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13
Yard, and ordinary wells. The condition of the Thames
water in times so far removed from the present, was
evidently such as to admit of the use of water without
filtration, confirmation of which is borne by an entry in the
Vestry Minutes of 26th July, 1700, and reproduced hereafter.
The conduit at Knightsbridge furnished the supply
for the Abbey and its precincts, whither the service was
conveyed at the expense of the Abbot and monks, and the
post-Reformation records of the Vestry show that
inhabitants were permitted to connect their houses with
the Abbey mains by means of leaden pipes. A stone
memorial near the north-east end of the Serpentine bears
the inscription:—
Facing East—
"On this spot stood a Conduit house which supplied the
precincts of Westminster with water till the spring was cut
off by drainage in 1861.
"The building was removed in 1868, and this memorial erected
in l870 to mark the place where it stood."
Facing West—
"A supply of water by a conduit from this spot was granted to
the Abbey of Westminster, with the Manor of Hyde, by King
Edward the Confessor.
"The Manor was resumed by the Crown in 1536, but the
springs as a head and original fountain of water, were
preserved to the Abbey by the Charter of Queen Elizabeth
in 1560."
The King's Conduit, described in Mr. Walcott's work
"as a beautiful fountain which fell in large cascades,"
stood on the north-west side of the Palace Yard. The
surplus water flowing from this supply was by Charter
under the Great Seal of Henry VI., dated 3rd February,
1446-7, granted to the commonalty of Westminster, though
no reference is made to the means by which the water was
conveyed to the houses. In their books for 1524 the
Churchwardens made a note that "the King's Charter for
"the Condett at Pales-gate remayneth in the custody of
"the Churchwardens." This Charter, with the Great Seal
in a fair state of preservation, was fortunately discovered