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Frank Zammetti

Modern Full-Stack Development

Using TypeScript, React, Node.js, Webpack, Python,
Django, and Docker
2nd ed.
Frank Zammetti
Pottstown, PA, USA

ISBN 978-1-4842-8810-8 e-ISBN 978-1-4842-8811-5

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-8811-5

© Frank Zammetti 2020, 2022

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively
licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is
concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in
any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks,

service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the
absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the
relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general
use.

The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the
advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate
at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Apress imprint is published by the registered company APress

Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY
10004, U.S.A.
Dedicated to the Xenomorph, the perfect organism. Its structural
perfection is matched only by its hostility.
(my wife may be right when she says I watch entirely too many movies
entirely too many times over and over again)
Introduction
You know, when I started learning how to program, it was a piece of
cake!
You’d turn on the computer and be greeted by a nice little “Ready”
prompt. You’d start typing in some code (BASIC), and eventually, you’d
type run, hit Enter, and watch whatever it was you put in there spit back
something (my first program was a man drawn with various keyboard
characters doing jumping jacks). You might save that program to a
cassette – yes, kids, a cassette! – and hand it to your friends if you
wanted to share.
But that was it. It was just that easy.
Nowadays, though, the story is very different.
Writing even a trivial application now involves layers upon layers of
abstractions and complexities that you must mix together, like baking
the world’s most complicated cake, hoping it all works in the end. Then,
should you want to distribute the technological terror you’ve
constructed (sorry, Aldearan), you’ve got even more challenges to
overcome.
How anyone learns to program from scratch these days, I’m not
sure!
But I’m hoping to help there!
With this book, I’m going to look at the ingredients that go into
baking a cake – err, building an application – these days. To be sure, it
won’t cover everything. And no one recipe is necessarily the same
anyway – there are lots of choices available to a developer now. But I
believe I’ve chosen the ones most commonly used to build modern full-
stack applications.
What exactly is a full-stack application anyway? Well, simply put, it’s
an application that includes both a front-end “client,” like a website, and
a back-end “server,” like, well, a server! We’re talking about building an
application that combines those two halves into a coherent whole. Most
application development these days is web-based in some way (where
“web” doesn’t have to mean something available on the public Internet,
but something built with web technologies like HTML, JavaScript, and
CSS), so that’s what we’re going to be doing in this book.
 To do this, we’re going to use React, which is one of the most
popular libraries for building clients out there today. And we’ll use
Node.js, which is a popular choice for back-end development. We’re
also going to use TypeScript, a language that enhances JavaScript on
both sides of the fence to make our coding lives better. We’re going to
touch on several other tools that relate to all of this including Babel and
Webpack. We’ll talk about some strategies for connecting the client to
the server including REST and WebSockets. Then we’ll “flip the script” a
bit, if you will, and build our back-end code using Python and its
popular framework Django instead, just because! Finally, you’ll learn
about packaging up applications using the very popular
containerization tool Docker.
All this will be combined to build three full, real applications. This
way, it’s not just simple, contrived examples. No, it’ll be real code,
practical solutions to real problems encountered in building them, and
real techniques for putting all these pieces together and making sense
of all this complexity.
In the end, you’ll have a solid foundation for building modern full-
stack applications that you can go forward with on your own to create
greatness.
I mean it’ll never be as great as my guy doing jumping jacks written
in BASIC and loaded off a cassette, but you gotta have goals.

