125 



** perfection, and on a most extensive 

 " scale, in the Golden- Valley, in Here- 

 ** Ibrdshire, during the reigns of Queen 

 " Elizabeth and King James the First" 



Now it appears from Worlidge, who 

 describes this art particularly as it was 

 then practised in the county of Wilts, that 

 Floating, or Drowning, as he calls it, had 

 not there prevailed so far back as the time 

 of Elizabeth ; for in page 19, of his book 

 of Husbandry, he says, " this is of late 

 " become one of the most universal and 

 *' advantageous improvements in England 

 " within these few years, and yet not 

 " comparable to what it might be ad- 

 *• vanced unto." Worlidge wrote this 

 book in 1687. And again, page 21, in 

 his recommendation of the Persian wheel 

 to throw up water for the purpose of irri- 

 gation, he says, " the best of these wheels 



E *' was 



