EAST ANGLIAN SOUTHDOWNS 71 



where modified by taking two corn crops in succession, 

 barley after the wheat and oats in place of barley after 

 the roots. It is an early country, and the corn 

 appeared to be much nearer to harvest than that we 

 had left it in Essex ; indeed, as far or even further 

 forward than it had been in Kent. Sheep form an 

 integral part of the farming on these light and easy 

 working soils ; and in several places we found the 

 Suffolks had given place to Southdowns. Cambridge 

 has, indeed, become the second great home of the 

 Southdowns, which were first brought into the district 

 by Jonas Webb, of Babraham, sometime about 1820, 

 and from his sheep several great flocks have sprung, 

 not the least successful being the one established by 

 the late King at Sandringham. We did not, however, 

 delay in this district, where the farming is very much 

 of the same type as that which prevails throughout 

 Norfolk, but pushed on into the Fens, that stretch 

 of low-lying alluvial soil, about 1500 square miles in 

 area, which has been formed round the Wash by the 

 estuaries of the Ouse, the Nene, the Welland, and the 

 Witham. 



Into the formation and reclamation of the Fens, 

 interesting and even romantic as is the history of the 

 latter process, this is not the place to enter; it is 

 sufficient to say that the whole country is nearly at 

 sea-level, the land on either side the Bedford Levels, 

 for example, being but one or two feet above ordnance 

 datum. The fen is generally underlaid by clay, the 

 Oxford and Kimeridge clays, which here and there 

 form small island patches rising 20 ft. or 30 ft. above 

 the general surface, such as the islands upon which 

 Ely and Chatteris stand. Naturally the district re- 

 quires to be artificially drained and protected from the 

 sea, which has made occasional incursions even within 



