19 DECEMBER 1931, Page 18

WATER DIVINING

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

SIR,—In the year 1885, I was Assistant Curate of Forest Row, Sussex, in which my kind friend Mr. Charles Bell, (afterwards Sir Charles Morrison Bell, Bart.) owned two estates—Yewhurst and l3ramblehurst. He wished to sell Bramblehurst, and a purchaser was forthcoming who, however, made a stipulation that there should be a sufficient water supply. Mr. Bell spent a considerable sum of money in a fruitless endeavour to find water. At last he was advised to call to his aid a "water diviner," wrongly so-called. For E.5 an abundant supply was found, and the estate was sold.

It is possible that only a person with a magnetic tempera- ment can work the twig ; but there are other preliminaries, for instance in Sussex at any rate, we have a plant known as "water-weed," and almost invariably where this weed is found, water may be located.

Fifty years ago, this so-called " water-divining " was mentally tabulated among the "black arts."—! am, Sir, &c., J. P. BACON PHILLIPS.