CHAPTER V.

SIR HUGH MYDDELTON'S EMBANKMENT OF BRADING HAVEN.

No sooner had the New River Company been formed and its operations organized, than we find Sir Hugh Myddelton engaged in the new and bold enterprise of enclosing a large tract of drowned land from the sea. The scene of his operations on this occasion was the eastern extremity of the Isle of Wight, at a place now marked on the maps as Brading Harbour. This harbour or haven consists of a tract of about eight hundred acres in extent. At low water it lies a wide mud flat, through the middle of which a small stream, called the Yar, winds its way from near the village of Brading, at the head of the haven, to the sea at its eastern extremity;2 whilst at high tide it forms a beautiful and apparently inland lake, embayed between hills of moderate elevation covered with trees, in many places down to the water's edge. At its seaward margin Bembridge Point stretches out as if to meet the promontory on the opposite shore, where stands the old tower of St. Helen's Church, now used as a sea-mark; and, as seen from most points, the bay seems to be completely land-locked.

The reclamation of so large a tract of land, apparently so conveniently situated for the purpose, had long been matter of speculation. It is not improbable that at some early period neither swamp nor lake existed at Brading Haven, but a green and fertile valley; for

1 The extent of land reclaimed by Myddelton at Brading Haven has, with the inaccuracy that characterises almost everything heretofore published relating to him, been stated at 2000

acres. Sir Richard Worsley, in his History of the Isle of Wight,' gives the whole area of the haven as only 856 acres.

2 See the engraving at p. 84,

in the course of the works undertaken by Sir Hugh Myddelton for its recovery from the sea, a well, strongly

cased with stone,

was discovered

near the middle

[Ordnance Survey ]

of the haven, indicating the existence of a former settled population on the soil. The sea must, however, have burst in and destroyed the settlements, laying the whole valley under water. In King James's reign, when the inning of drowned lands began to receive an unusual degree of attention, the project of reclaiming Brading Haven was again revived; and in the

year 1616 a grant was made of the drowned district2 to one John Gibb, the King reserving to himself a rental of 207. per annum. The owners of the adjoining lands contested the grant, claiming a prior right to the property in the haven, whatever its worth might be. But the verdict of the Exchequer went against the landowners, and the right of the King to grant the area of

1 Sundry traditions are extant in the neighbourhood as to the circumstances connected with the inundation.

See Land We Live in,' vol. i., 262.
2 Grant by Privy Seal, 18 July,
14 Jac. I.

the haven for the purpose of reclamation was maintained. It appears that Gibb sold his grant to one Sir Bevis Thelwall, a page of the King's bedchamber, who at once invited Sir Hugh Myddelton to join him in undertaking the work; but Thelwall would not agree to pay Gibb anything until the enterprise had been found practicable. In 1620 we find that a correspondence was in progress as to "the composition to be made by the Solicitor-General with Sir Hugh touching the draining of certain lands in the Isle of Wight, and the bargain having been made according to such directions as His Majesty hath given, then to prepare the surrender, and thereupon such other assurance for His Majesty as shall be requisite."

A satisfactory arrangement having been made with the King, Myddelton began the work of reclaiming the haven in the course of the same year. He sent to Holland for Dutch workmen familiar with such undertakings; and from the manner in which he carried out his embankment, it is obvious that he mainly followed the Dutch method of reclamation, which, as we have already seen in the case of the drainage of the Fens by Vermuyden, was in many respects but ill adapted for English practice. But it would also appear, from a patent for draining land which he took out in 1621,2 that he employed some invention of his own for the purpose of facilitating the work. The introduction to the grant of the patent runs as follows:

"WHEREAS wee are given to vnderstand that our welbeloved subiect Hugh Middleton, Citizen and Goldsmith of London, hath to his very great charge maynteyned many strangers and others, and bestowed much of his tyme to invent a new way, and by his industrie, greate charge, paynes, and long experience, hath devised and found out 'A NEW INVENČON, SKILL, OR WAY FOR THE WYNNING AND DRAYNING OF MANY GROUND WHICH ARE DAYLIE

Domestic Calendar of State Papers.' Docquet, 13th August, 1620.

Record of Patents,' No. 19. Scaled 2nd July, 1621.

