BRAD ING HARBOUR 33 



the history of engineering ; and though the mechanical 

 difficulties might be overcome by modern machinery, 

 the nature of the harbour bottom for the growth or 

 non-growth of crops and grasses could hardly have 

 changed. Briefly, the past history of the Brading 

 reclamation was as follows. In 1620, Sir Hugh 

 Myddelton dammed the mouth of the river Yar, at 

 Bembridge, opposite Spithead, and on the seven hun- 

 dred acres of land so reclaimed he " tried all experi- 

 ments in it ; he sowed wheat, barley, oats, cabbage-seed, 

 and last of all rape-seed, which proved best ; but all 

 the others came to nothing. The nature of the 

 ground, after it was inned, was not answerable to 

 what was expected, for almost the moiety of it next 

 to the sea was a light, running sand, and of little 

 worth. The inconvenience was in it, that the sea 

 brought so much sand and ooze and sea-weed that 

 choked up the passage for the water to go out, inso- 

 much that I am of opinion," writes Sir John Oglander 

 in his manuscript, " that if the sea had not broke 

 there would have been no current for the water to 

 go out, so that in time it would have laid to the sea, 

 or else the sea would have drowned the whole country. 

 Therefore, in my opinion, it is not good meddling 

 with a haven so near the main ocean." 



This experiment had cost in all 7000, when the 

 sea broke in ten years later, and Sir Hugh Myddelton's 

 fields once more became harbour bottom, and cockles 

 and winkles once more grew where his meagre crops 

 of oats and' rape had struggled for existence. Some 



