CHAP. IV. 



TIIK \K\V 



n>MlM.KTKI>. 



streets to the extent of about 400 miles! But the 

 leakage \vas so great through the porousness of the 

 material, about one-fourth of the whole quantity of 

 water supplied passing away by filtration, the decay of 

 the ])i]es in ordinary weather was so rapid, and they 

 \vere so liable to burst during frosts, that they were 

 ultimately abandoned when media nieal skill was suffi- 

 ciently advanced to enable pipes of cast iron to be sub- 

 stituted for them. For a long time, however, a strong 

 prejudice existed against the use of water conveyed 

 through pipes of any kind, 

 and the cry of the water 

 carriers long continued to 

 be familiar to London ears, 

 of " Any New River water 

 here ! " " Fresh and fair 

 Xew River water ! none of 

 your pipe sludge ! " 



Many persons also conti- 

 nued to support the water 

 carriers because they were 

 poor people, with nothing 

 but water-carrying to turn 

 to for a living. The alleged 

 dearness of the water supplied through the pipes was 

 another ground of popular objection to them ; though 

 there really seems to have been but little reason for 

 complaint on this score. The following fact will convey 

 an idea of the mode of charging for a supply of water 

 adopted at an early period. In 16 14 the Court of Com- 

 mon Council ordered Mr. Chamberlain to pay Mr. Hugh 

 Myddelton twenty shillings for a fine, and five shillings 

 a quarter yearly, in consideration of a quill of water of 

 ha I fan inch bore, taken from the pipes of the said Hugh 

 Myddrlton, to serve the Sessions House at Justice Hall, 

 and Richard Weaver to see that no waste he made thereof. 1 



"NEW RIVER WATER!' 

 [After an Ancient Print.] 



( ' i i \ il'I ,< i i Ion Corjwration Records/ 



