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A EIYEESIDE PAEISH
By  WALTEE  BESANT

AUTHOK OF  "ALL  SORTS AND  CONDITIONS  OF  MEN"

Along the Banks of the Thames—The Port op London—The Sailou Popu¬
lation—Past Lawlessness of the Riverside Parishes—Rotherhithe—
Shipwrights' and Other Strikes—The Parish of St. James's, Ratcliff
—Its Social History—Charitable Undertakings—Clubs and Larger
Work—Some Devoted Lives.
 

THEEE are several riverside parishes east of London Bridge,
not counting- tlie ancient towns of Deptford and Greenwicli,
wliich. formerly lay beyond London, and could not be reck¬
oned'as suburbs. Tlie liistory of all these parishes, till the pres¬
ent century, is the same. Once, southeast and west of London,
there stretched a broad marsh covered with water at every spring¬
tide ; here and there rose islets overgrown wdth brambles, the
haunt of wild fowl innumerable. In course of time, the city hav¬
ing grown and stretched out long arms along the bank, people
began to build a broad and strong river-wall to keep out the floods.
This river-wall, which still remains, was gradually extended until it
reached the mouth of the river and ran quite round the low coast
of Essex.    To the marshes succeeded a vast level, lowdying, fertile