VIIT 
NS 6G, En AD NG De 
Grimefby, which in the time of Edward III. furnifhed him with eleven fhips, is now ~ 
totally choaked with fand. 
The Great Level, which comprehends Holland in this county, with part of 
Northamptonfbire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and Huntingdon, a tra&t of fixty com-= 
puted miles in length, and forty in breadth, had been originally a wooded country. 
Whole forefts of firs and oaks have been found in digging, far beneath the moor, 
on the folid ground ; oaks fifteen feet in girth, and fixteen yards long, moftly burnt 
at the bottoms, the antient method of falling them: multitudes of others entirely 
rooted up, as appears, by the force of the fea burfting in and overwhelming this 
whole tract, and covering it with /j/t, or the mud which it carried with it from 
time totime. Ovid’s beautiful account of the deluge was here verified ; for under 
Conington Down, in Huntingdonfhire, was found the {keleton of a whale near twenty 
feet long, which had once fwam fecure to this diftance from its native refidence. 
Et modo qua graciles gramen carpfere capella, 
Nunc ibi deformes ponunt fua corpora phoce. 
fylvafque tenent ‘delphines, et altis 
—— 
Incurfant ramis, agitataque robora pulfant. 
In ptocefs of time this traét underwent another revolution. The /i/t or mud 
gained fo confiderably as to leave vaft fpaces dry, and other parts fo fhallow as to 
encourage the Romans toregain thefe fertilized countries from the fea. Thofe fen- 
fible and indefatigable people firft taught us the art of embanking, and recovered the 
valuable Jands we now poflefs. It was the complaint of Galgacus, that they ex- 
haufted the ftrength of the Britons, in fylvis et paludibus emuniendis *, © in clearing 
woods and draining marfhes.’ After the Romans deferted our ifland, another change 
took place. Neglect of their labors fucceeded: thé drains were neglected, and the 
whole became fen and fhallow lake, refembling the prefent eaft fen; the haunt of 
myriads of water-fowl, or the retreat of banditti. Ely and many little traéts 
which had the advantage of elevation, were at that period.literally iflands. Several 
of thefe in early times became the retreat of religious. Ely, Thorney, Ramfey, 
Spiney, and others, rofe into celebrated abbies, and by the induftry of their inhabi- 
tants firft began to reftore the works of the Romans. The country above Thorney 
is reprefented by an old hiftorian + as a paradife. Conftant vifitations, founded on 
wholefome laws, preferved this vaft recovered country : but on the rapid and ra- 
pacious diffolution, the removal of numbers of the inhabitants, and the neglect of 
the laws of the Sewers, the drains were filled, the cultivated land overflowed, and 
* Vita Agricola. + Malmfbury, lib. iv. 294. 
the 
