of one-twentieth part. These were purchased at the rate of about forty-one thousand pounds for an Adventurer's share. The King's shares, which do not give a qualification for a seat at the Board,* and are burdened with the payment of "the King's Clogg," sold at the rate of rather less than forty thousand pounds. Some of the new £100 shares fully paid up sold at £195, and some on which only £20 had been paid, sold at £50 per share. At this time the dividend per share was only £1578 on the Adventurer's, and £1516 on the King's shares; since that time it has been steadily rising, being now upwards of £1900,--(of which about £1820 is derived from the water, and £80 from the land, so that the present market value of a share cannot be estimated at much less than fifty thousand pounds.)† It has been said above, that when the New River was first made, all depended upon individual enterprize and influence, and that joint stock companies and the various resources of modern finance were then not in being. But this was only a small part of the difficulty. Skill * By the terms of the agreement with the King, the whole management of the Company was left in the hands of Sir Hugh Myddelton and his fellow Adventurers. The Board consists of twenty-nine members who receive a payment of about £4000 a year for their services. (Patent Roll, 10 Jas. 1-A.D. 1612.) Whilst this was in the printer's hands, a quarter share in the King's moiety has been sold in four lots of one-sixteenth each (May 14, 1873), at the Rate of above £49,000. and knowledge were wanted as well as money. Engineering, levelling, surveying, and practical mechanics, were alike wholly unknown in this country. When the waterworks at London-bridge were constructed, a Dutchman, Peter Moris, was employed,-the great level of the Fens was drained by Vermuyden, Canvey Island was embanked by Coppenburgh and his company of Dutch workmen. A Dutch engineer was engaged to construct the haven at Yarmouth, and even when old Westminster-bridge was built, we had to send for Labelye, a Swiss engineer. Not a single attempt had been made to cut a canal in all England, when Myddelton first undertook to construct his aqueduct, science, "And roll obedient rivers through the land." Notwithstanding all that has been done by modern. with the aid of steam, and of unlimited resources of capital, the New River still remains a wonderful work, and bold as the assertion may be, it is beyond any comparison the greatest and most important that has ever been planned and executed by a single man,—singlehanded, single-headed, and single-hearted. The monumental pedestal represented in the accompanying engraving, bears the following inscription. "Sacred to the memory of SIR HUGH MYDDELTON, BARONET, assisted by the patronage of his King, conveyed this stream to London: an in.mortal work, since man cannot more nearly imitate the Deity than in bestowing health." THE ENVOY. There are,-as Goldsmith said,-a hundred faults in this thing, and a hundred things might be said to prove them beauties, but it is needless. A book may be amusing with numerous errors, or it may be very dull without a single absurdity. Should the gentle reader meet, here and there, with something to please or inform him, he may be assured that it was written expressly for intelligent readers like himself; and if he should find more that is tedious or common place, he will tolerate it as being intended for those of duller intellect or less refined taste. If, perchance, there should be some,--more critical or more learned,-whose pleasure may consist in finding fault or detecting errors, they will no doubt have abundant sources of amusement in these pages,-where the writer has probably often been misinformed, without erudition. enough to set him right. To conclude, in the words of the old grammarian, "Aiunt,-Thai saye, Quid aiunt,-Quhat saye thai? Aiant,-Lat thaim saye." |