WITH NOTES. 539 



in the middle of the 16th century, viz. July 2, 

 1565, Win. Humfrey wrote to Sir William Cecil, con 

 cerning the working of copper mines ; recommending an 

 Almain engineer, who, he represents, can raise water 

 one hundred fathoms high, by a newly invented engine. 

 Cal. State Papers, Dom. Series, 1547-1580. Edited 

 by R. Lemon, F.S.A., 8vo. 1856, page 254. No. 73. 



That the ordinary draining of land had made no mate 

 rial progress in the 17th century, we gather from the cor 

 respondence collected in u Samuel Hartlib his Legacie : 

 or an enlargement of the Discourse of Husbandry,&quot; 

 4 to. 1651 ; where there is a letter written by Cressy 

 Dymock, in which he remarks &quot; I went into the Isle 

 of Ely, to see one of the Holland-mills, for drejning ; 

 though set up there and kept by certain Frenchmen. 

 The Invention seemed to me but mean and rude, and 

 Mr. Wheeler s way much more ingenious.&quot; &quot; I saw at 

 Wicklesen the manner of your Holland sluices. The 

 mines also of a cochlea, for the emptying and draining 

 of water, of which Ubaldus hath writ a whole treatise/ 

 Pages 109, 110. 



The Act of Parliament, of May, 1663, states in 

 regard to the Marquis s Invention, that he &quot; hath by 

 long and indefatigable pains and study, and with great 

 and vast expenses, invented and found out a Secret in 

 Nature, never heretofore discovered, being a Water- 

 commanding engine, of greater force and advantage 

 than hitherto hath been known ; and being no pump 

 or force now in use, nor working by any suckers, 

 barrels, or bellows heretofore used for the raising and 

 conveying of water ; which said Engine will yield very 

 great benefit and advantage to the Commonwealth, by 

 draining of all sorts of Mines, Marish, Oazie, or over 

 flown Grounds, by furnishing of Rivers and Cutts with 

 water to make them Navigable and Portable from Town 



