The history and antiquities of Boston, and the villages of Skirbeck, Fishtoft, Freiston, Butterwick, Benington, Leverton, Leake, and Wrangle; comprising the hundred of Skirbeck, in the county of Lincoln. Including also a history of the East, West, and Wildmore fens, and copious notices of the Holland or Haut-Huntre fen ... sketches of the geology, natural history, botany, and agriculture of the district; a very extensive collection of archaisms and provincial words, local dialect, phrases, proverbs, omens, superstitions, etc. By Pishey Thompson. Illustrated with one hundred engravings.

102 WATER-WORKS ESTABLISHED, 1845.
Chancellor. A scheme for the annual appropriation of these funds has been
agreed upon, to which we shall attend in the section respecting Charities.
In 1836, the subject of a supply of water was again agitated, and meetings
were held to consider the practicability of procuring such supply from Keal or
Bolingbroke, but these meetings did not produce any useful result. In 1844,
the first mention of railways in connexion with Boston occurs in the Corporation
Records. Several schemes for railways to pass through, or to be connected with,
the town, were then in agitation; and the Record states the "importance of
having a station or terminus as near as possible to the centre of the borough."
The subject of a supply of water was revived in 1845; and this important matter,
which had been scarcely ever lost sight of for a period of 277 years,' was now
destined to be set at rest by a most successful solution of the question. A report
was made upon the subject, in October 1845, by an experienced engineer,. which
was adopted at a meeting of the inhabitants, and a company formed, and a capital
raised, to carry its suggestions and recommendations into execution. The report
stated that the water of all the drains in the neighbourhood of Boston, as well
as that of the Witham, was unfit for domestic or culinary purposes; that the
East-Keal water was too low to be brought to Boston without the aid of expensive
steam power; that the water at Partney Mill was also too low; and that the
Bolingbroke water would require filtration. The water at Miningsby was
250 feet above the level of the pavement at Boston, from which it was twelve
miles distant, and might be conveyed there in sufficient quantity through twelveinch pipes at an expense of 30,0001. The recommendations of the report were
most successfully carried into execution, and the works were opened in July
1849. The inhabitants of Boston have, since that time, enjoyed as ample a
supply of pure sparkling water as any community in the kingdom. The supply
has never for a moment indicated any symptom of failure; and the long, dry
summer of 1854 probably put the works to as severe a test as they are ever
likely to experience. The engineer states that the supply of water is equal to
the wants of a population double that of Boston in 1849; and the pressure suffi-.....; _<. _=
The subject of bringing water from Keal Hill was discussed in the Common Hall in 1568.
2 M. THoMAs HAwKsLEY, M.I.C.E.