CHAP. II. THE GREAT LEVEL OF THE FENS. 'J7 



direction the water which before had driven a mill, or 

 formed a channel for purposes of navigation. The 

 rivers also were constantly liable to get silted up, and 

 to form for themselves new courses ; sometimes in a 

 night undoing all that it had taken years to accomplish. 

 Hence we find perpetual local litigation prevailing in 

 the district from a very early date ; and numerous in- 

 quisitions were held for the purpose of determining in 

 what way the waters were best to be dammed back, 

 or in any way got rid of. In these inquisitions the 

 Bishop of Ely, the Abbots of Croyland, Thorney, and 

 Ramsey, and the Prior of Spalding, took a leading- 

 part being concerned for the large Fen property 

 attached to their respective establishments. A few of 

 the large landowners attempted experiments in drainage 

 on a small scale ; but in those days the enterprise of the 

 barons was mostly in a warlike direction. In 1427 

 Gilbert Halloft, a Baron of the Exchequer, residing at 

 Well, in what is called the North Level, drained and 

 cultivated a small tract of country with tolerable success ; 

 and another baron, Richard de Rulos, Lord of Burne 

 and Deeping, by diverting the waters of the Welland 

 and building them back by strong embankments, suc- 

 ceeded in reclaiming the very rich lands of Market 

 Deeping, " out of the very pits and bogs thereby 

 ninking a garden of pleasure." 



Deep Ing, or Low Meadow, is one of the lowest parts 

 of the Fens, being below the level of the sea at high- 

 water, but rich and fertile as any land in England. 

 Indeed many of the richest Fen lands lie consider;! hly 

 beneath the sea-level those inland being even lower 

 tlmn the marsh lands which fringe the sea-coast. The 

 floor of the old church at Wigenhall, St. Germans, 

 was at least seven feet below high-water mark of the 

 river Ouse. The same river, after one of its burstings, 

 washed away the churchyard at Old Lynn, and com- 

 pelled the removal of the church farther inland. The 



