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new laws of the water companies to have no water
supplied on that day, and as the cisterns, &c., of the
poorer houses are seldom large enough for more than
one day's consumption, we can easily see that the great
improvidence of most people who live in courts will
leave them on Sundays little or no water. It is to be
lamented that people should at any time have to go
about begging water, and more especially so on Sundays.
There is an ingenious invention called the
"Water Waste Preventor," by which one pail of
water can be obtained, and then the reservoir which
supplies this quantity fills again for the next applicant,
and no waste can occur. It would be an act of benevolence,
as with drinking fountains, to erect a few
of these suppliers of water in some of our crowded
courts.
It is very important that some of the land to be
reclaimed by embanking the River should be applied
to the very beneficial purposes of gymnasia and swimming
baths. Swimming baths are doubly beneficial
to health, by keeping the skin in good condition,
and affording a most agreeable kind of exercise.
There can be no greater boon to the inhabitants of
a crowded city than swimming baths, and the several
parishes through which the embankment extends
might combine in the expense of having some of
large size for all classes; or the Metropolitan Board
of Works might gratify their constituents by building
some on a very magnificent scale. Looking upon it
as highly probable that we shall have swimming baths
on the land to be reclaimed from the River, I would
suggest that on one or two mornings every week they
should be appropriated to the use of women; so
admirable a source of health and strength should not
be closed to females, among whom the art of swimming
is making great progress, and there is no reason why
it should not be adopted by all classes, as one of the