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with swaths of grass lying upon it just as they were mowed. 

 At Shirbeck sluice, near Boston, a smith's forge was found 

 buried sixteen feet deep ; the remains of several antient 

 tan-vats were also found, and a large quantity of horns ; 

 there were also some soles of shoes of a peculiar shape, 

 sharp-pointed, and of the fashion which prevailed in the 

 reign of Richard II. At the setting down of a new sluice 

 a little beneath Magdalen fall, half a mile from Magdalen 

 bridge, on the marsh side, and sixteen feet deep in the earth, 

 a cart-wheel and a flat stone about eight feet Ion;; were 

 found. Not fttr from that spot the remains of a church were 

 discovered, about eight feet below the surface; and it is 

 stated by Dugdale that at Wigenhall St. Germans, the floor 

 of the church is seven feet lower than high-water mark of 

 the Ouse : which river, as it runs by the churchyard, is kept 

 by a strong bank from inundating the country. 



The principal rivers or drains, which formerly passed 

 through this Level, were eight in number: the Glen, the 

 Welland, the Nene, the Ouse, the Cam, the Mildenhall or 

 Lark, the Brandon or Little Ouse, and the Stoke. 



The Glen is a small stream which rises in the south of 

 Lincolnshire, and taking first a S.S.E. and afterwards a N.E. 

 course, falls into the Wellaud on its left bank, near its 

 mouth. The Welland comes from the S.W. to Market 

 Deeping, continues thence a short distance to the east, and 

 then takes a N.E. course until it joins the Fossdike Wash 

 near Fossdike. The Nene passes by Peterborough, con- 

 tinues thence to Wisbeach, and falls into the Sutton Wash- 

 way. This river has at different times had its channel so 

 altered ami diverted from its original course by numerous 

 cuts, that it is now scarcely possible to trace the line of its 

 natural bed. The Wisbeach river, or Old Nene, which 

 issues from Ramsay Mere, is a branch of this river. 



The Ouse passes by St. Ives and Earith, after which it 

 takes an irregular winding course, first east and then nearly 

 north, till it falls into the Wash at Lynn Regis in Norfolk : 

 the Cam, the Lark, and the Little Ouse fall into it on its 

 east bank. 



It thus appears that there are three main outlets for the 

 waters of this Level. These have constantly been liable to 

 have their mouths choked up by loose sand thrown up by 

 the tides. 



The Level receives the waters of the whole or parts of nine 

 counties from the uplands, and the whole tract being flat, 

 with little or no descent, it has hitherto been a matter of 

 difficulty to provide a sufficient outfall so that the waters 

 may reach the sea without overflowing the country. 



The practicability of draining this great morass seems 

 first to have been entertained in 1436, when the attention of 

 many wealthy persons was turned towards the subject. 

 Embankments were made, and ditches were cut at avast 

 expense, but the next winter proving wet and tempestuous, 

 the Ous-e, swollen by its tributaries into a torrent, swept 

 away the barriers, and reduced the whole country to its 

 former condition. These works having been thought per- 

 fectly secure, people were led to doubt the possibility of 

 effectually draining the marshes, and the practicability of 

 the undertaking became the subject of much curious con- 

 troversy. 



In the reign of Henry VII. Bishop Moreton made an 

 attempt to drain the North Level and the northern parts of 

 the Middle Level by means of a cut, called Moreton's 

 Leame, which extended from Peterborough to Guyhirn, and 

 is now considered part of the Nene : this cut was forty feet 

 wide, and navigable. The earth of which the embank- 

 ments were made was loose and sandy, so that they crum- 

 bled away. Another attempt was made in the reign of 

 Kli/abeth, and a third in the time of her successor ; but 

 nothing effectual was done until 163-1, in the reign of 

 Charles I., when another attempt to drain these fens was 

 made by Francis Earl of Bedford, and it was in compliment 

 to this nobleman that the tract reclaimed has been named 

 the Bedford Level. 



