Literary tiles: Wives & Daughters by Mrs Gaskell

I like a good land drain. They often come up complete, so get handed to me for identification. Lucky me! The most interesting ones are early-mid 19th century. If you're wanting to see land drains in action (and let's face who doesn't!?) a great place to see them is in BBC tv's 1999 serial Wives and Daughters. The original novel is by Mrs Gaskell, and adapted for the Beeb by Andrew Davies. In the serial, there are three scenes with land drain digging. Squire Hamley is trying to improve his land, and one way to do it, is to install drains. Well worth a look - get it from your local library and look at the beginning of episodes 1-3. I'll shortly be having a look to see exactly where the land drains where mentioned in Gaskell's original text.