So let’s get to it. There’s work to be done, learning to be accomplished,

and, I hope, fun to be had!
Any source code or other supplementary material referenced by the
author in this book is available to readers on GitHub via the book’s
product page, located at www.apress.com/9781484288108. For more
detailed information, please visit http://www.apress.com/source-code.
Acknowledgments
I’d like to acknowledge the exceptional team at Apress for allowing me
to write not one but thirteen books for them over the last decade or so
(true story: in the first edition of this book, I actually had the wrong
count – I don’t even KNOW how many books I’ve written at this point!).
I’ve worked with so many great people, and it’s virtually impossible not
to forget someone in a list like this, but among the crew for sure are
James Robinson-Prior, Gryffin Winkler, Aditee Mirashi, Celestin Suresh
John, Ami Knox, Arockia Rajan Dhurai, Beth Christmas, Dulcy Nirmala
Chellappa, Chris Mills, Christine Ricketts, Dominic Shakeshaft, Douglas
Pundick, Frank Parnell, Frank Pohlmann, Gary Cornell, Jill Balzano, Julie
Miller, Katie Stence, Kelly Gunther, Kelly Winquist, Kevin Shea, Kim
Wimpsett, Kimberly van der Elst, Krishnan Sathyamurthy, Laura Cheu,
Laura Esterman, Leah Weissburg, Leonard Cuellar, Liz Welch, Louise
Corrigan, Marilyn Smith, Michelle Lowman, Nancy Chen, Nicole
Faraclas, Nirmal Selvaraj, Richard Dal Porto, Sharon Wilkey, Sofia
Marchant, Stephanie Parker, Steve Anglin, Tina Nielsen, and Tracy
Brown Collins.
As I said, I’m sure I’ve forgotten someone, but rest assured it was
not on purpose! Thank you all for giving me a shot and allowing me to
continue this journey. I most definitely could not have done it alone,
and I thank you all, unreservedly!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1:​Server-Side Action:​Node and NPM
Of JavaScript Runtimes and Building (Mostly) Servers
First Baby Steps with Node:​Installation
More Useful:​Executing JavaScript Source Files
Node’s Partner in Crime:​NPM
A Few More NPM Commands
Initializing a New NPM/​Node Project
Adding Dependencies
A Quick Aside:​Semantic Versioning
Fisher Price’s “My First Node Web Server”
Bonus Example
Summary
Chapter 2:​A Few More Words:​Advanced Node and NPM
NPM:​More on package.​json
NPM:​Other Commands
Auditing Package Security
Deduplication and Pruning
Finding/​Searching for Packages sans Browser
Updating Packages
Publishing/​Unpublishing Packages
Node:​Standard Modules
File System (fs)
HTTP and HTTPS (http and https)
OS (os)
Path (path)
 Process
Query Strings (querystring)
URL (url)
Utilities (util)
The Rest of the Cast
Summary
Chapter 3:​Client-Side Adventures:​React
A Brief History of React
Yeah, Okay, History Nerd, That’s All Great, but What IS React?​!
The Real Star of the Show:​Components
Components Need Info:​Props
Components (Sometimes) Need Memory:​State
Making Them Look Good:​Style
In the End, Why React?​
Summary
Chapter 4:​A Few More Words:​Advanced React
A Better Way to Write React Code:​JSX
Yeah, Okay, So What Does It LOOK LIKE?​!
A Slight Detour into Babel Land
Compile JSX
And Now, Put It All Together
Whither Props?​
Default Props
Typing Props
Component Lifecycle
Summary
Chapter 5:​Building a Strong Foundation:​TypeScript
What Is TypeScript?​
Jumping into the Deep End
Beyond the Playground
Configuring TypeScript Compilation
The Nitty-Gritty:​Types
String
Number
Boolean
Any
Arrays
Tuples
Enums
Function
Object
Null, Void, Undefined, and Never
Custom Type Aliases
Union Types
TypeScript =​=​ES6 Features for “Free”!
The let and const Keywords
Block Scope
Arrow Functions
Template Literals
Default Parameters
Spread and Rest (and As an Added Bonus:​Optional Arguments)
Destructuring
 Classes
Properties
Member Visibility
Inheritance
Getters and Setters
Static Members
Abstract Classes
Summary
Chapter 6:​A Few More Words:​Advanced TypeScript
Interfaces
Argument/​Object Interfaces
Methods in Interfaces
Interfaces and Classes
Extending Interfaces
Namespaces and Modules
Namespaces
Modules
Decorators
Decorator Factories
Third-Party Libraries
Debugging TypeScript Apps
Source Maps
Optional Chaining and Nullish Coalescing
Summary
Chapter 7:​Tying It Up in a Bow:​Webpack
What’s a Bundle, and How Do I Make One?​
 What’s Webpack All About?​
Dependency Graph
Entry
Output
Loaders
Plugins
Modes
Browser Compatibility
Getting Started with Webpack
Getting More Complex
Configuration
Using Modules
Wither TypeScript?​
Tip
Summary
Chapter 8:​Delivering the Goods:​MailBag, the Server
What Are We Building?​
Basic Requirements
Setting Up the Project
Source File Rundown
Adding Node Modules
Adding Types
A More Convenient Development Environment
The Starting Point:​main.​ts
A Quick Detour:​Time to Take a REST
URLs for Fun and Profit
Giving Methods Meaning
Data Format Smackdown
A Bonus Pillar:​Response Status Codes
Another Quick Detour:​Express, for Fun and Profit
Back to the Code!
REST Endpoint:​List Mailboxes
REST Endpoint:​List Messages
REST Endpoint:​Get a Message
REST Endpoint:​Delete a Message
REST Endpoint:​Send a Message
REST Endpoint:​List Contacts
REST Endpoint:​Add Contact
REST Endpoint:​Delete Contact
Gotta Know What We’re Talking to:​ServerInfo.​ts
Time to Send the Mail:​smtp.​ts
A Quick Detour:​Nodemailer
Another Quick Detour:​Generics
Back to the Code!
Worker.​sendMessage( )
Time to Get the Mail (and Other Stuff):​imap.​ts
A Quick Detour:​emailjs-imap-client and mailparser
Back to the Code!
Worker.​listMailboxes( )
Worker.​listMessages( )
Worker.​getMessageBody( )
Worker.​deleteMessage( )
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
south, the vestry-room, the police-station, the infant-school, and
other buildings, have been erected.
The great charitable Institution of modern Paddington, is St. Mary’s
Hospital, situated in Cambridge-place. “Its establishment was
commenced in 1843, and His Royal Highness Prince Albert was
pleased to lay the first stone on the twenty-eighth of June, 1845.”
Thomas Hopper, Esq. made the design gratuitously; and Mr.
Winsland’s tender of £33,787 was accepted for the building; which,
when complete, was intended to hold 380 beds.
A portion of this building, “with all the requisite appurtenances,
capable of containing 150 beds,” was opened for the reception of
fifty patients on the thirteenth of June, 1851; 332 patients were
admitted into the wards of the Hospital, during the first six months;
the average duration of their stay being twenty two days.
Mr. Winsland’s original tender was for the whole building, included
“in five separate divisions;” and a certain portion was to have been
completed within a specified period, but the sudden death of the
contractor is said to have thrown some obstacles in the way of its
progress. There must have been some alteration, too, in the original
design, or some sad miscalculation in the contract; for instead of a
building capable of containing 380 beds having been erected for
£33,787, I find by a “statement and appeal” published by “the Bond
of Governors” in 1851, that there had been expended the end of
that year £33,806 5s. 3d. “on account site and building,” as it then
existed: £1,776 6s. 9d., in addition, had been expended in
furnishing; and £1,223 3s. 2d., for the maintenance of the fifty beds
for six months. The estimated sum “to maintain the establishment
of 150 beds, and to defray the expense of out-patients,” was
calculated at £4,400 per annum; £300 additional being required to
support the maternity department.
At the present time there are 150 beds for patients, the total
