"MONSTER SOUP Commonly Called THAMES WATER, Being a Correct Representation of that Precious Stuff Doled Out To Us!!!" This 1828 cartoon by William Heath marks the report of the Commission on the London Water Supply in that year. It shows a respectable lady dropping her tea in horror at a micropscopic view of the menagerie living in a drop of filthy Thames water - street entertainers of the time would actually offer these views.
Heath also quotes Paradise Lost ("Brought forth all monstrous, all prodigious things - Hydras and gorgons, and chimeras dire. Vide Milton"), and his signature at the time - a little man called Paul Pry - tips his hat to a water pump and says “Glad to see you hope to meet you in every Parish through London.” From the archives of the Wellcome Collection.
