CHAPTER LV. 



WILD-FOWL SHOOTING IN THE FENS. 



" Sportsman ! lead on, where through the reedy bank 

 The insinuating waters, filter' d, stray 

 In many a winding maze. The wild-duck there 

 Gluts on the fattening ooze, or steals the spawn 

 Of teeming shoals her more delicious feast." 



SOMERVILLE. 



IT is much to be regretted that so few particulars of fowling- have 

 been handed down to us in histories of the fens. It is evident that 

 wild-fowl must have delighted in such regions ; and before the drain- 

 age of the Great Bedford Level they were, doubtless, very abundant 

 among the swamps, lakes, and islands in that district. According 

 to Drayton, the wild-fowl which were taken in the Lincolnshire 

 fens (part of the Great Bedford Level) were considered of superior 

 flavour to those of the " foggy fens " of Holland. 



" These fowls, with other soils although they frequent be, 

 Yet are they found most sweet and delicate in me." 



Most of the species of aquatic birds formerly bred in this country, 

 were without doubt, hatched and reared in the fens of the Great 

 Bedford Level, before it was drained and cultivated ; indeed, so long- 

 as a vestige of fen-land remained, considerable numbers were annually 

 bred in various parts throughout the level ; and this long after partial 

 cultivation commenced j although their numbers were greatly de- 

 creased by the progress of agriculture. 



The Great Bedford Level contains a tract of sixty computed miles 

 in length, and forty in breadth. It was originally a wooded country : 

 the sea is supposed to have burst in upon it, and overwhelmed the 

 whole tract, leaving a thick deposit of silt, beneath which modern 

 excavators have discovered whole forests of firs and oaks ; some of 



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