In this reign the forest of Middlesex
being disforested, the citizens obtained an
opportunity of purchasing land, and build-
ing houses upon it, by which the suburbs
of the city were greatly increased, and
soon enlarged to a considerable extent
without the walls, though all the ground
within them was far from being convert-
ed into regular streets.

It will not be unentertaining if we give
a description of the city as it appeared
about this time.  The houses were most-
ly built of wood, and thatched with straw
or reeds, which was the occasion of very
frequent fires; and the city was supplied
with water by men who brought it in
carriages from the Thames, and from the
brooks which ran through many of the
principal streets.  Thus the river of Wells,
so called from many springs or wells
uniting to supply its stream, arose in the
north west part of the city, and ran into
Fleet Ditch, at the bottom of Holborn
hill.  This small river, or brook, supplied
several water mills, and at length from
thence obtained the name of Turnmill
Brook.

The Olborn, or Holborn, which arose
where Middle row now stands, and flow-
ed down the hill, also fell into Fleet
Ditch; and a few houses on its banks

Wall brook entered the city through the
wall between Bishopsgate and Moorgate,
and after many turnings emptied itself in-
to the Thames at Dowgate.

The brook Langbourn rose near the
east end of Fenchurch street, where mix-
ing with the soil, it rendered it marshy;
but ran from thence with a swift current
to Sherbourne lane, and then dividing into
several rills, was lost in the Wall brook on
Dowgate hill.

The springs from whence all these
streams arose were pretty numerous, and
several of them at their source formed
deep ponds; particularly there was a large
pond in Smithfield, supplied by its own
spring; and near Cripplegate a deep
and dangerous pool, formed by Crowder's
Well.

At length the citizens being deprived
of their usual supplies of water from the
above brooks, by the encroachments of
buildings, and other ways, water was
brought from six springs in the town of
Tyburn, by a leaden pipe of a six-inch
bore, which was made to supply leaden
cisterns castellated with stone.  The first