Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Public Health, Sanitation, Politics, Government

    In a reference to the City of London's refusal to be part of the Health of Towns Bill, describes 'How St. George and St. Andrew in Holborn encountered and slew the great Dragon Cleanliness, that would have drawn them into a certain bath, wherein he sojourned'. Describes how the dragon lived 'in a bath', resorted to a 'terrible hill called Sanitary Law', and performed such terrible deeds as drying up Holborn's cesspools and stopping people from wallowing in its sewers. After the defeat of the dragon, the people 'abode in their filth' and their 'dung-heaps waxed larger than ever'. The illustration shows this conflict between the knights of foul substances and the dragon of cleanliness (a wash-bucket).