Within The Shadow Of The Shaft.

were then open and stopped the water , aud went away and carried tho keys with him . So when the fire broke out next morning , they opened the pipes in the streets to find water , but there was none . And some hours were lost in sending to Islington , where the door was to be broken open , and the cocks turned ; and it was long before the water got to London . Grant , indeed , denied that he had turned the cocks . But the officer of the works affirmed

that he had , according to order , set them all a-running , and that no person had got the keys from him besides Grant , who confessed he had carried away the keys , but pretended he did it without design . " On the other hand , it is but fair to state that it was asserted afterwards , when Bui-net ' s history was published , that Grant was not elected a Director of the New River Company until after the date of the fire , and could not

therefore have had the control he was alleged to have possessed . But there is one very funny illustration of the social customs of our forefathers supplied in the introduction to this story . We are are told , anent the modus operandi of Sir Hugh Myddleton ' s scheme , that " the constant order of that matter was to set all the pipes a-running on Saturday night , that so the cisterns mig ht be all full by Sunday morning , there being more than ordinary

consumption of water on that day . " Evidentl y hebdomadal lustration was sufficient for Gavlovian cockneys . The institution of matutinal tubbing as then was not . " Clean in my person ? I should think I am , " said the sweep . " Why , I washes all hover reg'larly once a week . " Graven deeply on the base of the shaft , in the fever-heat of the public mind at the time of the Popish Plot , general opinion recorded that not

accident , but diabolical design , destroyed the wonderful city . Chipped out by Roman Catholic chisels in the following reign , the legend disappeared to reappear under William , our Dutch deliverer . Thirty years afterwards the little crook-backed Catholic poet denounced the tradition as a calumny in the couplet I last month quoted as a text . Yet it remained for a hundred years after that , until the cession of Roman Catholic emancipation , about fifty years ago , led the Corporation of London to perceive that the perpetuation of an unproved accusation was anachronistic bigotry , and so the indented libel was obliterated , let us hope for ever .

I purposely use the word libel , for I hold that even if it should , ever be proved that the great fire of London was the result of design , there is yet a much longer step to be taken before we can fasten the crime upon any religious party . At present , so far as available evidence goes , the sect then in disfavour —the Puritans—seem implicated in a graver degree than their polemical opponents of the ancient faith . It does not follow , however—even excluding the hypothesis of accident—admitting design—that theological motives had

anything at all to do with the catastrophe . Burnet , very hesitatingly , admits that there was a belief prevalent in his time that the fire was the result of a belligerent retaliatory blow : " That which is still a great secret is whether it " ( i . e ., the fire ) " was casual or raised on design . The English Fleet had landed ontheVly , an island lying near theTexell " ( sic ) , " and had burnt it ; upon which some came to De Witt , * and offered a revenge , that , if they were assisted , they would set London on fire . " The candid bishop , however , acquits the Hollander , for hegoes on to say , "He" ( i . e ., the Dutch Prime Minister ) " rejected the proposition , for , he said , lie would not make the breach wider nor the quarrel