number the present building is capable of containing; and
attendance on the practice of this Hospital is now recognised by the
medical examining boards—the medical staff having been complete
from the first opening of the establishment. This staff consists of
three Physicians, and three Assistant Physicians; three Surgeons,
and three Assistant Surgeons; a Physician-Accoucheur; a Surgeon-
Accoucheur; an Ophthalmic-Surgeon; and an Aural-Surgeon; all of
whom perform their respective duties gratuitously. There are also
two resident medical officers, and a Dispenser. There is a paid
Secretary; an Assistant Secretary; a Collector; a Matron; and a
Chaplain; and the establishment is managed by a certain number of
Governors elected on building, special, house, finance, and medical
committees; subject to a code of laws, and, in most instances, to the
will of the whole body of Governors.
“Every subscriber of three guineas or upwards annually, is eligible to
be elected an annual governor; and every individual, making a
donation of thirty guineas or upwards in one sum, is eligible to be
elected a life governor.”
“Every governor, in addition to the privilege of recommending in and
out-patients as a subscriber, has the right to attend at all, or any
weekly, quarterly or special boards, and to speak and vote on all
questions, and to vote on all elections which shall come before such
board; &c.,” but “no governor is entitled to vote on an election, until
he shall have been a governor for a period of three calendar
months.”
“Annual subscribers of twenty-five guineas, or donors of 500 guineas
in one sum, have an unlimited right of recommending in-patients.
“Annual subscribers of ten guineas, or donors of 100 guineas in one
sum, may recommend an unlimited number of in-patients, one in-
patient only at a time in the Hospital.
“Annual subscribers of three guineas, or donors of thirty guineas in
one sum, may recommend three in-patients annually, and eighteen
out-patients.
“Annual subscribers of two guineas, or donors of twenty guineas in
one sum, may recommend two in-patients annually, and twelve out-
patients.
“Annual subscribers of one guinea, or donors of ten guineas in one
sum to the maternity fund, may recommend three patients annually
to that department; and three additional patients for each guinea
annually subscribed, or each donation of ten guineas in one sum.”
But, although great sums have been already subscribed, and
although these inducements to subscribe have been held out to the
charitable, the Hospital is already in debt; and the advertisements
declare that “to maintain the present number of in-patients, and to
supply medicine for a very large number of out-patients, the amount
of annual subscriptions is quite inadequate.”
From what has been seen in the previous part of this Work, it may
have been thought that the site of this Hospital, with the whole of its
enclosed ground, was the gift of the Bishop of London and the
trustees of the Paddington Estate; but from a printed statement,
dated the tenth of July, 1846, I find that this is not the case. The
ground which was to be given up, according to the provisions of the
7th and 8th Vic. chap. 30, as a site for this Hospital, is said to
consist “of upwards of three quarters of an acre;” “its value was
stated to have been estimated at £3,885;” but “the trustees of the
Hospital were required to pay £1,000, as an indemnity to the Grand
Junction Water Works Company, to whom the ground had been
leased.” Further, the Committee “deemed it expedient to purchase,
at an expense of £2,000 two adjoining pieces of ground, in order
that the future governors of the institution should not be restricted
in their operations for want of space.”
These pieces together, made “an acre and a quarter of land, being
nearly half an acre more than the present site of St. George’s
Hospital.”
Within a few yards of this large building, there is another charitable
medical Institution, called the “Paddington Free Dispensary, for the
Diseases of women and children.” This Institution, also, is supported
by voluntary contributions; and a consulting physician; a consulting
surgeon; two physicians; a surgeon; a dentist; and a secretary; give
their gratuitous services to this charity. The report of 1851, states
that 5,280 patients had been “admitted during the last year;” the
expenditure of the whole establishment being but £218 18s. 0d.
In the same street—Market-street,—there is a “Refuge for the
Destitute” supported by voluntary contributions. Here the houseless
poor, to the number of 100, may obtain a bed and breakfast during
the winter months; and here, winter and summer, the manager and
his wife have been maintained for some years in very easy
circumstances. [174a]
For the regular poor of the parish, a very excellent house has been
built, at a cost of £11,431 9s. 11d., on a portion of five and a
quarter acres of “the Upper Readings,” purchased of the Bishop of
London and the trustees of the Paddington Estate for £5,168 15s.
0d. [174b]—By an “extract from the statistical and financial statements
of accounts of the Board of Guardians,” I find that for the half year
ending Michaelmas, 1851, the total number of paupers relieved was
1,054, viz.—in-door, 88 males; 126 females; 117 children. Out-door,
122 males; 289 females; 312 children. The collective number of
days being 37,171. I also find, from the same official document,
that there was an increase of 36 in-door, and a decrease of 160 out-
door paupers as compared with the corresponding half of the
previous year; that the total expenditure for the relief of the poor,
amounted to £2,995 16s. 0½d.; that the sum of £1,130 10s. 8d.
was repaid for “workhouse loan and interest;” and that the whole
cost of the establishment for this half-year was £4,237 16s. 8½d.—
£4,500 having been called for to meet the expenditure. The
financial account closed with a balance in hand of £1,154 10s. 1d.
From the same kind of printed document, for the half-year ending
lady-day, 1852, I find the total number of paupers relieved, was
1,070; viz., in-door, 70 males; 139 females; 101 children; out-door,
135 males; 290 females; 335 children; being a decrease of 120 out,
and 26 in-door paupers, as compared with the corresponding half of
the previous year; the collective number of days, being 36,738. The
in-maintenance and clothing for this half-year, amounted to £892
16s. 9d.; the “establishment and common charges,” to £830 6s.
2½d.; the out-relief to 1,056 7s. 10¾d.; the lunatic charges to £315
14s. 7d.; and the extra medical fees to £27 4s. 0d., making the total
expenditure for the relief of the poor this half-year £3,122 9s. 5d.
Payment of interest, registration fees, &c., increased this sum to
£3,474 18s. 11d. The amount called for this half-year was £2,700
0s. 0d., and £410 2s. 1d., was the amount of balance in hand.
The Lock Hospital, which adjoins the Work-house, was removed from
Grosvenor-place to its present site, in 1842. This institution was
founded in 1737, and no less than 60,502 patients have been
treated at this Hospital since that date. The number of in-patients
for 1851, was 388; of these 193 were females, and 195 males;
during the same period 785 persons were attended to, as out-
patients. Attached to this charity, and indeed forming an important
portion of it, is “the Asylum.”
“The Lock Asylum was founded in the year 1787, by the Rev.
Thomas Scott, the venerable commentator. It then occupied a
