An old Canoe from the Iriuell Valley. 249 



" mosse thereabout, and destroied much fresch water fische 

 " therabowt, first corrupting with stinking water Glasebrook 

 *' and so Glasebrook carried stinking water and moss into 

 " the Mersey water, and Mersey corruptid carried the 

 " roulHng mosse part to the shores of Wales, part to the Isle 

 " of Man, and sum into Ireland. In the very toppe of 

 *' Chateley More where the mosse was hyest and brake, is 

 " now a fair plaine valley, as was in tymes paste, and a rille 

 " runnith in it, and peaces of small trees be found in the 

 ^' botom. Syr John Holcrofte's house within a mile or 

 " more of Morle stoode in jeopardi with fleeting of the 

 " mosse." 



Also in the reign of Elizabeth, Camden describes Chat 

 Moss as a swampy tract of great extent, a considerable part 

 of which was carried off in the last age by swollen rivers 

 with great danger. 



In the 15th year of Edward II., the Moss is placed in 

 the manor of Manchester ; this would be in the year of our 

 Lord, 1322, and in a description of the time Chat Moss is 

 of the soil of the Lords of Barton, Worsley, Astley, 

 Workedby, and Bedford. " The tenants of these Lords had 

 here Common Turbary but no profit can be computed, 

 because of the unfair quality of it." 



Modern Chat Moss. 

 The success of the works of the Bedford Level Drainage 

 on the East Coast caused much attention to be paid to 

 similar lands in other parts of the country. It will be 

 remembered that this great work was begun in the reign 

 of Charles I. Many thousands of acres of land have been 

 reclaimed and made profitable to agriculture. In an old 

 book I bought the other day, a poet encourages such 

 undertakings in verses of which the following are a sample. 

 The book was printed by Moses Pitt, at the Angel in St. 

 Paul's Churchyard, in the year 1665 : — 



