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The lakes in these two parks are the only places in which the inhabitants of London are permitted to indulge in open-air bathing.[Footnote 5] To be sure there is the river, and there are numerous canals in which the gamins plunge in summer, but they do so at the risk of being seized by the police and brought before a magistrate charged with the heinous offence of indecency, so that all who have any respect for the law are practically debarred from making use of these waters. Besides, in spite of the recent drainage works, the Thames is still little better than an open sewer, and it will be long before it is anything else;[Footnote 6] and the canals are, with few exceptions, so dirty, that there is little inducement to the respectable swimmer to brave the terrors of the law, and defy the threats against trespassers, in order to indulge in his favorite exercise in either river or canal. So, practically, he is limited to the Serpentine and Victoria lakes, and to these only at the inconvenient hours, and under the uncomfortable circumstances I have described.