Document 66, p 5
| 135 (5) | ||||
| Weekly Newspapers for persons willing to become Undertakers, but expended | ||||
| Sums of Money in the further provision of Materials: And such was the | ||||
| State of things when Mr Donkin first applied to this Deponent; all which | ||||
| Premises this Deponent verily believes to be true; having had many | ||||
| Opportunities of Information by means of his frequent Visits to Hexham, | ||||
| for the Receipt of the Derwentwater Rents which commenced in the | ||||
| Year 1765 previous to Sir Walter Blackett’s Undertaking: And this | ||||
| was the View that this Deponent had of the Subject on Mr Donkin’s | ||||
| Application to him, and which, as he has said, demanded his most | ||||
| serious Consideration. | ||||
| It then appeared to this Deponent that the subsequent Operations | ||||
| of Mr Wooler had in reality cleared up and explained the Cause of the | ||||
| Failure of Sir Walter Blackett’s Bridge: for it had appeared to this | ||||
| Deponent (who had in Consequence of his own Curiosity occasionally | ||||
| viewed it) that it had been as he thought sufficiently secured by | ||||
| Piles and Plank under the Piers, according to the accustomed Method | ||||
| of Bridge building in rapid Rivers, insomuch that the perpendicular | ||||
| Height alone to which the Water rose in the great Inundation of the | ||||
| Year 1771 and which was the only apparent Cause which was extraordinary, | ||||
| did not seem sufficient in the Opinion of this Deponent to overthrow | ||||
| so large, and so well established a Structure in so short a Space of | ||||
| time as the Compass of a single Night: And more particularly as | ||||
| it had been erected by experienced Workmen. But when Mr | ||||
| Wooler’s Operations had discovered the probability that the same | ||||
| Stratum of Quicksand had extended under Sir Walter Blackett’s | ||||
| 5 Bridge | ||||
Note: Mr Smeaton's Replies to Interrogatories p 5
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Transcribed by CTW and RMS