CHAP. II. THE GREAT LEVEL OF THE FENS. 29 



high lands or bursting in upon them from the sea. 

 Where lands became suddenly drowned, the Sheriff wal~~ 

 authorised to impress diggers and labourers- for raising 

 embankments ; and commissioners of sewers were after- 

 wards appointed, with full powers of local action, after 

 the law and usage of Eomney Marsh. In one district 

 we find a public order made that every man should 

 plant with willows the bank opposite his portion of land 

 towards the fen, " so as to break off the force of the 

 waves in flood times ; " and swine were not to be 

 allowed to go upon the banks unless they were ringed, 

 under a penalty of a penny (equal to a shilling in our 

 money) for every hog found unringed. 



One of the first works attempted on a large scale, 

 with a view to the thorough drainage of part of the 

 North Level, was that carried out by John Morton, 

 Bishop of Ely, in the reign of Henry VII. He caused 

 a forty-foot cut or canal to be dug from near Peter- 

 borough to Guyhirne, continuing it eastward, through 

 Wisbeach, to the sea, the distance being forty miles. Its 

 object was, to enable the overflowings of the river 

 Nene, into which the drainage of many thousands of 

 acres of land flowed, to be more quickly evacuated, and 

 at the same time to enable navigation to be carried on 

 between Peterborough and the sea. The Bishop took 

 great pleasure in superintending the construction of 

 the work, which is still called by his name, ' Morton's 

 Learn.' He had a lofty brick tower built at Guyhirne, 

 where the waters met, and " up into that tower he would 

 often go to oversee and set out the works." l This 

 Bishop was the first to introduce into the district the 

 practice of making straight cuts and artificial rivers for 

 the purpose of more rapidly voiding the waters of the 

 Fens a practice which has been extensively adopted ^oy 

 the engineers who succeeded him. 



1 Atkyns's Report, anno 1618. 



