Account of an Improvement in Sea Compaffes; by Mr. B. Romans, of Penfacola. From the Philofophical Tranfactions of the American Philofophical Society. THE common mariner's compaís has always appeared to accurate obfervers as an imperfect inftrument, but in nothing has it proved to be more defective than in its use in storms; the heaviest brafs compaffes now in ufe are by no means to be relied on in a hollow or high fea. This is owing to the box hanging in two brafs rings, confining it only to two motions, both vertical, and at right angles with each other; by which confinement of the box, upon any fuccuffion, more especially fudden ones, the card is always put into too much agitation, and, before it can well recover itself, another jerk prevents its pointing to the pole; nor is it an extraordinary thing to fee the card unfhipped by the violence of the fhip's pitching. All these inconveniencies are remedied to the full, by giving the box a vertical motion at every degree and minute of the circle, and compounding these motions with a horizontal one, of the box, as well as of the card. By this unconfined difpofition of the box, the effects of the jerks on the card are avoided, and it will always very fteadily point to the pole. Experience has taught me, that the card not only is not in the fmallest degree affected by the hollow fea, but that, in all the violent fhocks and whirlings the box can receive, the card lies as ftill as if in a room unaffected by the least motion. Lately a compafs was invented and made in Holland, which has all these motions. It is of the fize of the common brafs compaffes; the bottom of the brass box, instead of being like a bowl, must be raised into a hollow cone, like the bottom of a common glafs bottle: the vertex of the cone must be raised fo high as to leave but one inch between the card and the glass; the box must be of the ordinary depth; and a quantity of lead must be poured in the bottom of the box, round the base of the cone; this fecures it on the ftile whereon it traverses. cone This file is firmly fixed in the centre of a fquare wooden box, like the common compafs, except that it requires a thicker bottom. The ftile must be of brass, about fix inches long, round, and of the thickness of one third of an inch; its head blunt, like the head of a fewing-thimble, but of a good polifh: the ftile muft ftand perpendicular. The inner vertex of the cone muft alfo be well polished; the vertical part of the ought to be thick enough to allow of a well-polished cavity, fufficient to admit a fhort ftile, proceeding from the centre of the card whereon it traverses. The compafs I faw was fo conftructed; but I fee no reason why the stile might not proceed from the centre of the vertex of the cone, and so be received by the card the common way. The needle must be a magnetic bar, blunt at each end; the glass and cover are put on in the common way. A compafs of this kind was given by the captain of a Dutch man-ofwar to captain Barnaby of the Zephyr floop; this gentleman gave it to me to examine, and was very profufe in his encomiums thereon, faying, A farmer near Kilham turned his flock of sheep into a field of turnips he had hired, which were remarkably ftrong and good. In a fhort time he loft about twenty of them by the disorder called the Water. He grew fo alarmed in confequence, that he removed his fheep, and would eat no more of the turnips. On this the owner of the land remonftrated, and infifted on the turnips being eaten. upon the ground. After fome little time and altercation, the farmer brought back his flock, and fhortly after about fix more died. On this he took his final leave of the turnips, and faid, "They killed theep, and would have nothing more to do with them." The owner of the land had them publicly cried, but the turnips had got fo bad a name, that, with no little difficulty they were let at half price. The next farmer fent on his theep, and in a thort time loft about eight or ten. On this fecond difafter the reputation of the turnips was gone entirely, and my tenant had the offer of them VOL. XXXVIII. for nothing, provided he would eat them up, to which he agreed. The He fent there fix hundred and thirty Sheep, fo that the experiment was a very full and fair one. method he pursued he had heard of in Northumberland. As foon as the fheep had filled themfelves with the turnips, he made his fhepherd go amongst them and move them about. They voided in confequence a good deal of water. He did this for fome days at ftated intervals, and fometimes made his fhepherd go amongst them in the middle of the night. By this method they were never fuffered to lie long and fwell with what they had eaten. The confequence of