( 'HAP. I. 



THE EMBANKMENT OF TFIK THAMES. 



11 



was made to him by the twenty-four "jurats" as the 

 conservators of the marshes were called that cert ;i in 

 holders of lands in the marshes refused to pay their 

 rateable proportion of expenses for maintaining the 

 banks, the King, referring to "the ancient and ap- 

 proved custom" of the district, ordered the sheriff to 

 execute warrants of distress upon the defaulters, and 

 thus support the jurats in the exercise of their cus- 

 toms and liberties for the defence of themselves and 

 others against the sea, and that no peril might by their 

 neglect in so doing come to the King or his kingdom. 

 In due course of time the custom became embodied in 

 a written law, confirmed by the letters patent of suc- 

 cessive monarchs ; and for many hundred years the 

 successive embankments of land in Romney Marsh have 

 been continued under this ancient jurisdiction, which, in 

 all essential respects, remains in force at the present day. 



From the very earliest times the tendency to " scamp " 

 work seems to have existed ; and not only so, but the 

 tendency to job on the part of those who had public 

 moneys to disburse. Thus, in the reign of Edward II., 

 we find that the sea broke through the bank near 

 Denge Marsh, and inflicted great injury on the marsh- 

 men. On inquiry it was found that the maintenance 

 had been neglected, that the banks had been imperfectly 

 repaired, and that the whole mischief had been caused 

 " through the pravity of ill-disposed men, who chiefly 

 mind their particular gain, though it be by cheating 

 the public ; that were it not for a strict watch over 

 them, all good order would be subverted, and little else 

 but cosenage, if not rapine, would be practised." l 



The same custom of Romney Marsh with respect to 

 tlic embankment of lands, prevailed all over Kent; and 

 in the Isle of Thanet, at Sandwich, and along the low 

 marsh lands in the valley of the Stour, the like practice 



1 Dugdale, 'History of [mbankmg 

 and Draining,' p. 29 a work con- 



taining a great deal of curious inform- 

 ation on this subject. 



