But hark! Distress with Screaming Voice draws nigh'r, And wakes the slumb'ring Street with Cries of Fire. At first a glowing Red enwraps the Skies, And borne by Winds the scatt'ring Sparks arise; From Beam to Beam, the fierce Contagion spreads; The Spiry Flames now lift aloft their Heads, Through the burst Sash a blazing Deluge pours, And splitting Tiles descend in rattling Show'rs. Now with thick Crouds th' enlighten'd Pavement swarms, The Fire-man sweats beneath his crooked Arms, A leathern Casque his vent'rous Head defends, Boldly he climbs where thickest Smoak ascends; Mov'd by the Mother's streaming Eyes and Pray'rs, The helpless Infant through the Flame he bears; With no less Virtue, than through hostile Fire, The _Dardan_ Hero bore his aged Sire. See forceful Engines spout their levell'd Streams, To quench the Blaze that runs along the Beams; The grappling Hook plucks Rafters from the Walls, And Heaps on Heaps the smoaky Ruine falls. Blown by strong Winds the fiery Tempest roars, Bears down new Walls, and pours along the Floors: The Heav'ns are all a blaze, the Face of Night Is cover'd with a sanguine dreadful Light. .............................................. Hark! the Drum thunders! far, ye Crouds retire; Behold the ready Match is tipt with Fire, The Nitrous Store is laid, the smutty Train With running Blaze awakes the barrell'd Grain; Flames sudden wrap the Walls; with sullen Sound, The shatter'd Pile sinks on the smoaky Ground. The sanitary arrangements of these houses were very defective, and the streets at night time must have been anything but pleasant walks. 'We had not walk'd the usual distance between a _Church_ and an _Alehouse_, but some Odoriferous _Civet Box_ perfum'd the Air, and saluted our Nostrils with so refreshing a Nosegay, that I thought the whole City (_Edenborough-like_) had been over-flow'd with an inundation of Surreverence.'[82] [Footnote 82: _The London Spy._] The water supply, too, was not good. Old-fashioned wells and pumps, sunk in a crowded city full of cesspools and graveyards, could not have furnished a healthy supply. Of course there was the water brought by the city from Highgate and Hampstead, and there was the New River, but it evidently was not sufficient for the use of the inhabitants, or it would not have been hawked about. [Illustration: 'New River Water!']