MY GARDEN. 



added the analysis of the water obtained from the old and new wells 

 at Croydon. 



The water from the Wandle flows from the chalk, but when the 

 Board of Health was organized at Croydon it required large quantities 

 of water which would otherwise have passed to the river. The ab- 

 straction of this water was a matter of complaint by the millowners ; 

 and a litigation ensued which ended in a judgment of the House of 

 Lords in the celebrated case of Chasemore i'. Richards. The case 

 was so important, that I asked Mr. Risdon Bennett, the barrister, to 

 epitomize it for me, and he prepared the following statement : 



" By the case of Chasemore v. Richards, reported in 7 H. of L. 

 C. 349, in which the judgment of the Exchequer Chamber was affirmed, 

 the question of the right to subterranean waters was finally settled. 

 The facts were as follow. The plaintiff was the occupier of an ancient 

 mill on the River Wandle, and for more than sixty years before the 

 commencement of the action he and all the preceding occupiers of 

 the mill used and enjoyed, as of right, the flow of the river for the 

 purpose of working their mill. It also appeared that the River Wundle 



