with fires, and especially Southwark. Six
hundred houses were destroyed in this district by
one fire, in 1676, and scarcely a year passes
without some wharf, with its masses of property,
being consumed. Many of us remember the
frequent fires within the last half century on the
south side of London-bridge, and especially the
one about twenty years ago at Topping's wharf,
which made the Borough end of the bridge red-
hot for several hours. Cotton's wharf—the
place now belonging to the Messrs. Scovell,
where the recent awful calamity occurred—was
burnt in 1751, but fortunately the property then
consumed was only valued at forty thousand
pounds. There was a great fire at Wapping,
July 22nd, 1794, when upwards of six hundred
and thirty houses were destroyed, together with
an East India warehouse, containing thirty-five
thousand bags of saltpetre. The whole loss on
this occasion was estimated at above one million
sterling. There was forty thousand pounds'
worth of sugar in one sugar-house; and the
calamity, taken altogether, was then considered
to be the worst of its kind since the great fire of
1666. Another fire occurred at Wapping,
October 6th, 1800, when thirty houses, besides
warehouses, valued at eighty thousand pounds
sterling, were burnt, and many lives lost. One
hundred and fifty houses were destroyed by fire
in Nightingale-lane, Wapping, December 4th,
1716; and sixty houses, with several vessels,
September 14th, 1791, between Cherry-Garden-
stairs and West-lane, Rotherhithe. The destruction
of Barclay's brewery, in 1832, was a great
river-side fire; and also the burning of the Savoy
to its foundation, in 1776. The most singular
fires connected with the river Thames are,
perhaps, the destruction of the London-bridge
waterworks, in 1779, and the Shadwell
waterworks, in 1797. The latter had machinery
capable of raising nearly a thousand gallons of
water a minute for the consumption of its
customers, and yet the whole building and plant was
destroyed for want of water in an hour and a
half. The London-bridge waterworks were
largely fitted up under certain arches of London-
bridge, and yet this favourable position, right in
the Thames, could not save them from the
ravages of fire. The Eddystone Lighthouse was
burnt twice—in 1759 and 1770.

Theatres have been frequent victims to fire,
notwithstanding the caution exercised by their
proprietors. When one of them is once burnt,
it seems to be easily destroyed again. Drury
Lane was consumed in 1671, with sixty houses,
by fire, and again in 1809. Covent Garden
Theatre was destroyed in 1808, and again in
1857, by way of finish to a masquerade. The
Opera-house in the Haymarket, known as Her
Majesty's Theatre, was destroyed in 1789; the
Pantheon, in Oxford-street, was burnt in 1792;
Astley's Theatre, near Westminster-bridge, was
consumed, with nineteen houses, in 1794; and
the Olympic Theatre was destroyed about 1853.
St. Martin's Hall may be classed amongst those
unfortunate buildings, as it was consumed in
1860, and the Surrey Music Hall, destroyed by
the carelessness of a few plumbers only a few
weeks ago. The Old Globe Theatre—Shakespeare's
theatre—was destroyed by fire on June
29th, 1613.

Perhaps the most singular explosion in
London upon record occurred in Tower-street,
City. Sixty houses were blown up opposite
Barking Church, in this street, January 4th,
1649, by the accidental explosion of some
barrels of gunpowder at a ship-chandler's. A
tavern full of company was sent into the air,
and a child in a cradle is said to have been
found, a few hours afterwards, unhurt upon the
leads of the church.

Country towns in the United Kingdom have
had their visitations by fire at different times.
York city, with its cathedral and thirty-nine
churches, was destroyed in 1137; Woburn, in
Bedfordshire, was burnt in 1724; Stratford-
upon-Avon met with the same fate in 1614;
Wareham, in Dorsetshire, was burnt in 1731,
again in 1742, and had one hundred and fifty
houses destroyed in 1762; Rochester was burnt
three times—in 677, 1130, and 1137; Shrewsbury
was greatly damaged by a fire in 1774,
which consumed fifty houses, with many barns
and stables; Nottingham was burnt to ashes in
1140; and Northampton town was burnt in 1675.

Liverpool had its Exchange burnt in 1795,
and in 1802 warehouses and goods, valued at
one million sterling, were consumed by fire at
France's wharf.

Newcastle was burnt by accident in 1349.
Honiton, in Devonshire, was nearly destroyed
by a fire in 1747, and it had one hundred and
forty houses burnt in 1765, thirty-seven more
burnt in May, 1790, and forty-seven more burnt
in August, 1797. Gravesend was burnt in
1727; and Hindon, in Wiltshire, lost one
hundred and fifty houses by fire, July 2nd,
1754. Frampton, in Dorsetshire, was nearly
destroyed by fire in 1796; Edinburgh was
burnt in 1544; and Crediton, in Devonshire,
had four hundred and sixty houses destroyed by
fire in August, 1743, and a great part of the
town was again burnt down in 1769. Two
other towns in Devonshire, Chudleigh and
Chumleigh, were nearly destroyed by fire, the
first in 1807, the second in 1803. Aldbourn, in
Wiltshire, had two hundred houses burnt down,
August 23rd, 1777; Bath was burnt in 1116,
and again in 1137; Blandford, in Dorsetshire,
lost three hundred houses by fire in June, 1731;
Tiverton, in Devonshire, lost two hundred
houses in the same month of the same year;
twenty-six more houses in May, 1762; between
sixty and seventy more in April, 1785; and
about two hundred more in June, 1794.

Hundreds of other country towns are on the
record as having been seriously damaged, if not
destroyed, by fires at different times; the causes
being the want of water and appliances to
extinguish fire, and the want of authority or will
to pull down houses in order to check the
progress of the flames. This authority the police
now have, and they often use it to the advantage
of the general public.