50 THE DOVER ROAD 



gardens, tramps, and odious little terraces of brick 

 cottages with tiny gardens in front, whose brilliant, 

 old-fashioned flowers — sweet-williams, marigolds, and 

 polyanthuses — put to shame these wretched efforts of 

 the builder. There is, half a mile from Crayford, 

 beside the road, an iron post with the City of London 

 arms and the legend, " Act 24 & 25 Vict. cap. 42," in 

 relief. This wayside pillar marks at once the limits of 

 the London Police District, and the boundary of the 

 area affected by the London Coal and Wine Duties 

 Continuance Act of 1861 . The City of London has been 

 entitled from time immemorial to levy dues on all coal 

 entering the metropolis, and this privilege, regulated 

 from time to time, was abolished only in 1889. Two 

 separate duties of twelve pence and one penny per ton 

 were confirmed by this act and authorised to be levied 

 upon coals, culm, and cinders ; while the acts dating 

 from 1694, imposing a tax of four shillings per tun on 

 all kinds of wine were at the same time confirmed and 

 renewed, and the radius made identical with the London 

 police jurisdiction, instead of the former limit of twenty 

 miles. These boundary marks were ordered to be set 

 up on turnpike and public roads, beside canals, inland 

 navigations, and railways, and are frequently encoun- 

 tered by the cyclist and pedestrian, to whom their 

 purpose is not a little mysterious. 



The duty on coals entering London amounted in 1885 

 to no less than £449,343, and on wines to £8,488. 

 By far the greater part of these amounts was, of course, 

 collected on the railways and in the i:)ort of London. 

 Originally imposed for the maintenance of London 

 orphans, the wine dues became, like the coal duties, 

 great sources of income, by which many notable 

 London improvements, among them the Victoria 

 Embankment, have been carried out. 



