GO 
Trunk Drainage. 
called upon VValdersey to contribute Is. Gcf. per acre for the sake 
of the advantajje they would gain ; but the proprietors not only 
refused any help, but denied that they would reap any benefit. 
The cost of their engine, they said, would not be diminished neaily 
so much as to counterbalance the imposed taxation, while they 
feared a loss of their summer supply of fresh water from the 
Ncne, and apprehended a greater weight of Hoods coming down 
the river in wet seasons. However they ultimately agreed to pay 
a gross sum of 5500/., for which the VValdersey Commissioners 
are directed by tlie Act to tax their lands. 
Redmore District is drained l)y double-lift windmills, that is, 
the water is raised twice in succession, taking two mills to deliver 
it into the river. It is under the Commissioners of Sewers, and 
pays an average tax of 35. Qd. per acre. The level of the land 
being 2 or 3 feet higher than Waldersey, it has been known to 
obtain permission for its waters, in a desperate season, to flow 
into the latter district. Its surface being higher than Waldersey, 
and its point of discharge lower down the river, it will unques- 
tionably receive a natural drainage, and will therefore pay Qd. 
per acre tax rintil the works have progi'essed up as far as its outfall 
sluice, and then 2s. per acre every year afterwards. 
The different proportions in which the various lands, the 
towns, the navigation, &c., contribute, will appear in the estimate 
annexed to our narration. We may, however, notice here that 
the funds derived from the districts into which the Upper 
Valley is divided by the Act are to be expended in works /or tlic 
benefit of those districts respectiveh/, and the river below Peter- 
borough is to be improved by the funds raised from the lands 
and interests below Peterborough ; excepting that all the lands, or 
about 1G,000 acres, in the Upper Valleij, are to pay an annual 
" outfall tax " of Is. per acre towards the lower works which 
procure them a way of relief. And this is considered as a con- 
cession to the lower lands, it being a conception made to meet 
the difficulties of the situation. 
I now turn to a consideration of tlie Upper Valley, where we 
find the River Nene, though running a very sinuous course of 
about GO miles from ]\orthampton to Peterborough, possessing a 
natural fall of 3r feet per mile ; but this is held up in levels 
throughout by no less than 33 water-mills for grinding flour, and 
34 locks and 11 staunches — some for the mills and some for the 
purposes of navigation — the natural fall being 177 feet, and the 
aggregate " heads" of the locks and staunches 1G3t feet. This 
occasions the water at its dry-weather level to be higher than tlie 
adjacent meadows for about one-third the length of the valley ; but 
the full-water level stands above the adjacent meadows for three- 
fourths of the length of the valley. There are no back drains to 
J, . 
