6 The Physiography of Cambridgeshire 



Romans built a series of great sea-banks to keep out the tides, 

 and in so doing interfered with the river outlets, which in 

 course of time became choked with silt, and overflowing their 

 banks rendered the area more of a morass than before. 



In medieval times many artificial drainage work- were 

 undertaken to improve matters, but most of them were per- 

 formed in so ill-advised a way that only small areas were 

 favourably affected. In the early part of the seventeenth 

 century a new system was inaugurated, and the natural 

 waterways have since been opened and embanked, with the 

 consequence that pumping has been reduced to a minimum, 

 and the district has been rendered ideal for farming op 

 tions. 



*With the disappearance of the boggy fen many of the 

 characteristic plants and animals have also disappeared or 

 become extremely rare. A small area at Wicken Fen is still 

 preserved in its original state and shows the former character 

 of extensive tracts of Fenland. 



As the Fenland has undergone so much change in recent 

 times it is interesting to find a description of the Isle of 1'ly 

 and adjoining region as it was in the twelfth century in the 

 Liber Eliensis, of which the MS. is preserved in the library of 

 Trinity College. The particular passage quoted below is from 

 a translation furnished by a reviewer in the Znnlo<ii*t for 

 1879 (Third Series, Vol. in., p. 71). "In our isle men are not 

 troubling themselves about the leaguer, but think they may 

 safely be defended by their tiros; the ploughman has not 

 taken his hand from the plough, nor has the hunter east aside 

 his arrow, nor does the fowler desist from beguiling hi ids. 

 And yet something more. If you wish to hear what I have 

 known and have seen, I will reveal all to you. The isle is 

 within itself plentifully endowed, it is supplied with various 

 kinds of herbage, and for its richer soil surpasses the rest of 

 England. Most delightful for its charming fields ami past 

 it is also remarkable for its beasts of chase, and is in no 

 ordinary way fertile in flocks and herds. Its woods and vine- 



