George Boase.
P.S.—The Gentleman's Magazine gives a plate of these tiles, as well as a plate of some others with which another ancient building, called "Grand Palais de Guillaume le Conquerant," was paved.
Alverton Vean, Penzance.
Artificial Drainage.—Can any of your correspondents refer me to a work, or works, giving a history of draining marshes by machines for raising the water to a higher level? Windmills, I suppose, were the first machines so used, but neither Beckmann nor Dugdale informs us when first used. I have found one mentioned in a conveyance dated 1642, but they were much earlier. Any information on the history of the drainage of the marshes near Great Yarmouth, of which Dugdale gives passing notice only, would also be very acceptable to me.
E. G. R.
Storms at the Death of great Men.—Your correspondent at Vol. vi., p. 531., mentions "the storms which have been noticed to take place at the time of the death of many great men known to our history."
A list of these would be curious. With a passing reference to the familiar instance of the Crucifixion, as connected with all history, we may note, as more strictly belonging to the class, those storms that occurred at the deaths of "The Great Marquis" of Montrose, 21st May, 1650; Cromwell, 3rd September, 1658; Elizabeth Gaunt, who was burnt 23rd October, 1685, and holds her reputation as the last female who suffered death for a political offence in England; and Napoleon, 5th May, 1821; as well as that which solemnised
the burial of Sir Walter Scott, 26th September, 1832.
W. T. M.
Hong Kong.