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THE YORKSHIRE FEN 



THE Yorkshire Fen is less well-known than those 

 of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. Yet its history 

 is not less interesting, and its present appearance, 

 especially in those parts which lie in the narrower 

 valleys, and were formerly arms of the great marshy 

 sea, is far more picturesque, owing to the number of 

 woods and plantations which flourish on its black and 

 rotten soil. It was the first of all the large fen areas 

 to be reclaimed, and the history of its reclamation is 

 one of singular interest. For the details the reader 

 should consult the life of Sir Cornelius Vermuylen, in 

 Dr. Smiles' Lives of the Engineer s> and the story as told 

 by Abraham de la Pryme, F.R.S., in the MS. History 

 of Hatfield in the British Museum. This is not the 

 " Hatfield " owned by Lord Salisbury, but the ancient 

 fen of "Hatfield Chase," which with the Isle of 

 Axholme, and the marshes lying between the Don, 

 Thorne, Idle, and Trent rivers, constitutes the York- 

 shire fen. Sixty thousand acres of this great tract were 

 drained by Cornelius Vermuylen, the Dutch engineer, 

 in 1626, who in two years completed a task which 



