62
ON TREE-TRUNK WATER-PIPES.
by William Maitland, F.R.S., and others, published in 1756, that
when in the time of James 1st there was a demand for additional
water supply, which led to the formation of the New River by
Sir Hugh Middleton (1609-13), the water thus brought to
Islington was there "engulph'd by fifty-eight large wooden
pipes." These pipes were each of a seven inch bore. Maitland
mentions the places from which water had been brought for the
supply of London:—
" From London Bridge eight main pipes of a seven inch bore ; from
Hampstead and Highgate two mains of seven inches; from St. Maiy-le-bone
two mains of seven inches; from Hide Park three mains of six inches; from
Chelsea five mains, viz., one of six, three of seven, and one of eight inches." We
are also informed that these main pipes "are branched out into a vast number
of smaller pipes, which convey the water through all parts of the City and
Suburbs; into the houses of which it is carried by small leaden pipes."
It is evident that this fragment of a pipe from Wigmore
Street did not belong to a main, as the diameter of its channel is
only about three inches. Mr. Willoughby tells me that similar
pipes of larger bore were seen crossing at right angles those lying
along Wigmore Street. It is of course impossible to say whether
these pipes are those which were laid down when Wigmore
Street, Cavendish Square and other streets adjacent were built,
or not. These streets seem to have been built between the years
1720 and 1740, and are shown on Rocque's Map of London and its
environs, made between the years 1741-5.
In Rees' Cyclopaedia (London 1819) wooden waterpipes are said
to have been usually made of elm or alder; oak, though other-
wise preferable being much more difficult to bore, and conse-
quently more expensive. The defects of wooden pipes are said
to be their want of strength to resist pressure and their liability
to decay at the joints. A patent taken out in 1806 for improved
wooden water pipes had not been a success; and we learn that,
"within these few years past," the great London water com-
panies had adopted cast-iron pipes for their mains, and were
daily increasing their numbers, though popular prejudice was at
first strongly excited against iron, as being likely to give the
water a metallic flavour, which would be injurious to health.
Our Secretary, Mr. W. Cole, having suggested to me that our
member, Mr. H. G. Morris, of the Kent Water Company,
probably knew something about these wooden pipes, I applied to
that gentleman, and he was good enough to favour me with the