CANVEY ISLAND 105 



made over is still called "Third-acre land." 



Crappenburgh's work was followed by a considerable 



immigration of Dutch, who sustained severe loss at 



the hands of their own countrymen during the Dutch 



incursions in the year of the Plague, and most of 



them then left. But if a pure Dutch name would be 



hard and a pure Dutch pedigree impossible to find, 



the round face, the heavy, sjquare figure, and the 



stolid temper are characteristic of the Canvey 



Islander of to-day. As Lindisfarne, in short, is - -^^^ 



essentially Scandinavian, so Canvey is essentially 



Dutch. 



Crappenburgh did his work conscientiously enough; 

 but exceptional storms and spring-tides upset his 

 calculations, and in 1735 so great was the damage to 

 live stock from these causes (Canvey then fed near 

 four thousand sheep) that the Third acre land was by 

 Act of Parliament saddled with a first charge — limited 

 to I OS. an acre — towards the expenses of the wall ; the 

 remaining two-thirds were only to be rateable should 

 more money be wanted — at that time a remote 

 contingency. But the storms of 1881 wrought such >* '6'^'f 



frightful havoc that this land was charged as high as ^~v«n/ni 



£1 per acre, a sum equal to the value of its rental. 



I 



/S^st^rrr. 



