224 THE BllITISII ISLES. 



most of the windmills wliicli wore formerly employed, after the practice common 

 in Holland, to raise the water into artificial channels, can now be dispensed with, 

 and even steam-engines need not he kept at work to the same extent as formerly. 

 It happens unfortunately that the interests of navigation and agriculture are 

 irreconcilable ; for whilst mariners demand that the water be retained in the 

 channels by means of locks, so as to render them navigable, the agricul- 

 turists desire to see the water carried ofiF to the sea as rapidly as possible. They 

 point to the lock which obstructs the discharge of the "Witham as to the principal 

 cause of the dampness of the soil around Boston. The removal of this lock, they 

 say, would enable them to dispense with fifty steam-engines and two hundred and 

 fifty windmills which are now incessantly engaged in the drainage of the Fens 

 near that town. The river "Witham is subject to a " bore " of considerable force, 

 though less powerful than that of the Severn. On the eastern coast of England 

 this phenomenon is known as " eagre." 



A range of heights of inconsiderable elevation separates the basin of the Wash 

 from that of the Ilumber, and presents a precipitous front towards the plain of 

 Central England. It is composed of liassic and oolitic rocks, which sink down on 

 the east between the tertiary clays and alluvial formations which occupy the greater 

 extent of the region now under consideration. In the south and Avest the cretaceous 

 downs, known as the East Anglian Heights, form a steep escarpment of slight 

 elevation. They dip beneath the Wash, and reappear to the north in the Lincoln 

 Wolds. 



Of all rivers which wend their sluggish course towards the Wash, the Ouse is 

 by far the most considerable, and when that bay of the sea shall have been 

 converted into dry land, the Witham, Welland, and Xcn will become its tributaries. 

 The Ouse rises near the southern border of Northamptonshire, traverses in its 

 upper course the county of Buckinghamshire (see p. 162), crosses Bedfordshire and 

 Cambridgeshire, and finally the western part of Norfolk, on its way to the Wash 

 which it enters below King's Lynn. 



The six counties which lie wholly or for the most part within the basin of the 

 Wash depend almost solely upon agriculture. Their soil is of exceeding fertility, 

 and scarcely anywhere else in England do crops equally heavy reward the labours 

 of the husbandman. 



TorOGRAPHY. 



Bedfordshire consists in the main of a fei-tile claj'ey plain, traversed by the 

 Ouse, and bounded on the south by the steep escarpment of the Chiltern Hills, here 

 known as Dunstable and Luton Downs, and on the north by an oolitic upland, 

 which separates it from Northamptonshire. Agriculture and market gardening 

 are the principal occupations. Pillow lace is manufactured, though to a smaller 

 extent than formerly, and straw plait for hats is made. 



Bedford, the capital of the coimty, is pleasanth"- situated on the navigable Ouse. 

 It is noted for its grammar school and charitable institutions. Agricultural 



