"_By Hook or by Crook._"--The destruction caused by the Fire of London,
A.D. 1666, during which some 13,200 houses, &c., were burnt down, in very
many cases obliterated all the boundary-marks requisite to determine the
extent of land, and even the very sites occupied by buildings, previously
to this terrible visitation. When the rubbish was removed, and the land
cleared, the disputes and entangled claims of those whose houses had been
destroyed, both as to the position and extent of their property, promised
not only interminable occupation to the courts of law, but made the far
more serious evil of delaying the rebuilding of the city, until these
disputes were settled, inevitable. Impelled by the necessity of coming to a
more speedy settlement of their respective claims than could be hoped for
from legal process, it was determined that the claims and interests of all
persons concerned should be referred to the judgment and decision of two of
the most experienced land-surveyors of that day,--men who had been
thoroughly acquainted with London previously to the fire; and in order to
escape from the numerous and vast evils which mere delay must occasion,
that the decision of these two arbitrators should be final and binding. The
surveyors appointed to determine the rights of the various claimants were
Mr. Hook and Mr. Crook, who by the justice of their decisions gave general
satisfaction to the interested parties, and by their speedy determination
of the different claims, permitted the rebuilding of the city to proceed
without the least delay. Hence arose the saying above quoted, usually
applied to the extrication of persons or things from a difficulty. The
above anecdote was told the other evening by an old citizen upwards of
eighty, by no means of an imaginative temperament.