(H.M.. IV. sin CORNELIUS 7ERMUYDEN. 49 



CHAPTER IV. 



DRAINAGE OF THE GREAT LEVEL SIR CORNELIUS VERMUYDEN. 



TIIK outfalls of the numerous rivers flowing through 

 the Fen Level having been neglected, and the old 

 drains suffered to be silted up, the waters were rapidly 

 regaining their old dominion. Districts which had been 

 partially reclaimed were again becoming drowned, and 

 the waters even threatened with ruin the older settled 

 farms and villages situated upon the islands of the 

 Fens. The Commissioners of Sewers at Huntingdon 

 attempted to raise funds for the purposes of drainage by 

 levying a tax of six shillings an acre upon all marsh 

 and fen lands, but not a shilling of the tax was col- 

 lected. This measure having failed, the Commissioners 

 of Sewers of Norfolk, at a session held at King's Lynn, 

 in 1629, determined to call to their aid Sir Cornelius 

 Vermuyden. At an interview, to which he was invited, 

 he offered to find the requisite funds to undertake the 

 drainage of the Level, and to carry out the works after 

 the plans submitted by him, on condition that 95,000 

 acres of the reclaimed lands were granted to him as a 

 recompense. A contract was entered into on those 

 terms ; but so great an outcry was immediately raised 

 against such a contract being made with a foreigner 

 that it was abrogated before many months had passed. 



Then it was that Francis, Earl of Bedford, the owner 

 of many of the old church-lands in the Fens, was in- 

 duced to take the place of Vermuyden, and become 

 chief undertaker in the drainage of the extensive tract 

 of fen country now so well known as the Great Bedford 

 Level. Several others of the large adjoining landowners 



VOL. I. K 



