THE BASIN OF THE WASH. 



223 



masters. They miglit have finally succeeded in this had their half-drowned 

 lands been more extensive, and the facilities for communicating with the continent 

 greater. When the Saxons invaded England the people of the Fens fled to the 

 islands of Ely, Earns- ey, Thorn- ey, and others, and for a considerable time they 

 resisted successfully. At a later date the Saxons and Angles established their 

 " Camp of Refuge " in the Isle of Ely, and under the leadership of Hereward they 

 repeatedly routed their Norman oppressors, until the treacherj^ of the ecclesiastics 

 of Ely put an end to their resistance.* But the spirit of independence in the 



Fig. 110. — The Fens of Wisbeach and Peterbokovgh. 

 Scale 1 : 182,000. 



3 Miles. 



people was not wholly crushed ; it rallied many of them to Cromwell's standard 

 in 1645, and survives to the present day. 



The Ouse, Nen, Welland, and Witham, which traverse this lowland region, 

 have frequently changed their channels even within historical times. They can 

 hardly be said to take their course through valleys, but rather spread themselves 

 over wide flats, and before they had been confined within artificial banks they 

 stagnated into vast marshes. The actual channels of these rivers are altogether the 

 work of human industry. Numerous " learns," or '• eaus," a French term evidently 

 mtroduced by the Normans,! discharge themselves direct into the sea, but their 

 mouths are closed by sluices, and these are kept shut as long as the tide rises. 

 Thanks to the innumerable drains now intersecting the plain in all directions, 



* Augustin Thierry, " Hi^toire de la conquête de l'Angleterre par les Normnndes." 

 t Elstobb, " Histoiical Account of the Gieat Level of the Fens. ' 



