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live on a gravelly hill." (Peacock.) Still the draining of land 

 produces a benefit to us in every point of view. It improves 

 the crops, it improves the health, and while it banishes vapours, 

 it banishes probably superstition also, which sees the dim ghost 

 in the mist of an undrained field. As I elsewhere said, every 

 field has its own peculiar climate, and if we come to particulars, 

 every portion of a field. We may say that every quarter of 

 a town, every street, side of street, and house, has, from some 

 circumstance natural or artificial, its own climate also, some- 

 times in a very marked degree. The thorough draining of a 

 .field is a ready mode of improving and equalizing at the same 

 time every portion ; a town will be benefitted in exactly the 

 same way, as far as its natural position is concerned. A town 

 surface is generally elmost impervious to water, but even were 

 it quite impervious, there are sources of water below, which 

 supply town wells abundantly. Many towns are drained in 

 this way by these wells, and this may in many cases be effec- 

 tual, but of course a general plan is better. The most careful 

 drainage of towns has been by sewers, but the evil from water 

 in the soil has not been remedied. The Rev. Mr. Milner, 

 of Penrith, has proposed a triple drainage, by which first the 

 moisture of the ground is removed by tile-draining, refuse 

 water being removed in the usual way, and flood-water from 

 the surface. This offers many advantages ; it gives a dry soil, 

 and is a means, hitherto unused, of drying the soil. This plan 

 might very well be extended beyond the town, and the land 

 around the town might be subjected to drainage some time 

 before building. 



The drainage in the neighbourhood of Manchester has 

 already been before the public in a paper by Mr. Roberton, 

 read before the Statistical Society of Manchester in 1850. 

 The mode of building at present resorted to deteriorates the 

 neighbouring land from easily avoidable causes. This land 

 lies waste, waiting for a builder : it is made of no use for 

 agriculture, and offensive to the eye and to health. It would 



