Drainage by Steam Power, 



159 



this land is situate at the north-east end of the Mere, and drains 

 into the sluice already referred to. Before proceeding with a 

 detailed account of the work I will give a copy of a Report (as to 

 this drainage) made by Robert Neilson, Esq., of Hale wood, to the 

 Inclosure Commissioners. 

 Mr. Neilson says, — 



" In compliance with your instructions, I beg to submit the following official 

 Report on the effect of the machinery erected by Sir Thomas George Hesketh, 

 Bart., for the drainage of his portion of Martin Mere, in the townships of 

 Rufford and Tarleton. 



•'The tract of land thus denominated, consists of about 5000 acres, which, 

 for six months in the year, and occasionally for a longer period, has been 

 hitherto entirely covered with water, 



" The description of the soil is, for the most part, a peaty loam, chiefly con- 

 sisting of alluvial deposit and decomposed vegetable matter, and resting on a 

 substratum of sand, with some slight deposits of marl. 



" In consequence of this periodical inundation, not only has the productive 

 capability of the soil most materially deteriorated and its rental value dimi- 

 nished, from its incapability of being put into corn- cultivation, but the sanatory 

 condition of the neighbourhood was unfavourably influenced by the exhalations 

 which the subsidence of the stagnant waters — under the action of approaching 

 summer — caused to pervade it. Of this tract of land there are four proprietors ; 

 3000 acres being owned by Mr. Scarisbrick, 600 by the Earl of Derby, 400 

 by Mr. Keck, and 1200 by Sir Thomas Hesketh, the latter being separated 

 from the former by a broad canal about four miles in length, to each of which> 

 until very lately the above description equally aj)plied. 



" Impressed with an opinion of the real value of the land, of the complete 

 practicability of such drainage, and the consequent pecuniary benefit to his 

 employer, and the social benefit of the neighbourhood at large which such 

 drainage would effect, Mr. Boosie, the present agent of Sir Thomas Hesketh, 

 conceived the project of relieving that gentleman's property by means of a 

 water-wheel driveai by steam-power, which should discharge the water as fast 

 as it accumulated. 1 



"The project was one which involved a large and immediate outlay of capi- 

 tal for a hazardous and prospective benefit ; but relying on the judgment and 

 skill which his agent had already evinced on former occasions, Sir Thomas 

 Hesketh did not hesitate, on the data and calculations submitted to his consi- 

 deration by Mr. Boosie, to authorize him at once to proceed, with the under- 

 taking. 



''The result proves that the confidence thus reposed has not been in the 

 slightest degree misplaced. 



" The best models in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire have been studied 

 with care, and at a cost of upwards of 3000/., including buildings and embank- 

 ments ; a steam-engine of 20-horse power, and a wheel of 30 feet diameter, 

 have been erected, and which, for judgment in plan, skill and accuracy in the 

 workmanship, and amount of operative efficiency, are not surpassed in 

 England. 



" Nor has there been less practical discernment in the planning of the leading 

 watercourses ; and the judicious arrangement, by which the operations of the 

 wheel have been limited to that portion of land most in need of its assistance, 

 while the waters of the higher levels have been conveyed away by a totallv 

 separate channel to the main canal. From every chance of inundation from 

 this canal. Sir Thomas Hesketh's land is now ])rotected by a dam 20 feet broad 

 at the base, and from 3 to 4 feet above the level of highwater-mark. Into this 



