SOUTHWARK 11 



for a. semaphore system, resembling very closel}^ that 

 in use upon railways at the present day, the chief 

 peculiarity beino- that, instead of only two movements 

 of the semaphore arms, each one could be made to 

 assume six different positions. Some old prints of 

 the Admiralty buildings in Whitehall show a telegraph- 

 station of this kind upon the roof, with the little 

 wooden cabin in which were stationed the men 

 (generally four) whose duty it was to read through 

 telescopes the signals from the nearest station, and to 

 work the shutters or semaphores above their own. 

 One of these stations has given the name of " Telegraph 

 Hill " to that knoll at Hatcham, by New Cross, which 

 was opened as a public park so recently as April, 1895. 

 From hence was signalled news of Nelson and Trafalgar, 

 of Wellington and Waterloo ; here worked the arms 

 that carried orders from the Admiralty to the admirals 

 in the Downs to sail east or west ; to proceed home or 

 fare forth to foreign stations ; to summon Courts 

 Martial, and to put the sentences of those stern 

 drum-head tribunals into execution. 



IV 



The Southwark of Chaucer's time was a very different 

 place. For one thing, it was a great deal smaller. 

 The year in which his Canterbury Pilgrims were 

 supposed to set out has generally been fixed at 1383, 

 and at that time the whole country had only recently 

 been smitten with three great pestilences, which 

 had carried off nearly half the population of England. 

 London numbered probably no more than thirty 

 thousand inhabitants. Southwark was comparatively 

 a village ; a village, too, not with the odious 

 surroundings of later years, but a pleasant spot over 

 the water from the City, where great prelates had 

 their palaces, and whence a short walk of five minutes 



