London, for its size, was indeed very well supplied with water,
although, of course, it was not laid on to every house, as now, but,
with the exception of those houses provided with wells, it had to be
fetched from fixed public places, which were fairly numerous. When the
waters of the Fleet, and Wallbrook, in the process of time, became
contaminated, Henry III., in the 21st year of his reign (1236), granted
to the Citizens of London the privilege of conveying the waters of the
Tye-bourne through leaden pipes to the City, "for the poore to drinke,
and the rich to dresse their meate." And it is only a few years since,
that close by what is now called "Sedley Place," Oxford Street, but
which used to be the old hunting lodge of bygone Lord Mayors, some of
these very pipes were unearthed, a fine cistern being uncovered at the
same time.
For public use there were the great Conduit in West Cheape: the Tonne
or Tun in Cornhill, fountains at Billingsgate, at Paul's Wharf, and
St. Giles', Cripplegate, and conduits at Aldermanbury, the Standard
in Fleet Street, Gracechurch Street, Holborn Cross (afterwards Lamb's
Conduit), at the Stocks Market (where the Mansion House now stands),
Bishopsgate, London Wall, Aldgate, Lothbury--and this without reckoning
the supply furnished from the Thames by the enterprising German, or
Dutchman, Pieter Moritz, who in 1582 started the famous waterworks
close to where Fishmongers' Hall now stands.
The Fleet river (I prefer that title to the other cognomen, "Ditch"),
flowing through London, naturally became somewhat befouled, and in
Henry the VII.'s time, _circa_ 1502, it was cleansed, so that, as
aforesaid, "boats with fish and fewel were rowed to Fleete bridge,
and to Oldburne bridge." We also know, as Stow records, that more
springs were introduced into the stream from Hampstead, without effect,
either as to deepening or purifying the river, which had an evil
reputation even in the time of Edward I., as we see in Ryley's "Placita
Parliamentaria" (ed. 1661), p. 340--
"_Ad peticionem Com. Lincoln._ querentis quod cum cursus aque,
que currit apud _London_ sub _Ponte_ de _Holeburn_, & _Ponte_ de
_Fleete_ usque in _Thamisiam_ solebat ita largus & latus esse,
ac profundus, quod decem Naves vel duodecim ad predictum Pontem
de _Fleete_ cum diversis rebus & mercandisis solebant venire,
& quedam illarum Navium sub illo Ponte transire, usque ad
predictum Pontem de _Holeburn_ ad predictum cursum mundanmum &
simos exinde cariand, nunc ille cursus per fordes & inundaciones
Taunatorum & p varias perturbaciones in predicta aqua, factas
& maxime per exaltationem Caye & diversionem aque quam ipsi de
_Novo Templo_ fecerunt ad Molendina sua extra Castra _Baignard_,
quod Naves predicte minime intrare possunt sicut solebant,
& facere debeant &c. unde supplicat quod _Maior de London_
assumptis secum Vice com. & discretionibus Aldermannis cursum
pre[=d]ce aque videat, & quod per visum & sacr[~m] proborum
& legalium hominum faciat omnia nocumenta predicte aque que
invinerit ammovere & reparare cursum predictum, & ipsum in
tali statu manutenere in quo antiquitus esse solebat &c. _Ita
responsum est, Assignentur Rogerus le Brabazon & Constabularius
Turris, London Maior & Vice Com. London, quod ipsi assumptit
secum discretionibus Aldermannis London, &c., inquirant per
sacramentum &c., qualiter fieri consuevit & qualis cursus. Et
necumenta que invenerint ammoveant & manueri faciant in eadem
statu quo antiquitus esse solebat._"
Latin for which a modern schoolboy would get soundly rated, or birched,
but which tells us that even as far back as Edward I. the Fleet river
was a nuisance; and as the endorsement (Patent Roll 35 Edward I.)
shows--"De cursu aquæ de Fleta supervivendo et corrigendo," _i.e._,
that the Fleet river should be looked after and amended. But the
Commission issued to perfect this work was discontinued, owing to the
death of the king. (Patent Roll 1 Edward II., pars 1. m. dorso.) "De
Cursu Aquæ Flete, &c., reducend et impedimenta removend."
