The short canal projected in the seventeenth century to connect the Thames and Avon has never been executed: subsequent speculators having found that the wants and necessities of the country could be better supplied by other and longer lines of water communication. Hence we have the Thames and Severn Canal, from Lechlade to Stroud, commenced in 1783; the Kennet and Avon Canal, from Newbury to Bath, begun in 1796; and the Wilts and Berks Canal (1801), from Abingdon to a point on the last mentioned canal between Devizes and Bradford.—J. B.] Mdm.-The best and cheapest way of making a canal is by ploughing; which method ought to be applied for the cheaper making the cutt between the two rivers of Thames and Avon. The same way serves for making descents in a garden on the side of a hill.—See …… Castello della Currenti del Acquo, 4to; which may be of use for this undertaking. Consider the scheme in Captain Yarrington’s book, entitled “England’s Improvement”, as to the establishing of granaries at severall townes on the Thames and Avon; e. g. at Lechlade, Cricklade, &c. See also Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 11. At Funthill Episcopi, higher towards Hindon, water riseth and makes a streame before a dearth of corne, that is to say, without raine; and is commonly look’t upon by the neighbourhood as a certain presage of a dearth; as, for example, the dearness of corne in 1678. So at Morecomb-bottome, in the parish of Broad Chalke, on the north side of the river, it has been observed time out of mind, that, when the water breaketh out there, that it foreshewes a deare yeare of corne; and I remember it did so in the yeare 1648. Plinie saieth (lib. ii. Nat. Hist.) that the breaking forth of some rivers “annonæ mutationem significant”. [At Weston-Birt, in Gloucestershire, near the borders of Wiltshire, water gushes from the ground in spring and autumn, and at other times, in many hundred places at once, and continues to flow with great rapidity for several days, when the whole valley, in which the houses are placed, is completely filled. The street of the village is provided with numerous rude bridges, which on these occasions become available for purposes of communication.—J. B.] ’Tis a saying in the West, that a dry yeare does never cause a dearth. Anno 1669, at Yatton Keynel, and at Broomfield in that parish, they went a great way to water their cattle; and about 1640 the springs in these parts did not breake till neer Christmas. CHAPTER IV. SOILES.