white rock, containing this soft and plentiful supply of water, dips 100 feet in five miles, then, it being nine from hence, the depth at that point, deducting the descent of the hill, must be 80 or 100 feet. By a comparison of the rock and clay, situate about twenty-five feet below our surface, and the soil and rock below Edgehills, there appears no doubt of its being the same. A calculation of the dip, also, brings our rock at twentyfive feet deep nearly to the surface below the hills. This then accounts in some measure for our short supply of water, as there is little doubt our rock discharges itself in that level, and furnishes a portion of water that supplies the Avon; hence, in a dry time, when the fissures in the rock can drain it off fast as produced, no more can be obtained in the basin of clay, which each well has beneath the rock, than what is produced in its own vicinity; and this will be a greater or less quantity, regulated by the inequalities of partial elevation or depression of the rock where each well is situated, from the circumstance of this rock being only two feet thick, and increasing to eight or ten in some places below the hills. I think it originates but a little above Banbury; if so, this is another cause of our dearth. If these ideas are correct, it is evident, whatever means we adopt to obtain a supply of the lower spring-water, it is impossible to ascertain the height to which it would rise without first sinking a few feet below our present waterrock, and fixing an impervious cylinder of brick, stone, or iron; then either sink or bore through the rock below, so as to give the water liberty to rise and find its own level. It would, doubtless, have been well for this town, and many others similarly situated, had this first rock not reached us at all; for, as soon as the well-sinkers pierce it in any fresh situation, they pronounce a plentiful supply, and discontinue the work; but, as soon as the local waters are expended, and a dry summer succeeds, the water fails in nine cases out of ten from the above causes; then, had this supply not been found, the sinkers must have penetrated through the sixty-feet stratum of clay below, where a certain supply of purer water might always be obtained; and it would be proper for all places supplied by discharging rocks, as venting themselves at some lower point, to

reject that water, and cut off the connexion by an impervious tube of brick, iron, or stone, and pierce to the next, remembering, the deeper the supply is found below the horizontal level at the surface, the greater is the certainty of constant supply. F. FLEET.

Banbury, Oct. 18, 1822.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

NTERESTED by the account of

the Poeta Minores of the sister island, in your number for last month, I beg to make an addition to the list, of one who, from the ingenuity and fertility of his muse, promises fair to ascend very speedily to the rank of Major. This is the Rev. John Graham, curate of Lifford, in Donegal, whom I met with last year during a tour in the north of Ireland. His principal published pieces are "God's Revenge against Rebellion," an historical poem, and a "Pastoral Letter from Rome," with several shorter sketches, less popular than they deserve, from being tinged with more than is prudent of the party politics, now too general in that country.

His best pieces perhaps are lyrical. These are extremely numerous, scat tered profusely through the fleeting columns of newspapers and periodical publications of the country, but wor thy of a more fixed habitation and permanent name. Many are characterised by that strain of tenderness and feeling, combined with the humour, peculiar to Ireland; others of a descriptive or convivial cast, performing for the local manners and peculiarities of the people what Burns has so beautifully accomplished for Scotland, and only wanting more labour, more patient revision and correction, to approach near to his celebrated prototype. In a late effusion, commemorating the endeavours of the North-west Society, devoted to the improvement of rural affairs in that division of the island, he has been doing for statistics what Pope accomplished for Homer's catalogue of ships, and Darwin for some of his more sha dowy creations,-putting them into harmonious verse. It is also understood he is now engaged on a poem relative to the siege of Londonderry, a remarkable event, closely connected with the religious and political history of Ireland.

As

As a prose writer, he has already acquired considerable celebrity by the "Annals of Ireland," in three volumes, octavo, and several detached letters and pamphlets. The former is a work of research and labour, furnishing to the future historian many curious, though melancholy, facts and anec. dotes, explanatory of the excesses which disgraced the religious contests of Ireland, particularly during the rebellion of 1641. But, instead of giving us the results of his enquiries merely in "Annals," it would have tended much more to the satisfaction of the reader, and to the increase of his own fame, to write the history of the period in question; a task for which, by patient investigation, justness of remark, and perspicuity of style, he seems well fitted.

Mr. Graham is a native of Longford, within a mile or two of the birth-place of Goldsmith, of whose family and early history he has collected many interesting particulars, which, with a critical essay on his life and writings, he has not yet fulfilled his promise of impart ing to the literary world.

