62 
Trunk Drainayc. 
has received an increase of drain-water to be discliarsred. At the 
period of the observation all this quantity must iiave been pass- 
ing over the river and brook banks into the meadows. At the 
time, the surface of the stream was entirely above the adjacent 
land ; and the waste channels at present provided are utterly 
incapable of carrying off a fraction of the above accumulated 
5568 cubic feet, — not to name the Castle Aslibv and Grendon 
brooks, which add to the volume of the river. Then, as to the 
bridges, we have the following comparison : — 
Bridges. 
White-Mill Bridge . 
Ditchford Bridge . 
Thrapston Bridge . 
Barnwell (Oundle) 
Bridge . . . 
Drainage Area. 
Acres. 
157,000 
241 , .^00 
265,000 
30G , 000 
Area of Arches 
at full water. 
Square fuet. 
•300 
400 
1000 
4250 
Area of \Vator- 
way in high 
floods. 
Square feet. 
2740 
2905 
1595 
2200 
Area of ob- 
structed Water 
in liigh floods. 
Square feet. 
3.300 
'•SOO 
4000 
5800 
The effect of these inequalities of waterway is to heap up the 
floods until by their accumulated height they force themselves 
down with a dangerous power and rapidity. The waters cannot 
get down the stream during the early stages of wet weather, when 
floods are comparatively small, whereas they ought to subside 
gradually so as to make room for more in the upper part of tlie 
river. The consequence is, that in quite ordinary rain-falls vast 
masses of water accumulate throughout the valley, spreading over 
meadows, and resting against hedges, banks, and other obstruc- 
tions, to await the slow remedy of their reduction at Peter- 
borough, or the recurrence of dry weather. 
For a very long time complaints have been laid against the millers 
for the over-height of their flood-gates and lowshots, for not pro- 
perly drawing the slatts at the different locks, and for expedients 
which they adopt to raise the water above its common level, as 
though the existence of all these impediments were not a suffi- 
ciently hurtful grievance without this aggravation of the mischief. 
Tims, in the year 1633 (9th of Charles I.), a Commission of 
Sewers sat at Kettering to inquire into the best mode of redress- 
ing the abuses causing such damage to lands on the river Nene. 
They surveyed the river from Wansford Bridge (regulating the 
height of the water beneath it) up to Kislingbury, ordering dikes 
to be scoured, seggs and rushes to be cut away from about the 
lowshots of the mills, these to be scoured and cleansed, all 
obstructions removed, and the river widened to " its ancient 
hrcadthP They decreed what should be the exact number of 
mill-wheels and flood-gates at each place for the future ; that 
