Old Kent Road, the horrors of Kent Street were no longer to be braved by travellers. The street is here still, but somewhat civilized; but to "give a bit of

Kent Street" is yet understood to mean language for which Billingsgate has also been long renowned. A singular structure standing in Tooley Street, and

visible for a very great distance up or down the river, was the so-called "Telegraph Tower," which was burned down in the great fire of August, 1843. It had at one time been a shot-tower, and had always completely dwarfed its next-door neighbour, St. Olave's Church. It was very ugly, and so its loss was a distinct gain; but with its disappearance went all recollection of the old system of signalling that had no rival before the electric telegraph was introduced in 1838.

This system was introduced in 1795, at the suggestion of the Rev. Lord George Murray, afterwards Bishop of Saint Davids. He proposed to the Admiralty to erect signal-posts or towers on the heights between London and the coast, and upon experiments being made, it was found easily practicable to send messages in this way to our ships in the Downs. That year, then, witnessed the establishment of a line of telegraph-towers between the Admiralty and Deal, with a branch to Sheerness. The original apparatus of revolving shutters was in use until 1816, when it was changed for a semaphore system, resembling very closely that in use upon railways at the present day, the chief peculiarity being that, instead of only two movements of the semaphore arms, each one could be made to assume six different positions. Some old prints of the Admiralty buildings in Whitehall show a telegraph-station of this kind upon the roof, with the little wooden cabin in which were stationed the men (generally four) whose duty it was to read through telescopes the signals from the nearest