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 ;

and vaults, and them to amend, repair, translate, and do all things necessary and convenient, as well for the finding of new springs, as for the conveyance of any water or springs now found, or hereafter to be found, to the city and suburbs aforesaid, without interruption, let, or impediment, of the owners of the ground, their lessees, assigns, or ministers, or any other person."

All ground, however, needed for the use of these conduits, or aqueducts, was, by the same act, to be appraised by three or four indifferent persons, appointed by the Lord Chancellor, and to be paid for within one month after possession was taken. A special reservation, moreover, was made of the spring at the foot of Hampstead Hill, which was used by the inhabitants of the town of Hampstead.