



CHAPTER XX 



Of Fish-ponds, and how to order them. 



ISC. Doctor Lebault, the learned Frenchman, in 

 his large discourse of Mai son Rustique, gives this 

 direction for making of fish-ponds ; I shall refer 

 you to him to read at large, but I think I shall 

 contract it, and yet make it as useful. 



He adviseth, that when you have drained 

 the ground, and made the earth firm where the 

 head of the pond must be, that you must then, in that place, 

 drive in two or three rows of oak or elm piles, which should 

 be scorched in the fire, or half-burnt, before they be driven 

 into the earth (for being thus used, it preserves them much 

 longer from rotting); and having done so, lay faggots or bavins of 

 smaller wood betwixt them, and then earth betwixt and above them, 

 and then having first very well rammed them and the earth, use 

 another pile in like manner as the first were : and note, that the 

 second pile is to be of or about the height that you intend to make 

 your sluice or flood-gate, or the vent that you intend shall convey 



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