3-009-012 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Statue of Sir Hugh Myddelton at Islington-green [in London], sculptured by the late John Thomas, 1862. '...a fine public monument...to the memory of the great engineer, who, triumphing over the most formidable obstacles, succeeded early in the seventeenth century in diverting a river from its natural channel and conducting it many miles to the high-lying district north of London, for the purpose of supplying a large portion of the metropolis with water. It is needless to refer to the importance of adequate water supply in large towns...a most graceful recognition of this fact has been shown by...the introduction of a drinking-fountain as part of the memorial...The statue...is in Sicilian marble...Sir Hugh is dressed in the quaint and stiff but still...picturesque costume of the latter part of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century - Flanders ruff and cuffs, doublet and jerkin, a cloak of Elizabethan amplitude, trunk hose [and] breeches...In his left hand he holds a scroll containing a plan of his great and useful work, labelled with the words "New River."...The late John Thomas was an architectural designer as well as sculptor, - hence his unique and unrivalled success in the design of this monument'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.