TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES 37 
solent.”* This list of birds is repeated with some shght altera- 
tion in the legendary narrative of some later monk, where one 
Beda is made to say: ‘ Of birds likewise there be innumerable : 
So also of geese, bitterns, sea-fowl, water-crows, herons, and 
ducks, abundance; ... ’{ Even more plentiful than birds 
were the fish, and to the monasteries these were the most 
valuable. Innumerable eels, the Liber tells us, were netted, 
great pike, pickerels, perch, roach, barbel, lampreys (which 
were called water-snakes), and sometimes shad, and a royal 
fish, the turbot, was taken. {t 
Besides the testimony of the Liber, we have that of 
that grand old chronicler, William of Malmesbury, before 
quoted, who had heard of the character of the fens, if he had 
not personally been there. Writing in 1125 he says, ‘‘ Here is 
such plenty of fish as to cause astonishment in strangers, while 
the natives laugh at their surprise. Water-fow] are as plentiful ; 
so that five persons may not only assuage their hunger with 
both sorts of food, but eat to satiety fora penny.’$ Such was 
the character which these wild wastes of water bore, the home 
of monastic institutions, as well as a haven of security. 
Hugh Albus, or Candidus. — Of beasts there were not 
many. The stagnant water of the fens would have been too 
sluggish to please the Beaver, yet its bones have been found 
in a semi-fossilised condition, as well as those of the Wild 
Boar.|| Of Polecats there would have been plenty, and of 
Otters any number with so much fish to prey on. 
None of these creatures are alluded to by another author 
not often quoted, Hugh Albus or Candidus, who, writing about 
1150, has left a scanty sketch of Fenland. ‘“‘ From the flooding 
of the rivers, or from their overflow,’ he says, ‘‘ the water 
standing on unlevel ground makes a deep marsh and so renders 
the land uninhabitable, save on some raised spots of ground. 
... There are found wood and twigs for fires, hay for the 
* Historia Eliensis”’ (Bk. II., ch. 105) ; Iam indebted to Prof. Bensly for 
verifying the reference, and spelling. 
+ ‘“ The History of Imbanking and Draining,’ by Sir William Dugdale, 
. 187. 2 
: + See notes communicated by the translator, the Rev. D. J. Stewart, 
editor of the Liber, to ‘‘ The Fenland Past and Present”’ (p. 355). 
§ ‘ Gesta Pontificum,”’ translation. 
|| ‘‘ On the Zoology of Ancient Europe,” by Alfred Newton (p. 24). 
