48 



DKAINAGE OF HATFIELD CHASE 



PART I. 



in July, 1630, writing to Sir Harry Vane, recom- 

 mending him to join Sir Cornelius and himself in the 

 enterprise. 1 Before the end of the year we find Ver- 

 muyden entering into a contract with the Crown for 

 the purchase of Malvern Chase, in the county of 

 Worcester, for the sum of 5000/., 2 which he forthwith 

 proceeded to reclaim and enclose. Shortly after he 

 took a grant of 4000 acres of waste land on Sedgemoor, 

 with the same object, for which he paid 1 2,000 1. Then 

 in 1631 we find him, in conjunction with Sir Robert 

 Heath, taking a lease for thirty years of the Dovegang 

 lead-mine, near Wirksworth, reckoned the best in the 

 county of Derhy. But from this point he seems to 

 have become involved in a series of lawsuits, from 

 which he never altogether shook himself free. Legal 

 troubles accumulated about him with reference to the 

 Hatfield estates, and he appears for some time to have 

 suffered imprisonment. 3 He was also harassed by the 

 disappointed Dutch capitalists at the Hague and Am- 

 sterdam, who had suffered heavy losses by their invest- 

 ment at Hatfield, and took legal proceedings against 

 him. He had no sooner, however, emerged from 

 confinement than we find him fully occupied with his 

 new and grand project for the drainage of the Great 

 Level of the Fens. 



1 ' State Papers,' vol. clxxi. 30. 



2 ' State Papers,' vol. clxxiv. 1. 



3 Feb. 25th, 1634. Petition of Sir 

 Cornelius Vermuyden to the King, for 

 reparation for his imprisonment and 



unjust prosecution, and for compensa- 

 tion for 216Z. 8s., which he overpaid. 

 'State Papers,' Chas. I., No. 242, 

 May 1634; Report on the Petition, 

 Ibid., No. 769. 



