1 62 DAGENHAM BREACH. 



and petitioned Parliament against Perry's plan/" alleging that mathe- 

 maticians had declared it to be impracticable. He also got a 

 surveyor to estimate what he had already spent, and what it was 

 worth to a new undertaker'^ — the amount expended being ;^8,396, 

 and that it was worth ^3,762. 



A Parliamentary Committee was then appointed, and Perry 

 closely examined as to his methods. At the end, " one of the 

 members thus spoke the sense of the committee : ' You have 

 answered us like an artist, and like a workman ; and it is not only 

 the scheme, but the man, that we recommend.' "^^ 



Amongst other witnesses was one who said the scheme was 

 impossible. He was asked if he had ever spoken to Perry, or 

 knew his plans, or had been to see the Breach ; to all of which he 

 answered, " No." After ten weeks .their report was presented to 

 Parliament, who declared that the trustees had done their duty. 

 Later on, Perry complained of this delay as a detriment to him, 

 the prices of timber and ironwork having, in the interim, risen 

 twenty per cent. 



A brief survey of the methods adopted by Captain Perry are 

 worthy of note, inasmuch as they proved so thoroughly effectual. 

 Up to the present, as you may see, the dam so skilfully contrived 

 remains as strong and powerful to resist every tidal pressure as it 

 was at the time he built it. 



He first fixed up two sluices in firm land forty feet in breadth, with 

 a foundation down to low-water mark. Each had two drawers to 

 move up and down (a clow, though not mentioned under this name); 

 he then cut a canal to allow the water to flow to the sluices ; and in 

 this way at once relieved the pressure by allowing the tide to have 

 free course. 



He then began the foundations of the dam across the Great 

 Breach, driving first a series of fir piles, seven to eight inches thick, 

 and throughout their length dovetailed into each other, as deep as 

 they would go — some six or eight feet. These formed a founda- 

 tion stretching quite across the Breach, and extending some twenty 

 or thirty feet into the banks, and were designed to prevent the under- 

 scouring which had occurred at previous attempts. He at the same 

 time began to fix foot-wharves on each side, some twenty feet in 



13 The two printed folio sheets, addressed to the House of Commons, dated 1715 and i7i6(V), 

 relating to the case of W. B. with the Trustees m.iy be seen in the British Museum. 



14 Boswell's " Impartial Account," etc., 1717, already quoted. 



15 Smiles's " Lives of the Engineers,' vol. i., p. 79. 