this proceeding was, that after eating up the whole of thefe fatal turnips, he removed his fix hundred and thirty fheep all in good condition, without the lofs of a fingle sheep. Two circumftances may fairly be deduced from the above experiment: The first, that the complaint of the water, which frequently kills fheep when firit on to turnips, ariles from their gorging themfelves with this watery food, and then remaining without exercife to carry off the beginning complaint: The fecond, that this method may tend to prevent the diforder, at the fmall expence of a little trouble to the fhepherd. Should this method prove on trial as fuccessful as the experiment gives me hope, the farmer will have many reafons to thank the man who tried it, and the public will be obliged by the communication. I have the honour to be, &c. Gg ANTIQUITIES. ANTIQUITIES. Short Account of several Gardens near London; with remarks on fome Particulars wherein they excel or are deficient, upon a view of them in December, 1691.-From the Archaologia, Vol. XII. 1. HAMPTON Court Garden is a large plat environed with an iron palifade round about next the park, laid all in walks, grafs plats, and borders. Next to the houfe, fome flat and broad beds are set with narrow rows of dwarf box, in figures like lace patterns. In one of the leffer gardens is a large green-houfe divided into feveral rooms, and all of them with ftoves under them, and fire to keep a continual heat. In these there are no orange or lemon trees, or myrtles, or any greens, but fuch tender foreign ones that need continual warmth. 、 2. Kenfington Gardens are not great, nor abounding with fine plants. The orange, lemon, myrtles, and what other trees they had there in fummer, were all removed to Mr. London's and Mr. Wife's green-house, at Brompton-park, a little mile from them. But the walks and grafs are laid very fine, and they were digging up a flat of four or five acres to enlarge their garden. 3. The Queen Dowager's Gar den at Hammersmith has a good green-house, with an high erected front to the fouth, whence the roof falls backward. The house is well ftored with greens of common kinds; but the queen not being for curious plants or flowers, they were not of the most curious forts of greens, and in the garden there is little of value but wall trees; though the gardener there, Monf. Herman Van Guine, is a man of great fkill and induftry, having raised great numbers of orange and lemon trees by inoculation, with myrtles, Roman bayes, and other greens of pretty fhapes, which he has to difpofe of. 4. Beddington Garden, at prefent in the hands of the duke of Norfolk, but belonging to the family of Carew, has in it the best orangery in England. The orango and lemon trees there grow in the ground, and have done fo near one hundred years, as the gardener, an aged man, faid he believed. There are a great number of them, the houfe wherein they are being above two hundred feet long; they are moft of them thirteen feet high, and very full of fruit, the gardener not having taken off fo many flowers this laft fummer as ufually others do. He faid, he gathered off them at least ten thou fand fand oranges this laft year. The heir of the family being but five years of age, the trustees take care of the orangery, and this year they built a new house over them. There are fome myrtles growing among them, but they look not well for want of trimming. The reft of the garden is all out of order, the orangery being the gardener's chief care; but it is capable of being made one of the best gardens in England, the foil being very agreeable,and a clear filver ftream running through it. 5. Chelsea Phyfic Garden has great variety of plants, both in and out of green-houses. Their perennial green hedges and rows of different coloured herbs are very pretty, and fo are their banks fet with hades of herbs in the Irish ftick way; but many plants of the garden were not in fo good order as might be expected, and as would have been answerable to other things in it. After I had been there, I heard that Mr. Watts, the keeper of it was blamed for his neglect, and that he would be removed. 6. My lord Ranelagh's Garden being but lately made, the plants are but small; but the plats, borders, and walks, are curioufly kept and elegantly defigned, having the advantage of opening into Chelsea College walks. The kitchen gardens there lie very fine, with walks and feats, one of which, being large and covered, was then under the hands of a curious painter. The house there is very fine within, all the rooms being wainscoted with Norway oak, and all the chimnies adorned with carving, as in the council-chamber in Chelfea College. 