Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 309: New Series, Saturday, December 8, 1849Various
General
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 309: New Series, Saturday, December 8, 1849
Various
Periodicals
Of course you have heard of the dismissal of the first Sewers'
Commission, and the appointment of a new one, with Lord Ebrington as
chairman? we must hope not without an intention of _real_ work. The
call for competing drainage-plans was answered by not less than 148
projects being sent in, among which no single one is found efficient;
the schemes, in fact, comprise all sorts of possibilities and
impossibilities. A good many are mere modifications or reproductions
of the plan proposed by Mr J. Martin many years ago, which included
a continuous sewer on each side of the Thames from Vauxhall to
Rotherhithe, to be surmounted by a terrace to serve as a public
thoroughfare. Could this noble scheme be realised, Londoners would
have what has long been a desideratum--a river promenade. Cleaning
of streets and water-supply come in as part of the same subject: in
some parishes bands of 'street orderlies,' as they are called, have
been set to work. They wear a broad-brimmed, black-glazed hat, and a
blue blouse, and in appearance remind one of the 'cantonniers' who
work on the roads in France. The orderlies are provided with a broom
and shovel, and remove all litter as fast as it accumulates. So well
do they do their work, that crossing-sweepers are not needed in their
districts. As regards water, it is a prime subject of discussion at
present, and it is to be hoped that something will come of it. Several
schemes are advocated: to bring water from the Thames at Henley, some
thirty miles distant; to tap Bala Lake, and so introduce the pure
element from North Wales; to bore Artesian wells. If Bala will give
us all we want, in name of the Naiads let us have it! for those who
are learned in subterrane matters declare the Artesian supply to be
an impossibility, and we don't want to drink the out-poured refuse of
Reading or Henley. At all events, the Duke of Wellington has authorised
the sinking of an Artesian well within the precincts of the Tower,
that the garrison may, for once in their lives, know the taste of good
water. It will be a proud day for Cockneydom when it ceases to drink
the superflux of sewers and cesspools!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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