HISTORY OF DECOYS. 107 



to protect the level against the violence of the tide, the people refused to 

 pay the tax levied for his remuneration, whereupon the King assigned him 

 certain lands by way of recompense, which, let us hope, he got. But even 

 worse fortune befell the worthy Knight in 1642, at Hatfield Chase. There, 

 previously to his draining operations, the country was full of wandering 

 beggars, but, afterwards, from the demand for agricultural labour, wages 

 were doubled. Nevertheless, after Vermuyden and his partners had entered 

 upon possession of what belonged to them by agreement, and had built a 

 town called Sandtoft, ' with a church therein ; placing a minister there ; 

 whereunto resorted above two hundred families of French and Walloon 

 Protestants (fled out of their native country for fear of the Inquisition, only 

 to enjoy the free exercise of their religion here),' the inhabitants, claiming 

 common right, and under pretence of raising an army for the protection of 

 the King, ' broke down the fences and inclosures of four thousand acres, 

 destroyed all the corn growing, and demolished the houses built thereon.' 

 After this they broke other banks, watching the breaches with muskets in 

 their hands, to prevent their being repaired, and forcing the inhabitants ' to 

 swim away like ducks.'* This lawless destruction continued till seventy- 

 four thousand acres of land were under water. Fuller f thus refers to the 

 discontent of the Fen people : ' Tell them of the great benefit to the 

 publick, because where a Pike or Duck fed formerly, now a Bullock or 

 Sheep is fattened ; they will be ready to return that if they be lakcn in 

 taking that Bullock or Sheep, the rich owner indicteth them for felons ; 

 whereas that Pike or Duck were their own goods, only for their pains of 

 catching them. So impossible is it that the best project, though perfectly 

 performed, should please all interests and affections.' In fact, they would 

 exclaim with Hudibras : 



* " This incident suggested to Hcarriet Martineau the subject of the charming litde stor}', 

 the first of the ' Playfellow ' series, entitled the ' Setders at Home.' Long after the Fens 

 were drained, the ' Redfurns ' were still represented by the hardy race of men who took up 

 their abode on some lonely marsh on the shores of the Wash, often in a hut-boat lying high 

 and dry in some creek, and gained a precarious living by their nets and guns ; or by the men 

 who squatted down in the midst of the ' Broads,' as graphically described by the Rev. 

 Richard Lubbock in the oft-quoted passage (pp. 129, 130, second edition) of the ' Fauna of 

 Norfolk.' These are even now represented by the shore-gunners of the Wash, and the eel- 

 setters and fishermen of the Norfolk Broads." 



t "Worthies of England," 410 Edit. (1811) vol. i. p. 152. 



