Transcriber’s Note Italic text displayed as: _italic_ ^ means abbreviation [Illustration: SOUTH WEST INDIA DOCK. WESTERN ENTRANCE. BARGES WAITING TO LEAVE THE DOCK. _See p. 65._] THE THAMES AND ITS DOCKS A LECTURE BY ALEX^R FORROW (_Of the East and West India Dock Company_) DELIVERED AT THE EAST AND WEST INDIA DOCK COMPANY’S LITERARY INSTITUTION, DECEMBER 18, 1876. CHAIRMAN: PERCIVAL BOSANQUET, ESQ., CHAIRMAN OF THE EAST AND WEST INDIA DOCK COMPANY.—ALSO AT CITY OF LONDON COLLEGE, LEADENHALL STREET, FEBRUARY 8, 1877. CHAIRMAN: GEORGE H. CHAMBERS, ESQ., CHAIRMAN OF THE LONDON AND ST. KATHARINE DOCKS COMPANY LONDON PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY SPOTTISWOODE & CO., 38 ROYAL EXCHANGE _And to be had of All Booksellers_ 1877 TO J. L. DU PLAT TAYLOR, ESQ. SECRETARY EAST AND WEST INDIA DOCK COMPANY THIS LITTLE WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE WRITER PREFACE. At the urgent request of many who have heard this lecture, I have been induced to publish it. I have had considerable hesitation in doing so, because, as its structure sufficiently indicates, it was never written with a view to publication. It is a sketch, and nothing more, of a great subject, condensed into a two hours’ address. As, however, it contains some curious information of considerable interest, otherwise difficult of access, it has been considered worthy of preservation in its present form. With a view to placing the readers of this lecture, as far as possible, in the position of hearers of it, I have accompanied it with some of the rarest and most interesting of the plans with which it was illustrated. Whatever may be its shortcomings in other respects—and I am conscious they are many—I venture to hope that this feature of it will prove generally acceptable. A. FORROW. WOODFORD: _February 1877_. THE THAMES AND ITS DOCKS.