118 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



having once persuaded that water to move in channels provided for it, 

 having guided it into small pipes, and thence into large mains, and 

 thence into lakes, ponds, and outlets, ought we to dismiss it at the 

 boundary, lose it for ever, while the domestics are perhaps crying out 

 against the scanty water supply, and the proprietor contemplates sinking 

 another well in hopes of the second being less intermittent than the 

 first ? Generally speaking, the economy of country houses in respect 

 of water may be likened to the act of a farmer who should pay fifty 

 shillings a quarter for imported wheat, and, at the same time, give the 

 produce of his own farm to the fowls of the air, and yet, after all, should 

 persevere in growing wheat, that he might continue to waste it in the 

 same manner. 



It is said that all possible ranks of industry are filled up, which is 

 equivalent to saying that human invention is exhausted. I can see here, 

 having made this quite superficial remark on the paradoxical manage- 

 ment of water on landed properties, that there is ample room and verge 

 enough for any thoroughly competent and ingenious person to make a 

 fortune by the establishment in country houses of economical water- 



^#*' 



works. In many private houses small gas-works are in operation, but 

 there are many substitutes for gas, and there is no substitute for water. 

 When you have a great supply of water by surface drainage, the only 

 question of its conversion to tank water for domestic purposes is one of 

 pure mechanism, and a mere beginner in engineering could devise plans 

 for the appropriation of every drop at such a comparatively low rate of 

 cost as should, in many instances, render well-sinking and boring most 

 ridiculous. 



Let us suppose a property to be completely drained, it is a mechani- 

 cal matter to collect the water somewhere ; a mechanical matter to take 

 it from thence to any higher level if there is anywhere near a moderate 

 fall, whether natural or artificial. Even the water used to afford mecha- 

 nical power to the ram need not be wasted ; and, having got a ram to 

 work, the water may as well be carried to the top of a house or the top 

 of a hill or tower, as to any level midway between such extremes. The 

 next business is to make this water subservient to utility and 

 ornament at one and the same time. The quantity which can be kept 



