86 HISTORY OF HARTING. 



city 93 foot high in four eight inch pipes, to the 

 Wonder of all Men, and the Honour of the Nation, 

 with a rare Engine of his own Invention, done at his 

 own charge, and in one year's time. He also built the 

 great Water Engine near Somerset House, which sup- 

 plieth the inhabitants of the Strand and adjacent parts 

 with water. He made divers other proposals for the 

 Advantage of the Nation, and would certainly have 

 done great matters for the Public Good, had he not 

 been discouraged for what he had done, and thwarted 

 by the Great Ones in his further Designs, which Death 

 put an end to. He died in Ireland Sep. 3, 1670, and 

 his body being brought to England was buried in the 

 Church of this place (Harting) by (i.e., near) his 

 Ancestors. He printed some Books containing his 

 projects in 1641, 1666, and 1663, which have never 

 been regarded since his death." 



In these treatises he appears as an intelligent advo- 

 cate of the Paper currency ; and in one of his papers 

 he proposes to bring the river of Rickmansworth into 

 London in order to supply the Londoners with pure 

 water. Had he succeeded in doing this he would have 

 surpassed a similarly humane gift of pure water for 

 which Sir Francis Drake is commemorated by his 

 townsmen in the stained glass of the new Guildhall of 

 Plymouth, where the artist has skilfully represented 

 the hero as pouring water out of a pitcher for wondering 

 children and maidens. 



The notices of Sir Edward Ford in Pepy's Diary are 

 amusing.* 



" 1663. 22 September. This day my wife showed 

 me bills printed wherein her father, with Sir John 

 Collidon and Sir Edward Ford, have got a patent for 

 curing of smoking chimneys. I wish they may do good 

 thereof." 



"1664. 3 December. To a committee of the Fishery : 



* Pepy's Diary, II, 2175 404. 



