" The first cistern, castellated with stone in the citie of London, was called the great conduit in Westcheap, which was begun to be builded in the year 1235."*

The water for this cistern was derived from Paddington, and ran a distance of 1100 rods, or about three and three quarter miles, through leaden pipes, this being the first record of such a mode of distribution. This not extensive work occupied fifty years in the construction !

Another supply was soon after obtained from Tyburn, which was in like manner

distributed by a leaden pipe of six inches diameter. Those living near the Thames, used * Hydraulia.

PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 5}

" " its fetching it," says Stowe, water, by many lanes that led to the water side in divers wards of the city." This right of passage-way was finally converted into a source of revenue by the owners of the soil, who exacted a duty from those who passed to and from the river.

As the city increased, new schemes were constantly resorted to, and new sources of supply brought into use. The Paddington springs, and those near Islington, were trained through pipes into the city. At subsequent periods, springs at Hackney, Hampstead Heath, Marylebone, and Muswell Hill, were resorted to. An act of Parliament, in 1544, invested the mayor and commonalty of the city of London, with ample power " to enter into the grounds and possessions of the king, as well as every other person and persons, bodies politic and corporate, where they shall find or know any such springs to be, or may be found, (so that it be not under their houses, gardens, orchards, or places enclosed with stone, brick, or mud walls,) and there to dig pits, trenches, and ditches, to erect heads, lay pipes, make vaults, and do all and every such thing, in the same place and grounds, which shall be meet, proper and necessary, only for the conveyance of the said water and springs to the city, and the suburbs of the same ; and also to have free ingress, in and to all such places where such heads, pipes, or vaults shall be egress, and regress made to view and see from time to time said heads, pipes, suspirats, erected, laid, or ;