FILTER VERSUS CONCRETE.
A VERY lively discussion has arisen clarion the last fortnight respecting the future of the Serpentine. That sheet of water, so handsomely set in its green sloping banks and noble forest trees, has long been foul with impurities of all kinds. This is to be attributed to many causes—partly its great age, the strong adul- teration of the water with the contents of Bayswater sewers, and thestagnant character of the vast pool. A cry went forth to purify it some eleven years ago. That cry seemed to be always on the point of being satisfied. Minister after Minister admitted its justice but it has nevertheless gone on unsatisfied, until this year 1859: The demand for the purification of the Serpentine has been stimulated by the success of the purification of the water in St. James's Park. And, it is probable, that, had Lord Elan- over continued to hold the post of Minister of Public Works, the Serpentine, like the water in St. James's Park, would have been filled with pure water by this time. Mr. Fitzroy has now taken it in hand, and has adopted, or is supposed to have adopted, a plan—at all events the House of Commons have voted 17,0001. of the public money for the purification of the Serpentine.
Whereupon arises a sharp controversy, involving in its eddies, engineers, contractors, public-spirited agitators, editors, and Members of Parliament. Notwithstanding the evidences of our senses—of sight, smell, and, touch—very "eminent authorities assert that there is nothing whatever obnoxious in the water of the Serpentine. All we can say is that having frequented its shores almost daily for many years, we can testify to its stinking properties in summer, to its beauty at a distance, and its ugly foulness on a near approach, at all times. We are of those, therefore who cannot concur with the eminent authorities in be- lieving that the Serpentine has been libelled by its assailants. We take for granted that it requires purification. It also re- quires something more. The bed of the lake is a chaos of black mud, covered, in some parts, by three or four feet, in other parts by four-and-twenty feet of water. Its inequality of depth and the pestilential character of the mud when stirred up man-tinily costs, we are afraid to say how many lives. Last year, Lord John Manners—who was, perhaps, one of the most futile Ministers of Public Works we have ever had, cast many loads of lime into, the water to effect its purification. The consequence was that all the fish in the lake were destroyed by Lord John Manners' yea elfin. The water was purified for a moment, but the living purifiers, the fish, who eat up impurities were banished al- together. Now if the Serpentine had not been offensive and in- jurious to health, why should Lord John Manners have taken the trouble to poison all the fish in order to effect a temporary cleansing of the water ?
Grant that it ought to be purified. Then comes the question, how ? The plan which Mr. Fitzroy adopted is one projected by Mr. Hawksley. He proposes to pump the water from one end, of the lake into a large filtering bed, to be established at the other, and return it to the lake in the form of a cascade. The cost of this process is to be 17,000/. The other plan is that of Messrs, Easton, Amos, and Co. They propose to draw off the water, deo- dorize the mud, level the bottom, cover the whole with a bed of gravel or concrete, and pump in fresh water. The cost of thin plan, as at present proposed, would be 13,0001.; but perfectly developed it would cost 28,000/. It is objected to Mr. Hawks- ley's plan that it would not effect the object in view, and that, at best, it would only mitigate the evil, because it would not touch the Stygian bog at the bottom. The objections to the other plan are based on ingenious calculations respecting the defective sources of water supply, and the cost. It is but fair to say that Mr. Hawksley's plan has received the sanction of Mr. Robert Stephenson and Sir Samuel Morton Peto ; but their authority is diminished by their insensibility to the nuisance itself, the exist- ence of which they doubt.
The nominal question at issue is, therefore between filter and concrete. The real question at issue is not between filter and. concrete, but between effective work and makeshift. The same question, in fact, has arisen with respect to this little job of the Serpentine, which we have to deal with in the larger questions of our Army and Navy. Shall we have the thing done well and once for all, or shall we have it partially done, with the certainty that it will require tinkering at some future day ? For 28,0001. the Serpentine could be placed in a similar state of purity and safety to the lake in St. James's Park. The bottom could bo levelled and covered with concrete ; fresh water could be poured into it and maintained fresh for ever. It is, therefore, a question of money. We have no doubt whatever that Mr. Fitzroy himself is sincerely of opinion that, if he could only have persuaded 31r, Gladstone and the House of Commons to acquiesee in a vote of 28,000/. to purify the Serpentine, he would have adopted the larger and more workmanlike scheme. The vote taken in the late session was taken in a hurried manner, and it may now be too late to remonstrate. But it certainly still remains open for Mr. Fitzroy to consider during the winter whether it would not be better to suspend operations and try to persuade the Chancellor of the Exchequer into sanctioning the spending of the larger sum, so that the work might be well done and the lake in Hyde Part be
made a credit to the metropolis and a source of healthy pleasure to those who frequent its shores, either for the purpose of 'bathing or for physical exercise.
Previous page