O. P. Q.

2

Philadelphia, which is ninety-six miles, I met with the greatest hospitality; and frequently, on enquiring my road, I was invited into the house, and took refreshment gratis. As you approach Philadelphia, the houses appear to be covered with slate; but, upon a nearer view, the roofs will be found to be cedar, cut into the form of plain English tiles. A dollar here is only seven shillings. Boarding-houses at Philadelphia are as common as publichouses in London. I board for three dollars a week, and there are eight other boarders in this house. Houserent is very dear. Our house consists of eight good rooms, for which our host pays 180 dollars per annum (about 401. English). But there are no taxes, rates, or tithes. There are few strangers here, and those that are past their labour are supported by voluntary contributions. The clergy in the old town are maintained by lands set apart for each town. Trustees are appointed to receive the rents and pay the salaries, which are from 2 to 400l. per annum, and also firing. When there is a balance by the improvement of lands, &c. the trustees endow another church. The clergy are removable at pleasure; that is, when they have lost the confidence of their bearers.

My next start was to the town of Bedford, containing about 1,400 persons. This is about forty miles from Philadelphia. I went to work for a master shoe-maker; but he being a tanner, and I having some knowledge of that business when I lived in Cambridgeshire, was enabled to improve his process and mode of tanning. After living with him some months, he made me the offer of becoming his partner; but, not being willing to settle myself so soon, I declined his offer, though we still lived together in the greatest friendship. In this hospitable house I wanted for nothing, and also enjoyed the friendship of almost every person in the town: and I could take the diversion of hunting or shooting at pleasure. Here are no labourers or journeymen in husbandry; all have lands, and two or three families join together to get in the harvest by turns, or in any other labour, according to the season.

Such is the happy state of the interior of America: but, happy as I was, I resolved to proceed further; and, with this design, I left my valuable

friends,

friends, and arrived at a small town about twelve miles west of Bedford. The principal part of the people in this settlement are Quakers. I am well acquainted with a family named Penrose, well known in England and in America: I frequently stay at their house two or three days together, and they as frequently come to see me. There cannot be a more hospitable people. Your's, J. HAWYES.

LETTER II.

Dear Brother, Since I wrote to you last, my master and friend at Bedford wished me to settle in this little town, and commence business in a new line; for you know I was always a bit of a mechanic, and I have discovered a process of tempering steel. The gentleman of whom he rents his tan-yard at Bedford, and who has land there, has let me have a piece of ground, rent-free, for a shop, and I have employed two men all the summer (1821) in building this and erecting the furnace: so that the cash I had is all expended, but in such a way that I hope will repay me.

Property, as well as provisions, continue to decrease. Wheat is now only three dollars and a quarter per bushel; beef from three to four dollars per hundred weight (equal to seven farthings per pound): consequently, many merchants and others are much embarrassed, especially those who have borrowed money of the banks to speculate with. As most of the banks are calling in their money, of course they are sacrificing their property, or rather they frequently have it seized, and sold to a disadvantage. A few weeks ago, sixty acres of good cultivated land was sold for 113 dollars (about 287. 58. sterling). It is evident that these speculators have erred in judgment, and placed themselves in a worse situation than before. But, though this is the case of many, I do not consider them in a state of want, -want, I conceive, implying a scarcity of provisions, rather than money: the former is unheard of in this country, being so easily procured, even by the most indolent. It is scarcely necessary to name money, that being an article which always was scarce in this country, compared with England. But, though there is not so much wealth here as in England, it is no proof of any poverty; rather the reverse. Imaginary wants there are in

every country. I know the times here are bad, and rather precarious for a stranger; but it is evident they will soon alter. The breaking-up of the provincial banks has caused a temporary distress; but, even now, any industrious man can procure a good living for himself and family. The case is quite different in England.

Notwithstanding the infamous falsehoods which I frequently read in your English newspapers of our distress, in order to deter people from coming here, I have seen some hundreds of English families passing through Bedford on their journey to the Illinois settlement. Most of them are from Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Nottinghamshire; many of whom I discovered to be wealthy, and, in general, there are some of the best mechanics in England among them, driven away by the iron hand of oppression, and lost to that country for ever.

You may have heard slanderous accounts from Englishmen who have been here, and who are the most unfit persons to describe the state of any country. When I lived at Philadel phia, I saw many English arrive, and return home when the vessel went back, whose stay in America was not above fifteen or twenty days. A Derbyshire man, who worked with me at Bedford, told me that many passengers landed with him from England: that several took to drinking; one person, in particular, who brought 3007. with him, was in a state of intoxication every day. So true is the saying, "that the more money a fool has, the greater fool he is." With half that sum, he could have purchased more land than he and his family could have tilled. I am sorry that America has had too many specimens of English imprudence.

Here are no distinctions between man and man, as there are in England; any one of good information is sure to procure friends. The want of property is considered too trifling to be admitted as a barrier. I believe your ideas of America are worse than none at all. What do you think of a thousand public-houses, or, as we call them, taverns, between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, a distance of only 300 miles.

Game is abundant; but I have nearly lost all relish for the diversion of shooting, except when it comes near my house. I have stood close to the

door,