7. Arlington Garden, being now in the hands of my lord of Devonshire, is a fair plat, with good walks both. airy and fhady. There are fix of the greatest earthen pots that are any where elfe, being at leaft two feet over within the edge; but they ftand abroad, and have nothing in them but the tree holyoke, an indifferent plant which grows well enough in the ground. Their green-houfe is very well, and their green-yard excels; but their greens were not fo bright and clean as farther off in the country, as if they fuffered fomething from the fmutty air of the town. 8. My lord Fauconberg's Garden, at Sutton Court, has feveral pleasant walks and apartments in it; but the upper garden next the house is too irregular, and the bowling green too little to be recommended. The green-houfe is very well made, but ill fet. It is divided into three rooms, and very well furnished with good greens; but it is fo placed, that the fun fhines not on the plants in winter when they most need its beams, the dwellinghouse standing betwixt the fun and it. The maze or wilderness there is very pretty, being all fet with greens, with a cyprefs arbour in the middle, fupported with a wellwrought timber frame; of late it grows thin at the bottom, by their letting the fir-trees grow without their reach unclipped. The inclofure wired in for white pheasants and partridges is a fine apartment, efpecially in the fummer, when the bowers of Italian bayes are fet out, and the timber walks with the vines on the fide are very fine, when the blue pots are on the pedeftals on the top of them, and fo is the fifh-pond with the greens at the head of it. Gga 9. Sir 9. Sir William Temple being lately gone to live in Farnhami, his garden and green-houfe at Weft Sheene, where he has lived of late years, are not fo well kept as they have been, many of his orange trees, and other greens, being given to fir John Temple, his brother at Eaft Sheene, and other gentlemen; but his greens that are remaining (being as good a flock as moft green-houfes have) are very fresh and thriving, the room they stand in fuiting well with them, and being well contrived, if it be no defect in it, that the floor is a foot at leaft within the ground, as is alfo the floor of the dwelling-houfe. He had attempted to have orange trees to grow in the ground (as at Beddington), and for that purpose had enclosed a square of ten feet wide with a low brick wall, and fheltered them with wood, but they would not do. His orange trees in fummer ftand not in any particular fquare or enclofure, under fome shelter, as most others do, but are difpofed on pedeftals of Portland ftone, at equal diftance, on a board over-against a fouth wall, where is his best fruit, and faireft walk. 10. Sir Henry Capell's Garden at Kew has as curious greens, and is as well kept, as any about London. His two lentifcus trees (for which he paid forty pounds to Vefprit) are faid to be the beft in England, not only of their kind, but of greens. He has four white ftriped hollies, about four feet above their cafes, kept round and regular, which coft him five pounds a tree this last year; and fix lauruftinufes he has, with large round qual heads, which are very flow ery and make a fine fhow. His orange trees about fourteen feet wide, enclosed with a timber frame about feven feet high, and fet with filver firs hedge-wife, which are as high as the frame, and this to fecure them from wind and tempeft, and fometimes from the fcorching fun. His terrace-walk bare in the middle, and grafs on either fide, with a hedge of rue on one fide next a low wall, and a row of dwarf trees on the other, fhews very fine; and fo do, from thence, his yew hedges, with trees of the fame at equal diftance, kept in pretty fhapes with tonfure. His flowers and fruits are of the beft, for the advantage of which two parallel walls, about 14 feet high, were now raised and almost finifhed. If the ground were not a little irregular, it would excel in other points as well as in furniture. 11. Sir Stephen Fox's Garden at Chifwick, being of but five years ftanding, is brought to great perfection for the time. It excels for a fair gravel walk betwixt two yew hedges, with rounds and fpires of the fame, all under smooth tonfure. At the far end of this garden are two myrtle hedges that crofs the garden; they are about three feet high, and covered in winter with painted board cafes. The other gardens are full of flowers and falleting, and the walls well clad. The green-house is well built, well fet, and well furnished. 12. Sir Thomas Cooke's garden at Hackney, is very large, and not fo fire at prefent, because of his intending to be at three thoufand pounds charge with it this next fummer, as his gardener faid. There are two green-houses 迅 |