50 



DRAINAGE OF THE GREAT LEVEL. 



PART I. 



entered into the project with the Earl, contributing 

 sums towards the work, in return for which a propor- 

 tionate acreage of the reclaimed lands was to he allotted 

 them. The new undertakers, however, could not dis- 

 pense with the services of Vermuyden. He had, after 

 long study of the district, prepared elaborate plans for 

 its drainage, and, besides, had at his command an 

 organized staff of labourers, mostly Flemings, who were 

 well accustomed to this kind of work. Westerdyke, 

 also a Dutchman, prepared and submitted plans, but 

 Yermuyden's were preferred, and he accordingly pro- 

 ceeded with the enterprise. 



The difficulties encountered in carrying on the 

 works were very great, arising principally from the 

 want of funds. The Earl of Bedford became seriously 

 crippled in his resources ; he raised monev upon his 

 other valuable landed property until he could raise no 

 more, and many of the smaller undertakers were com- 

 pletely ruined. Yermuyden, with much determination, 

 took measures to provide the requisite means to pay the 

 workmen and prosecute the drainage to completion ; 

 until the undertakers became so largely his debtors that 

 they were under the necessity of conveying to him many 

 thousand acres of the reclaimed lands, even before the 

 works were completed, as security for the large sums 

 which he had advanced. 



The most important of the new works executed at 

 this stage were as follows : Bedford River (now known 

 as Old Bedford River), extending from Erith on the Ouse 

 to Salter's Lode on the same river : this cut was 70 feet 

 wide and 21 miles long, and its object was to relieve and 

 take off the high floods of the Ouse. 1 Bevill's Learn was 

 another extensive cut, extending from Whittlesea Mere 



1 We insert the annexed map at this 

 place, although it includes the drain- 

 age-works subsequently constructed, 

 in order that the reader may be enabled 

 more readily to follow the history of 



the various cuts and drains executed 

 in the Fen country from nlmut the. 

 middle of the sixteenth century down 

 to about the year 1830. 



