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234. Deep Well near Bansted Downs.
—Mr. Robert Hooke, professor at Gresham College, writing in 1674, says he has—
"seen at a gentleman's house, not far from Bansted-Downs in Surrey, a well which is dug through a body of chalk, and is near 360 feet deep, and yet dry almost to the very bottom."
Is this well still known, and can any of your correspondents vindicate its situation, and give any particulars relating to it? The pamphlet in which it is mentioned is curious, for it is "an attempt to prove the motion of the earth [in its orbit] from observations." It will be observed that the work was written in the year 1674.
W. S. G.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
235. Upton Court.
—About nine miles from Reading, on the road to Newbury, and removed about two miles from the high road, is an ancient manor house called Upton Court. It is most curious as to architecture, and is a most interesting specimen of the houses of the gentry of former days. It belonged to a Catholic family of the name of Perkins. The chapel, in the house, and the hiding-place for priests, can still be seen. It is said that Pope wrote the Rape of the Lock there. I should be glad to know if any of your correspondents can confirm this fact from authentic evidence.
A. E.