building in connection with the old Lock Hospital. In 1842, it was
removed to its present site, and in 1848–9, enlarged to its present
dimensions. When first founded, the Asylum received only sixteen
inmates; in 1842, it was enlarged so as to receive twenty; it is now
capable of containing 100.
Since the foundation of the Asylum, 1,175 female patients of the
Hospital have been admitted, a majority of whom have been
provided with situations, restored to their friends, or otherwise
comfortably settled in life.
There are now forty-seven in the Asylum.
Needlework is taken in at the Asylum, and the payment for it
constitutes a valuable addition to the receipts of the Institution. A
laundry is open also for the washing of those families who may be
willing, by sending the work, thus further to benefit the Asylum.”
Besides the chapel and the schools, which have sprung out of these
charitable institutions, there are now connected with them and the
chapel, the following societies, viz. The Westbourn Friendly Visiting
Society, the Westbourn Provident Bank, the Lock Sunday schools,
the Church Missionary Association, the Juvenile Missionary
Association, the Sunday School Children’s Missionary Association, the
Church of England Young Men’s Society; and the London City
Mission.
The Public Establishments in Paddington, unconnected with
particular forms of religion, are soon recounted:
Here there are no places for rational amusement—unless indeed, we
consider such places as “the Flora tea-gardens,” and “Bott’s Bowling-
green,” to come under this designation. In that region of the parish
still devoted to bull-dogs, and pet spaniels; the bodies of broken-
down carriages, old wheels, rusty grates, and old copper boilers;
little gardens, and low miserable sheds; there is an establishment,
which boasts of having the truly attractive glass, in which “for the
small charge of two-pence, any young lady may behold her future
husband.” But although such attractions as these exist, the youths
who live on the celebrated Paddington Estate, have not to thank the
lords of the soil for setting apart any portion of it for their physical
improvement; and yet for the efficient development both of mind
and body, it is necessary that the physical condition of the young
should be cared for. In Paddington, however, there is no public
gymnasium; there is now no village-green, worthy of the name; [176]
the young are not trained to use their motive powers to the best
advantage; there are no public baths. And when, on the
establishment of the baths and washhouses in Marylebone, the
governing Body in Paddington was solicited to join in that useful
work, that good office was rejected, and the people of Marylebone
were permitted to carry out that necessary and useful undertaking
by themselves. Perhaps the Paddington vestrymen thought there
ought to be a bath, and a bath-room, in every house in Paddington;
if so they certainly thought rightly. But how many of these
necessary adjuncts to a healthful home are to be found even on the
Paddington Estate, and what steps have our local governors taken to
supply this want in the houses of the poor?
In particular religious communities, the education of those who can
no longer be called children, is beginning to be attended to, in some
degree; yet there is no public lecture room; no museum; no public
reading room; no place of general instruction in Paddington, where
Jew and Gentile, saint and sinner, alike may meet to receive lessons
from that fountain of truth which ought to be open to all mankind,
irrespectively of their private religious opinions.
And yet in Paddington we see some of the most miraculous signs of
the times. A city of palaces has sprung up on a bishop’s estate
within twenty years; a road of iron, with steeds of steam, brings into
the centre of this city, and takes from it in one year, a greater
number of living beings than could be found in all England a few
years ago. The electric telegraph is at work by the side of this iron
road. And by means of conveyances, open to all who have any
small change, from sixpence to a penny, the whole of London can be
traversed in half the time it took to reach Holborn-bar at the
beginning of this century, when the road was in the hands of Mr.
Miles, his pair-horse coach, and his redoubtable Boy. This coach and
these celebrated characters were for a long time the only appointed
agents of communication between Paddington and the City. The
journey to the City was performed by them in something more than
three hours; the charge for each outside passenger being two
shillings, the “insides” being expected to pay three. The delivery of
parcels on the line of road added very materially to Mr. Miles’s
occupation and profit; and I am informed that Miles’s Boy not only
told tales, to the great amusement of his master’s customers, but
gave them some equally amusing variations on an old fiddle, which
was his constant travelling companion, and which he carefully
removed from its green-baize covering, to beguile the time at every
resting-place on the road.
When the Paddington omnibuses first started, the aristocracy of
“The Green” were quite shocked at the disgrace thus brought on the
parish; and loud and long were their complaints to the vestry, and
most earnest were their petitions to that body, to rid them of “the
nuisance.” Since that time, however, greater folks than those of
“The Green” have not objected to be seated in these public vehicles;
and so useful and necessary to the public have they become, that
one Company of Proprietors of Paddington Omnibuses has had in
use 700 horses at one time. And, if the Paddington omnibuses were
improved, as they easily might be, they would be much more useful
than they are at present.
The glory of the first public Company which shed its influence over
Paddington, has in a great measure departed; the shares of the
Grand Junction Canal Company are below par, though the traffic on
this silent highway to Paddington, is still considerable; and the cheap
trips into the country offered by its means, during the summer
months, are beginning to be highly appreciated by the people, who
are pent in close lanes and alleys; and I have no doubt the
shareholders’ dividends would not be diminished by a more liberal
attention to this want.
If every one had their right, I am told there would be a wharf,
adjoining this canal, open free to the people of Paddington, for
loading and unloading goods. It is certain that the old road to
Harrow was never leased to the Grand Junction Canal Company; but
a wharf, upwards of one hundred feet wide, now exists on a portion
of that road; and, as I am informed, the rent of this wharf is not
received by the parish. I was promised, twelve months since, that
the claims of the parish to this wharf should he inquired into; but as
yet no such inquiry has been made.
At the western extremity of the parish, there is an artesian well, to
which the name of “the Western Water Works” has been given; the
water from which supplies the houses, which have been built on that
clayey district. The west Middlesex, and the Grand Junction Water
Works Companies supply the other parts of the parish.
The Imperial Gas Company have supplied the parish with gas, since
its first introduction into Paddington, in 1824.
A new station and hotel, now nearly finished, will make a fine
terminus to the Great Western Railway; and add to the many showy
buildings, which have been erected in Paddington, within the last
few years.

