Companies for supplying the metropolis with water, the modes of forcing which into the main pipes at the heads of the respective establishments, may be seen on proper application to the secretary or director of the work. Among these the New River Company at Islington, claims the first notice, from its having supplied the metropolis with pure water nearly two centuries, at an original cost to Sir Hugh Middleton af 500,000l. Its reservoir is 85 feet above the level of the Thames, but to give it the necessary force, it is raised 35 feet above that level, whence it rises into the second and third stories of most houses. The quantity which it discharges every twenty-four hours is 214,000 hogsheads of sixty-three gallons each, for which its net receipts is about 2s. per 100 hogshead, or at the average of 6d. per week from each house. There are besides, the London Bridge Water Works, in which a forcing engine serves for the purpose of a high level, but the water is not strained or purified: the York Buildings Works; the East London Works; the South London Works; the West Middlesex, at Hammersmith and Kensington, on a grand scale, with contrivances for purifying the water; and the Grand Junction Works at Paddington. Latterly iron pipes have been substituted for wooden ones, and the competi tion of new companies seem likely to lead to contrivances for giving greater purity to the water; but we are con cerned to hear that a combination has been formed among these companies, which is just now beginning to operate. Gas Light Companies. A number of companies have been formed for the supply of gas to light the streets and houses of London, and many of the public buildings have adopted this new and elegant method of lighting, which will be a means of superseding the use of oil. The principal Gas Light Companies are City of London Company, Dorset Street. Gas Light Company, Peter Street, Westminster South London Gas Light and Coke Works, Bankside, From this station the whole of London, south of the Thames, are supplied with Gas. Robert Monro, Esq. Bill and Company, East London Gas Light and Coke Saving Banks. Among the many useful institutions which characterise London, there are few which promise to be of greater utility than the Saving Banks. These are societies whose motive is to encourage saving in the poor, who may here deposit whatever they can save, even as low as 1s. per week, and on this trifling sum enjoy the benefit of compound interest, and which, at the end of twenty years, will accumulate the sum of 771. 8s. 6d. and these deposits may be withdrawn if the person chooses, on a certain notice. In case of death, the sums thus accumulated are paid to the heir, executor, or if under 20l. to the next akin. The utility of these institutions has been so highly thought of, that they are some of them patronized by the first nobility. These societies differ from each other in trifling regula tions, but the general plan of them all is fully explained in the above statement. They do not in any degree counteract the use of the Friendly Societies, and differ from them in this, that in Saving Banks they have not the benefit of survivorship. The following is a list of some of the principal societies: Southampton Street, Bloomsbury. London Provident Society, Bishopsgate. Provident Society, St. Paul's, Covent Garden. ACCOUNT OF THE SUCCESSIVE INCREASE OF LONDON. Under Henry I. London contained thirteen conventual churches, and a hundred and twenty-six parochial ones. On the western extremity, in Thames Street, stood Baynard's Castle and the Castle of Montfichet. The wall also was furnished with seven double gates, supposed to have been Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, Newgate, Ludgate, and the postern near the Tower. The palace at Westminster at that time is also described as an incomparable structure, furnished with bastions, &c. at a distance of two miles from the city, but united to it by a straggling populous suburb since called the.Strand. The Old-bourne, or Holborn, which arose where Middle Row now stands, flowed down the hill also to Fleet Ditch; and as early at 1086, a few houses on its banks, were called the village of Old-bourne. About 1600 there was not a house standing between St. Catharine's and Wapping. Wapping was then and still is the usual place of execution for pirates. Spitalfields about the same time began to be covered with houses. A large pond in the vicinity of West Smithfield was also filled up and transformed into streets by the names of Cow, Chick, Hosier, and other lanes. The fields and gardens of the grand priory of St. John of Jerusalem, and of a nunnery to the north of Clerkenwell church, were then built upon. Holborn stretched also imperceptibly westward towards St. Giles's in the Fields. The whole of what is now called Spitalfields was completed, together with almost all the streets between Brick Lane and the east side of Bishopsgate Street, including Artillery Street, Fort Street, Red and White Lion Streets, Church Street, &c. all the way up to the back of Shoreditch church, and from