THE TELEGRAPH TOWER 9 



George's Church, are the hills and dales of Kent. 

 The church was pulled down in the following year, 

 and the present building put up in its place. The 

 fair was suppressed in 1762. 



At that time, Kent Street was the only way to 

 the Dover Road, and, even then, the dirt and over- 

 crowding in that notorious thoroughfare were 

 phenomenal. Englishmen were ashamed of this 

 disgraceful entrance into London, and one Avhose duty 

 lay in bringing a representative foreigner from Dover 

 to London craftily contrived that he should enter the 

 Metropolis at night, when the dirty tenements of 

 Kent Street, by which their carriage would pass, 

 would be hidden in darkness. When Newington 

 Causeway was made, and direct access gained to the 

 Old Kent Road, the horrors of Kent Street were no 

 longer to be braved by travellers. The street is here 

 still, but somewhat civilised, and now called " Tabard 

 Street " ; but to " give a bit of Kent Street " is yet 

 understood to mean language for which Billingsgate 

 has also been long renowned. 



A singular structure standing in Tooley Street, and 

 visible for a very great distance up or down the river, 

 was the so-called " Telegraph Tower," which was 

 burned down in the great fire of August, 1843. It had 

 at one time been a shot-tower, and had always com- 

 pletely dwarfed its next-door neighbour, St. Olave's 

 Church. It was very ugly, and so its loss was a 

 distinct gain ; but with its disappearance went all 

 recollection of the old system of signalling that had 

 no rival before the electric telegraph was introduced 

 in 1838. 



This system was introduced in 1795, at the suggestion 

 of the Rev. Lord George Murray, afterwards Bishop of 

 Saint David's. He proposed to the Admiralty to 

 erect signal-posts or towers on the heights between 

 London and the coast, and upon experiments being 

 made, it was found easily practicable to send messages 

 in this way to our ships in the Downs. That year. 



