154 RENNIE'S DRAINAGE OF PART VII. 



Until as recent a date as forty years back, the rich and 

 fertile district of Waldersea, about eight thousand acres 

 in extent, was, as its name imports, a sea in winter. 

 Well might Roger Wildrake describe his paternal estate 

 of " Squattlesea Mere " as being in the " moist county of 

 Lincoln ! " 



Arthur Young visited this district in 1793, and found 

 the freeholders of the high lands adjoining Wildmore 

 and West Fens depasturing their sheep on the drier 

 parts during the summer months ; but large numbers of 

 them were dying of the rot. " Nor is this," he adds, 

 "the only evil, for the number stolen is incredible. 

 They are taken off by whole flocks, as so wild a country 

 (whole acres being covered with thistles and nettles four 

 feet high and more) nurses up a race of people as wild 

 as the fen." The few wretched inhabitants who con- 

 trived to live in the neighbourhood for the most part 

 sheltered themselves in huts of rushes or lived in boats. 

 They were constantly liable to be driven out of their 

 cabins by the waters in winter, if they contrived to 

 survive the attacks of the ague to which they were 

 perennially subject. 



The East Fen was the worst of all. It was formerly 

 a most desolate region, though it now presents probably 

 the richest grazing land in the kingdom. Being on a 

 lower level than the West and Wildmore Fens, and the 

 natural course of the waters to the sea being through it 

 to Wainfleet Haven, it was in a much more drowned 

 state than those to the westward. About two thousand 

 acres were constantly under water, summer and winter. 

 One portion of it was called Mossberry or Cranberry 

 Fen, from the immense quantities of cranberries upon 

 it. A great part of the remainder of the East Fen 

 consisted of shaking bog, so treacherous and so deep in 

 many places that only a desperate huntsman would ven- 

 ture to follow the fox when he took to it, and then he 

 must needs be well acquainted with the ground. 



