DRAINAGE. 67 



He framed on this occasion ordinances which settled the 

 " laws and customs of Romney Marsh," and are frequently 

 referred to in royal commissions and Acts of Parliament as 

 " The famous ordinances of Henry de Batho." " They 

 have been long ago made the rule and standard whereunto 

 all the other marshes and fens in this nation were to con- 

 form." Romney Marsh is the subject of the first chapter 

 on English affairs. We recommend it as a fair sample of 

 our author's matter and manner. It will be interesting to 

 most readers, though probably the majority will not wish 

 to pursue the subject further. 



The monastic orders were large landowners in all the 

 English fens, from which circumstance our author is led to 

 favour us with a considerable amount of legendary lore. 

 We are informed that " Ethelreda, called vulgarly Audrey," 

 and subsequently St. Audrey, performed numerous mira- 

 cles, and founded a religious house of nuns in Ely, of 

 which she became abbess. To us, among the most mar- 

 vellous of her miracles are, that, having been married to 

 " Toinbert, a prince of the Southern Gyrvii or fenmen, at 

 his death she retired into the Isle of Ely, a pure virgin, 

 notwithstanding she was his wife almost three years : " 

 *' that about five years from the beginning of such her re- 

 tirement, Egfrid, king of Northumberland, being highly 

 inflamed with her beauty, obtained her for his wife ; " and, 

 finally, that " after she had been wedded about twelve 

 years, she, without any free leave of her said husband, as 

 a queen and a virgin repaired to the monastery in Cold- 

 ingham in Scotland." It is perhaps less surprising that, 

 when at the close of one year King Egfrid desired to have 

 her domestic society again, she, by a series of miracles 

 very analogous to those performed by Moses in the wilder- 

 ness, resisted all his attempts to recover her. In like 

 manner " St. Guthlach, a devout hermit," founded the 

 abbey of Crowland, where, before " that devout servant of 

 Christ, no countryman could endure to dwell by reason of 

 apparitions of devils which were frequently seen there ; " 



