Francis Bacon (afterwards the great Lord Verulam) asked, in 1617, for a lead pipe to supply York-house, and Alice, Countess of Derby, requested to be allowed a quill of water in the following year. This celebrated lady, afterwards married to Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, lived in St. Martin's-lane, and we learn from the City letter-book (quoted in the index to the _Remembrancia_) the amount of water supplied to her was at the rate of three gallons an hour. In subsequent years, we notice among the applicants for quills of water the celebrated names of Sir Harry Vane, Denzell Holles, the Dukes of Albemarle and Buckingham, and the Earl of Northumberland." Cavendish and Watt demonstrated that water is composed of 8 parts of Oxygen and 1 part of Hydrogen. In freezing, water contracts till it is reduced to 42° or 40° Fahr. It then begins to expand till it becomes ice at 32°. Water was first conveyed to London by leaden pipes, 21 Henry III. 1237.--_Stow_. So late as Queen Anne's time there were water-carriers at Aldgate Pump. The Water Works at Chelsea were completed and the Company incorporated in 1722. London Bridge ancient water works were destroyed by fire, 29th Oct., 1779. Commissioners for Metropolitan Water Supply appointed 27th April, 1867; Report Signed 9th June, 1869; London supplied by Nine Companies. The New River (the best) East London, Chelsea, Grand Junction, Southwark, and Vauxhall, Kent, West Middlesex, Lambeth, and South Essex; who deliver about 108,000,000 gallons daily, 1867; about 116,250,000 gallons daily, 1877. In 1880, the Nominal Capital of Eight Water Companies was £12,011,320. THE VILLAGE OF BATTERSEA lies on the south side of the Thames opposite Chelsea, to which it has some historical relationship on account of its having been the seat of our Porcelain manufacture and of Saxon origin. It is situated about four miles South West of St. Paul's Cathedral. Battersea is a polling place for the Mid-divisions of the County in the Wandsworth Division of the West Brixton Hundred. Wandsworth Union and County Court District, Surrey Arch-Deaconry, and late Winchester, but now Rochester Diocese;[1] it is also within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, Metropolitan Board of Works, Metropolitan Police, and Wandsworth Police Court. The Parish is divided into four Wards. Penge[2] lies in Croydon district detached from the main body seven miles distant. The entire parish comprehends an area of 3183 acres.[3] Acres of the main body, 2177 of land 166 of water.--_Wilson's Gazetteer of England and Wales_. In 1792, there were two places of worship, viz., the Parish Church and the Old Baptist Meeting House in York Road; the number of houses within the parish at that period was 380. The following tabular statement will give but an inadequate conception of the growth of the parish since then:-- Date of Year. Population. Number of Houses.