And Prynne, in his edition of Cotton's "Records" (ed. 1669, p.
188), asks "whether such a commission and inquiry to make this
river navigable to Holborn Bridge or Clerkenwell, would not now be
seasonable, and a work worthy to be undertaken for the public benefit,
trade, and health of the City and Suburbs, I humbly submit to the
wisdom and judgment of those whom it most Concerns."
So that it would appear, although otherwise stated, that the Fleet was
not navigable in May, 1669, the date of the publication of Prynne's
book.
As a matter of fact it got to be neither more nor less than an open
sewer, to which the lines in Coleridge's "Table Talk" would well apply--
"In Cöln, that town of monks and bones,
And pavements fang'd with murderous stones,
And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches,
I counted two-and-seventy stenches;
All well-defined and genuine stinks!
Ye nymphs, that reign o'er sewers and sinks,
The river Rhine, it is well known,
Doth wash the City of Cologne;
But, tell me, nymphs, what power divine
Shall henceforth wash the River Rhine?"
The smell of the Fleet river was notorious; so much so, that Farquhar,
in his _Sir Harry Wildair_, act ii., says, "Dicky! Oh! I was just dead
of a Consumption, till the sweet smoke of _Cheapside_, and the dear
perfume of _Fleet Ditch_ made me a man again!" In Queen Anne's time,
too, it bore an evil reputation: _vide The Tatler_ (No. 238, October
17, 1710) by Steele and Swift.[9]
"Now from all parts the swelling kennels flow,
And bear their trophies with them as they go:
Filth of all hues and odours seem to tell
What street they sail'd from, by their sight and smell.
They, as each torrent drives, with rapid force,
From Smithfield or St. Pulchre's shape their course,
And in huge confluent join'd at Snow Hill ridge,
Fall from the Conduit, prone to Holborn Bridge.
Sweepings from butchers' stalls, dung, guts, and blood,
Drown'd puppies, stinking sprats, all drench'd in mud,
Dead cats and turnip-tops come tumbling down the flood."
We get a glimpse of prehistoric London, and the valley of the Fleet, in
Gough's "British Topography," vol. i. p. 719 (ed. 1780). Speaking of
John Conyers, "apothecary, one of the first Collectors of antiquities,
especially those relating to London, when the City was rebuilding....
He inspected most of the gravel-pits near town for different sorts and
shapes of stones. In one near the sign of Sir J. Oldcastle, about 1680,
he discovered the skeleton of an elephant, which he supposed had lain
there only since the time of the Romans, who, in the reign of Claudius,
fought the Britons near this place, according to Selden's notes on
the Polyolbion. In the same pit he found the head of a British spear
of flint, afterwards in the hands of Dr. Charlett, and engraved in
Bagford's letter." We, now-a-days, with our more accurate knowledge of
Geology and Palæontology, would have ascribed a far higher ancestry to
the "elephant."
As a matter of course, a little river like the Fleet must have become
the receptacle of many articles, which, once dropped in its waters,
could not be recovered; so that it is not surprising to read in the
_Mirror_ of March 22, 1834 (No. 653, p. 180), an account of antiquarian
discoveries therein, which, if not archæologically correct, is at least
interesting.
"In digging this Canal between Fleet Prison and Holborn Bridge,
several Roman utensils were lately discovered at the depth of 15 feet;
and a little deeper, a great quantity of Roman Coins, in silver,
brass, copper, and all other metals except gold. Those of silver were
ring money, of several sizes, the largest about the bigness of a
Crown, but gradually decreasing; the smallest were about the size of a
silver Twopence, each having a snip at the edge. And at Holborn Bridge
were dug up two brazen lares, or household gods, about four inches in
length, which were almost incrusted with a petrified matter: one of
these was Bacchus, and the other Ceres; but the coins lying at the
bottom of the current, their lustre was in a great measure preserved,
by the water incessantly washing off the oxydizing metal. Probably
the great quantity of coin found in this ditch, was thrown in by the
Roman inhabitants of this city for its preservation at the approach
of Boadicæa at the head of her army: but the Roman Citizens, without
distinction of age or sex, being barbarously murdered by the justly
enraged Britons, it was not discovered till this time.