CHAPTER V.
A REVIEW OF THE CONDITION OF THE PARISH AND THE PEOPLE, AT VARIOUS
PERIODS OF THEIR HISTORY.

Those people who have been the most completely governed by

ecclesiastics, are proverbial for having made the slowest progress in
all the elements of knowledge which concern man; and the people
of Paddington formed no exception to that rule which has been
found to hold good in other places. Here, as elsewhere, the spiritual
governors of the people made but poor attempts to develope the
mind; and those to whom they deputed this duty, took care to follow
the example set them by their superiors.
To keep the breath of life, the living soul, under subjection by the
agency of superstitious dogmas and by threats of everlasting
punishment, was attempted for ages, and is even now attempted;
but the world is freeing itself from the government of organised
crafts; and it will soon be useless—in spite of all the vain efforts
which are now being made—to attempt to teach the people that the
greatest virtue is to believe and obey, without the exercise of
reason; and that the greatest vice consists in doubting the power of
symbols to save.
Although the people of Paddington lived at so short a distance from
the two rich cathedral marts of London and Westminster, they made
no greater advances in civilization for many centuries, than did those
who lived in the most remote village in England. The few people
who did live here, were wholly agricultural; and they owed every
useful lesson of their lives, much more to their own intelligence and
observation, than to any instruction given them by those who were
well paid to be their teachers.
Paddington, however, is no longer what it was; the lay element,
independent of all craft, has thoroughly diffused itself through the
country; and its advent in this place, though attended with much
cunning, was the real cause of the wonderful transformation which
has taken place here within the last half-century.
The Reformation and the Revolution added to the numbers and
importance of the people; and the execrable act of that vain
braggart, who wildly called himself the State, not only increased the
population of Paddington, but brought out to useful purpose the
christian virtues of the residents of this village. Here, on the
revocation of the edict of Nantes, many of the exiled protestants of
France found a home, which had been denied them by their great
King; and here, too, the memory of their sufferings and virtues will
be kept green, so long as one of their graves shall be permitted to
remain in the Old Church-yard.
It is impossible to tell what number of persons lived in this parish, at
any one period previous to the present century. The oldest Parish
Register, now to be found in Paddington, is dated 1701; and all the
written proceedings of the rate-payers in vestry assembled, previous
to the second of April, 1793, are said to have been burnt, lost, stolen
or destroyed. The only sources from which I have been able to form
any conjecture respecting the ancient population of Paddington, are,
therefore, necessarily very imperfect, and open to many objections.
By the Subsidy Rolls, however, we discover the names of those who
were rated in particular places, at different periods, when the
respective subsidies were levied; and although their tombstones may
have crumbled into dust, or may have been removed by Act of
Parliament, and sold “for the best price that could be got,” yet in
these tax-papers their names may receive a notice which will, for
centuries, preserve their memories.
From the Subsidy Roll of the sixteenth year of Henry the eighth, I
find that twenty persons, then living in Paddington, were taxed for
the subsidy levied that year, although the amount of tax collected in
this parish was but forty-eight shillings. All the heads of families
might not have been included in this levy; but, if we suppose that all
were included, and that each of these twenty persons represented a
family, and if we calculate further five individuals for each family, we
shall make the population of Paddington, in 1524, one hundred;
which in all probability, was not very much under, or over, the
number at that date.
The value of land, goods, and wages, on which this sum was
assessed, amounted to £77 6s. 8d. But if these descriptions of
property were all charged in this Subsidy, they were not taxed in the
same proportion, on the capital sum assessed; for, although the
wages of the labourer were taxed, they were taxed at only one-and-
a-quarter per cent.; while goods were charged two-and-a-half per
cent.; and land five per cent. So that, three hundred years ago, a
more equitable property-tax existed, than that which is the result of
present legislative wisdom.
In the thirty-fifth year of the same reign, the valuation for this parish
was raised to £272 13s. 4d. Fifteen families only, however, were
included in the subsidy for this year—land and goods alone being
charged.
In a Subsidy Roll, of the thirty-ninth, of Elizabeth, Marylebone and
Paddington are united, to produce a small sum.
In a Subsidy made in the eighteenth year of James the first, the
name of Sir Rowland St. John occurs, as I have before observed;
and, as this is the first time I find the name of a lessee of the manor
on these Rolls, I am inclined to think Sir Rowland was the first
lessee, who lived on the Paddington Estate.
It was not the son of Sir Rowland, but another Oliver St John, a
relative of this Knight of the Bath, to whom the people owed so
deep a debt of gratitude. That man of noble birth and noble mind,
opposed the Tyranny of his time, not only in thought, but in word
and deed; for he was one of the brave soldiers of that army, which
fought and bled for the liberties we now enjoy; and the people of
Paddington who preserved the sacred mound of liberty, which they
erected within sight of his relatives’ windows, must have felt
themselves ennobled, when the Lion settle echoed his valorous
deeds. The people of Paddington knew the value of liberty, if their
lords did not; and the public houses which were the only celebrated
institutions in this rural village, were their debating clubs. Two, at
least, were in existence, before “the house for two tenants” was
occupied by the lord or his lessees; for they claim to have been
established before the Reformation. There are three lions still in
Paddington, each contending for the most ancient origin. The
“White lion,” in the Edgeware-road, was established, according to
the date on its present facade, in 1524—the year in which hops were
first permitted to be imported, to preserve our beer. The “Red Lion,”
in the Edgeware-road, near the commencement of the Harrow-road,
claims a more ancient date for its establishment. In one of its old
wooden chambers, taken down, some few years ago to make room
for the present house, tradition tells us Shakspeare played; [182a] and
many a story has been told of the haunted chamber in this house, as
well as of that in the Manor House. The other ancient “Lion,” also
“Red,” is situated in the Harrow-road, having taken up its present
position as near to its old quarters, as the alteration in that road
would permit. This house was formerly situated near the bridge
which carried the Harrow-road over the bourn; and was, as I
conceive, the property described in an Inquisition, held the second
year of Edward the sixth,—vide p. 51—as the “two tenements, called
the Bridge-House.”
There is a younger Lion, “Black,” but still of some pretensions to
antiquity, standing in the Uxbridge-road; there is also an ancient
“Pack Horse,” in the Harrow-road; and at the corner of Old Church-
street, in the Edgeware-road, there is a “Wheat Sheaf,” which has
the credit of having frequently entertained honest and learned Ben
Johnson; so that, if learning and science were not allowed to flourish
in the churches and other public buildings of Paddington, the ale
houses, in some degree, attempted to supply the defect.
From the Index Villaris of 1690, I find there were “more than three
gentlemen’s seats” in Paddington, at that date. Probably there were
four—Westbourn Manor House; Paddington Manor House;
Desborough House; and Little Shaftsbury House; the two latter
names pointing out their original occupants.
Although I am not now able to offer any positive evidence in proof of
Desborough House having belonged to the celebrated Colonel, who
was related to Cromwell, and whose doings in the Commonwealth
are so well known, yet I have met with many circumstances which
incline me to this belief.
Lysons tells us that Little Shaftesbury House was built by “The Earl
of Shaftesbury, author of the Characteristics, or his father the
Chancellor.”
There can be no doubt but the population of Paddington was
considerably increased, when the manor and rectory fell into lay
hands; and by making the same computation as before—five
members for each family, [182b] we shall find that by 1685, it had
increased to upwards of three-hundred; for, in the twenty-fifth and
twenty-sixth Charles the second, sixty-two persons are charged for
267 fire-hearths in Paddington: John Ashley, the gentleman who
made the greatest smoke in the parish at that time, being charged
for sixteen.
John Hubbard is not included in this impost; for he did not live to
see all the good results produced by the Restoration, having died,
 [183a]
according to his tombstone, in 1665, “aged 111 years.”
Lysons has omitted to notice this patriarch in his list of cases of
longevity. “Whether he abstained from doing so, because John was
in some way related to the venerable lady of that name, and
because his tomb was too well known to require mention, I cannot
say. Seeing, however, this tomb exists when others of more recent
date are not to be found, I am inclined to believe some such
historical interest must have attached to it, or it would have shared
the fate of others. At all events, from John’s Diary, if he kept one,
many a story as good as Old Mother Hubbard’s could have been
made.
In another part of the church-yard, on the end of a plain, flat stone,
we may read these words:—

Sacred to the Memory of Sarah Siddons, who departed this life,

June 8th, 1831, in her 76th year.
“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.”

Mrs. Siddons lived at one time in Paddington; but Mr. Cunningham

tells us, in his Hand-book for London, that the pretty little house and
grounds which she occupied, were destroyed, to make room for the
Great Western Railway; Desborough Lodge, however, in which I am
informed she lived, still stands in the Harrow-road, a little south and
east of the second Canal bridge. [183b]
Poor Haydon, who devoted “forty-two years to the improvement of
the taste of the English people in high art,” lived in Paddington; and
his shattered corpse was placed near the spot, where Mrs. Siddons
was buried. At no great distance, Collins, the painter of English
coast and cottage scenery, lies. And Dr. Geddes, the “Translator of
the Historical Books of the Old Testament,” was buried in Paddington
Church-yard. His surviving friends could engrave on his tombstone
the following sentence from his works:—
 “Christian is my name, and Catholic my surname; I grant that
you are a Christian as well as I, and embrace you as my fellow
disciple of Jesus; and if you were not a disciple of Jesus, still I
would embrace you as my fellow man.”

