'.'OKD LK\ 



KI)KOR1>SHII!K. 



A,-.. 



work* nlo proved defective, in consequence of the loose 

 nature of the earth of which they were formed. In 1049 William, 

 UM son of Knuu'U Karl of Bedford, agreed to make another effort to 

 reclaim the Level upon the name condition*. The gum of 300,0002. 

 wai then laid out in draining, embanking, Ac., and with more success 

 than before ; the 05,000 acre* were allotted to the undertaken, but 

 the ram they had expended on the work was greater than the worth 

 of the land which they received. 



A regular system wan now established for preserving the reclaimed 

 land and for improving the draining. A royal charter waa granted in 

 1644, by which the undertaken for the draining were incorporated, 

 and regulations were framed for the management of the 95,000 acres 

 allotted. This corporation has since been kept up, and cousists of a 

 governor, 6 bailiffs, 20 conservators, and a commonalty. The cor- 

 poration is emi>owered to impose and levy taxes for the preservation 

 of its land, and for upholding the ways, passages, riven, cuts, drains, 

 banks, Ac. throughout the Level, which are also the property, of the 

 corporation. The governor and bailiffs must each possess at least 400 

 acres of the land granted to the corporation to qualify them for hold- 

 ing those offices. The qualification requisite for the conservators is 

 300 acres ; such of the commonalty as possess each 100 acres are 

 allowed to have a voice in the election of the officers of the cor- 

 poration. 



At the original allotment of the 95,000 acres, the adventurers 

 received assignment* proportioned to the sums which each had con- 

 tril.uUd ; so that the whole assignment is not held in common, but 

 each owner holds his allotment or purchase subject to the laws and 

 restrictions of the corporation. At the time the charter was granted 

 by Charles II., that king reserved 12,000 acres for himself out of the 

 95,000 acres ; but this proportion waa subject to the same manage- 

 ment as the rest of the allotment. 



Various means have been adopted for the more perfect draining of 

 these marshes, but until within the last few yearn the subject ban not 

 been well understood. Instead of making a few large and deep chan- 

 nels through which the water would easily find an outfall, numerous 

 small cuts were made, requiring, to produce the same effect, a 

 nuch greater inclination than would have been requisite for larger 



> passed in 1827 and 1829 for improving the outfall of the 

 river Nene, for the drainage of the lands discharging their waters 

 into the Wisbeach River, for improving the navigation of the Wisbeach 

 River from the upper end of Kinder-ley's Cut to the sea, and for 

 embanking the salt marshes lying between Kinder-ley's Cut and the 

 sea. Under these acts a new tidal channel has been cut for t Ill- 

 discharge of the waters of the Nene. This channel begins at Kin- 

 derley's Cut, near liuckworth Sluice, about 6 miles below Wisbeach, 

 and extends to Crabhole in Lincolnshire, a distance of 6J miles; 

 thence the river has shaped for itself a natural channel, about a mile 

 and a half long, into the Wash. A bridge has been thrown OUT this 

 channel at Sutton Wash, about 8 miles below Wisbeach, and an 

 embankment has been made a mile and a half in length across the 

 sands, forming a new line of road between Norfolk and Lincolnshire, 

 in place of the former dangerous ford through a tidal statuary, or the 

 very circuitous route through Wisbeach. Besides the many thousand 

 acres reclaimed by this new channel, the navigation from Wisbeach to 

 the sea has been very much improved. 



A new sluice has been constructed for the outlet of the waters of 

 the North Level into the Nene Outfall, and laid eight feet deeper 

 than the sluice by which it formerly drained into the Old River Chan- 

 Mi A new main drain has been made, which is about 8J miles long, 

 about two-thirds of the length of the former drain ; but being eight 

 feet deeper, and about double the width of the former, its capacity, 

 fcOten in corresponding sections, is more than six times as great : it 

 has a descent from Clow's Cross of four inches per mile. From Clow's 

 Cross two new drains diverge in different lines ; one of them, called 

 the New South rau, is much straighter and wider than the Old South- 

 eau : the New Wryde proceed* first in a curve and then in a straight 

 line to the counter drain. These drains mny be navigated, and afford 

 a ready means of transit for goods. The Nene Outfall was made at 

 the cost of 200,0001. ; and the drainage of tlie Nurth Level, for which 

 the Act was obtained in 1830, occasioned a further outlay of 160,0002. 

 The great supporter of both these useful undertakings wss the Duke 

 of Bedford, under whom \V. (i. Adam, Esq., officiated as accountant- 

 general, and Tycho Wing, Esq. (the third of the same name and family 

 employed on the Bedford Level) as local agent. 



Since the completion in 1&S5 of the various works determined on 

 before that period, very extensive improvements have been made. In 

 the North Level the operations have chiefly consisted in improving 

 the old outs and maintaining the embankments in good order. One 

 new work is a bridge over the Nene at Sutton Wash, between the 

 counties of Suffolk and Norfolk, which U so constructed as to serve 

 the purpose of navigation. It is an elegant structure, the lower 

 parts of wood and the upper of iron. Two clear openings of 60 feet 

 in width are for the passage of vessels. 



