MrPunch's history of modern England . -some but unexaggerated pen-picture of the Thames and itstributaries :— Vauxhall contributes lime, Lambeth pours forth a rich amalgamfrom the yards of knackers and bone-grinders, Ilorseferry liberallygives up all its dead dogs, Westminster empties its treasures intothe mighty stream by means of a common sewer of uncommondimensions, the Fleet-ditch bears in its inky current the concentratedessences of Clerkenwell, Field-lane, Smithfield, Cowcross—and is,by means of its innumerable branches, augmented by the potent 150 The Filthy Thames ingredients of St. Gi
MrPunch's history of modern England . -some but unexaggerated pen-picture of the Thames and itstributaries :— Vauxhall contributes lime, Lambeth pours forth a rich amalgamfrom the yards of knackers and bone-grinders, Ilorseferry liberallygives up all its dead dogs, Westminster empties its treasures intothe mighty stream by means of a common sewer of uncommondimensions, the Fleet-ditch bears in its inky current the concentratedessences of Clerkenwell, Field-lane, Smithfield, Cowcross—and is,by means of its innumerable branches, augmented by the potent 150 The Filthy Thames ingredients of St. Giless, Somers-town, Barbican, St. Lukes, andthe surrounding- districts. The fluids of the Whitechapcl slaughter-houses call in their transit through the Minories for the contributionsof Houndsdltch, Ratcliff Hig-hway, Bevis Marks, and GoodmansFields, and thus richly laden pour their delicious slime into theThames by means of the Tower-ditch. Finally, the Surrey sideyields the refuse of tar-works and tan-yards, and it is allowed by. THE SILENT HIGHWAY -MAN all, that the people of Deptford, Woolwich, and those situated inthe lower course of the stream, get the Thames water (which heresustains six different characters) in the highest perfection. The cartoon, The Silent Highway -]\Ian, was published in1858, but it is, perhaps, the best of the many pictorial com-ments on the above text. The noisome state of the Serpentine—a lake of mere manure—constantly affronted Punchs sen-sitive nose. Insanitary Smithfield and squalid Covent Gardenelicit dishonourable mention from the early forties onward. But 151 Mr. Punchs History of Modern England it was in 1849, the year of the cholera and typhus visitation,that his crusade against London filth—Plague, Pestilenceand Co.—began in earnest. The evil is traced to the triplesource of bad drainage, overcrowded intramural burial grounds,and the unchecked pollution of the river. Punch salutes A. Walker, the author of Gatherings from
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1921
