594 



BEDFORDSHIRE. 



Bedford- 

 shire- 



bottom of the vale of the Ouse, and the low hills situa- 

 ted in it, all the way from StNeotsto Sharnbrook, and 

 also of the vale of the Ivell from Blunham to Sheffbrd 

 and Arlsey, are thu3 covered, perhaps two miles wide 

 on the average, with sandy gravel, which also, in 

 lesser quantities, lines the bottoms of the vales in 

 most or all of the sandy district, extending across the 

 county from Leighton-Busard to Potton, and in 

 many other parts, as well as in issolated patches, 

 often On the tops of the clay-hills above described, 

 and sometimes on their sides or slopes. 



A more modern alluvium covers all the flat and 

 lowest parts of the large vales, within the reach of 

 the rivers and brooks when swollen by flood-;, and 

 which is still accumulating by slow degrees from the 

 sediment of the flood waters which overflow these 

 flats, or tracts of meadow soil, as the hazle loam pe- 

 culiar to these situations is often called. Upon the 

 gravel, in the bottoms of the vales in the sand dis- 

 trict, peat has grown, and, in most instances, where 

 draining has not been effected, is still increasing, aid- 

 ed by the ferruginous or ochreous sediment of the 

 floods which cover them occasionally : but whence 

 the sulphuric acid is derived, which abounds in such 

 quantities in the sandy peat valleys of Bedfordshire, 

 is, as Mr Batchelor observes, page 54 of his Report 

 before quoted, not easy to guess. As the peat of these 

 valleys, (which has little interruption on the Ivell 

 from Evenholt down to Sandy,) by decomposition, 

 becomes solid and almost impervious to water, at its 

 lower parts in particular, the springs, or soakage of 

 the water, are collected, and make their way down 

 the open floor of gravel, beneath the peat ; and 

 hence it happens, owing to the fall of the valley, 

 and the superabundance of the supply from particular 

 strata on which this gravel floor rests, that the gravel 

 becomes charged with a column of water, which the 

 decomposed and solid peat prevents from rising di- 

 rect into the brook and escaping, and the same, 

 therefore, makes its way up the gravel floor to the 

 edge of the peat, where it is principally discharged 

 to the surface of the peat ; a circumstance which 

 has contributed to its faster accumulation at the 

 edges, and in many instances caused it to be higher 

 by several feet along one or each side of the valley, 

 than along the centre or brook-course. Appearances 

 like these, of peat but moderately wet along the 

 middle and lower line of a boggy vale, yet with wa- 

 ter oozing through every pore of its sides, and even 

 flowing over its higher edge, naturally enough sug- 

 gested to the late Mr Elkington, when employed at 

 Crawley bog, on the Woburn brook, and at Prisley 

 bog, or. the Ivell, that the source of water which oc- 

 casioned the bog, was from the adjoining hills; and 

 accordingly, he set out great lengths of drains along 

 the skirts of Crawley bog, which were executed by 

 his own foreman, who had worked for some years in 

 draining under Mr Elkington in different counties. 

 In undertaking soon after to drain the bog at Pris- 

 ley, under the inspection of a committee of the 

 Board of Agriculture, whose certificate of success 

 was to be Mr Elkington's title to a remuneration 

 from parliament, for his supposed discoveries of the 

 sources of springs, and their infallible cure by drain- 

 ing, Mr Elkington unfortunately made here again 



the mistake which has been hinted at abovf, and in 

 presence of the cotnmittse, staked out a line on the 

 south-east of Prisley farm-house for the open drain, 

 which was to do the business, and prescribed the 

 exact width at top and at bottom, and its depth n 

 various parts; which particulars being committed to 

 writing on the spot, the Duke of Bedford, at whose 

 expense the whole experiment was made, in the pre- 

 fence of Mr Elkington and the committee, handed 

 then written directions to his agent Mr Farey, who 

 was present, and directed him to hire and superin- 

 tend the cutting of the drain which he had seen 

 staked out, in all respects conformable to Mr Elking- 

 ton's written directions ; and this was accordingly 

 done, with the most scrupulous exactness, in the 

 course of some weeks which followed. In the pro- 

 gress of cutting this drain, Mr Farey discovered, 

 that the deep open cut which was making, being for 

 the most part in alluvial clay, or in gravel with almost 

 no water, collected little of course, although the 

 water was oozing out of every pore of the bog with- 

 in a few feet of its lower edge. These circumstances, 

 induced him to examine this and other neighbouring 

 valley bogs with attention, and led to the discovery 

 of their true nature, as above ; and it may be mate- 

 rial in confirmation thereof to observe, that after the 

 total failure of Mr Elkington's first drain at Prisley, 

 above mentioned, and of the numerous extensions and 

 branches cut from it by Mr Elkington's foreman, 

 and under his own uncontrouled directions, that 

 these principles being explained to his Grace by Mr 

 Farey, he obtained directions to apply them in the 

 drainage of Crawley bog, which he soon and com- 

 pletely effected, merely by one open drain, up the 

 lowest parts of the valley and bog, and the deepest or 

 the peat, which however was cut through, and the gra- 

 vel reached, in most parts of the drain. The effect of 

 this was, that the gravel floor of the peat, with the 

 same facility conveyed such springs as really issued 

 out of the strata at the edges of the peat, down to 

 the central drain, as it had before given passage to 

 the pent column of water in the open gravel there, to 

 flow up, and over the edges of the peat, as has been 

 explained above. In the Grange Meadows and Pig- ,- 

 Park bogs, above Crawley, the same principles wen- 

 followed with similar success ; and shortly after, Mr 

 Farey effected a still larger drainage by the like 

 simple means, under the commissioners for the inclo- 

 sure of Mulden, and at the general expense of the 

 proprietors; the works recommended by Mr Farey 

 being such only as the commissioners judged neces- 

 sary to be performed, at the public drains and brooks 

 of the parish under the usual clauses for their im- 

 provement at the time of an inclosure, (See the Re- 

 port on Bedfordshire above quoted, page+69). We 

 hope to be excused for entering into the above de- 

 tails, on account of the importance of elucidating 

 this case ofvalley bogs, which has not, to our know- 

 ledge, been done, in any of the numerous works, 

 which, from the date of Dr Anderson's Essays, to 

 the present time, have been written on the principles 

 and practice of draining. 



The tops of the upper chalk hills, about Whip^- 

 nade and Luton, have in general a covering of alluvial 

 red clay mixed with broken flints, sometimes in such 



Bedforef"- 

 sbirc. 



