APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 297 



divides itself into smaller streams, 

 which run parallel with each 

 other, and sometimes approach 

 very near each other's courses. 

 Near Stratford are two of these 

 minor streams, the one called 

 Channelsea-river, on which the 

 plaintiff's mill is situated, and on 

 the banks of which the defendant 

 has a wharf; the other is called 

 Waterworks-river, on which are 

 several other mills. The last 

 communicates with the Barge 

 river, or navigable stream. Both 

 the Waterworks river and the 

 Channelsea are formed by the 

 subdividing of a stream called 

 the Temple JNIill Stream. After 

 the stream has passed through 

 the Temple Mill, it divides into 

 two, the Channelsea and Water- 

 works rivers, which ran nearly 

 parallel, and some short way 

 below the point of division Pot- 

 ter's Ditch runs across from the 

 one to the other. At the point 

 of division of the waters is a very 

 ancient pier, carefully constructed, 

 with the evident intention, as all 

 the engineers agreed, to distribute 

 the water equally between the 

 two streams. "The defendant, 

 with a view of saving the trouble 

 of navigating his barges up the 

 Waterworks river, round the 

 ])oint and down Channelsea river, 

 by widening Potter's- ditch, and 

 making an open communication 

 between the two rivers, saved 

 lliat circuit, but in doing this the 

 plaintiff alleged, that the Channel- 

 sea water ran away into the 

 Waterworks river, and lessened 

 his mill head, consequently the 

 power of the mill by one-third at 

 least. In order to prove the 

 ancient state of the ditch, about 

 (liirtj^ witnesses were called, and 



beginning from nearly seventy 

 years ago to the present time, 

 they said it was a mere fence 

 between the adjoining lands ; that 

 many of them had jumped over 

 it, had walked over it ; that it was 

 a little muddy, and had water at 

 the bottom; that it was full 

 sometimes, as sometimes all the 

 marshes were overflowed. But 

 that it was ever navigable for a 

 barge they all treated as ridiculous, 

 and to use the expression of one, 

 it would not float a butcher^ stray. 

 At one end of it there was a 

 parcel of brick-bats and rubbish, 

 to make a road across for the hay 

 carts, when they made hay on 

 the adjoining land, and many had 

 seen the hay carted across. 



To meet the evidence on this 

 point, the defendant had near 50 

 witnesses, and the account they 

 gave was almost as far back. 

 They were lightermen, persons 

 working in the adjoining calico 

 grounds, and many who had been 

 anciently proprietors of the ma- 

 nufactories on the borders of the 

 Channelsea rivers, and they gave 

 instances of the fact of barges 

 commonly navigating at spring 

 tides this Potter's ditch, with 

 loads of 10, 15, and 20 chaldrons 

 of coals at a time, with freights 

 of bricks, and to use barges, and 

 that it had at all those periods 

 been used as a navigable stream. 



It is also not less singular, that 

 the men of science were not less 

 at variance in their evidence as 

 to the effect produced by the 

 alteration of the ditch upon the 

 plaintifTs mill. 



Mr. Donkin and Mr. Keir, 

 supported by others, were de- 

 cidedly of opinion that it mate- 

 rially injured the plaintiff's mill 

 H by 



