CHAP. III. SIR CORNELIUS VEBMUYDEN. ;;-.i 



tained about 70,000 acres, the waters of which found 

 their way to the sea through many changing channels, 

 like the rivers of the Fens. There were numerous 

 places in the level deeper than others; some of them 

 meres abounding in fish; hence Fishlake and Fishtoft, 

 which were famous for this commodity. Yarious at- 

 tempts had been made to diminish the flooding of the 

 lands. In the fourteenth century several deep trenches 

 were dug, to let off the water, but they probably 

 admitted as much as they allowed to escape, and the 

 drowning continued. Commissioners were appointed, 

 but they did nothing. The country was too poor, and 

 the people too unskilled, to undertake so expensive and 

 laborious an enterprise. 



A local jury was then summoned by the King to 

 consider the question of the drainage, but they broke 

 up, after expressing their opinion of the utter im- 

 practicability of carrying out any effective plan for 

 the withdrawal of the waters. Yermuyden, however, 

 declared that he would undertake and bind himself to 

 do that which the jury had pronounced to be impossible. 

 The Dutch had certainly been successful beyond all 

 other nations in projects of the same kind. No people 

 had fought against water so boldly, so perseveringly, 

 and so successfully. They had made their own land 

 out of the mud of the rest of Europe, and, being rich 

 and prosperous, were ready to enter upon similar enter- 

 prises in other countries. On the death of James I., 

 his successor confirmed the preliminary arrangement 

 which had been made with Yermuyden, with a view 

 to the drainage of Hatfield Manor ; and on the 24th of 

 May, 1626, after a good deal of negotiation as to terms, 

 Articles were drawn up and signed between the Crown 

 and Yermuyden, by which the latter undertook to 

 reclaim the drowned lands, and make them fit for 

 tillage and pasturage. It was a condition of the contract 

 that Yermuyden and his partners in the adventure were 



