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of electing these public officers is not declared; but upon
them was imposed the onerous duty of arresting all strangers
on suspicion, and, if the arrest was not obeyed, of levying
the hue and cry. The "lord of the town" was at the
same time pressed into the public service, and the inhabitants
generally were made responsible for the damages in case
the offenders were not overtaken. The hardship this
measure was expected to place upon the residents was not
overlooked, for its penalties were respited from its passing
in October until the following Easter, "forasmuch as the
King will not that his People should be suddenly impoverished
by reason of this Penalty that seemeth very hard to
many." The extracts hereafter given afford proof of the
damages from time to time made good by the Vestry under
this enactment and others by which it was altered and
extended. Numerous statutes placing direct responsibility
upon the inhabitants in relation to the arrest of felons were
passed during the Plantagenet time.
Sewers.
In the Pre-Reformation era Parliament seems
to have made as little statutory provision for the
public sewerage system as for the maintenance of the highways.
It is at once conceded that the number of houses in
Westminster was not such as to render an elaborate system
necessary, especially as the more thickly populated part
of the parish was insulated by the branch of the
Thames which entered the parish between Cannon Row and
Whitehall, intersected King Street, pursued its course along
the line now known as Gardener's Lane and Princes Street,
across the present Broad Sanctuary to the south wall of
Abbey Garden, and following the line of College Street till
it joined the river again. This ditch probabiy answered
the requirements of the day with respect to the sewerage
of Westminster, for no statute or order or proclamation upon
the subject can be traced.
Water Supply.
Westminster derived its public water supply
from four principal sources—the Thames, the
conduit at Knightsbridge, the King's Conduit in the Palace