52 DRAINAGE OF THE GREAT LEVEL PART I. 



to Guyhirne, 40 feet wide and 10 miles long ; Sam's 

 Cut, from Feltwell to* the Ouse, 20 feet wide and G 

 miles long ; Sandy's Cut, near Ely, 40 feet wide and 

 2 miles long ; Peakirk Drain, 17 feet wide and 10 miles 

 long ; with other drains, such as Mildenhall, New South 

 Eau, and Shire Drain. Sluices were also erected at Tydd 

 upon Shire Drain, at Salter's Lode, and at the Horseshoe 

 below Wisheach, together with a clow, 1 at Clow's Cross, 

 to keep out the tides ; while a strong fresh-water sluice 

 was also provided at the upper end of the Bedford River. 

 These works were not permitted to proceed without 

 great opposition on the part of the Fen men, who 

 frequently assembled to fill up the Cuts which the 

 labourers had dug, and to pull down the banks which 

 they had constructed. They also abused and maltreated 

 the foreigners when the opportunity offered, and some- 

 times mobbed them while employed upon the drains, so 

 that in several places they had to work under a guard of 

 armed men. Difficult though it was to deal with the 

 unreclaimed bogs, the unreclaimed men were still more 

 impracticable. Although their condition was very 

 miserable, they nevertheless enjoyed a sort of wild 

 liberty amidst the watery wastes, which they were not 

 disposed readily to give up. Though they might alter- 

 nately shiver and burn with ague, and become prema- 

 turely bowed and twisted with rheumatism, still the 

 Fens were their " native land," such as it was, and their 

 only source of subsistence, precarious though it might 

 be. The Fens were their commons, on which their 

 geese grazed. They furnished them with food, though 

 the finding thereof was full of adventure and hazard. 

 What cared the Fen men for the drowning of the land ? 

 Did not the water bring them fish, and the fish attract 

 wild-fowl, which they could snare and shoot ? Thus 

 the proposal to drain the Fens and to convert them into 



1 A clow is a sluice regulated by I larly, like a portcullis. The other 

 being lifted or dropped perpendicu- | sluices open and shut like irates. 