thence towards Bethnal Green east, then sloping away quite to Whitechapel Road, southeast, containing about three hundred and twenty acres of ground, closely built and numerously inhabited. Before this improvement, particularly Rose Lane, Brick Lane (a passage for brick-carts to and from Whitechapel, &c.) were deep, dirty, and almost desolate. The old Artillery Ground on the east side of Bishopsgate Street took up all the space from thence to Wheeler Street; and the part now called Spitalfields-market, was a field with cows feeding on it. The same increase also took place towards Goodman's Fields, Rosemary Lane, and Wellclose Square, all of which rose subsequent to 1678; till then, that square and all the west end of Ratcliff Highway, from the corner of Gravel Lane to the east end of East Smithfield, was a road over the fields, as were Virginia Street, and all the streets on the side of Ratcliff Highway to Gravel Lane, and from thence to Limehouse. The fine street now called the Minories, rose upon the ditch which surrounded the ancient city wall. This ditch was open to the foot-path, and being often cleansed from filth, its breadth and depth were so great that persons in the habit of watering horses were often deceived by the supposed shallowness of its banks and drowned, in consequence of which it was partitioned off, and its banks let out for garden plots, carpenters' yards, bowling alleys, and houses, so as to cover the city wall; and the channel was also considerably narrowed. Being afterwards filled up, the ditch was covered by the western side of the Minories, the back of which being filled by dung-hills, out-houses, and gardens, was esteemed a nuisance. Rosemary Lane, now called Rag Fair, had in 1600 a hedge row of elm-trees on each side, with bridges and easy stiles to pass over into the fields, very commodious for citizens to walk, shoot, or otherwise recreate themselves. In Petticoat Lane was the town residence of the stately Count Gondamar, Spanish ambassador to James I. About the year 1742 the neighbourhood between Bishopsgate Street and Long Alley, Moorfields, exchanged its old decayed dwellings for those handsome houses now forming Broad Street, Broad Street Buildings, and a part of Old Bethlem. This part of the town, as well as another at Westminster, was called Petty France, both, we presume, from having been the places of residence of the French refugees, who were obliged to quit their country on the revocation of the edict of Nantes. On the north side of this part of the city, the whole space from Shoreditch, including Hoxton Square, Charles' Square, and the northern side of Old Street, were nearly all open fields till the year 1689.-Bunhill Fields and Bunhill Row remained open till a later period. About 1700 that vast range of handsome buildings, including Bedford Row, Red Lion Square, Ormond Street to Queen Square, with the streets between that and Kingsgate Street, in Holborn, formed an opening into the fields. The beautiful street, called Hatton Garden, was also built on the site of the mansion and garden of Lord Hatton. Saffron Hill and the adjacent alleys were formerly a romantic spot, called the Bishop of Ely's vineyard, and these places still retain the names of Vine Street, Vine Court, and the Vineyard, the only public passage to which was a narrow avenue, still called Field Lane. Brook and Greville streets rose upon the house and gardens of Lord Brook. Eastward, on that famous play-ground called Red Lion Fields, Red Lion Street, Red Lion Square, with many other streets, have been erected since the reign of James II. Bloomsbury (formerly Southampton Square,) is of modern date; Montague House, now the British Museum, and some mean old buildings excepted, which about forty years since formed what were then called St. Giles's Ruins. Soho Square, Greeck Street, and several others, were nearly completed in the latter end of Charles the Second's reign, and during the reign of his brother James. Soho Square was begun in the former reign, and the Duke of Monmouth began a very fine stone house in the centre, the site of which has been occupied by Bateman's Buildings. Monmouth Street is also supposed to have been named after this unfortunate duke. Greek Street and Crown Street, originally called Hog Lane, were the residence of the genteeler classes of French protestant refugees in the reign of William and Mary, and here they fixed their church. The parish of St. Anne, and the streets in general between the lower part of Oxford Road and St. James's arose, and were completed during the reigns of William and Anne. In 1716, Hanover Square and Cavendish Square were unfinished. The increase of the buildings in St. Giles's and St. Martin's in the Fields, comprising all those north of Long Acre to the Seven Dials; the streets from Leicester Fields to St. Martin's Lane, north and west to the Haymarket and Soho; and onward to the Park Wall, in Piccadilly, and from thence almost to Knightsbridge, Golden Square, Grosvenor Square, &c. being by calculation greater in bulk than the cities of Bristol, Exeter, and |