and axe, from his own peg, and in another moment all were armed
_cap-a-pie_. At the same instant that the engine appeared at the door a
pair of horses were trotted up. Two men held them; two others fastened
the traces; the driver sprang to his seat; the others leaped to their
respective places. Each knew what to do, and did it at once. There was
no hurry, no loss of time, no excitement; some of the men, even while
acting with the utmost vigour and promptitude, were yawning away their
drowsiness; and in less than ten minutes from the moment the bell first
rang the whip cracked and the fire-engine dashed away from the station
amid the cheers of the crowd.

It may be as well to remark here in passing, that the London Fire
Brigade had, at the time of which we write, reached a high state of
efficiency, although it could not stand comparison with the perfection
of system and unity of plan which mark the organisation and conduct of
the Brigade of the present day.

Mr Braidwood, the able Superintendent, had for many years been training
his men on a system, the original of which he had begun and proved in
Edinburgh. Modifying his system to suit the peculiarities of the larger
field to which he had been translated, he had brought the "Fire Engine
Establishment," (which belonged at that time to several insurance
companies) to a state of efficiency which rendered it a model and a
training-school for the rest of the world; and although he had not the
advantage of the telegraph or the powerful aid of the land steam
fire-engine of the present day, he had men of the same metal as those
which compose the force now.

The "Metropolitan Fire Brigade," as it then existed under the control of
the Metropolitan Board of Works, had been carried by its chief, Captain
Eyre Massey Shaw, to a condition of efficiency little if at all short of
perfection, its only fault being (if we may humbly venture a remark)
that it was too small both in numbers of engines and men.

Now, good reader, if you have never seen a London fire-engine go to a
fire, you have no conception of what it is; and even if you have seen
it, but have not gone with it, still you have no idea of what it is.

To those accustomed to it, no doubt, it may be tame enough--we cannot
tell; but to those who mount an engine for the first time and drive
through the crowded thoroughfares of London at a wild tearing gallop, it
is probably the most exciting drive conceivable. It beats