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Arts improvement: or, choice experiments and observations in building, husbandry, gardening, mechanicks, chimistry, painting, japaning, varnishing, guilding, inlaying, embossing, carving, preserving several things in their natural shape and colour, and in other arts and sciences profitable and pleasant. Extracted from the most celebrated authors in several languages; manuscripts, experiments communicated by several ingenious gentlemen, and the author's own experience / By T.S. [pseud.] [i.e. Thomas Smith?].

  • Neve, Richard.
Date:
1703
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Arts improvement: or, choice experiments and observations in building, husbandry, gardening, mechanicks, chimistry, painting, japaning, varnishing, guilding, inlaying, embossing, carving, preserving several things in their natural shape and colour, and in other arts and sciences profitable and pleasant. Extracted from the most celebrated authors in several languages; manuscripts, experiments communicated by several ingenious gentlemen, and the author's own experience / By T.S. [pseud.] [i.e. Thomas Smith?]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    dually lies deeper than in Rufhy ; but to the bottom where :he fpewing Spring lies, you muff go (and one Spade’s depth, or graft beneath, how deep foever it be) if you will Irainthe Land to pnrpofe. And as for the Matter, or Bog-maker, that is moft ea% difeovertd ; for fometimes ic lies within two foot of the Ground, and fometimes, and very ufually, three, or four foot : Yet fome lie far deeper, fix, eight, or nine foot, and ill chefe are feizeable to be wrought, and the Bog to be¬ lli (covered ; but till you come paft the Black Earth, or Turf, [which uliially is two or three toot thick) unto another fore of Earth, and fometimes to old Wood and Ttees (I mean the Proportion and Form thereof, but the Nature turn’d as fofc and tender as the Earth it felf) which have lain there no Man knows how long and then to a white Earth, and many times like Lime,which the Tanner,and white Tarver takes out of their Lime-Pits, and then to a Gravel, or Sand, where the Water fieth, and then one Spade’s depth clearly under this, which is indeed nothing elfe but a Spring, that would fain burft forth at fome certain place, and which, if it did break our. and run quick and lively, as other Springs do, your Bog would die, but being held down bv the power and weight of the Earth that oppofeth the Spring, which boyls and Works up into the Earth, and, as it were, blows it up, and fills the Earth with Wind, as I may call it, and makes ic fwell and rife like a Puff-ball, as you (hall ieldom, or ne¬ ver find any Bog but it lies higher, and riling from the ad¬ jacent Land to it • fo that I believe, could you poffibly on the very place where the Spring Naturally lies, you need but open the very place to your QuicJ(-Spmg, and give it a dear vent, and certainly your Bog would decay; by reafon1 whereof ir has fo corrupted and fvvollen the Earth, as a Dropfy doth Man’s Body; for if youobferve the Mold iti is very light and hallow, and three Foot fquare thereof is not above the weight of a folid Foot of Natural -Earth Clay, or Land ; whereby I conceive, that how much foever this Mould is forced from the Natural Weight, or Hardnefs of folid Earth, or Clay, fo much ic is Corrupted, Swollen or Increafed, and blovtn up, and fo much it muff be taken down, or let forth, before ever it be reduced ; I therefore prefcribe this Direction.- Goto the bottom of the Bog, and there make a Trench in the found Ground, or elfe in fome old Ditch, fo low, as you verily believe you are under the level of the Spring, or fpewing Water, and then carry up your Trench into your Bog, and {freight through the middle ot it, one foot under the Spring, or fpewing Water upon your Level, uniefs if rife higher, as many times the Water* or Spring rifeth, as the Land rifeth , and fometimes lies level with the head of the Bog, unto which you muff car¬ ry your Drain3 or within two or three Yards of the very head