Document 35, P 25
| 76 Stands that the present Bridge should be attempted to be reinstated or | ||||
| a new one built at Hexham. | ||||
| This question is indeed of far the most material import for it is of little | ||||
| Consequence to the Publick in the present state of things whether Mr Smeaton | ||||
| misjudged of the subject, whether he was decieved himself or was deceived | ||||
| by others or whether Mr Pickernel did or not do his best towards a full | ||||
| execution of Mr Smeaton’s orders in regard to the driving of the Casing Piles | ||||
| nor is it of any Consequence to know that in point of Art but without any | ||||
| regard to or limitation of expence a Bridge is posible to be built the true | ||||
| Question is, is it fitting for the County to undertake it supposing the | ||||
| Treasurer in possession of whatever Sum can be recovered of Mr Errington in | ||||
| Consequence of his Obligation Will it not (like Sir Walter Blackett’s three | ||||
| thousand pounds) be a temptation to the County to spend still much larger | ||||
| Sums upon an unfruitful project and it may reasonably be suppos’d | ||||
| that the whole County Stock is not an unlimitted Sum nor can it proper- | ||||
| -ly expended in the Erection of a Bridge at one single Passage. | ||||
| It is now known for a certainty what was not nor could not have been | ||||
| known before the Erection of this Bridge, that there is a possibility for na- | ||||
| -tural Causes to be so combined as to produce a flood so large and of so | ||||
| sudden a nature as to produce a Velocity of the water exceeding one | ||||
| thousand feet in a Minute And whether even this may or may not be the | ||||
| uttermost limit of nature is not in the Power of any Man to calculate. | ||||
| That the velocity of seven hundred and twenty feet per Minute arising | ||||
| from a difference of two feet three Inches as P. flood of December One thousand | ||||
| seven hundred and seventy eight was sufficient to tear up and remove the | ||||
| natural Bed of Gravel that forms the Bed of the River in this place wherever | ||||
| their was a particular set upon it but was not capable of moving or materially | ||||
| deranging the defences composed of Oakwood Quarry Rubble. | ||||
| That the Velocity of Nine hundred and thirty feet resulting from a differ- | ||||
| -ence of three feet nine Inches in a flood of the first of December One thousand | ||||
| seven hundred and seventy nine still made still made not the least alteration in the | ||||
| Defences to any part of the Bed of the River Save that the Rubble Stones depo- | ||||
| -sited at the third Pier where the Current had torn up the natural gravel in the | ||||
| 25 flood | ||||
Note: Mr Smeaton's Memorial P 25
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Transcribed by CTW and KS