Yet, because he dared to express his honest conviction, as to the

real origin of the Books he had taken so much trouble to translate,
he was condemned and despised by many zealots, who thought
their hatred a Christian act; and “public censure was passed upon
him by the Vicar Apostolic, of the London district.” The Life of this
great scholar, and good man, was published by Dr. Mason Good, in
1803.
Banks the sculptor; the elder George Barret; Merlin the mechanist;
the careful sculptor Nollekins, and his father; the Marquis of
Lansdowne, without a word to mark his tomb, and many other
notables; lie buried in this church and churchyard. But, although
thoughts are to be picked up, by day as well as by night, in a ramble
among the tombs, it is not my intention to copy all the grave-stones,
or to encroach on the province of the biographer, or village barber, if
there be one such useful gossip still remaining among us.
For a sketch of a people, whether forming a parish or a nation, it is
better to go to their laws, and observe the effects those laws have
produced; than to rely on any description of individuals, dead or
living. With the exception of the ancient customs of the place, the
common law of the land was the light which guided the people of
Paddington, down to the middle of the last century. Then, as we
have already seen, began the enactment of special laws,—laws
which altered the relations between those who had duties to
perform, and those who had rights and privileges to protect.
Previous to 1753, the people of this parish managed their own
affairs without external aid, the influential inhabitants exercising
their influence here, as influential people in all quarters of the world
have done, either for their own, or the public good, according as
their selfish passions, or the Eternal Truth, prevailed within them.
Riches had their weight, as well as reason, even before Sturges
Bourne and his system of plural voting, came to regulate and
measure the powers of mammon in local elections. But in every
system of government, the selfish rely on ignorance, more than on
any other agent, for the preservation of their powers. When the
ignorant, however, as well as the wise, were free to speak on local
affairs, many unwelcome truths, which did not fall from the lips of
the ordained teachers, must have reached the ears of “the jobbers,”
within the walls of St. Katherine’s, St. James’s, and St. Mary’s. The
meetings of the people, in these sainted places, for the transaction
of their parish business, were open to all the inhabitants of the
parish; and no local burden could be imposed without the sanction
of the majority. No wonder, then, that those who did not reside in
the parish, but who had determined to impose burdens on all those
who did, should call to their aid a power never before felt by the
people of Paddington: one, against which it was useless to rebel;
and from the justice of which there was no appeal.
Private Act followed private Act, for the regulation of property, over
which the people saw and felt, they had no control. And, when at
length their voices were raised in no measured cadence, some
against this grievance, others against that, the church was said to be
desecrated, and polite ears could no longer listen to such a babel of
tongues. A gag was provided. “A select vestry” was the instrument
used. And among the many unjust and unwise laws “passed, to
keep down the people, from 1817 to 1820, the most disgraceful era
in our legislation,” “An Act for the regulation of parish vestries,”
better known as “Sturges Bourne’s Act,” is to be found. In this Act
there are, without doubt, provisions which were much required for
the “regulation of parish vestries;” but I have never yet heard any
reason, worthy a moment’s consideration, for the introduction of the
third clause into that Act. This clause gives “one vote and no more”
to all persons rated for property “not amounting to fifty pounds,” and
adds one vote “for twenty-five pounds of annual rent, &c.” But “so,
nevertheless, that no inhabitant shall be entitled to give more than
six votes.” The principle, “that property should be properly
represented,” is thus absurdly carried out: all those rated at £50 per
annum, have double the amount of influence of those rated at £49;
while those rated at £500, have no more power in the local election,
than those rated at £150. But to such miserable shifts as these
must legislation condescend, as soon as it swerves from the eternal
principles of justice. Is it not of as much concern to the poor rate-
payer, as to the rich, that the parish funds shall be well expended?
And who can shew that the wisdom of a man can be measured by
the size of his house; or by the amount he contributes to the poor-
rate?
On the fourth of April, 1820, the Rev. Dr. Crane, the Lord Bishop of
Exeter, and other influential inhabitants managed to establish “a
select vestry” in Paddington; in which they and their friends had all
the talk as well as all the work to themselves. But if this select body
prevented the people talking, they prevented their eating also. The
glorious parish dinners, at which the parish officers and their friends
had rejoiced at the people’s expense, were discontinued by the
bishop and his friends, in 1821; much to their credit be it spoken,
seeing that at the beginning of this year it was discovered that there
were no less than 824 persons in the parish who claimed relief as
paupers—more than one-eighth of the whole population—and that
out of these, thanks to the cottages, there were 635 legally settled
on the parish.
In May, 1821, a general meeting of the inhabitants was called to
consider, amongst various other things, the propriety of petitioning
the House of Commons for a general law, to regulate the formation
and maintenance of the highways on the north-west side of the
metropolis; and so much was such an Act required, that it was
resolved unanimously to petition. But when the petition was read,
and considered, it was found to be so objectionable that it was as
unanimously rejected. And by the thirtieth of March, 1822, the
inhabitants had seen quite enough of the select vestry system; for
on that day, when called on to re-appoint it for another year, they
would not do so. But on the first of April, 1823, power was given to
a committee of rate-payers to procure a local Act. A draft-bill was
prepared by an experienced Parliamentary counsel, which was left in
the hands of the vestry-clerk, for the inspection of the inhabitants;
and it is said to have received “their cordial approbation.” Whether
that clause which has compelled the people of Paddington, to elect
their local governors, under the system of plural votes, received their
approbation, we are not told; neither is it brought down to us by any
authentic record, how many read and digested an Act, which
contains no less than one hundred and fifty-five clauses, and
occupies eighty printed Act-of-Parliament-pages. Whether its
provisions were understood or not, however, the fifth of George the
IV., chapter 126, received the sanction of the legislature on the
seventeenth of June, 1824, and since that date all the provisions
which have met with the approval of those who have been elected
under it, have been carried into effect.
The cost of procuring this Act, is said to have been £1,088 14s. 6d.
During these two years of select rule—from 1820 to 1822—the path
had been paved for the introduction of this local Act. A committee
had been appointed early in 1822, to inquire into its expediency;
spacious vestry premises and other offices had been built on a
portion of the garden belonging to the alms-houses; and other
preparations had been made to effectually take the management of
the local affairs out of the hands of the people.
To find laws so comprehensive and wise, as not to require the tinker
at every little exigency, which may arise in every little portion of the
community, must surely be a proof of the wisdom of a people. To
find it necessary, constantly to alter general laws; and constantly to
be called on to “stop gaps” by rotten bits of special legislation, which
scarcely wear a single session, must as surely betoken want of
foresight in the law-makers; or the approaching end of that system,
which rests on so sandy a foundation. Five and twenty Acts of
Parliament, at the least, have been passed specially to affect the
property and people of Paddington; and when we think of these, in
connection with the laws which apply to the people in general, we
may not be surprised to find, now and then, even a local governor,
elected under the aristocratic provisions of Sturges Bourne’s Act, lost
