Sutton Wash Embankment. 589 



Art. XXX. Minor Communications. 



SUTTON Wash Embankment. — Sir, I saw in your Magazine 

 for December last (Vol. VIT. p. 674.) a notice respecting Sut- 

 ton Wash embankment, &c, wherein you wish for additional 

 information to the marvellous accounts found in the news- 

 papers respecting it. I waited the publication of two succeed- 

 ing Numbers, in the hope of seeing some respondence to your 

 wishes; and, as that hope has been in vain, I beg leave to offer 

 this general outline of the matter. 



Sutton Wash forms one of the outlets of the basin of the 

 Wash, as Dupin terms it, through which near 7000 squai'e 

 miles are drained to the sea, and it may also be said to be the 

 identical Red Sea of the ill-fated King John. From the 

 time of the Romans to the present, various works have been 

 attempted to rid this basin of the tidal and land floods. The 

 success attending these works was according to the ingenuity 

 of the artist employed, and the coincident energy of the pro- 

 prietors ; and the benefits obtained from them were generally 

 partial, the projectors profiting at the expense of their more 

 negligent neighbours. These works, depending chiefly upon 

 individuals, were often neglected, and the benefits they pro- 

 duced were often lost for want of timely precaution and atten- 

 tion; so that I think I am warranted in stating, that it was not 

 until the commencement of the present century that the sub- 

 ject was taken up as a whole ; and it was reserved for the 

 capacious mind of the late Mr. Rennie, to give the outline of 

 this magnificent undertaking. It has been partly carried into 

 execution by improving the outfalls of the three rivers whose 

 embouchures united form the Wash, locally so called; viz., the 

 Welland at Fosdyke Wash, the Nene at Sutton Wash, and 

 the Ouse at Lynn. The system pursued was, to confine the 

 channel by excavation and embanking, so that sufficient power 

 might be gained to wear down the soil, and prevent the 

 accumulation of shoals, which, in their original state, were 

 continually shifting and reforming, as the inrun of the North 

 Sea or power of the land floods predominated, and destroyed 

 that continuous inclined plane which is so necessary for a 

 perfect drainage. Fosdyke was the first acted upon; but, from 

 some cause that I am unable to explain, the outfall was not 

 carried far enough to seaward to reach deep water, or a drift- 

 ing set of the tide. The consequence is, that the channel 

 shifts considerably, and the benefit is only partial ; but in the 

 course of a few years it may be easily remedied. The next 

 in the order of time was Lynn Wash, locally known as the 

 Eau Brink Cut, completed in 1821 ; and this extensive and 



