Underground London (Unabridged)

From the Preface: "This book contains an account, more or less readable, of most things belonging to "Underground London", particularly of the mechanism of sewers, and of the water and gas supply." Underground London was published in 1862, and refers to early-to-mid Victorian London. The final chapter describes a) the discussion over a central London terminus for the railway, and b) plans for the underground railway (the initial work on the "Metropolitan" line was being carried out as this book was being written). The author has an easy, often humorous, style: "Without any wish to speak disrespectfully of sewage, I have a secret sympathy with old Sir Thomas Browne's feeling, and regard this daily mass of muck as a melancholy adjunct of our fallen state." (that last quote is from Chapter One).