The lordship of Tborney, containing 18,000 acres, was 

 the property of the Earl, and except a hillock upon which 

 the abbey had been built, the whole of this tract was under 

 w:iti-r. The wish to reclaim this land induced him to 

 embark in the undertaking. As a compensation for the 

 risk and expense, he stipulated that he and his partners 

 in the work should receive us payment 95,000 acres of the 

 reclaimed land. Under this condition a charter was granted 

 to the adventurers, and the work waft partially accomplished 

 in the course of three years, at an outlay of 100.000/. A 



cut, now called the Old Bedford River, was made from 

 Earith, communicating with the Ouse at Salter's Lode, 

 near Denver in Norfolk : this river is seventy feet wide, and 

 twenty-one miles long. The other drains then made 'were 

 Sam's Cut, from Feltwell to the Ouse near Denver, twenty 

 feet wide, and about six miles long : Devil's Leam, now 

 known as Bevil's River, from Whittlesea Mere to Guyhirn, 

 forty feet wide, and ten miles long : Moreton's Leam was 

 repaired and embanked anew : Pealdrk drain, from Pea- 

 kirk to Guyhirn, seventeen feet wide, and ten miles long. 

 South-eau dvain, from Crowland to Clows Cross, and thence 

 the Shire drain to the Nene, six miles below AVisbeach, being 

 antient drains, were enlarged. A small cut was also made 

 from the Lark to the Ouse. Four sluices were made ; two 

 at Tydd, one at Wisbeach, and the fourth at Salter's Lode, 

 to keep out the tide. 



These embankments also proved defective, in consequence 

 of the loose nature of the earth of which they were formed ; 

 and the state of the country, owing to the civil wars, being 

 unfavourable for the prosecution of such projects, the whole 

 tract was again suffered to lie waste till 1G49, when Wil 

 liam, the son of Francis Earl of Bedford, agreed to make 

 another effort to reclaim the level upon the same conditions. 

 The sum of 300.000/. was then laid out in draining, em- 

 banting, &c., raid with more success than before ; the 

 95,OUO acres were allotted to the undertakers, but the sum 

 they had expended on the work was greater than the worth 

 of the land which they received. The New Bedford River, 

 which is 100 feet wide, was cut on the occasion last men- 

 tioned : it runs at a short distance from.Xind nearly parallel 

 to, the Old Bedford River. 



A regular system was now established for preserving the 

 reclaimed land, and for improving the draining. A royal 

 charter was granted in 1664, by which the undertakers 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 consists of a go- 

 vernor, six bailiffs, twenty conservators, and a commonalty. 

 The corporation is empowered to impose and levy taxes for 

 the preservation of its land, and for upholding the ways, 

 passages, rivers, cuts, drains, banks, &c. 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 

 holding those offices. The qualification requisite for the 

 conservators is 200 acres : such of the commonalty as pos- 

 sess each 100 acres are allowed to have a voice in the elec- 

 tion of the officers of the corporation. 



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

 turers received assignments proportioned to the sums which 

 each had contributed ; so that the whole assignment is not 

 held in common, but each owner holds his allotment or pur 

 chase 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 9">,0uo 

 acres ; but this proportion was 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 

 years the subject has not been well understood. In- 

 stead of making a few large and deep channels through 

 which the water would easily find an outfall, numerous 

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

 a much greater inclination than would have been requisite 

 for larger channels. It would be useless to enumerate all 

 these small cuts. The channels which it is necessary to 

 mention are, the sixteen feet drain, which runs about four 

 miles west of and nearly parallel to Old Bedford River, is 

 eight miles long; this terminates in the forty feet drain, 

 which runs from Old Bedford River to Ramsay Mere. The 

 Carr Dike, which is a Roman work, runs from Peterborough 

 to Peakirk. The Counter Drain runs parallel to and near 

 the Nene, from Peterborough to Guyhirn. Thu Cats' Water 

 communicates with the counter drain near Peterborough, 

 on the one side, and with the Old South-eau drain on the 

 other side. The Cats' Water was a very old drain choked 

 by earth and weeds, and served neither for the purpose of 

 draining nor navigation. It was cleared out and repaired 

 by the Earl of Bedford and his Company, with many smaller 

 drains which had been equally neglected. A great part of 

 Carr Dike is now disused, and the Cats' Water is little more 

 than a boundary fence to Thorney : no part of either is navi- 

 gable at present. The Well Creek runs from Salter's Lode 



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