1822.] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE object of procuring a full 
supply of excellent water is cer- 
tainly most important to the inhabitants 
of any place, but is more particularly 
felt where this article is either perni- 
cious in quality, or deficient in quan- 
tity. Since the observations made in 
your useful miscellany on the subject 
of boreing for water, and the success 
attendant thereon at Tottenham, and 
other places, has been read, it has ex- 
cited some interest here to obtain a 
similar supply ; for, although the town 
of Banbury is situated low, compared 
with the surrounding country, yet in 
every dry summer we have a short 
supply of water, which is of a hard in- 
ferior quality. I beg leave, therefore, 
as a participator in this feeling, to 
state a few leading particulars re- 
specting the nature of our situation, 
and probability of obtaining supply by 
means of boreing ; hoping, in a future 
number, some of your correspondents, 
who possess scientific or practical 
knowledge of this business, will kindly 
favour us with their opinion thereon. 
This town is at present supplied 
with water from two small strata of 
rock: the first about twelve or fourteen 
feet deep, a soft reddish brown stone, 
partaking of the appearance of soil, at 
the surface; the second, which is 
called our principal water-rock, is 
situate a little beneath a loamy bed of 
clay, is about twenty or twenty-five 
fect below the surface, and about two 
feet thick, composed of a strong blue 
stone, yielding a hard water, to this 
depth, with a few feet below for a 
basin: all the wells, with an exception 
ortwo, are confined. But, after passing 
this rock, we come to a stratum of 
clay, from fifty to sixty feet thick, 
mixed with clay-stones, petrifactions, 
and some pieces of cannel or candle 
coal; at the bottom of which, and about 
eighty feet below the surface, is a rock 
containing a powerful spring of soft 
water. Thisis no sooner tapped, than it 
rises in the shaft to the level of the 
rock above ; bit this experiment has 
only been tried in two instances in the 
town, the last of which fell in directly 
after making, owing to the carelessness 
of the man who bricked it. Of what 
thickness or material this bottom rock 
is composed, none can give account, 
for, as soon as the superincumbent clay 
was removed, the water rose so fast 
_as to preclude examination. I wish to 
On the Means used for obtaining a Supply of Water. 
Ait 
observe, also, that, within the compass 
of five to nine miles above and below 
Banbury, there appears three different 
strata, easily observed by their colour 
at the surface: the first, on the highest 
ground, is a species of white lime, 
slate, and free-stone, being south-west 
of Banbury, sweeping from Chipping 
Norton to Aynha, Brackley, and 
furtherinto Northamptonshire, forming 
a sort of elliptical curve ; this is suc- 
ceeded by the red-brown strata en- 
compassing Banbury, and terminating 
with the range of Edge-hills about 
nine miles below, and is there suc- 
ceeded by a stratum of stronger blue 
stone and clay soil, maintaining a 
similarity of sweep with each other. 
Now, my opinion from the above ob- 
servation is, that the soft-water rock, 
lying under Banbury at the depth of 
eighty feet above-mentioned, is the 
same with the white rock that appears 
at the surface in the range of country 
from Chipping Norton to Northamp- 
tonshire, south-west of us, say five or 
six miles; and that it has an inclination 
towards this and the still lower parts of 
the country: and, if these ideas are 
right respecting it, then the dip thereof 
will be the eighty feet below the sur- 
face; to which may be added twenty 
feet in the horizontal level, making 
together 100 feet in five miles’ distance ; 
so that, should any vein be tapped 
connected with such a source, and 
properly secured, it would rise in a 
cylinder or vase twenty feet above the 
level of this town. If we follow the 
strata in its descent, appearances at 
first sight seem to preclude all hope of 
the above results: the reddish-brown 
strata in which Banbury is situate, con- 
tinues, with a little diversity in the 
features of the earth, with nearly an 
horizontal level to the range of Edge- 
hills, where it terminates with a bold 
declivity of at least 150 or 200 feet, 
beyond which is a large extent or 
sweep of level country, comprising 
Kineton, Southam, &c. where rises a 
considerable branch of the river Avon. 
Now, it may be easily conjectured, the 
deep spring-waters I have spoken of 
at Banbury, may disengage themselves 
in this valley, and form a part of sup- 
ply -to the aforesaid branch of the 
Avon, which would defeat the de- 
sirable object of these waters rising 
to our surface ; but, if we make a cal- 
culation of the dip of strata, we shall 
find it almost impossible, neither does 
its nature at all correspond ; for; if the 
white 
