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their malarious ills. And, where so many pass their days
in-doors, at the looms, and sleep, for the most part, on the
ground floors, ventilation demands our foremost regard. The
Bethnal Green portions of the Jews' Burial Grounds are in
this sub-division. On the opposite side, the neighbourhood
is very poor and bad, and is noted for Fever. Equally
notorious is the Irish Colony of Elizabeth Place, or Devil's
Alley near Mile End Gate. In that close parallelogram
bounded before and behind by high walls, the imprisoned air
stagnates, and is unfit to breathe. The East is, par excellence,
our best drained and most healthy Ward. Open to the Park
and the country beyond, it wafts the breezes of life to its less
favoured districts. Nevertheless, these advantages have
their alloy: for two manufactories of manure flourish still, in
this, otherwise, "happy land." The West Ward comprises
the more ancient portions of Bethnal Green. Many of its
houses are large and lofty; but others, in the Courts and Gardens,
are hovels only. The latter, usually do not exceed two
rooms in height, which fortunately, lessens the intensity of the
emanations, and diffuses them more readily into space. "All
the neighbourhood," says Mr. Welch, "north of Church
Street, Friar's Mount, and its pestilential blind alleys, all the
streets bordering on Gibraltar Walk on the east, and Boundary
Street on the west, suffered severely in the Fever
Epidemic in 1836-37, and as severely from Cholera in 1849."
Being densely peopled by the poorest class, and having but
little breathing space, it registers low on the scale of health.
Nor can this be a matter of surprise while hundreds swarm,
like bees, in close, unsunned, low-lying courts. Here in
1849, "in a space of about 400 yards by 150, out of 342
deaths, 208 were from Cholera, and 27 from Diarrhcea."
Here too, "on the 12th, 13th, & 14th of August, Surgeons were
wanted in many places at once, and the hurried passing and
repassing of messengers, and the wailing of relatives filled the
streets with confusion and woe." And here, still, on a low