DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70303#0075
A FLOATING ISLAND—AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT. 59
children ; a grandmother is therefore the mother of the
three new-born infants.
To keep pace, however, with the prolific family above
described, a few days after, Mrs. White, of Thrumpton,
near Retford, Nottinghamshire, was safely delivered of
three children, two girls and one boy, all now living.
A remarkable Floating Island in this Country.
Adjoining Easthwaite-water, near Hawkshead, Lanca-
shire, there is a tarn (or small lake) called Priestpot, upon
which is an island, containing about a rood of land, mostly
covered with willows : some of them 18 or 20 feet high.—■
This island is distinguished by the name of The Car. At
the breaking up of the severe frost in the year 1795, a boy
ran into the house of the proprietor of this island, who lived
within view of it, and told him that “ his Car was coming
up the Tarn.” The proprietor and his family soon proved
the truth of the boy’s report, and beheld with astonishment,
not “ Bernam-wood removed to Dunsinane !” but the woody
island approaching them with slow and majestic motion.—-
It rested, however, before it reached the edge of the Tarn,
and afterwards frequently changed its position as the wind
directed j being sometimes seen atone side of the lake,
which is about 200 yards across, and sometimes in the cen-
ter. It is conjectured to have been long separated from
the bed of the lake, and only fastened by some of the roots
of the trees, which were probably broken by the extraor-
dinary rise of the water on the melting of the ice.
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT.
I he following Agricultural experiment was made by
Mr. Alsagar, of Acton Beauchamp, in Herefordshire.—In
August 1795, he set a single grain of wheat; as soon as it
bad properly taken root, he took it up and divided it into
1 2 several
children ; a grandmother is therefore the mother of the
three new-born infants.
To keep pace, however, with the prolific family above
described, a few days after, Mrs. White, of Thrumpton,
near Retford, Nottinghamshire, was safely delivered of
three children, two girls and one boy, all now living.
A remarkable Floating Island in this Country.
Adjoining Easthwaite-water, near Hawkshead, Lanca-
shire, there is a tarn (or small lake) called Priestpot, upon
which is an island, containing about a rood of land, mostly
covered with willows : some of them 18 or 20 feet high.—■
This island is distinguished by the name of The Car. At
the breaking up of the severe frost in the year 1795, a boy
ran into the house of the proprietor of this island, who lived
within view of it, and told him that “ his Car was coming
up the Tarn.” The proprietor and his family soon proved
the truth of the boy’s report, and beheld with astonishment,
not “ Bernam-wood removed to Dunsinane !” but the woody
island approaching them with slow and majestic motion.—-
It rested, however, before it reached the edge of the Tarn,
and afterwards frequently changed its position as the wind
directed j being sometimes seen atone side of the lake,
which is about 200 yards across, and sometimes in the cen-
ter. It is conjectured to have been long separated from
the bed of the lake, and only fastened by some of the roots
of the trees, which were probably broken by the extraor-
dinary rise of the water on the melting of the ice.
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT.
I he following Agricultural experiment was made by
Mr. Alsagar, of Acton Beauchamp, in Herefordshire.—In
August 1795, he set a single grain of wheat; as soon as it
bad properly taken root, he took it up and divided it into
1 2 several