CIIAI-. IV. SIR CORNMUrS VKILMl'VDF.N. 55 



dri liking song we find the Dutch pointed at as llir 

 chief offenders. The following stanzas may serve as a 

 specimen : 



" Why should we stay here, and perish with thirst? 



To tli* new world in the moon away let us goc, 

 For if the Dutch colony jot thither first, 



"Pis a thcusand to one but they'll drain that too ! 



Then apace, apace drink, drink deep, drink deep, 



Whilst 'tis to he had let's the liquor ply; 

 The drainers are up, and a coile they keep, 



And threaten to draine the kingdom dry." l 



The Fen drainers might, however, have outlived 

 these attacks, had the works executed by them been 

 successful ; but unhappily they failed in many respects. 

 Notwithstanding the numerous deep cuts made across 

 the Fens in all directions at such great cost, the waters 

 still retained their dominion over the land. The Bedford 

 Eiver and the other drains merely acted as so many addi- 

 tional receptacles for the surplus water, without relieving 

 the drowned districts to any appreciable extent. This 

 arose from the engineer confining his attention almost 

 exclusively to the inland draining and embankments, 

 while he neglected to provide any sufficient outfalls for 

 the waters themselves into the sea. Vermuyden com- 

 mitted the error of adopting the Dutch method of 

 drainage, in a district where the circumstances were dif-' 

 ferent in many respects from those which prevailed in 

 Holland. In Zeeland, for instance, the few rivers 

 passing through it were easily banked up and carried 



< ireat X''i>tme, God of Seas, this Work must needs provoke ye ; 



They mean thee to disease, mid with l ; en- Water choak thee ; 



But with thy Mace do tliou deface, and quite confound this matter, 



And send thy Sands to make dry lands when they shall want fresh Water. 



And eke we pray thee, Moon, that tliou wilt be propitious, 



To Bee that nought }, t . done to prnsjK-r the Malicious; 



Tlio' Summer's Heat hath wrought a Feat, whereby themselves they flatter, 



Yet be so good as send a Flood, lest Essex Calves want Water. 



1 This soii'j; is ] in-served in the favour of the drainage, entitled 'A 



collection entitled * Witt and Drollery,' 

 London, 1655. A poetical 



pamphlet was, however, published in i heroic lines. 



True and Natural Description of the 

 Great Level of the Fenns,' in 216 



