86 Bevieus — C. E. Be Ranee's Water Supply. 



Old London in 1560, and successively in 1745, 1818-34^67, to the 

 present time 1881, wliich is further supplemented by another Map 

 (p. 184), on which the areas now supplied by the nine different water 

 companies are fully shown. 



Mr. Topley has pointed out the relation of the parish boundaries 

 of the south-east of England to the great geological escarpments, 

 due in great measure to the early settlement of these regions by our 

 ancestors on districts affording a water supply (p. 278). Journ. 

 Anthropol. Inst. vol. iii. p. 32. 



Professor Hull shows that along the valley of the Evenlode, and 

 other parts of the district, villages are planted wherever there are 

 copious sj)rings combined with a dry situation ; some of these villages 

 are perhaps as old as the Norman Conquest, and have not altered 

 much in size through several centuries (p. 218). Mem. Geol Surv. 

 1859, p. 8. 



Mr. Fox-Strangways, in his description of the country around 

 Scarborough and Filey, shows how geological structure has influenced 

 the selection of sites for villages, nearly all being " on either edge of 

 the great c\&,y valley, where springs of beautiful calcareous water 

 burst out" (Mem. Geol. Surv. 1880). 



Prof. Buckraan describes the outcrop of the Cornbrash between 

 Witham Friary and Hard way to Wincanton, as marked by a line of 

 villages, due, not only to the fertility of the soil of the Cornbrash, 

 but to its being a collecting ground for water kept up by the 

 impervious Forest Marble beneath (p. 353). 



Dr. Lycett remarks that in the Cotteswold district to the south-east 

 of Stroud, the course of the Fullers Earth upon the flanks of the 

 valleys is indicated by a zone of cottages and gardens, which often 

 afford a striking contrast to the barren slopes of the Inferior Oolite 

 beneath. This association of population and fertility is due to the 

 springs of water which are emitted from the junction of the Fullers 

 Earth with the Great Oolite (The Cotteswold Hills, p. 86). 



The subject of water and water supply has for some years past 

 occupied much attention, especially as the increase of the population 

 in towns and cities required a further supply for various sanitary 

 and manufacturing purposes ; while the defective state and frequent 

 contamination of water in rural villages from the proximity of 

 shallow wells to cesspits and ashpits necessitated some further 

 remedial measures. Prof. Prestwich remarks, " Although the fla- 

 grant sources of contamination are generally removed from our large 

 towns, they still too often lurk in hidden or forgotten corners, while 

 in hundreds of smaller towns and villages, and in thousands of 

 country houses, the plague-spot still exists in almost all its foulness 

 and intensity" (Lecture on Water Supply, Oxford, 1876). 



Koyal and Parliamentary Commissions in 1868, 1874, 1877, 1878, 

 have collected much information on water-supply and the state of 

 our rivers ; Committees have been appointed on Rivers conservation, 

 and for inquiry into the Underground Circulation of water (Brit. 

 Assoc. 1874-75), and many contributions have been made to scientific 

 institutions, on the storage, flow, and distribution of water, besides 