"Besides the above-mentioned antiquities, several articles of a more
modern date were discovered, as arrow-heads, scales, seals with
the proprietors' names upon them in Saxon characters; spur rowels
of a hand's breadth, keys and daggers, covered over with livid
rust; together with a considerable number of medals, with crosses,
crucifixes, and Ave Marias engraven thereon."
A paper was read, on June 11, 1862, to the members of the British
Archæological Association, by Mr. Ganston, who exhibited various relics
lately recovered from the bed of the river Fleet, but they were not
even of archæological importance--a few knives, the earliest dating
from the fifteenth century, and a few knife handles.
Previously, at a meeting of the same Society, on December 9, 1857, Mr.
C. H. Luxmore exhibited a green glazed earthenware jug of the sixteenth
century, found in the Fleet.
And, before closing this antiquarian notice of the Fleet, I cannot but
record some early mention of the river which occur in the archives of
the Corporation of the City of London:--
(17 Edward III., A.D. 1343, Letter-book F, fol. 67.) "Be it
remembered that at the Hustings of Common Pleas, holden on
the Monday next before the Feast of Gregory the Pope, in the
17th year of the reign of King Edward, after the Conquest, the
Third, Simon Traunceys, Mayor, the Aldermen and the Commonalty,
of the City of London, for the decency and cleanliness of the
same city, granted upon lease to the butchers in the Parish of
St. Nicholas Shambles, in London, a piece of land in the lane
called 'Secollane' (sea coal), neare to the water of Flete, for
the purpose of there, in such water, cleansing the entrails
of beasts. And upon such piece of land the butchers aforesaid
were to repair a certain quay at their charges, and to keep the
same in repair; they paying yearly to the Mayor of London for
the time being, at the Feast of our Lord's Nativity, one boar's
head."[10]
(31 Edward III., A.D. 1357, Letter-book G, fol. 72.) "Also, it
is ordered, that no man shall take, or cause to be carried,
any manner of rubbish, earth, gravel, or dung, from out of his
stables or elsewhere, to throw, and put the same into the rivers
of Thames and Flete, or into the Fosses around the walls of the
City: and as to the dung that is found in the streets and lanes,
the same shall be carried and taken elsewhere out of the City by
carts, as heretofore; or else by the _raykers_[11] to certain
spots, that the same may be put into the _dongebotes_,[12]
without throwing anything into the Thames; for saving the body
of the river, and preserving the quays, such as Dowegate,
Quenhethe, and Castle Baynards, (and) elsewhere, for lading
and unlading; as also, for avoiding the filthiness that is
increasing in the water, and upon the banks of the Thames, to
the great abomination and damage of the people. And, if any
one shall be found doing the Contrary hereof, let him have the
prison for his body, and other heavy punishment as well, at the
discretion of the Mayor and of the Aldermen."[13]
(7 Henry V. A.D. 1419, Journal 1, fol. 61.) "It is granted that
the _risshbotes_[14] at the Flete and elsewhere in London shall
be taken into the hands of the Chamberlain; and the Chamberlain
shall cause all the streets to be cleansed."[15]
The northern heights of London, the "ultima Thule" of men like Keats,
and Shelley, abound in springs, which form the bases of several little
streams, which are fed on their journey to their bourne, the Thames
(to which they act as tributaries), by numerous little brooklets and
rivulets, which help to swell their volume. On the northern side of
the ridge which runs from Hampstead to Highgate, birth is given to
the Brent, which, springing from a pond in the grounds of Sir Spencer
Wells, is pent up in a large reservoir at Hendon, and finally debouches
into the Thames at Brentford, where, from a little spring, which it is
at starting, it becomes so far a "fleet" as to allow barges to go up
some distance.
