338 SIR HUGH MYDDELTON'S EMBANKMENT TAUT II. 



well affected. Sir Hugh Myddelton was a goldsmith in London. 

 This and other famous works brought him into the world, viz., his 

 London waterwork, Brading Haven, and his mine in Wales. 



" The nature of the ground, after it was inned, was not answer- 

 able to what was expected, for almost the moiety of it next to the 

 sea was a light running sand, and of little worth. The best of it 

 was down at the farther end next to Brading, my Marsh, und 

 Knight's Tenement, in Bembridge. I account that there was 

 200 acres that might be worth 6s. Sd. the acre, and all the rest 

 2,?. d. the acre. The total of the haven was 706 acres. Sir Hugh 

 Myddelton, before he sold, tried all experiments 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 only incon- 

 venience was in it that the sea brought in so much sand and ooze 

 and seaweed that choked up the passage of the water to go out, 

 insomuch as I am of opinion that if the sea had not broke in Sir 

 Bevis could hardly have kept it, for there would have been no cur- 

 rent for the water to go out ; for the eastern tide brought so much 

 sand as the water was not of force to drive it away, 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. 



" The country (I mean the common people) was very much 

 against the inning of it, as out of their slender capacity thinking 

 by a little fishing and fowling there would accrue more benefit than 

 by pasturage ; but this I am sure of, it caused, after the first three 

 years, a great deal of more health in these parts than Avas over 

 before ; and another thing is remarkable, that whereas we thought 

 it would have improved our marshes, certainly they were the worse 

 for it, and rotted sheep which before fatted there. 



" The cause of the last breach was by reason of a wet time when 

 the haven was full of water, and then a high spring tide, when both 

 the waters met underneath in the loose sand. On the 8th of March, 

 1630, one Andrew Eipley that was put in earnest to look to Brading 

 Haven by Sir Bevis Thelwall, came in post to my house in New- 

 port to inform me that the sea had made a breach in the said haven 

 near the easternmost end. I demanded of him what the charge 

 might be to stop it out ; he told me he thought 40s., whereupon I 

 bid him go thither and get workmen against the next day morning, 

 and some carts, and I would pay them their wages ; but the sea the 

 next day came so forcibly in that there was no meddling of it, for 

 liipley went up presently to London to Sir J >ovis Thelwall himself, 



