CHAP. V. 



THE LINCOLN FENS. 



165 



materially interfered with by silting for many years to 

 come. This new channel would have enabled all the 

 waters low land as well as high land to be discharged 

 into the sea with the greatest ease and certainty. It 

 would also have completely restored the navigation of 

 the river, which had become almost entirely lost through 

 the silting up of its old winding channel. But the 

 Witham was under the jurisdiction of the corporation of 

 Boston, who were staggered by the estimated cost of 

 executing the proposed works, though it amounted to 

 only 50,000/. Accordingly, nothing was done to carry 

 out this part of the design, and the channel continued to 

 get gradually worse, until at length it was scarcely 

 possible even for small coasters to reach Boston Quay. 

 As late as the year 1826 the water was so low that little 

 boys were accustomed to amuse themselves by wading 

 across the river below the town even at high water of 

 neap tides. The corporation were at last compelled to 

 bestir themselves to remedy this deplorable state of 

 aifairs, and they called in Sir John Eennie to advise 

 them in their emergency. The result was, that as much 

 of the original plan of 1800 1 was carried out as the 

 state of their funds would permit : the lower part of the 

 channel was straightened, and the result was precisely 



1 In his admirable Eeport, dated 

 the 6th October, 1800, Mr. llennie 

 pointed out that the lines of direction 

 in which the rivers Welland and 

 Witliiim entered the Wash tended to 

 the silting-up of the channels of 

 both, and he suggested that the two 

 river outlets should be united in one, 

 and diverted into the centre of the 

 Wash, at Clayhole, which would at 

 the same time greatly increase the 

 depth, and enable a large area of 

 valuable land to be reclaimed for 

 agricultural purposes. This sugges- 

 tion has since been elaborated by Sir 

 John Rennie, whose plan of 1837, 

 when fully carried out, will have the 

 effect of greatly improving the outfalls 

 of all the rivers entering the Great 



Wash the Ouse, the Nene, the Wel- 

 land, and the Witham and the 

 drainage of the low level lands de- 

 pending upon them, comprising above 

 a million of acres, and ultimately 

 gaining from the Wash between 

 150,000 and 200,000 acres of rich 

 new land, or equal to the area of a 

 good-sized county. In the Wash of 

 the Nene, called Sutton Wash, 4000 

 acres have already been reclaimed 

 after this plan the land, formerly 

 washed by the sea at every tide, 

 being now covered with rich corn- 

 fields and comfortable farmsteads. It 

 was at this point that King John's 

 army was nearly destroyed when 

 crossing the sands before the ad- 

 vancing tide. 