amidst this heap of legislative wisdom.
Local self-government, and local taxation, are questions of the day;
and are slowly, but surely, forcing themselves on the consideration of
those who have to direct the affairs of “an Empire on which the sun
never sets.”
Centralization, too, is under consideration; and, although in the
objectionable sense in which this idea is generally understood, it has
received the condemnation of the most acute thinkers of the present
and past time, still it is supported by learned and powerful
advocates, who profess to understand what government really is or
ought to be. In every sense these subjects demand the attention of
the people—not only on account of the enormous revenue annually
raised by local taxation; but because all forms of government are in
the crucible, and it is desirable for the benefit of all, that the best
elements should be eliminated.
For the inhabitants of a particular parish or district to be permitted
to carry out a general law which has been enacted by a whole
people, according to the peculiar circumstances of their local
condition, is a very different thing from giving to that district special
privileges and laws, which may, and most likely would, become
inimical to the public good. The circumstances of almost every place
in England have so changed—not to say since their ancient
municipal laws were enacted, but within the last few years—that
radical alterations are absolutely demanded; and tinkering must soon
end. But the spirit of self-government, and the desire for it, can
never die, so long as the people understand the true value of
liberty. And no system of centralization for the management of local
affairs, can ever be rendered so palatable to the people of England,
as to induce them to endure it, till mismanagement has attained a
still higher point than it has yet reached—a consummation many
causes are now at work to secure;—or till the people have greater
power over the actions of those who regulate the expenditure of the
country—a principle of justice which must ultimately prevail.
That the whole of the people of Paddington, Marylebone, and
Pancras, (at the last census, upwards of 371,000 souls,) should have
but two “places and voices,” in the Commons’ House of Parliament,
while a few hundred in other districts, have the same direct power
over the legislative and executive administration of this country, is so
monstrous a wrong, that some may imagine the people, who quietly
submit to such anomalies, have reached a point at which power may
be safely centred in a few hands. These are they, however, who do
not clearly discern the signs of the times. Any thing resembling the
tyranny of an absolute monarchy, or the despotism of a well-paid
and idle oligarchy, is as detestable now, as ever it was to that
people, who from their childhood are taught to adore liberty for its
own sake, as well as for the fruits it brings forth. The Saxon people
are patient, and endure much; but to educate their children to look
upon thraldom as liberty, will never be permitted in England; and
cannot much longer be tolerated in other countries.
Till private legislation interested itself in the affairs of the people of
Paddington, the local government must have been of the simplest
kind. They had, indeed, little to trouble themselves about on this
score. Their church was provided for, very badly, it is true, by those
who took care of the revenues which were given for its support; so
that the churchwardens were not troubled with the collection of
church-rates; and they had no archdeacon’s visitations to attend; so
that no troublesome questions could be put to them by this once
useful and important officer of the church. The overseer was equally
unemployed; for at no time previous to the latter part of the last
century, could there have been many poor. The culture of the land,
and its attendant duties, found occupation and a living for all. Alms-
houses for the aged and infirm were built, as we have seen, in 1714;
but no other sort of poor-house was required; for the only idle
people in the parish were the few rich families, who were privileged
to live on the industry of others.
By the middle of the last century, nearly the whole of this parish had
become grazing-land. In 1795, according to Lysons, there were
upwards of eleven hundred acres of grassland in Paddington; eighty
four and a half acres only being arable, or garden-ground. And for a
long period, the people who occupied the bishop’s estate in
Paddington, were as celebrated for the quantity or quality of their
milk, as they are now for the number and size of their houses. One
persevering and handsome guardsman, who had contrived to gain
the good graces of a grazier’s daughter, congregated cows here to
such an extent, that all London rang with the number. “Nine
hundred and ninety-nine” could he keep, but the black boggies
always killed or ran away with his thousandth. [189] Whether these
sprites were in league with, or in any way connected with, “Black
Meggie,” who always lay in the cow-shed at the corner of Tybourn
Field, when not on duty, I cannot pretend to say. I am informed by
a gentleman who was born in this parish, and who is no longer
young in years, that he has heard the Tripod, which is represented in
Rocque’s maps, as standing at the junction of the Edgeware with the
Uxbridge-road, was only placed there when the good old English
oracle had to execute her judgments thereon. And that this “three-
legged mare,” Black Meggie by name, was only a poor temporary
substitute for the more ancient and formal “Tybourn Tree” which had
been cut down by some daring fellows the night before it was to
have been put in requisition for the benefit of a string of their
friends. “Tybourn tree” had been removed from its old quarters, as
we have already seen, and had been firmly erected, before Black
Meggie’s time, as one of the institutions of the country, on that
which is now the Marylebone side of the Edgeware-road.
At the beginning of the last century, next to the beautiful fields and
quiet village, the gallows and the gibbet were the principal
attractions in Paddington. At the beginning of this, “Tomlin’s New
Town;” the collection of cottages, west of St. George’s-row; a row of
gardens, and a large bowling-green, by the side of the Edgeware-
road, between Tybourn turnpike, and Paddington, were called into
existence. These changes, in conjunction with the grand canal of
Paddington, [190] obliterated in a few years the work of centuries; and
succeeded not only in altering the whole aspect of the place, but in
infusing another element of social life into the people. Lysons,
writing in 1794, says “this parish being chiefly church-land, there has
been but little increase of buildings till about four years ago; since
which time a number of small wooden cottages, to the amount of
nearly one hundred, have been erected a little north of Tybourn
turnpike. These cottages are let at from £7 to £12 per annum, and
inhabited principally by journeymen artificers who work in London,
forming with their families a small colony of about 600 persons.”
In the second edition of Lysons’ Work, published in 1811, he tells us
these cottages were begun to be built in 1790. And he was
informed by Mr. Pickering, the curate at that time, that before the
second census was taken, they had increased to 600.
In Horwood’s large and beautiful plan of London, dated 1799, we
find that a part of this colony, that lot of cottages built nearly
opposite George-street, was called Tomlin’s New Town. We see, too,
that St. George’s row was built at this time; that to the west of it a
large building, called Trafalgar, existed; and that another plot of land
had been covered with cottages. So that some portion of this colony
was added to the people of Paddington, and these tenements to the
Tybourn Field, before the bishop’s first Building Act, was passed.
Whether these wooden houses were built in anticipation of that Act,
by some one who had heard the tale of the tinker, who lit his fire,
and boiled his pot, and erected his shed, all in one night, at the
corner of old Church-street; and who could not be dispossessed of
that land which he had so magically acquired; (a tradition which
appears to have some reference to the establishment of Paedings
New Town,) or whether these miserable sheds were built by the
direction of the ground landlords, to give them a telling argument in
favour of their private Act,—I cannot say. Both landlord and tenant,
however, found the power of a modern private Act of Parliament,
and the “journeymen artificers” had to “move on,” in order that
