19th century
The
ponds also appear on maps published in the 19th century and it is
at the
beginning of that century that accounts begin to appear of
occasions on
which much larger bodies of water appeared quite rapidly
in the area.
In 1810-11 a large lake estimated at some 3000 acres developed.
Reportedly the lake covered a "very valuable sugar work" and other
buildings, the tops of some of them still appearing above the water.
Much valuable land was inundated, and several other ponds appeared in
the surrounding regions. On this occasion, as later, canoes and boats
were taken to the lake to "afford a pleasant amusement". Another writer
referred to the view of the lake from Walton School:
"...
the prospect of such an immense sheet of water, interspersed with small
islands
covered with palm and other trees, is picturesque and romantic
beyond description,
and considerably heightened by the abundance of wild
fowl skimming about the
surface of the lake."
The Vestry of St. Ann sensibly withdrew the parochial taxes on the
properties which had suffered from the expansion of the lake.
The next appearance of a large lake occurred in 1863-4.
According
to Plummer the high water level disappeared within three
days, but
another letter-writer in 1917, James A. Marshall, wrote of the
lake
subsiding "in the course of time". Before
disappearing the lake had
reached depths of up to 40 or 50 feet, a
length of some three miles and
in places a breadth of about an eighth of
a mile. According to this
writer, Mr. Mais, the head
master of Walton School obtained a boat,
"The Lady of the Lake", for the
boys to use. The boys also used to
shoot wild duck and other birds
around the lake. E. C. Smith in 1934
also had recollections of this period, though he recalled the water
being at its height in 1875 and disappearing by 1881.
On one occasion
he remembered, at a place called "Flash's" where the
boys used to
bathe, the headmaster was given a ducking by one of his
pupils, who
afterwards claimed it was a mistake. For Mr. Mais, however,
the rising
of the lake brought tragedy, as it was to do to others later,
when one of
his young daughters and her nurse were drowned while
bathing in the
lake. Marshall also referred to the lake appearing again,
though not on
as large a scale, in 1874. He commented of the scene in that year:
with the driving fog and the sudden appearance of the sun shining on the water.... It
was a glorious panorama."
