368 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1 729- 



Abstract of a Letter from the Kiiigs Officers at Sheerness and Chatham, to 

 the Commissioners of the Navy, giving an Account of what they met iciih 

 in opening an ancient IVell near Queenhorough in Kent, in Sept. 1/23. 

 Communicated by Mr. Peter Col/inson,* F. R. S. N^-Jll, p. IQl. 



On visiting the well near Queenborough, where the castle formerly stood, 

 Sept. 24, 1723, and finding but very little water at the bottom on sounding, a 

 man was let down, who reported that it was cleaned, and the ground sunk 4 

 feet deeper than the curb at the bottom. They then measured its depth, and 

 found it 200 feet, and artificially steened the whole depth with circular Portland 

 stone, which is all entire, and stands fair, the mean diameter 4 feet 8 inches; 

 but observing, that not one drop of water came into it, they resolved to try 

 whether they could find any by boring; in order to which, they got a piece of 

 timber of about 7 feet long, and bored it through with a 3i inch auger, which 

 trunk they fixed at the bottom of the well, and fastened it by quarters to the 

 curb at the bottom, to prevent its raising, and filled it all round 3 feet deep with 

 clay, and on that laid 4 course of bricks for a platform for the men to stand on 

 in their boring, and got also an auger of 2^ inches, to bore through the clay; 

 but they could not get all the necessary appurtenances till Sept. 26, when 3 men 

 at a time began to bore, who were shifted every 3 hours. The boring they 

 sent up, was a very close bluish clay, which continuing the same after 3 days 

 and a half boring, they began to despair meeting with water; but on the 30th 

 in the evening, as they were boring, the auger slipped down at once, and the 

 water rushed up violently; so that in an hour's time there was upwards of 4 feet 

 water, which rose so fast, that at 12 o'clock at noon, — 



* Peter Collinson, of a respectable family in the North of England, was born about the year 1693. 

 He was early devoted to the pursuit of Natural History, and became early acquainted with the most 

 eminent naturalists of his time, as Derham, Woodward, Dale, Lloyd, Sloane, &c. He was elected 

 a Fellow of the Royal Society in the year 1728, and was, perhaps, one of the most diligent and use- 

 ful members of the Society; not only supplying that body with many curious observations himself, 

 but promoting and presen'ing the correspondence of many learned foreigners. Linnaeus, when in 

 England, contracted with him a particular friendship, which was reciprocally increased by a multi- 

 tude of good offices, and continued to the last. To the name of Peter Collinson, says the ingenious 

 Dr. Pulteney, is attached all that respect which is due to benevolence and virtue. In his time 

 , England received large accessions of exotic botany from all parts of the globe ; to which no one con- 

 tributed more than himself, through his various correspondence, especially in America. Natural 

 History in all its branches was his delight, and he especially cultivated the choicest exotics, and the 

 rarest English plants. His garden contained, at one time, a more complete assortment of the Orchis 

 genus than had perhaps ever been seen in one collection before. He died Aug. 11, 17()S, in the 

 75th year of his age. His name is perpetuated in a beautiful American plant, belonging to the class 

 Diandria. We are informed by the authors of the Biographical Dictionary, that his person was 

 rather short than tall, and his aspect pleasing and social. 



