ON TREE-TRUNK WATER-PIPES. ^3 



obtained by means of pumps and shallow wells, tree-pumps may 

 abound, but there will be no demand for tree-pipes to bring 

 water from a distance. 



It will be remembered that in the Sixth Report of the Rivers 

 Pollution Commission (1874), Harwich was mentioned as a place 

 where an attempt was then being made to supply the town with 

 water from a bore hole driven into the Chalk. Though not a 

 large town, Harwich is one of the most ancient of our ports. It 

 happens also to be one of the extremely few places in Essex of 

 which the natui-e of the water supply is noted in Morant (1768), 

 Vol. 1., p. 499. There we learn that the inhabitants, " besides what 

 they save from rain in cisterns, in a drought are forced to have 

 water fetched in water carts from a spring near a mile from the 

 town by the road to Dovercourt ; or to have it brought in boats or 

 schoots from a fine spring at Landguard fort, or from a spring 

 at Arwarton in Suffolk, which they had by permission from Sir 

 Philip Barker, Bart., lord of the soil." 



Of Landguard Fort it is stated (p. 502) " It is supplied w4th 

 fresh water by pipes under ground from Walton Colnesse." The 

 nature of the pipes is not mentioned. 



Turning to the History of Essex by Wright (1830-40), I see 

 but the following remark bearing upon water-supply. It refers 

 to Colchester (vol. i. p. 339) : — " When Windmill field, adjoin- 

 ing to Chiswell meadow was let by the Corporation in 1620, to 

 Thomas Thurston, one of the aldermen, liberty was reserved to 

 lay pipes, or trunks, for the conveying of the water from Chiswell 

 meadow." Here it is evident that we get the interesting allusion 

 to " pipes or trunks" simply because these words occur in a legal 

 document defining the rights reserved to themselves or granted 

 to an alderman by the Corporation of Colchester, and not to 

 illustrate the way in which the water is to be conveyed. We 

 learn nothing from Wright as to the date about which pipes and 

 trunks began to be not necessarily identical at Colchester. Nor 

 is anything to be gathered on that head" from the History op 

 Colchester by Thomas Cromwell (London and Colchester, 1825), 

 who states that " the present Waterworks " are a revival of the 

 ancient plan of conveying water from Chiswell Meadow, the 

 steam engine being introduced. But the nature of the pipes is 

 not mentioned. 



Nevertheless, Colchester, from its use of tree- trunk pipes for 



