EXCURSION TO EASTBURY AND BRISTOL IN 1767. 147 



where he shewd us the finest peice of artificial water ** perhaps 

 in England. It covers 280 acres, winding between two hills, so 

 that one end is Generally out of sight. It has also an additional 

 beauty, a wood of very fine oats which come down quite to the 

 Banks. It is well stockd with Carp, which M r Stert sells to 

 people who carry them to London, by which method he receives 

 more money for the water than ever the Land brought him in. 

 It is drawn once in three years and all the fish of a certain size 

 sold. The last time 16000 weight were taken and sold for 

 6 pence a pound, which is 400 pounds. I should not forget to 

 mention one very remarkable circumstance which occurrd in 

 Raising the Head of this water. 35 feet was the hight requird, 

 25 feet of which they raisd without any difficulty, but when that 

 was compleated, were much surprizd to find that after several 

 days work they had not raisd it an inch. This put them upon 

 inquiring the cause, and they found that any quantity of Earth 

 they put, sunk in 48 hours to the original 25 feet. M r Stert not 



* LAKE AT HOKTON. At page 59 of Hutchins' History of Dorsetshire, 1st 

 edition, 1774, vol. ii., is the following account of this lake : 



"Mr. Sturt has lately made near his seat one of the finest pieces of water in 

 England, occupying 200 acres. On digging to make an head to it, about twenty 

 feet below the surface was found a stratum of oyster and other kinds of shells ; 

 the latter seemed strongly impregnated with ore, and appeared silvered over." 



Mr. J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, F.G.S., F.L.S., of Whatcombe, near Blandford, 

 has been so kind as to inform me, that the stratum Hutchins refers to is the 

 lowest bed of the Woolwich and Reading beds, which rest upon the chalk. The 

 oyster is Ostrea Bellovacina, which is referred to on page xxxii. of his Flora of 

 Dorset. 



I regret to learn from the Rev. W. Blachford Hill, the rector of Chettle who 

 has most kindly investigated the locality that the lake is no longer in existence, 

 having been drained 90 or 100 years ago. I will quote a portion of his interest- 

 ing letter : 



" I next enquired at a cottage, where the man told me that the posts of the 

 flood gates that kept the waters in were still in their old places, and stood up 20 

 feet high. That was at the lower end of the lake. I went into the field, con- 

 siderable part of which formed originally the bed of the lake. The yellow Iris 

 I saw in full bloom where once the water spread. Afterwards I called at the 

 Vicarage and saw the Vicar. He told me that the property about 200 years ago 

 (i.e., from about 1690 to 1790 or thereabouts) belonged to the Sturts, and that 

 they lived then in the great house. Then, from 1790 or thereabouts, the pro- 

 perty belonged to the Shaftesbury family. They turned the great house, 

 formerly occupied by the Sturts, into a farmhouse, and, land being considered 

 more valuable to a farmer, drained the lake." 



