wards having been gained from the river and turned into a kind of meadow-ground, it obtained the name of Wapping Wash, and was defended from the inundation of the river by walls or dikes, which were chargeable to the proprietors. Between the years 1560 and 1570, this wall was broken in several places, and the whole was again laid under water. Queen Elizabeth at length authorized the Commissioners of Sewers to hold out encouragement to persons inclined to rebuild the wall and take land; and, among the rest, one William Page took a lease of one hundred and ten feet of the wall, laid the foundation of his building, and spent a considerable sum in strengthening the land against the river, with which he proceeded till a proclamation from the Queen, in 1583, put a stop to all new buildings. Page petitioned; and, some time after, it appears that his building went on again and was completed.

How scantily this part, now closely covered with streets, lanes, and alleys, was supplied with houses in the early part of the reign of Charles I. appears from the circumstance of that monarch having hunted a stag on Friday, July 24, from Wanstead, in Essex, killed him in a garden near Nightingale Lane, in the hamlet of Wapping, in which great damage was afterwards done in consequence of the multitude of people suddenly assembled.

Within the last twenty years a very great part of the parish of St. John's, Wapping, has been excavated for the formation of the London Docks, the express purposes of which were to secure vessels from the various accidents incidental to their being crowded in the Thames, and to prevent depredations committed almost with impunity on their lading. The new Docks now extend along the Thames almost to Ratcliffe Highway, and are inclosed by a brick wall, lined with warehouses.

One immense Dock, called St. George's Dock, covers the space extending from Virginia Street almost to Old Gravel Lane, in one direction; and, in another, from Artichoke Lane to the south side of Pennington Street. This dock alone is capable of holding five hundred ships, with room for shifting. Another,

called

called Shadwell Dock, adjoining, will hold about fifty ships. The entrance to the Docks from the Thames is by three basons, capable of containing an immense quantity of small craft; and the inlets from the Thames into the basons is at the Old Hermitage Dock, at Old Wapping Dock, and Old Shadwell Dock. The whole cover more than twenty acres. The capital of the London Dock Company is 1,200,000l.; and they were at a very great expense in purchasing the houses and streets which stood on the space appropriated to these docks. On the 26th of June, 1802, the foundation of the entrance bason was laid by Mr. Pitt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The first stone of a tobacco warehouse; also the first stone for a range of warehouses for general merchandize, were laid the same day.

The warehouses for the reception of Tobacco only are immense. The largest is seven hundred and sixty-two. feet long, and one hundred and sixty feet wide, equally divided by a strong partition wall, with double iron doors. The smallest is two hundred and fifty feet by two hundred. Both consists of ground-floors and vaults the cellars in the smaller warehouses are for wines, and generally contain 5000 pipes. The whole is under the care and control of the officers, of the Customs, the proprietors only receiving the rents. The London Docks were first opened on the 30th of January, 1805, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the principal Officers of State, were present. A vessel from Oporto, called the London Packet, laden with wine, decorated with the colours of different trading nations, early in the forenoon entered the Dock from the bason, amidst the shouts of the multitude, when the Dock-master conducted it safely across the entrance bason into the South Dock, at the north-east corner of which she was moored for the purpose of unloading her cargo. The company then partook of a cold collation which had been prepared in two of the warehouses purposely fitted up for the occasion. A grand dinner was afterwards given at the London Tavern by the Dock Directors, to Earl Camden, Lords Hawkesbury, Ellenborough, and Harrowby, the Lord Mayor and Corpo

ration of London, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Directors of the West India Docks, and about one hundred merchants of the city of London.

Wapping gave rise to a singular custom and a singular character. Mr. Daniel Day, an eminent Block-maker of this part of the town, who being the possessor of a small estate in Essex, at no great distance from Fairlop Oak, was the cause of the establishment, of what has, ever since the year 1725, been called Fairlop Fair. To this venerable tree he used on the first Friday in July to repair; thither it was his custom to invite a party of his neighbours to accompany him under the shade of its branches, to dine on beans and bacon. Events of importance frequently originate in trifling causes. The idea of dining under a large tree in the midst of a forest, had something in it romantic; the fame of Mr. Day's harmless celebration soon spread, and other parties were formed to participate in the enjoyment of his anniversary; but from no part of the town were they so numerous as from Wapping. And as on the day of the fair Mr. Day never failed to provide several sacks of beans, with a proportionate quantity of bacon, which he distributed from the trunk of the tree, he soon became popular. Besides the singularity of this largess, for several years before the death of the humourous founder of this public bean-feast, the pump and block-makers of Wapping, to the number of thirty or forty, went annually to the fair in a boat made like that of Robinson Crusoe, or an Indian Canoe, of one entire piece of fir. This amphibious vehicle was covered with an awning, mounted on a coach carriage, and drawn by six horses; the whole adorned with ribbons, flags, and streamers. It was furnished with a band of musicians. Some time after, the Block-makers and Watermen joined together to build a new boat, and both trades went in the same boat, rigged, until 1795, when the watermen lent the boat to Lieutenant Donadieu, to take it to several parts of the country to collect volunteer scamen, instead of impressing them. This transaction giving offence to the Block Makers, they built a new one,