I04 THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS. 



numerous efforts had been previously made in that respect, the success 

 resulting therefrom was meagre and disappointing. As an example of how 

 far inland the tide penetrated in bygone days it is said that vessels were 

 formerly able to sail to the city of Lincoln from the sea up the River 

 Witham, the latter then considered to have been a broad estuary. 



The western part of the county was also subject to disastrous inunda- 

 tions owing to the flooding of the Trent. A range of low sand hills 

 confine the Trent from Western Lincolnshire ; these hills extend from 

 Girton in Notts to Marton in Lincolnshire, all along the course of the 

 river on its right bank. 



At the low places in this natural dam immense protective dykes have 

 been built to confine the floods and direct them north to the H umber. 



One of the dykes, that near Spalford, gave way through the pressure 

 of water in 1 795 ; the inundation did great mischief, and covered for 

 weeks over 20,000 acres west of Lincoln, the floods even reaching the 

 city. 



In the NW. part of the county a large tract of marsh, known as the 

 Lsle of Axholme (17,000 acres), because it was surrounded by rivers and 

 floods, was also finally drained at the end of the last century. But to 

 return to the Fens. In 1768 a serious riot took place owing to the pro- 

 posed enclosure of Holland Fen ; at that date not a single acre of this Fen 

 was dry land from October to March, and on January ist, 1779, during a 

 memorable gale, vessels from near Boston were driven inland two miles 

 over the marshes, and at Lynn, on the same coast further south, the 

 market-place was two feet under water. 



Previous to the last extensive drainage in 18 10, Wildmore and Holland 

 Fens were often under water throughout the winter to a depth of from 

 3 to 6 ft. The late Mr. Pedley, in his " Fens and Floods of Mid-Lincoln- 

 shire," gives a capital account of the Fens and Fenmen of this county. He 

 says, " The Fenmen were good shots, and frequently used a horse for 

 stalkino- the wildfowl; others were in 'shouts,' or 'shallops,' of which 

 numbers might be seen drifting like logs of wood, and only showing signs 

 of being occupied by the reports and smoke from the guns." 



In the summer the water evaporated and left a crop of water-grass, 

 which formed a ready shelter for the wild birds to nest in. 



When the ground was dry it was stocked with immense numbers of 