[Illustration: SHEPHERD'S WELL, HAMPSTEAD.]
On the southern side of the ridge rise the Tybourne, and the
Westbourne. The former had its rise in a spring called Shepherd's Well,
in Shepherd's Fields, Hampstead, which formed part of the district now
known as Belsize Park and FitzJohn's Avenue, which is the finest road
of private houses in London. Shepherd's Well is depicted in Hone's
"Table Book," pp. 381, 2, and shows it as it was over fifty years
since. Alas! it is a thing of the past; a railway tunnel drained the
spring, and a mansion, now known as The Conduit Lodge, occupies its
site. It meandered by Belsize House, through St. John's Wood, running
into Regent's Park, where St. Dunstan's now is, and, close to the
Ornamental Water, it was joined by a little rivulet which sprang from
where now, is the Zoological Gardens. It went across Marylebone Road,
and, as nearly as possible, Marylebone Lane shows its course; then
down South Molton Street, passing Brook Street, and Conduit Street,
by Mayfair, to Clarges Street, across Oxford Street and into a pond
in the Green Park called the Ducking Pond, which was possibly used as
a place of punishment for scolds, or may have been an ornamental pond
for water-fowl. Thence it ran in front of Buckingham Palace, where it
divided, which was the cause of its name. Twy, or Teo (double), and
Bourne, Brook--one stream running into the Thames west of Millbank,
doing duty by the way in turning the Abbey Mill (whence the name),
and the other debouching east of Westminster Bridge, thus forming
the Island of Thorns, or Thorney Isle, on which Edward the Confessor
founded his abbey, and the City of Westminster.
The Westbourne took its rise in a small pond near "Telegraph Hill,"
at Hampstead; two or three brooklets joined it, and it ran its course
across the Finchley Road, to the bottom of Alexandra Road, Kilburn,
where it was met by another stream, which had its source at Frognal,
Hampstead. It then became the West bourne, as being the most westerly
of all the rivers near London, taking the Wallbrook, the Fleet, and the
Tybourne.
Its course may be traced down Kilburn Park Road, and Shirland Road.
Crossing the Harrow Road where now is Westbourne Park Station,
_Eastbourne_ and _Westbourne_ Terraces mark the respective banks, and,
after crossing the Uxbridge Road, it runs into the Serpentine at the
Engine House. Feeding that sheet of water, it comes out again at the
Albert Gate end, runs by Lowndes Square, Cadogan Place, &c., and,
finally, falls into the river at Chelsea Hospital.
[Footnote 9: _Journal to Stella_, October 17, 1710--"This day
came out _The Tatler_, made up wholly of my Shower, and a
preface to it. They say it is the best thing I ever writ, and
I think so too."]
[Footnote 10: "Memorials of London and London Life in the
Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Centuries," by H. J.
Riley, 1868, p. 214.]
[Footnote 11: The street sweepers.]
[Footnote 12: Dung boats.]
[Footnote 13: See Riley, p. 299.]
[Footnote 14: This was probably because the rushes were spilt
in the river. At that time the house-floors were strewn with
rushes, which were brought to London in "Rush boats;" and an
ordinance, _temp._ 4 Henry V., provides that "all rushes in
future, laden in boats or skiffs, and brought here for sale,
should be sold by the cart-load, as from of old had been wont
to be done. And that the same cart-loads were to be made up
within the boats and skiffs in which the said rushes are
brought to the City, and not upon the ground, or upon the
wharves, walls, or embankments of the water of Thames, near or
adjacent to such boats or skiffs; under a heavy penalty upon
the owner or owners of such boats, skiffs, and rushes, at the
discretion of the Mayor and Aldermen."]
[Footnote 15: See Riley, p. 675.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]