152 RENNIE'S DRAINAGE OF' PART VII 



CHAPTEK V. 



MR. KENNIE'S DRAINAGE OF THE LINCOLN AND CAMBRIDGE FENS. 



NOTWITHSTANDING all that had been done for the 

 drainage of the Fens, as described in the early part of 

 this work, large districts of reclaimable lands in Lincoln 

 still lay waste and unprofitable. As early as 1789 

 Mr. Rennie's attention was drawn to the drowned 

 state of the rich low-lying lands to the south of Ely ; 

 and having become impressed with a conviction of the 

 extensive uses to which his friend Watt's steam-engine 

 might be applied, he recommended it for pumping the 

 water from the Botteshaw and Soham Fens, which con- 

 tained about five thousand acres of what was commonly 

 called " rotten land," because of the rot which infected 

 the sheep depastured upon it. But he found the preju- 

 dices in favour of drainage by the old method of wind- 

 mills, imported from Holland, too strong to be uprooted ; 

 and it was not until many years after, that his recom- 

 mendation was adopted and the steam-engine was 

 applied to pump the water from low-lying swamps 

 which could not otherwise be cleared. The results were 

 so successful that the same agency became generally 

 employed for the purpose, not only in England but in 

 Holland itself, where the forty-five thousand acres of 

 Haarlemer Meer have since been effectually drained by 

 the application of the steam-engine. 



One of the most important works of thorough drainage 

 carried out by Mr. Rennie was in that extensive district 

 of South Lincolnshire which extends along the south 

 verge of the Wolds, from near the city of Lincoln east- 

 ward to the sea. It included Wildmore Fen, West Fen, 



