Watling-street was chosen as the headquarters of the Fire Brigade for a double reason:  it is very nearly the centre of the city, being close to the far-famed London Stone, and it is in the very midst of what may be termed, speaking igneously, the most dangerous part of the metropolis—­the Manchester warehouses.  As the Fire Brigade is only a portion of a vast commercial operation—­Fire Insurance—­its actions are regulated by strictly commercial considerations.  Where the largest amount of insured property lies, there its chief force is planted.  It will, it is true, go any reasonable distance to put out a fire; but of course it pays most attention to property which its proprietors have guaranteed.  The central station receives the greatest number of “calls;” but as a commander-in-chief does not turn out for a skirmish of outposts, so Mr. Braidwood keeps himself ready for affairs of a more serious nature.  When the summons is at night—­there are sometimes as many as half-a-dozen—­the fireman on duty below apprizes the superintendent by means of a gutta percha speaking-tube, which comes up to his bedside.  By the light of the ever-burning gas, he rapidly consults the “London Directory,” and if the call should be to what is called “a greengrocer’s street,” or any of the small thoroughfares in bye-parts of the town, he leaves the matter to the foreman in whose district it is, and goes to sleep again.  If, however, the fire should be in the city, or in any of the great West-End thoroughfares, he hurries off on the first engine.  Five minutes is considered a fair time for an engine “to horse and away,” but it is often done in three.  Celerity in bringing up aid is the great essential, as the first half hour generally determines the extent to which a conflagration will proceed.  Hence the rewards of thirty shillings for the first, twenty for the second, and ten shillings for the third engine that arrives, which premiums are paid by the parish.  All the engines travel with as few hands as possible:  the larger ones having an engineer, four firemen and a driver, and the following furniture:—­

“Several lengths of scaling-ladder, each 6 1/2 feet long, all of which may be readily connected, forming in a short space of time a ladder of any required height; a canvas sheet, with 10 or 12 handles of rope round the edge of it for the purpose of a fire-escape; one 10-fathom and one 14-fathom piece of 2 1/2-inch rope; six lengths of hose, each 40 feet long, 2 branch-pipes, one 2 1/2 feet, and the other from 4 to 6 feet long, with one spare nose-pipe; two 6-feet lengths of suction-pipe, a flat rose, stand-cock, goose-neck, dam-board, boat-hook, saw, shovel, mattock, pole-axe, screw-wrench, crow-bar, portable cistern, two dog-tails, two balls of strips of sheepskin, two balls of small cord, instruments for opening the fire-plugs, and keys for turning the stop-cocks of the water-mains.”

The weight of the whole, with the men, is not less than from 27 to 30 cwt., a load which, in the excitement of the ride, is carried by a couple of horses at the gallop.