rry Islington;"{1}--"here," said Dashall, "is the New
River: this fine artificial stream is brought from two springs at Chad
well and Am well, in Hertfordshire, for the supply of London with water.
It was finished in 1613, by Sir Hugh Middleton, a citizen of London, who
expended his whole fortune in this public undertaking. The river, with
all its windings, is nearly 39 miles in length; it has 43 sluices,
and 215 bridges; over and under it a great number of brooks and
water-courses have their passage. In some places this canal is carried
through vales, and in others through subterraneous passages. It
terminates in a basin called the New River Head, close by. From the
reservoir at Islington the water is conveyed by 58 main pipes under
ground along the middle of the principal streets; and thence by leaden
pipes to the different houses. Thus, by means of the New River, and
of the London Bridge water-works, every house in the metropolis is
abundantly supplied with water, at the expense each of a few shillings
only per annum.

1 Thus all through merry Islington
These gambols he did play.

John Gilpin.

This village of Islington is a large and populous place, superior
both in size and appearance to many considerable towns in the country.
Observe the Angel Inn, celebrated for its ordinary, where you may
enjoy, after a country ramble, an excellent dinner on very moderate
terms.--Apropos, of the Angel Inn ordinary: some years ago it was
regularly every Sunday attended by a thin meagre ~~314~~~ gaunt and bony
figure, of cadaverous aspect, who excited amongst the other guests no
small degree of dismay, and not without cause. Cognominated the Wolf, he
justified his pretensions to the appellation, by his almost incredible
powers of gormandizing; for a quantum of viands sufficient for six men
of moderate appetite, would vanish on the magic contact of his knife and
fork, in the twinkling of an eye; in fact, his voracity was considered
of boundless extent, for he invariably and without cessation consumed
by wholesale, so long as eatables remained on the table. One day, after
having essentially contributed to the demolition of a baron of beef, and
devoured an entire shoulder of lamb, with a commensurate proportion of
bread, roots, vegetables, &c, he pounced, with the celerity of a hawk,
on a fine roast goose, which unfortunately happened to have been just
then placed within the reach of his annihilating fangs, and in