Connaught-terrace, and better houses for the rich, might be built.
The greater part of the enormous increase in the population
between 1801 and 1811, was caused by the erection of these
cottages, so very ill-suited for preserving health and life. They were
soon filled, however, by the poorer class from the crowded parts of
London; for pure air is more relished by the poor, than that which is
fetid and foul, whatever the rich may say to the contrary. Give them
but an opportunity of getting it, and see how greedily it is embraced;
unless, indeed, the demoralizing effect of generations of bad
education is brought into operation, to counteract this natural
instinct. As fast as these cottages in the open fields were built, they
were occupied; although those who were to reap the greater benefit
of this more profitable occupation of the land, had made no
provision for effective drainage, security from cold and wet, or for
proper ventilation:—essentials, without which all sanitary laws are
put absolutely at defiance, however well the situation of a town may
be chosen, or however provident the bountiful Giver of all good may
have been in sending storms and winds, to disperse the natural
accumulation of unwholesome gases in certain localities.
Messrs. Pulford and Erlam, two surveyors, in their report to the
vestry on the state of these cottages, in 1816, say, “we cannot
refrain from thus recording our expression of regret, that the
ground-landlords should be so inordinate in their demands. The
effect of which is, the buildings are ill-calculated to afford shelter
from the inclemency of the weather, and the want of drainage and
consequent damp produce disease, filth, and wretchedness.” And
so, these Paddington cottages, which were for so many years so
prominent a feature in the parish, and which were so much sought
after by the poor, as a sort of country-retreat, were in fact, the
generators of “disease, filth, and wretchedness.”
During the long winter-evenings, the muddy roads which led to
these cottages, were in total darkness, unless “the parish lantern”
chanced to offer its acceptable light; and there is no doubt but that
so long as these cottages remained they were the hot-beds of fevers
and ague. A gentleman, who was for many years parish-surgeon,
informs me that during the time these cottages existed, he was
rarely without cases of these diseases; the latter disease was always
endemic; and at times the former put on a fearfully epidemic
character. Still these detached and semi-detached cottages on the
Bishop’s Estate were better than the close streets of town, though
these were more than sufficiently unhealthy; but what cared those
who profited by this disease and misery, and their natural
accompaniment, crime, so long as their rents were paid?
The poor and the ignorant did not know “the extent of their
misfortune;” or if they did, the majority “did not seem to grumble at
their lot, or to think it hard.” If a voice of complaint was occasionally
heard, the generous landlord said, “it came from an ill-conditioned,
discontented wretch, whom it was useless to attempt to satisfy; and
the sooner he left the parish, the better.” Cries, indeed, from the
feeble and the timid went up to heaven for redress, and heaven
alone was left to answer them.
The ground-landlords, at length, seeing the cottages had served
their turn, made an attempt to remove this evil, by clearing them
away; and many a bitter curse was uttered by those who were
evicted; for in the simplicity of their dealings they had made no legal
provision for compensation for capital invested; and, although some
compensation was granted by the Great Western Railway Company
to the small tenants they displaced, yet the ground-landlords did not
follow their example; and down to the present time, no dream of
comfortable and healthful lodgings for the poor on their estate, has
even entered their heads; no, not even the idea of a “Thanksgiving
Building,” so far as we know by any sign that has been given.
Another source of disease and death was to be found on the banks
of the Paddington canal, which was opened with so much éclat, on
the 10th of July, 1801. No less than 20,000 people came to
Paddington, to hurrah the mighty men who so altered the aspect of
this quiet village; and who, in doing so, offered to the Londoner a
new mode of transit for his goods. Unfortunately, for the people of
Paddington, on the banks of this canal were stowed many other
commodities than “dry goods.” Not only the dust and ashes, but the
filth of half London were brought to “that stinking Paddington,” (as it
was now called,) for convenience of removal. The time of removal
was made to suit the convenience of those who traded in these
contaminating materials; but the living sensitive nerves and active
blood corpuscules of the people who dwelt near its banks, were not
considered. And so, instead of having no doctor in the parish, as
was the case within the memory of many now living in it, both
doctor and sexton found full employ.
That this is no over-drawn picture of the condition of Paddington for
the first quarter of the present century, there is plenty of evidence to
prove.
The disbursements of churchwardens and overseers, in 1793, two
years before the passing of the Bishop’s Building Act, amounted to
£402 6s. 11d.; but the overseer’s account alone, in 1815, amounted
to £3,375 12s. 4d. And although there were more to pay the rates,
still, even at the later date, many of the cottages were not rated at
all; and the greatest difficulty was experienced in squeezing out of
the hard earnings of the poor men who occupied them, the small
pittance (to them a great sum,) which was at length obtained,
towards defraying these serious local charges.
In 1803, eight years after the Bishop’s first Building Act was
obtained, the assessment of Paddington was £9,966 10s. and the
first poor-rate, levied under this assessment, was one shilling and
three-pence in the pound. This valuation, however, was only one-
third of the rental of 272 tenements; the smaller tenements not
having been rated at all. The overseers’ account, this year,
amounted to £701 16s. 7d.; and it increased annually till 1811, when
it was reported to the ratepayers at large, at their annual meeting on
Easter Tuesday, that the expenses of supporting the poor have
increased fourfold, in the last sixteen years.
No wonder, then, that the sensible inhabitants of Paddington, who
saw what the Bishop’s Building Acts were doing for the bishop and
his lessees, and who felt, in a very tender point, what they were
doing for themselves as ratepayers, should be anxious that those,
who derived so much benefit from the parish, should bear some
share in the increased expenses. But although all the expenses of
the church and the poor had been so considerately transferred from
the owners of the Paddington Estate, to the pockets of the rate-
payers; and although the additional claim of the poor was excessive,
yet it was not till the twenty-seventh of October, 1807, that the rate-
payers in vestry assembled, “resolved that the Lord Bishop, in
respect of the great tithes is rateable, and that he be rated
accordingly.”
One would have thought that the bishop, and his lessees, knowing
all this—knowing that the “expenses of supporting the poor, had
increased fourfold in the last sixteen years (that is, since the Act of
1795, during which time their income from the land had increased,
perhaps in a like proportion) and that the same has arisen, in a
great measure, from the necessity of constant and casual relief to
paupers residing in small tenements built upon the Bishop of
London’s Estate;” knowing that they had received £2,263 7s. 6d., for
land to increase the burial ground,—a purchase made necessary
principally on account of this great increase in the number of
paupers, and the conditions under which they were placed:
Knowing, I say, all these things; for to not one could they have
pleaded ignorance, it is barely believeable that these legal protectors
of the church and of the poor should have refused this legal
demand. Yet most certainly they did so; and further, put the
parishioners to the unpleasant necessity of applying to a barrister,
learned in the law, for his opinion on this point. By the vestry
minutes, dated November 3rd, 1810, we find that Mr. Const,
“apprehends the Lord Bishop is liable to the poor-rate for the tithes
both of the lands, belonging to the See, in occupation of other
persons, and those for which a composition is received.” And
accordingly in January, 1811, the Bishop of London is rated in the
new assessment made that year, upon £462, the estimated annual
value of the great tithes.