WELLS ON FOWLNESS ISLAND. 121
In the opening entry the existence of an earlier well is
implied. Where borings are lined, in false economy, with thin
wrought iron, the collapse of the rusted lining is only a question
of time, and of especially short time where saline matter in the
water exercises chemical action on the metal. Hence at several
points on Fowlness the "life" of cheap (?) wells has been found
to be very short. To what extent abandonment of collapsed
wells has permitted access of sea-water to the sources of artesian
supply is not clear. As the water-yielding sands outcrop in the
estuary of the Thames at no great distance, contamination
through abandoned borings is probably of small extent
laterally.
1 The reference to Mrs. Knot is an error (venial in a stranger of Sheerness) for Nott,
which name appears in the parish books of the time. Samuel Nott owned Smoky Hall from
1720 to 1723, and John Nott, aet. 44, was buried in Fowlness, 1721. "My Lord Nottingham"
was Daniel Finch, second earl, whose wife, Lady Essex Rich, second daughter of the Earl of
Warwick, brought the manor of Foulnese Hall as her dowry (Benton).