308 



Farming of Lincolnshire. 



Like Holland Fen, therefore, these lands were obliged to forsake 

 an adjacent river, and construct new drains to an outfall below 

 Boston. This is called Maud-foster Drain, and now issues all 

 the waters from the whole of these two districts, besides the 

 floods from the hills beyond them. The drainage of East Fen 

 was formerly by Good Dyke, &c., into Wainfleet Haven; but 

 this outfall has been abandoned in favour of the Witham estu- 

 ary, — so that the principal improvements in the drainage of the 

 Lincolnshire fens have been made by conducting the waters of 

 different districts to a common outfall, the separate water from 

 each having proved unable of itself to overcome the silty obstruc- 

 tions thrown down by the sea. The lands are generally lower 

 the more distant they are from the sea or outfall, hence great 

 collections of water occupied the interior parts of these fens, 

 as at that part of Wildmore Fen called ^' No Man's Friend," 

 and the Deeps " of East Fen and Wrangle Common, which 

 were generally covered with water. Hence, also, the great ex- 

 pense that arose in forming proper drains to carry it off — the 

 cuts being very deep in order to convey the water through the 

 " Tofts " or lands of a higher level adjoining the sea. In a very 

 wet season the outfalls were better than usual, because of the 

 scour of the freshes; but in general, the quantity of silt settled 

 in the river mouth, after a dry summer, was so great, that it re- 

 quired several weeks of the winter floods to wash it away. During 

 that time the doors of the gouts used to be over-rode, and the 

 fens became the receptacle not only of the water which fell on 

 their own surface, but of all that which flowed rapidly down from 

 the hills, and occasionally of an additional inundation from the 

 bursting rivers ; and owing to the badness of the drains and 

 smallness of the gouts, the greater part of the spring was gone 

 before the accumulated floods could be assuaged. At the latter 

 end of last century various plans were suggested for providing a 

 natural drainage for these fens, which the Witham improvements 

 had failed to effect ; and in 1802 the works were commenced, in 

 pursuance of an act of the preceding year, adopting the system 

 proposed by Mr. Rennie. From the levels taken it appeared that 

 the surface of the water, in times when there was a full quantity 

 in the Witham, was 3 feet 3 inches higher at Anton's (or 

 Anthony's) Gout, than at the low-water of a neap tide at Maud- 

 foster Gout ; this decided the engineer to conduct the main 

 drains from the former to the latter outlet. The general surface 

 of the West and Wildmore Fens, except No Man's Friend, which 

 lies about a foot lower, are about the same height ; and thus he 

 found that both might be drained by one outfall. Their surface 

 was found to be about 3 feet above the low-water of a neap-tide 

 at Maud-foster Gout, and at low-^vater spring-tide there was 