ID the Middle Level the recent operations have been upon a very 

 enlarged scale. The area of this level is ascertained to be 138,000 

 acres, including Whittlesea Here with its Reed shoal*. For effecting 

 the internal drainage, the water U lifted by windmills and steam- 



engines from the dykes and drains into the rivers and larger water- 

 courses. The Middle Level u divided into di-trirts for internal 

 drainage ; some of these districts, distinguished as private drainages, 

 are managed by proprietors, without Acts of Parliament ; but most 

 of them are under the charge of commissioner* appointed by several 

 Acts. Nearly all the great works of this Level are intended to secure 

 the external drainage, or the conveyance of the drainage-water to the 

 sea. This drainage is superintended by the I <] Corpora- 



tion, and by two Boards of Commissioners appointed by Act oi I '.n- 

 linmeut. On various occasions after the panning of the Act of 1810, 

 which authorised the formation of one of these Boards, the 

 parts of the Middle Level suffered injuries in time of flood, in conse- 

 quence of the insufficiency of the riven to carry the waters to their 

 outfall through the then existing sluices. In a single year (1841) 

 the loss sustained by destruction of crops by reason of such floods 

 exceeded 150,0002. Messrs. Little and Human, experienced drainage 

 engineen, were applied to for a plan of a new outfall in 141 ; Mr. 

 Walker furnished a somewhat different plan in 1842 ; and in 1844 an 

 Act of Parliament was obtained for a plan formed on both the firmer ; 

 a capital of 200,Ou(U. being sanctioned for executing the works. I'mlcr 

 this Act a cut of 11 miles in length, and about 50 feet wide, with a 

 capacious outfall sluice, was constructed; and by discbargin 

 water six miles lower down the Ouse than by the old channel, an 

 increased fall of six feet was obtained. The funds being cxh 

 another Act was obtained in 1848, empowering the Commissioners to 

 raise a further sum of 250,0002. by taxation of the drained estates. 

 By this Act about 18,000 acres are excluded from taxation on the 

 ground that their drainage is already comparatively efficient. The 

 draining of Whittlesea Mere was occomplished in the early part of 

 1852, but during heavy floods in November of that year, the embank- 

 ments gave way, and it became again a lake. Measures were imme- 

 diately taken however to reclaim it again. The reclaimed land in the 

 Middle Level U found to be very fertile. The Norfolk .Kstuary 

 Company have made another outfall cut below Lynn, by which the 

 waters will be further lowered, the navigation improved, and itw 

 course shortened. 



(Moore's, Dodson's, and BurreH's Account* of the Btufont 

 Dugilale's Ifillory of Embanking and Draining, <(r. ; Can 

 of the County of Cambridge ; Lysons's Magna Brit:, -tley's 



historical Account of A'urli/nlilr Ilirirs, I'mmlf, ii-c. ; Memoir of the 

 Nene Outfall and the North Level Drainage; Communications from the 

 Clerks and Agents of the Drainage IJ'ont'j.) 



BEDFORDSHIRE, an inland comity of Kn-Und, of very irregular 

 shape. It lies between 51 49' and 52 21' W. lat, S'"nn.l IT 41' 

 W. long. It is bounded N.E. by Huntingdonshire, and N.W. by 

 Northamptonshire; E. by Cambridgeshire, W. and S.W. by Bucking- 

 hamshire, and S.E. and S. by Hertfordshire. Its greatest length is 

 3GJ miles, measured nearly from north to south, and its gi 

 breadth is 224 miles, measured nearly from east to west Iv.ltW.l, 

 the county town, is 46 miles, measured in a direct line, X.X.W. from 

 London. The area of the county is 295,582 acres. It is tin- - 

 county in England, except Huntingdon, Middlesex, and Rutland : 

 the population iu 1851 was 124,478. 



N,/,i<v, Jl;/ttr:,yraphy, and Communication*. Bedfordshire I 

 high lands of any great extent. The range of the Chiltcrn Hills 

 (under the name of the Dunstable and Luton Downs) crosses it in a 

 north-cast direction near Dunstable, separating the basin of the 

 Thames from that of the Ouse. Another ridge having the same 

 genera! direction extends from Amptliill to near the junction of the 

 Tvel with the Ouse. Some hills, between which the Ouse winds its 

 course and in which some of its feeden take their rise, on -ujiy the 

 north-west parts of the county. Between these hills and the Aniptliill 

 ridge is the Vole of Bedford, a corn district of considerable extent 

 The woodlands are chiefly of modern origin, having been planted 

 during the latter part of the hint century : they consist principally of 

 oak, Scotch fir, larch, and underwood of various kinds. 



Th. chief river is the Ouse, which, approaching the county from 

 Buckinghamshire and fonning for a short distance the boundary of 

 the two counties, crosses Bedfordshire with so winding a course that 

 although the distance from the point, where it to the point 



where it leaves the county is, in a dire, -t line. T< miles, 



the length of the river itself between the same points is prolialily 

 not leas than 45 miles. The average depth of the Ouse is considered 

 to be about 10 feet, but it is fordable in several places. It is subject 

 to sudden and destructive inundations. In its course through Bed- 

 fordshire it is increased by many streams which flow into it on each 

 bank, but none of these are of any size or importance except the 

 !h. h.l is commonly considered to have its source near 

 Baldock, in Hertfordshire, but the principal branch of it rises on the 

 north-west slope of the Chiltern Hills, a little to the north-east of 

 Dunsbtble, and flowing to the north-east unites with the Ouse at the 

 village of Tempxford, after a course of about 30 miles. Other streams 

 which unite and form a considerable feeder of the Ouse cross the 

 county in iU northern part The river Lea, which falls into the 

 Thames just below London, rises at Houghton Regis on the opposite 

 slope of the same range of bills as the Ircl, and net far from the 

 springs of that river; but only a small part of its couno is in 

 Bedfordshire. The Ouzel, a tributary of the Ouse, separates Bedford- 



