If no large water storage stations are built beside all strategic fortresses and essential public facilities to solve the problem of firefighting water sources, and if there is no effective organization for prevention such as a fire police force, then people's efforts to construct palaces and pavilions will be sadly in vain, for fires will eventually consume everything that has been built.
—— George William Manby "The Combat and Prevention of Destructive Fires"
As the carriage left Kensington Palace, the sky over London was gradually darkening, clothed in a chaotic yellow-gray that hung so low it seemed to press down on the rooftops, and the air was filled, as always, with the irksome odor of coal smoke.
However, compared to the chill of the past few days, this evening's atmosphere felt somewhat warmer, though it might have been Arthur's illusion.