AND DESPERATELIE SURROUNDED WITHIN OUR KINGDOME OF ENGLAND AND DOMINION OF WALES,' and is now in very great hope to bringe the same to good effect, the same not being heretofore knowne, experimented, or vsed within our said realme or dominion, whereby much benefitt, which as yet is lost, will certenly be brought both to vs in particular and to our common wealth in generall, and hath offered to publish and practise his skill amongest our loving subiecte. KNOWE YEE, that

wee, tendring the weale of this our kingdom and the benefitt of our subiecte, and out of our princely care to nourish all arte, invencions, and studdies whereof there may be any necessary or pffitable vse within our dominions, and out of our desire to cherish and encourage the industries and paynes of all other our loving subiect in the like laudable indeavors, and to recompence the labors and expences of the said Hugh Middleton disbursed and to be susteyned as aforesaid, and for the good opinion wee have conceived of the said Hugh Middleton, for that worthy worke of his in bringing the New River to our cittie of London, and his care and industrie in busines of like nature tending to the publicke good doe give and graunt full, free, and absolute licence, libertie, power, and authoritie vnto the said Hughe Middleton, his deputies," &c. to use and practise the same during the terme of fowerteene years next ensuing the date hereof.

No description is given of the particular method adopted by Sir Hugh in forming his embankments; but it would appear that he proceeded by driving piles into the bottom of the Haven near Bembridge Point where it is about the narrowest, and thus formed a strong embankment at its junction with the sea, but, as would afterwards appear, without making adequate provision for the egress of the inland waters.

A curious contemporary manuscript by Sir John Oglander is still extant, preserved amongst the archives of the Oglander family, who have held the adjoining lands from a period antecedent to the date of the Conquest, which we cannot do better than quote, as giving the most authentic account extant of the circumstances connected with the inning of Brading Haven by Sir Hugh Myddelton. This manuscript says:

Brading Haven was begged first of all of King James by one Mr. John Gibb, being a groom of his bedchamber, and the man that King James trusted to carry the reprieve to Winchester for my Lord George Cobham and Sir Walter Rawleigh, when some of them were on the scaffold to be executed. This man was put on to beg it of King James by one Sir Bevis Thelwall, who was then one of the pages of the bedchamber. After he had begged it, Sir Bevis would give him nothing for it until the haven were cleared; for the gentlemen of the island whose lands joined to the haven challenged it as belonging unto them. King James was wonderful earnest in the business, both because it concerned his old servant, and also because it would be a leading case for the fens in Lincolnshire. After the verdict went in the Chequer against the gentlemen, then Sir Bevis Thelwall would give nothing for it till he could see that it was feasible to be inned from the sea; whereupon one Sir Hugh Myddelton was called in to assist and undertake the work, and Dutchmen were brought out of the Low Countries, and they began to inn the haven about the 20th of December, 1620. Then, when it was taken in, King James compelled Thelwall and Myddelton to give John Gibb (who the King called Father') 20007.' Afterwards Sir Hugh Myddelton, like a crafty fox and subtle citizen, put it off wholly to Sir Bevis Thelwall, betwixt whom afterwards there was a great suit in the Chancery; but Sir Bevis did enjoy it some eight years, and bestowed much money in building of a barnhouse, mill, fencing of it, and in many other necessary works. But now let me tell

66

you somewhat of Sir Bevis Thelwall and Sir Hugh Myddelton, and of the nature of the ground after it was inned, and the cause of the last breach. Sir Bevis was a gentleman's son in Wales, bound apprentice to a mercer in Cheapside, and afterwards executed that trade till King James came into England: then he gave up, and purchased to be one of the pages of the bedchamber, where, being an understanding man, and knowing how to handle the Scots, did in that infancy gain a fair estate by getting the Scots to beg for themselves that which he first found out for them, and then himself buying of them with ready money under half the value. He was a very bold fellow, and one that King James very

ven

1 On the 30th June, 1622, the ha- | 2000l. paid to the King by Hugh was granted by the King (the original grant to Gibb having been cancelled) to Hugh Myddelton, Esquire, Robert Bateman, Citizen and Skynner, of London, and Richard Middleton, Citizen and Grocer, in consideration of

Myddelton, viz., 10007. down, and the remaining 1000l. by two half-yearly payments at Lady-day and Michaelmas, 1622; the King passing the 10007. and the bonds for the two sums of 5007, to John Gibb.