22 FISHES AND FISHING. 



My father was very anxious to have a garden ; 

 there was a large piece of ground belonging to the 

 works, but the last proprietor had had it made into a 

 succession of fish-ponds, supplying them with water 

 from the navigation which was the head of the mill, 

 conducting it through the several ponds, and letting 

 it pass out into the water which led to the tail 

 of the mill. These ponds he stocked, at great ex 

 pense, with carp, intending to assist in supplying the 

 London market with that species of fish ; but the 

 winter brought the usual tremendous floods, common 

 to that locality of the Thames, and the carp escaped 

 into the river, which formed the backwater, and that 

 stream became well stocked with them. "When we 

 first saw the land by the mill, nothing could be more 

 desolate ; there were four or five large apple trees, a 

 walnut tree, and the rest large excavations with a 

 little water in them, separated by wide banks ; a very 

 unpromising state of the ground to convert into a 

 garden. My father, nevertheless, drew a plan of the 

 ground, and made his calculations; and as his ma 

 nagement may give to others some useful information 

 how to make the most of unpromising ground, I will 

 state them. 



He marked out one broad walk the whole length 

 of the ground, and cross walks ; all these he caused 

 to be trenched six feet deep, and threw the loamy 



