412 
white rock, containing this soft and 
plentiful supply of water, dips 100 feet 
in five miles, then, it being nine from 
hence, the depth at that point, deduct- 
ing the descent of the hill, must be 
80 or 100 feet. By a comparison 
of the rock and clay, situate about 
twenty-five feet below our surface, 
and the soil and rock below Hdge- 
hills, there appears no doubt of its 
being the same. A calculation of the 
dip, also, brings our rock at twenty- 
five feet deep nearly to the surface 
below the hills. This then accounts 
in some measure for our short supply 
of water, as there is little doubt our 
rock discharges itself in that level, and 
furnishes a portion of water that sup- 
plies the Avon; hence, in a dry time, 
when the fissures in the rock can drain 
it off fast as produced, no more can be 
obtained in the basin of clay, which 
each well has beneath the rock, than 
what is produced in its own vicitiity ; 
and this will be a greater or less 
quantity, regulated by the inequalities 
of partial elevation or depression of 
the rock where each well is situated, 
from the circumstance of this rock 
being only two feet thick, and increas- 
ing to eight or ten in some places be- 
low the hills. I think it originates but 
a little above Banbury; if so, this is 
another cause of our dearth. If these 
ideas are correct, it is evident, what- 
ever means we adopt to obtain a sup- 
ply of the lower spring-water, it is im- 
possible to ascertain the height to 
which it would rise without first sinking 
a few feet below our present water- 
rock, and fixing an impervious cylin- 
dex of brick, stone, or iron; then either 
sink or bore through the rock below, 
so as to give the water liberty to rise 
and find its own level. It would, 
doubtless, have been well for this town, 
and many others similarly situated, had 
this first rock not reached us at all; for, 
as soon as the well-sinkers pierce it in 
any fresh situation, they pronounce a 
plentiful supply, and discontinue the 
work; but, as soon as the local waters 
are expended, and a Gry swiumer suc- 
ceeds, the water fails-in nine cases out 
of ten from the above catses; then, 
had this supply not been found, 
the sinkers must have penetrated 
through the sixty-feet stratum of clay 
below, where a certain supply of purer 
water might always be obtained; and 
it would be proper for all) places sup- 
plied by discharging rocks, as venting 
themselves at some lower point, to 
On the Minor Posts of Ireland. 
[Dec. 1, 
reject that water, and cut off the con- 
nexion by an impervious tube of 
brick, iron, or stone; and pierce to the 
next, remenibering, the deeper the 
supply is found below the horizontal 
level at the surface, the greater is the 
certainty of constant supply. 
_ FB, Fier. 
Barinry, Oct. 18, 1822. 
——i -- . 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
| pada pli by the account of 
the Poeté Minores of the sister 
island, in your number for last month, 
I beg to make an addition to the list, 
of one who, from the ingenuity and 
fertility of his muse, promises fair to 
ascend very speedily to the rank of 
Major. Thisis the Rev. John Graham, 
curate of Lifford, in Donegal, whom 
I met with last year during a tour in 
the north of Ireland. His principal 
published pieces are ‘“God’s Revenge 
against Rebellion,” an historical poem, 
and a “ Pastorai Letter from Rome,” 
with several shorter sketches, less po- 
pular than they deserve, from being 
tinged with more than is prudeit of 
the party politics, now too general in 
that country. 
His best pieces perhaps are lyrical. 
These are extremely numerous, scat- 
tered profusely through the fleeting 
columns of newspapers and perioilical 
publications of the country, but wor- 
thy of a more fixed habitation and 
pérmanent name. Many are charac- 
terised by that strain ef tenderness 
and feeling, combined with the hu- 
mour, peculiar to Ireland; others of 
a descriptive or convivial cast, per- 
forming for the local manners and 
peculiarities of the people what Burns 
has so beautifully accomplished for 
Scotland, and only wanting more la- 
bour, more patient revision and cor- 
rection, to approach near to his cele- 
brated prototype. In a late effusion, 
commemorating the endeavours of the 
North-west Society, devoted to the 
improvement of rural affairs in that 
division of the island, he has been 
doing for statistics what Pope accom- 
plished for Homer’s catalogue of ships, 
and Darwin for some of his more sha- 
dowy creations,—putting them into 
harmonious verse. It is also under- 
stood he is now engaged on a poem 
relative to the siege of Londonderry, 
a remarkable event, closely connected 
with the religious and political history 
of Trefand. A 
As 
