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lungs. In others, there is great exposure to the weather. In some, there
is a great amount of loss of rest and exposure to the night air. In
others, there is a great deal of confinement in close apartments and want of
exercise. In some, exposure to noxious exhalations of various kinds. In
some, an excessive amount of labour. In others, there is great exposure to
heat or to cold; and last, though not least, in some there is great and overburthening
mental anxiety.
All these varieties must doubtless tell seriously upon the health more or
less of districts generally.
LEWISHAM.
The parish of Lewisham [so called from læsew, a meadow, and ham, a
village], is situate upon a very undulating tract of land; is bounded upon
the north by the parish of Greenwich and of St. Paul's, Deptford; on the
north-west and west by the parish of Camberwell; on the south by the
parish of Beckenham, which here forms a tongue of land, separating it
from the hamlet of Penge; on the south by the parish of Bromley; on the
east by the parish of Lee; on the north-east by the parishes of Kidbrooke
and Plumstead.
The village of Penge, a hamlet of Battersea, is bounded on the north
and north-east by the parish of Beckenham; on the north-west by the
parish of Camberwell; on the west by a point of the parish of Lambeth;
on the south and south-east by the parish of Croydon.
The District is intersected by the river Ravensbourne, which takes its
rise on Keston Common, not far from the borders of Surrey, and near an
old fortified camp which Drs. Tabor and Hasted suppose to have been the
encampment of the Roman legions under Aulus Plautius, whilst awaiting
the arrival of the Emperor Claudius.
Taking a most sinuous course, it flows north north-west at the base of
Bromley Hill, between the parishes of Hayes and Bromley, receiving three
branches in Lord Farnborough's park, and proceeding to Southend, expands
into a broad sheet of water; again narrowing, it continues its course through
the fields, and near Catford Bridge unites with the small river Chaffinch, or
Poole River (which receives two branches from the Norwood hills), and
flowing on the north-west side of Lewisham across Brockley Road, did receive
the water of the Lady Well, which since the building of the new
sewer in this road has been closed up.
It also receives, after passing nearly through Lewisham, the stream of
water called the Ravensbourne Brook, which runs through the entire
length of the village by the road side; and which takes its origin from
some springs situate upon Rushey Green; also the small stream called the
Lee Bourne or Quaggy. Thence proceeding to Deptford, the river empties
itself into Deptford Creek, which is continuous with it and the Thames.
In its course it turns several mills, and supplies the Kent "Waterworks Company
for the use of the inhabitants of Greenwich, Deptford, and parts of
Blackheath and Lewisham, Camberwell, Peckham, and the Government
yards of Woolwich and Deptford.
On either side of the Ravensbourne, the country rises until it attains on
the east side, at the highest point of Blackhcath, an elevation of 155 feet
above the mean sea level.