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Document 35, P 13

70
be endless and if any part of it was attended with so much success as to get
founded yet the part so founded would be sapped when the sand broke up
in any succeeding part.
That though in the place pitched upon by Mr Smeaton the Bed of Gravel
appeared both thicker and firmer than where Mr Wooler had begun yet as it
evidently to him was likely to partake of the same Quality the Execution of the
Scheme of the Sold Wall or of penning as proposed by others, (to make which
effectual must amount to the same thing) could not be done upon any limitted
Estimate and at any rate would exceed all bounds of Expence, that it appears to
him likely or indeed prudent to be gone into by the County.
That to attempt the Building of the Bridge upon the principles of that at
Perth, that is, to sink an Excavation Pitt considerably into the Bed of the River
and in this to pile and encase would be in Effect first to destroy the very best
and firmest part of the Stratum and by driving piles into what was likely
to be incapable of bearing the Weight would be in reality to repeat the Error
that (as it seemed to him) had been committed in Mr Gott's Erections, and as
last of all the Security of the Bridge in any of these methods must ultimately
depend upon the defences to be made by the Judicious and proper deposition of
Tough Quarry Rubble it appeared to him a Folly first to destroy the firm
upper Crust of Gravel (that he reported verbally on his Trial thereof to be
comparatively hard like the pavement of Hexham Streets) and then at a great
Expence substitute something not so much to be depended on and this still
want defending by Quarry Rubble which in every Case could be applied and
he must here beg leave to remark that a Quarry situated most conveniently to
this Situation of the Bridge in the Estate of Mr Errington aforded the greatest
plenty of this kind of Material and of the most excellent Quality for the purpose
that he has anywhere had the experience of.
From the whole of the Premises he concluded that the safest way would
be to preserve the upper Crust of the Bed of Gravel inviolably unbroken even by
a Pile and particularly in the Main Channel of the River where the Diminution
of the hardness of the upper Crust principally to him appeared so that concluding
to build the two Land breasts upon piles with Casing and also the two Pillars next
thereto
13

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Note: Mr Smeaton's Memorial, p 13

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Transcribed by CTW and KS