94 The Forty-Fifth General Meeting. 
CotEsHitL House } To ys future Owners of this Ho built for 
31 Dec. 1748. \ S' Geo. Pratt Bt in 1650 by Ly1co JonEs 
Rebuild y* Cupola, case it w'" lead & restore its scrolls 
restore y° wooden Balustrade, let y* Base penetrate y* Balusters & not vice versa. 
Dry slatt y* roof & gutters. Never lessen or weaken y* Jambs of yt Windows ~ 
& Chimneys. Ye 4 middle Stacks w" are 5—4. by 5—4 project on decay’d Oak 
8 inches to yt NW & 8 to y° S.E. if ever they fail, rebuild y™ without timber 
or diminucon supporting each projection w" an arch like that on y® Angular 1 
Stacks w*" (being originally 6—4 by 6—4 & projecting only inwardly on Oak) 
inclined 15 inches & were thus rebuilt for S' Mark Pleydell Bt in 1744 by y° 
direct of y* Earls of Burlington & Leicester.' 
Be careful of y* Aqueduct & its Spring discovered 21 Feb’ 1743 at 96 yards 
bey* y® Pump-ho after mining 4 mo at a venture & producing hitherto in 24 
ho* in y* lowest Ebb 20 & in y* highest Flow 160 Hhds of y* best water by w™ 
you are deliv’ from extream scarcity even of y* worst & pay due regard to 
Chambers’s Diction’ & to ye memory of Jonathan Barret who w no other 
instruction & witht any experience, open’d it a passage thro rocks damps & 
falling sands often buried & once on 4 Feb. 1744 for 3 ho* at y* bottom of y 
Northern Well under 9 perpendicular ft of stones. This Aqued' whose arch 
extends a quarter of a measured mile begun 27 Oct’. 1743 at 53 y** bey? y* 
Pump-ho was perfected 19 Feb. 1745 at y* expense of L , including y° 
Fountains & other conseq' alteracons in y* Gardens & Offices (4* being then y* 
medium price of a bushel of Wheat.) Y* dryness or moisture of y* Stone Wall 
bey y° East > mine has hitherto presaged like a Weather glass y* degrees of 
y* ensuing Ebb or Flow. Y¢ Flow has hitherto begun in Jan’, y° Sumer Ebb 
in May, & y* Autumn in Sep’. Each Flow has lost one third in y* 1t Ebb, 
another in y® 24 & sometimes more. Springs may be stopp’d w' their own 
Gravel till y° remove it. Y* Springs of Pidwell and Tinwell may be lower’d, 
perhaps to great advantage and conducted to y* Northern Well. Y° Brickpipe 
if loaded w'" 4 f' of earth would probably carry water ascending. 
There is one room with Elizabethan panelling, apparently from 
the earlier house, but otherwise the grand double staircase in 
the hall, the fireplaces, and the elaborate (if somewhat heavy) 
ceilings, are all of the date of the house itself, and good examples 
of the style of the time. The beautiful rose garden—just then at 
1 This plate shows that Papworth is wrong when he says that the house was 
built in 1650 for Sir Mark Pleydell. 
