28 THE GREAT LEVEL OF THE FENS. PART I. 



violence of the sea was often felt by the poor inhabitants 

 of these remote districts ; for sometimes, in a single 

 night, was undone the tedious industry of centuries. 

 But the district then lay far apart from the highways 

 of intercourse in England. Marshland was cut off from 

 the inland counties by the impassable Fens which lay 

 in the hollow of the Great Level ; and the troubles and 

 sufferings of the marshmen and fenmen excited but 

 little interest. On one occasion, however, a royal army 

 had nearly been cut off by the fury of the sea driving 

 up the Wash, impelled by one of the north-east winds 

 formerly so destructive along that coast. It was the 

 army of King John when crossing the marshes between 

 King's Lynn and Sleaford. They had nearly reached 

 the north shore when they heard the terrible roar of 

 the Aegar. Pressing on, impelled by terror, the King, 

 with his immediate followers, succeeded in reaching the 

 firm land, but not a minute too soon, for the carriages 

 and sumpter horses, which bore the military chest, were 

 swallowed up in the whirlpool caused by the furious 

 meeting of the flowing tide with the waters of the 

 Welland. Hence Shakespeare, in his tragedy of ' King 

 John,' makes Falconbridge say to Hubert 



" I tell thee, Hubert, half my power this night, 

 Passing these flats, is taken by the tide ; 

 These Lincoln washes have devoured them ; 

 Myself, well-mounted, hardly have escaped." 



Each suffering locality, acting for itself, did what it 

 could to preserve the land which had been won from the 

 sea, and to check the recurrence of inundations. Dyke- 

 reeves were appointed along the sea-borders, with a 

 force of shore-labourers at their disposal, to see to the 

 security of the embankments ; and fen-wards were con- 

 stituted inland, over which commissioners were set, for 

 the purpose of keeping open the drains, maintaining the 

 dykes, and preventing destruction of life and property 

 by floods, whether descending into the Fens from the 



