The stable cat, too, from the mews! See! she has crossed between the burning rafters, and leaped into the balcony of the next house, with smoking tail and ears. The flames have been smothered for a time by this fall of the ceiling and partition-wall; the Superintendent has now got seven engines round to the front; he takes advantage of the fortunate accident; the wind, too, has shifted; the seven engines pour torrents of water upon the smoking mass and against the walls, and thus continue till the most frightful of all enemies is thoroughly subdued and reduced to blackness and quietude. Most dismal is the scene of devastation; but the enemy is at all events laid prostrate and rendered incapable of further mischief. Drenched to the skin with cold water, and reeking at the same time with perspiration, the gallant men of the Fire Brigade return to their several quarters. Two of them, however, remain on watch with an engine all night, a change of clothes and ‘a dram’ being sent them from the station. The present efficient condition of fire-engines, as may easily be supposed, has only been the result of many years of skilful experiment and practical experience. Our ancestors (notwithstanding their wisdom) were by no means furnished with such means of extinguishing fire, although, from the great number of wooden buildings, and greater quantity of wooden materials employed, to say nothing of thatch, they had greater need of them. On the other hand, they had not so many scientific combustibles among them. Still, the want of a proper engine is manifest from what we know of their attempts in that way. They used squirts,—actually nothing but squirts. Every alderman was obliged to provide one. It will be understood that the squirt was not of schoolboy dimensions, but so large as to require two men, holding it in their arms between them, like a sort of mummy, to dip its nose into a bucket, and then, raising it to the proper angle, discharge the contents at the building on fire.