COMPLETION OF THE FEN DRAINAGE 117 



farming his principal achievement was probably suggested by his 

 residence in Flanders from 1483 to 1485 as a political refugee. A 

 cut, forty feet wide and four feet deep, running from Peterborough 

 to Wisbech, still bears the name of " Morton's Learn " and still 

 plays an important part in the drainage of the country. Other 

 local efforts were made, which proved for the most part ineffective. 

 In spite of individual enterprise, the general condition of the district 

 was so deplorable that it attracted the attention of the Government. 

 The fens were surveyed, Commissioners and Courts of Sewers 

 appointed, and an Act (1601) was passed for the drainage of the 

 Great Level. In 1606, under a local Act, a portion of the Isle of 

 Ely was reclaimed, the undertakers receiving two-thirds of the land 

 thus recovered from the water. In 1626 the drainage of Hatfield 

 Chase, Ditchmarsh, and all the lands through which crept the Idle, 

 the Aire, and the Don, was commenced by Cornelius Vermuyden. 

 Three years later, the greater task was attempted of draining that 

 portion of the fens which was afterwards known as the Bedford 

 Level. In 1630 the local gentry who formed the Commissioners of 

 Sewers, contracted with Vermuyden (now Sir Cornelius) to execute 

 the work, and the fourth Earl of Bedford headed the undertaking. 

 The work began vigorously enough. In 1637 the Commissioners 

 of Sewers certified its completion ; but the winter rains flooded 

 the country ; the Earl of Bedford was at the end of his resources ; 

 he had spent 100,000, and was in danger of losing it all. The 

 certificate of completion was' reversed. Charles I. intervened ; 

 fresh arrangements were made for the allotment of the recovered 

 land ; a new Company of Adventurers was formed ; Vennuyden 

 still directed the operations, although his skill was attacked by 

 Andre wes Burrell in his Brief e Relation (1642). Vermuyden in his 

 defence (Discourse, 1642) pleaded that the only purpose of the 

 first Agreement was to make the land " summer ground." The 

 new venture was more ambitious. Though the work was partially 

 suspended during the Civil War, it proceeded under the Common- 

 wealth. In 1649 the fifth Earl of Bedford joined the undertaking, 

 and, four years later, the drainage was finished. New channels 

 and drains were made to carry off the surface water ; existing 

 drains were scoured and straightened ; banks were raised to restrain 

 the rivers within their beds ; new outfalls into the sea, provided 

 with sluices, were made, and old ones deepened and widened ; 

 numerous dams were erected to keep out the sea. In 1652 Sir C. 



