The water supply was anciently by means of springs and wells, which were very pure, numerous, and valuable. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, Park-side was leased from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster by the Birkheads, and the few houses then there were supplied by a conduit they were permitted by the Crown to use, within Hyde Park. There was a row of conduits in the fields each side of Rotten Row, whose waters were received by the one at the end of Park-side, known as St. James’s, or the Receiving Conduit; and which supplied the royal residences and the Abbey with water. {31} There were several excellent springs also in the hamlet, one of which appears to have been public property, from a story told by Malcolm, to the effect that in 1727, there being an excessive drought, the supply of water was rendered very precarious, and disputes arose between the inhabitants of Knightsbridge as to whom it belonged. The women appear to have taken an unusual share in this quarrel, which was so fiercely carried on, that requisition was had to a magistrate to hinder the tongue giving way to the hands and nails. The magistrate decided that the water belonged to the St. Margaret’s part of the hamlet. CHAPTER II. HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. —“Thus I entertain The antiquarian humour, and am pleased To skim along the surfaces of things, Beguiling harmlessly the listless hours.” WORDSWORTH. SO small a place as our hamlet formerly was, it could not have many historical associations of which to boast, and this chapter must, therefore, be brief. Too small and unimportant to be the scene of great contests, or of political intrigues, few notices of it in connection with history occur, but those few are far from being uninteresting. In the year 1361, a dreadful plague broke out in France, and fears were entertained that it might ravage London. To prevent this, great precautions were taken, and the King promptly issued an order, in which, reciting the evils which were occasioned by the offal and refuse being thrown by the city butchers into the Thames, he ordered, on February 25, with the consent of Parliament then assembled, that to provide “for the honesty of the said city, and the safety of the people,” all “bulls, oxen, hogs, and other gross creatures,” to be slain for the citizens, should be led either to Stratford on the one side, or Knightsbridge on the other, and be there slain and dressed ready for sale. And any butcher offending by killing within these places should be imprisoned one year: a piece of legislative wisdom our own times should imitate.