82 Devon Notes and Queries. Mr. Ellis, plumber, Friernhay Street, tells me that — " Ackland used to supply Holy Trinity parish and district — living in Chudley's Court at the bottom of Coombe Street, and taking his water at the, then called, Dipping steps from the mill leat behind and above the Custom House. " The road was some lo to 12 feet above the water, which came down mostly in turbulent fashion, caused by the mill wheel and fall, about 150 feet further up stream. "About 2 feet below the Dipping place the public sewer ran into the leat. '* Ackland used the barrel on wheels. "Of Arthur Moore I only learn the name. "The writer has personal memory of Jimmy Patridge (Partridge), who, with his father Sam, lived on water selling and charity. " Jimmy and his father, too, were somewhat of simpletons — but both accredited, by folk of the day, as being more *R than F.* " Jimmy in the late forties was cared for by the Rev. Fisher Turner, then occupying Priory House, next the Salvation Army Temple ; — and having written thus much, I begin to ask myself what my position was when Jimmy was being teased .' Was I the good boy — shocked ? Did I look on amused, or did I chime in .' "This man dipped and carried away two buckets at a time, using a hoop to keep his arms extended." Mr. J. Hooper, 33, Paris Street, says : — " I well remember seeing the water barrels being filled at the Exeter Quay and near the sawpits in the Bonhay, now the Pleasure ground.
- • Father Napper was the water carrier for St. Thomas. My grand-
mother, a laundress, used to get her supply from him at three buckets a penny, at weekly cost of half-a-crown. Further supplies were procured by the women fetching the water from the river, using two buckets and a hoop. At that time water ran in the gutters on each side of Cowick Street, and I remember when the pump was dry dipping up the water from these gutters in a bucket to put into a tub to settle, to be used for household purposes." Mr. W. J. J. Norton, of 185, S. Sidwell Street, Exeter, writes : — " I am sorry I cannot give you the information you require about Billy Wotton, and this, I suppose, is the reason why. There were more than one of these celebrities in thi9 city, and each had his daily rounds. Wotton's, I think, must have been the lower part of the city, as the upper part (S. Sidwell's) was supplied by Johnny Goss, who was always accompanied on his rounds by his son— a very tall, lanky fellow, who was daft. This Goss lived in Black Boy Road in the court just above the George and Dragon. And as it was he who supplied the water to the house in which I lived in S. Sidwell's some 60 or 70 years ago, I have of course a more personal recollection of him than I have of Wotton. i
