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29
MORTALITY OF THE CITY OF LONDON.
sluces was this fenne or moore made maine and
hard ground, which before, being overgrowne with
flagges, sedges, and rushes, served to no use;" while
"the farther grounds beyond Finsbury Court were
so over-heightened with laystalls of dung, that divers
windmills were thereon set, the ditches were
filled up, and the bridges overwhelmed."
It is not as matter of literary curiosity that I
quote these passages of your old historian, but
simply that I may avail myself of his accurate local
knowledge for the explanation and the cure of a
serious existing evil. For if, as I believe, the unfortunate
preference for certain localities evinced
by the recent epidemic be, prima facie, a reason
for doubting the effectiveness of their sub-soil
drainage, and if the ancient records of the City assure
one that these very localities are such as, from
conditions then in active operation, would be liable
to retain, perhaps for an indefinite period, the materials
of malarious poison, useful and practical deductions
may be drawn. And as the liability to this
severe recurrent epidemic is an extreme detriment
to the population of such localities—one too, which,
if unremoved, must inevitably lead to the deterioration
of property, as well as to the sacrifice of life,
I know that your Honourable Court will be solicitous
to adopt whatever remedial measures are
possible.
To those measures I shall presently return, having
here dealt with the question only as it relates to the