of sixty or more, well apparallelled, and wearing green Monmouth caps all alike, carried spades, shovels, pick-axes, and such like instru- ments of laborious employments, marching after drums twice or thrice about the cisterns, presented themselves before the mount, where the Lord Maior and worthy company stood to behold them, and one man in behalf of all the rest, delivered a speech in verse, narra- ting the progress of the work. It thus concluded : At the Opening of the Sluice : " Now for the fruits then, flow forth precious spring, So long and dearly sought for — and now bring Comfort to all that love thee ; loudly sing, And with thy crystal murmurs, strook together, Bid all thy true well-wishers welcome hither." At which words, the flood-gates flew open, and the stream ran gallantly into the PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 55 cistern ; drums and trumpets sounding in triumphant manner ; and a brave peal of chambers gave a full issue to the intended entertainment." The accomplishment of this noble and disinterested enterprise, has justly immor- talized the name of Hugh Myddelton. The Goldsmith's Company, of which craft he was, has his portrait among the decorations of their Hall, and in the year 1800, Robert Mylue, Esq., the engineer of the Company who own the river which Myddelton lias taught to pour its salubrious stream into the heart of London, erected on an islet in the basin at Amwell, a monument to his memory, one side of which bears this inscription : SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF SIR HUGH MYDDELTON, BARONET, WHOSE SUCCESSFUL CARE, AIDED BY THE PATRONAGE OF HIS KING, CONVEYED THIS STREAM TO LONDON: AN IMMORTAL WORK, SINCE MEN CANNOT MORE NEARLY IMITATE THE DEITY, THAN IN BESTOWING HEALTH. The documents connected with the cost of this most useful work, were destroyed by fire ; but, from conjectural estimates, it is calculated at between one and two hundred thousand pounds. The New River Company was incorporated under James L, in 1619, and Sir Hugh Myddelton, was appointed Governor. For the purpose of avoiding hills and valleys, the New River has a meandering course, arid hence the various windings render its length considerable, although the springs at its source if measured in a direct line, are distant only about twenty miles from Lon- don. The line of the river is very nearly thirty-four miles. More than one hundred and sixty bridges cross it- — some of brick, some of iron, and some of wood. There are about sixty culverts that pass beneath its bed the various brooks and rivulets which it traverses in its course. The descent is about three inches to the mile. Both its depth and width vary — the former seldom exceeding five feet, the latter averaging eighteen feet. The springs which originally supplied this river, were, as has been before men- tioned, in the villages of Amwell and Chadwell, in Hertfordshire. But these were found unequal to the increasing demand, and recourse was had to the river Lea, which runs in a copious stream near the new river. An act of Parliament in 1738, authorised this use of certain portions of the waters 50 PREL1MINARYESSAY. of the Lea, on condition of a present sum paid down, and a perpetual annuity, for the • improvement of the navigation of that river. The quantity of water to be abstracted from the Lea, was regulated by a balance engine of which the channel was 14 feet long, 6 broad and 2 deep. When the reservoirs at New River Head, at Clerkenwell, are full, they stand at a level of eighty-four arid a half feet above high water in the Thames ; which, however, only enabled the Company to fill the cisterns in the basement stories of the houses they sup- plied. Hence, in 1810, resort was had to steam engines to throw the water up, and then a head was thus obtained 144 feet above the level of the Thames, and high enough for the loftiest houses. Another consequence of employing the steam engine, was the repla- cing the wooden tubes through which the water was first conveyed, by iron pipes. At one time this company had 400 miles laid down of wooden tubes, of which about twenty miles, on an average, required to be renewed every year, thus causing the whole to be renewed every 20 years. This was a monstrous annual drain, besides the public incon- venience of constantly breaking up the great thoroughfares to replace these tubes. The smallness of the bores, moreover, of the tubes, seldom exceeding eight inches, required a great multiplication of trains to transmit the needful supply of water. In 1810, nine trains were laid side by side in one street. In the course of the next ten years, all