NEW RIVER, an artificial cut in Herts and Middlesex; formed in 1606-13, by Sir Hugh Myddleton, for supplying the metropolis with water. It commences at several springs in the south-eastern vicinity of Ware; draws further supplies from the Lea at Broxborne; runs altogether about 36 miles windingly southward; has 43 sluices and 218 bridges; and is received at Hornsey and Stoke Newington, into extensive reservoirs for distribution through the metropolis. The formation of it cost about £500,000; and, not withstanding aids from Parliament and from London, so impoverished Sir Hugh Myd-dleton as to reduce him for the rest of his life to a state of penury.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))