STAINES STONE 83 



known variously as ' Staines Stone,' and ' London 

 Stone.' It marks the place where the upper and lower 

 Thames meet ; is the boundary line of Middlesex and 

 Buckinghamshire ; and is also the boundary mark 

 of the Metropolitan Police District. Besides these 

 manifold and important offices, it also delimits the 

 western boundary of the area comprised within the 

 old London Coal and Wine Duties Acts, by which a 

 tax, similar to the octroi still in force at the outskirts 

 of many Continental towns, was levied on all coals, 

 coke, and cinders, and all wines, entering London. 

 Renewed from time to time, the imposts were finally 

 abolished in 1889, but the old posts with cast-iron 

 inscriptions detailing the number and date of the 

 several Acts of Parliament under which these dues 

 were levied, are still to be found beside the roads, 

 rivers, and canals around London. 



Much weather-worn and dilapidated, ' London 

 Stone ' still retains long inscriptions giving the 

 names of the Lord Mayors who have officially visited 

 the spot as ex-officio chairmen of the Thames Con- 

 servancy : — 



Conservators of Thames from mead to mead, 



Great guardians of small sjorites that swim the flood, 



Warders of London Stone, 



as Tom Hood mock-heroically sings. 



Above all is the deeply cut aspiration, ' God 

 Preserve the City of London, a.d, 1280.' The pious 

 prayer has been answered, and six hundred and 

 twenty years later the City has been, like David, 

 delivered out of the hands of the spoiler and from 



