34 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY 



ment of more capital, the abolition of ' slavish customs,' 

 the recognition of tenant right, the extinction of ' ver- 

 mine.' Above all he insists on the necessity of drainage. 

 It is characteristic of the age that he supports his argu- 

 ment from the Bible, and asks with Bildad, ' Can the rush 

 grow without mire, or the flagg without water ? ' Blith 

 deals not only with surface water, but the constant action 

 of stagnant bottom water. No drain could, he said, touch 

 the ' cold spewing moyst water that feeds the flagg and 

 rush,' unless it was ' a yard or four feet deep,' provided 

 with 25roper outfalls. His views are sound and advanced 

 on a sreneral scheme for drainag-e, in which landowners 

 should be compelled to join for ' the commonwealth's 

 advantage.' 



When Blith wrote the drainage of the fens was a 

 question of importance. The fen district was seventy 

 miles long, in places thiii^y miles broad, and covered 

 680,000 acres. This was not land which had been under 

 water since the Flood. Thorney was, in the time of Wil- 

 liam of Malraesbury, rich in vineyards and orchards, well 

 wooded, productive, ' a very paradise of pleasure and de- 

 light.' The drainage works of the Romans had been 

 carried on by the monks of Thorney, Crowland, Ramsey, 

 Ely, Spinney. But latterly they had fallen out of repair. 

 The district is naturally drained by the Cam, the Ouse, 

 the Nene, the Welland, the Glen, and the Witham. But 

 it was only in the maps that they ran into the sea. The 

 river-beds were foul, the channels choked ; the streams 

 continually overflowed their banks. Twice a day tides 

 drove back the fresh water, and prevented the discharge 

 ■of the upland streams. The outfalls of the rivers silted up 

 so rapidly, that in 1635, at Skirbeck Sluice, near Boston, 

 .^ smith's forge and tools were found buried under sixteen 



