again. If, however, the fire should be in the city, or in any of the
great West-End thoroughfares, he hurries off on the first engine.
Five minutes is considered a fair time for an engine "to horse and
away," but it is often done in three. Celerity in bringing up aid is
the great essential, as the first half hour generally determines the
extent to which a conflagration will proceed. Hence the rewards of
thirty shillings for the first, twenty for the second, and ten
shillings for the third engine that arrives, which premiums are paid
by the parish. All the engines travel with as few hands as possible:
the larger ones having an engineer, four firemen and a driver, and the
following furniture:--

"Several lengths of scaling-ladder, each 6 1/2 feet long, all of which
may be readily connected, forming in a short space of time a ladder of
any required height; a canvas sheet, with 10 or 12 handles of rope
round the edge of it for the purpose of a fire-escape; one 10-fathom
and one 14-fathom piece of 2 1/2-inch rope; six lengths of hose, each
40 feet long, 2 branch-pipes, one 2 1/2 feet, and the other from 4 to
6 feet long, with one spare nose-pipe; two 6-feet lengths of
suction-pipe, a flat rose, stand-cock, goose-neck, dam-board,
boat-hook, saw, shovel, mattock, pole-axe, screw-wrench, crow-bar,
portable cistern, two dog-tails, two balls of strips of sheepskin, two
balls of small cord, instruments for opening the fire-plugs, and keys
for turning the stop-cocks of the water-mains."

The weight of the whole, with the men, is not less than from 27 to 30
cwt., a load which, in the excitement of the ride, is carried by a
couple of horses at the gallop.

The hands to work the pumps are always forthcoming on the spot at any