Q. What is a continent?

A. Any district containing a number of separate residences and distinct tenements, as St. James’s, St. Giles’s.

Q. What is an island?

A. An island is anything surrounded by the Thames, as The Eel-Pie Island, and The Convict Hulk at Deptford.

Q. What is a peninsula?

A. Anything that runs into the Thames, as The Suspension Pier at Chelsea, and Jack-in-the-Water at the Tower-stairs.

Q. What is an isthmus?

A. A narrow place that joins two continents together, as Temple bar, which joins Westminster to the City.

Q. How is the Thames water divided?

A. Morally speaking, it is divided into river water, pipe water, and gin-and-water.