

CHAPTER VIII. 



THE BASIN OF THE WASH. 

 (Bedfordshire, Cambridgesuike, Huntingdonshire, Nohtiiamptonsiiiue, Rutland, Lincolnshire.) 



General Features. 



HESE are the English Netherlands, and one of the districts even 

 bears the name of Holland — and that with perfect justice. The 

 aspect of the two countries is precisely the s;ime. As in Holland, 

 so in the district of the Fens, the country forms a perfect level, 

 and a traveller sees trees, houses, windmills, and other elevated 

 objects rise gradually above the horizon, like ships on the ocean. The country of 

 the Fens occupies an area of nearly 1,200 square miles, and it is intersected by 

 innumerable artificial water channels — some of them broad like rivers, and capable 

 of bearing large vessels, others mere drains, whose direction is indicated from afar 

 by a fringe of reeds. The waters would flood nearly the whole of this region if 

 artificial means were not employed to get rid of the excess. The coast, the rivers, 

 and the canals are lined by embankments, which prevent the water from invading 

 the adjoining fields and meadows. Trees are scarce ; only willows are reflected in 

 the sluggish waters, and here and there clumps of verdure surround the isolated 

 homesteads. The soil of English Holland is also the same as that of the Nether- 

 lands. In a few localities clayey soil of exceeding fertility slightly rises above 

 the surrounding plain, and here the most ancient villages of the country are 

 found. As a rule, the soil consists of peat, which has gradually been trans- 

 formed by cultivation. The district of the Fens lies, moreover, at a higher 

 level than the greater part of veritable Holland. It has been raised by w^arp- 

 ing, and as there are no " polders " whose level is inferior to that of the sea, 

 the danger from inundation is very much less. In 1613, however, several villages 

 were overwhelmed by a flood, and an extensive tract of productive land converted 

 temporarily into a marsh, but since that time the sea has not again broken through 

 the embankments which form its bounds. The rainfall is less considerable than in 

 the Netherlands,* and the floods of the small rivers which intersect the lowlands 



* Average rainfall in the basin of the Wash 

 Holland . 



22 inches. 

 27 ,. 



