NOTES ON ESSEX DIALECT AND FOLK-LORE. 83
In the year 1874 an advertisement appeared in the local papers as
follows :—
" Water.—Mr. J. Bailey, of Vine street, Grantham, in addition
to his thirty years' experience in raising and conveying water by self-
acting machinery, has arranged with Mr. John Mullens, the great
water discoverer, for his services, and all orders addressed to him at
10, Vine-street, will receive prompt attention."
Mullens was known as the Bath water-finder, or the "man with
the twig." He, however, did not use a twig of hazel, but one of
blackthorn. This man had been employed to discover water on the
estates of the Duke of Beaufort and other noblemen and gentlemen,
and it was said that his discoveries by means of his twig were always
attended with success, and that a good spring of water was invariably
found in the precise spot where his rod had indicated its presence.
At the annual meeting of the Science Classes, held in September,
1878, Sir W. E. Welby Gregory, Bart., M.P., said in his speech :
" The really great man, who devotes his whole life to the pursuit
of knowledge, progresses in his discoveries from day to day, only
to become more and more convinced of the depth of his ignorance
and the vastness and the mystery of the things which lie beyond his
ken. The man, on the other hand, who has but a slight acquaint-
ance with science, is far too apt to think that he knows everything,
and to set up his own judgment in opposition to all authority, even
the very highest. I had occasion to seek for an additional supply of
water for my house, and I was induced to send for a man out of
Wiltshire, who was said to be able to discover running water by the
aid of a twig, or, as it used to be called in ancient days, a Divining-
rod. The man came, apparently a very simple, straightforward sort
of a fellow, who did not profess to know the reason why, but simply
the fact that when he crossed running water the twig turned upwards
in his hand, and he indicated two spots where he said I should find
water at a very moderate depth. So I determined to sink my wells
in accordance with his directions, and I may say at once that in
both cases I found water. But meantime I mentioned what I had
been doing separately to two friends well versed in geology, and both
as by one consent agreed in laughing the water-finder to scorn.
They said he might by long experience have gained some skill in
judging where water would be found; he might simply be an im-
postor ; only one thing was certain—he could not be possessed of
any occult power. Science could not understand such a power
existing, and science believes nothing it cannot understand. Now
why should not this man be endowed with some force or power
that is not yet explained ? Did science know all about electricity a
century ago ? What can it tell now about animal magnetism, mes-
merism, and so forth ? "