52 Beginning of Modern Farming 



of the Bedford Level to that central stretch of the reclaimed and 

 improved area which lies north-east of Cambridge. The usual 

 arrangement was that the adventurer, the person who undertook 

 to carry out the draining, received a third, a half, or two-thirds 

 of the land which he reclaimed, the amount doubtless being 

 proportioned to the difficulty and cost of the work. In the Act 

 of 1663 the number of acres to be allotted to the Earl of Bedford, 

 who was chairman of the Company of Adventurers, and to other 

 members, is stated. The motives for proceeding with this work 

 were as clear and strong as for the enclosing of grazing lands in 

 Leicestershire. Although provision was made in the Acts of 

 Parliament for recognition of the rights of the commoners, the 

 distribution of the reclaimed land was in the hands of the Com- 

 missioners of Sewers, and the area allotted to the adventurers 

 was so great that many of the previous holders were displaced. 



This added to the difficulties of draining. The men who 

 inhabited the fens loved their strange life among the marshes. 

 They were content to take what the sea allowed them. They 

 fished and shot the wild birds for their subsistence, and for them 

 the freedom they enjoyed outweighed the misery of a precarious 

 and monotonous livelihood. The adventurers employed Dutch- 

 men to do the work of draining. Cornelius Vermuyden, who was 

 afterwards knighted for his services, was the director and engineer. 

 The presence of foreigners, and often their settlement on the 

 reclaimed land, irritated the commoners who were turned out, 

 and they frequently broke the embankments erected to keep out 

 the water. 



Similar reclamations were made on both sides of the Thames, 

 in Essex and Kent. By the patient process of warping, also, a 

 large area of land has been made available for agriculture round 

 the estuary of the Humber. The Humberhead Levels, including 

 all the land about the mouths of the Trent, the Don, and the 

 Ouse, consist largely of warped land. Warping is a method by 



