106 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries. 



Parliament which were passed in the reigns of the Georges and 

 up to the present time providing for the institution of Drainage 

 Commissioners, the draining of the fens and marshes, and the 

 training of the various rivers to the sea j but, I may add that 

 if in the reign of Elizabeth the Isle of Ely was "commonly 

 subject to surrounding by the sea," it is manifest that the sea 

 must even at that time have flowed over most of the fen and 

 marshland, extending from Lincoln past Bardney, Friskney 

 to Spilsby on the north, and past Peterborough to Ely on the 

 South. 



Two very interesting questions arise here. The first is 

 What caused the Wash? This question is best answered by 

 geology. Although the Wash has been in existence, certainly, 

 some thousands of years, and has been gradually reclaimed 

 from the sea, underneath its bed are large forests of well-grown 

 timber trees, for the most part consisting of oak, larch, and fir, 

 though near Crowland there is a large district called "The 

 Alderlands," which receives its name from the fact that 

 wherever digging takes place, alder trees are found beneath the 

 surface. 



When it is remembered that oak, larch, and fir will only 

 flourish in fairly dry places, it follows that before the convulsion 

 of nature which sent them beneath the sea they must have 

 existed on high and dry land, and there seems no reason to 

 doubt that the forests in question were situated on land as 

 high as the neighbouring land : while, as the alder will only 

 flourish in damp low places, it follows that the land about 

 Crowland was always low. 



What caused the convulsion of nature ? When it is borne 

 in mind that all these submarine forests consist of full-grown 

 trees of about the same age, it seems to follow that they were 

 overwhelmed at the same time, and seeing that the land, on 

 which they were, was suddenly lowered so much that the sea 

 flowed over it, nothing but an earthquake could have been the 

 cause. 



Geologists tell us that France and England were once joined 

 together, and that the Isle of Wight was once joined to the 

 mainland of Hampshire. Is it too much to suppose that the 

 earthquake which caused that severance was also responsible 

 for the making of the Wash ? 



The second question to which I have alluded is this What 

 effect would the formation of the Wash have upon the low 

 lying land between Lincoln and Nottingham, Lincoln and 



