LAND WON FROM THE SEA 



BRAD1NG HARBOUR 



AMONG the many problems left by the smash of the 

 " Liberator " Companies, that of the present and future 

 management of the reclaimed lands at Brading, in the 

 Isle of Wight, is the most complicated, though perhaps 

 not the least hopeful. The nature of the appeal made 

 by this wild scheme in the first instance to the daring 

 speculators who, seventeen years ago, embarked the 

 resources of the company in an enterprise of which not 

 only the practical difficulty, but the financial worthless- 

 ness, had already been proved by actual experiment, 

 as early as the reign of James I., will probably remain 

 among the unknown factors of commercial failure. 

 The belief in the possibility of getting "Something 

 for nothing," due to the notion that land won from 

 the sea is a kind of treasure-trove, may have quieted 

 the first misgivings of shareholders. But the fact that 

 Sir Hugh Myddelton, the engineer of the New River, 

 though " a crafty fox and subtle citizen," as Sir John 

 Oglander noted, had ultimately failed, not only to 

 maintain his reclamation of Brading Haven, but to 

 make it pay while the dam lasted, was well known in 



