36 



DRAINAGE <>F HATFIKLD rilASK 



PART I. 



CHAPTER III. 



DRAINAGE OF HATFIELD CHASE SIR CORNELIUS YERMUYDEN. 



CORNELIUS YERMUYDEN T , the Dutch engineer, was in- 

 vited over to England, about the year 1621, to stem a 

 breach in the embankment of the Thames near Dairrii- 

 ham, which had been burst through by the tide. He 

 was a person of good birth and education, the son of 

 Giles Yermuyden, by Sarah his wife, who was the 

 daughter of Sir Cornelius Wordendyke, a gentleman of 

 some importance in his time. His birthplace was at St. 

 Martin's Dyke, in the isle of Tholen, in Zeeland. He had 

 been trained as an engineer, and having been brought 

 up in a country where embanking was studied as an art 

 and afforded employment to a considerable proportion 

 of its inhabitants, he was familiar with the most approved 



L methods of defending land against the encroachments of 

 the sea. He was so successful in his operations at Dagen- 

 ham, that when it was found necessary to drain the royal 

 park at Windsor, he was employed to direct the 

 labourers in that work, by which he became known to 

 James I., who took a peculiar interest in works of in- 

 ternal improvement. 1 Among the several public under- 

 takings promoted by that monarch, were the reclamation 

 of Canvey Island, at the mouth of the Thames ; Sedge- 

 moor, in Somersetshire ; Brading Haven, in the Isle of 

 Wight ; and the drainage of Hatfield Level and the 

 Great Bedford Level ; as well as the construction of the 

 New River, hereafter to be described. 



1 From an order on the Exchequer, 

 dated 13th Feb., 1623, it appears that 

 the trenching and drainage of Windsor 

 Great Park were executed under the 



direction of Vennuydrn, ;it an expense 

 of 300?.' Statr Paper ()ftic< Issues 

 of the Exchequer.' 



