XVI TOPOGRAPHICAL REMARKS. 



Lode with the Ouse, which takes place at a little below 

 Denver Sluice. There seems to be the strongest reason to 

 believe that in the time of the Roman occupation of the 

 country the greater part of the Fen was kept tolerably dry 

 by the natural drainage; and that the defence given by the 

 great sea-banks,, which are still to be seen near "Wisbech, 

 was only required to keep out exceedingly high tides driven 

 by a northerly wind into the estuary, which was of great 

 extent. The country then formed a swampy plain interspersed 

 with drier places and deep morasses. Land near Thorney, 

 which is now thoroughly fenny, was, even as late as the 

 reign of Henry II. (1154 — 89), covered with orchards and 

 vineyards, and quite a paradise ("paradisi simularum." Will, 

 of Malms. De gestis Pontif., in Script, post Bedam, ed. 1601, 

 p. 294). The remains of many ligneous plants have been 

 found at the bottom of the peat, rooted in the clay upon 

 which they grew, such as the Hazel. Wells tells us that 

 near "Whittlesey, " in digging through the moor, at a depth 

 of eight feet, the labourers came upon a perfect soil, and 

 swarths of grass lying thereon, as if it had been newly 

 mown." Dugdale states that oak and fir trees have been 

 found with their roots in the firm earth below the peat; 

 and that in Marshland, a part of the Fen lying between 

 Wisbech and the sea, furze-bushes and nut-trees rooted in 

 the solid earth were met with at 16 feet below the present 

 surface. Indeed there can be no doubt that the trees, fir, 

 oak, yew, &c. really grew on the soil which is now deeply 

 buried beneath the peat. 



In the course of time the outlets of the rivers became 

 choked with the sediment brought from the upper country, 

 and the water was driven back so as to flood the greater 



