at an elevation of 82 feet above 

 the level of high water in the Thames, they were thus 

 capable of supplying through pipes the basement stories 

 of the greater number of houses then in the metropolis. 2 



The pipes which were laid down in the first instance 

 to convey the water to the inhabitants were made of 

 woody principally elm ; and at one time the New River 

 Company had wooden pipes laid down through the 



1 In the * Gentleman's Magazine,' 

 vol. xxiii., pp. 114-6, is to be found a 

 curious paper by Sir Christopher Wren 

 on the subject of the distribution of 

 tin- water of the New River "that 

 noble acqueduct," as he designates it. 



2 The distribution of the water was, 

 in the opinion of Mr. Mylne, the en- 

 gineer, by far the most expensive part 

 of the original undertaking. The 

 powers granted for the formation of 

 the New River did not extend to the 

 purchase of lands across which it be- 

 came necessary to lay the pipes to 

 connect the water in the ponds with 

 the pipes and the public ways leading 

 to the city. About a hundred acres 

 of grass-land then surrounded the 

 New River Head, about one-half of 

 which belonged to a Welsh family 



named Lloyd, and the other half to 

 the Northampton family. A grant, 

 for a term of years only, was obtained 

 to lay the pipes across those lands so 

 as to reach the public thoroughfares, 

 at a fixed rent for eacli line of pipes ; 

 and as the requirements of the public 

 rapidly increased, so did the heavy 

 charge for the easement ; and ulti- 

 mately the lands became covered with 

 a network of wooden pipes traversing 

 them in all directions. The annual 

 burden became so heavy that it seri- 

 ously affected the profits of the Xe\\- 

 River ('inn] any, until it became ex- 

 tinguished by purchase ; but this por- 

 tion of the expenditure did not fall on 

 Sir Hugh Myddelton, who at an early 

 period sold the greater part ot his shares 

 in the concern. 



