APPENDIX I 



Reclamation of land is a question quite apart from that of 

 inclosure of land. The statements in Chapters VII-XI with 

 regard to inclosures do not apply to reclamation. Land- 

 lords and others who have spent money in reclaiming useless 

 land are public benefactors. Whatever advantages they may 

 have gained were not gained by injuring other persons. The 

 first Earl of Leicester, a great practical agriculturist, re- 

 claimed large tracts of land near Holkham, and the present 

 Earl, also a noted agriculturist, has in his turn reclaimed 

 hundreds of acres.^ The greatest work in England of this 

 kind was that of the " Bedford Level," where from two to three 

 hundred thousand acres were " won from the sea and the 

 swamps by patriotic enterprise, hard work, and lavish expen- 

 diture," An interesting account of this great undertaking is 

 given in " The Story of a Great Agricultural Estate," by the 

 Duke of Bedford (Murray). 



On the loth of February, 1777, a petition was presented 

 to the House of Commons on this subject. The petition 

 " sheweth that the Great Level of the Fens, called the Bed- 

 ford Level, is a part of that Great Plain which extends into, 

 and is bounded by the counties of Northampton, Norfolk, 

 Suffolk, Lincoln, Cambridge, and Huntingdon, containing 

 upwards of 300,000 acres of land." The Petition states that 

 the drainage from these counties and the downfall in the 

 Plain itself had for ages overflowed and drowned the land, 

 " insomuch that no advantage redounded therefrom to man- 

 kind, but river fish, waterfowl, and reeds," that "Francis, 

 Earl of Bedford, after many fruitless attempts by others, 



' For a short and interesting account of the Coke family (sprung from real 

 yeoman stock) see "Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society," Vol. VI, 

 Part I, 1895. 



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