Farming of LincolnsJdre. 



309 



frequently a fall of 4 feet 3 inclies. The distance across the fen, 

 along the principal drain, is IH miles, which at neap-tide left 

 about 3 inches fall in a mile, and at spring-tides 4tV inches per 

 mile. The fall, however, has been improved since that time by 

 straightening the Witham outfall between this point and the 

 Wash. The quantity of land in Wildmore Fen is 10,661 acres, 

 of which 2947 are high lands : the quantity in West Fen is 16,924 

 acres, of which 5473 are highlands. There are nearly 12,000 

 acres of upland draining into the different becks, which pass 

 through the fens and, from their great declivity, send down the 

 floods very quickly in times of heavy rain. When the quantity 

 of water which the brooks running into West and Wildmore Fens, 

 including Hagnaby Beck, was measured, it amounted to nearly 

 22,000,000 cubic feet per day ; but in times of great floods they 

 often produce more than three times that quantity. The first 

 amount, however, is sufticient to cover the low ground in these 

 two fens (19,165 acres), about rVtl^s of an inch deep all over the 

 surface in one day. It was in this work that the principle of 

 separating the upland from the fen waters was first carried into 

 effect ; and such was its success that numerous imitations have 

 since appeared in the Lincolnshire fens and the more southern 

 Bedford Level. The bulk of water descending by the above- 

 mentioned brooks is entirely prevented from flowing into the 

 fens by a catch-water drain, which cuts off their streams and con- 

 veys them, together with the drainage from the higher lands of 

 Sibsey, Stickney, and Stickford, to the outfall at Maud-foster. As 

 these waters descend rapidly, they must have an equally rapid dis- 

 charge across the fen, or else a reservoir whose waters may be 

 raised by their addition ; but as the fen-drains have too trifling a 

 fall to cause the water in them to flow quickly, the high-land 

 floods by pouring into them would naturally raise the water at 

 their upper ends, so as to impede the drainage and occasion 

 floodings. To provide against these circumstances, the head of 

 the catch-water drain (near the mouth of the Bain river) is 5 or 

 6 feet higher than the fen, and the fall of the drain (which is 21 

 miles in length) is about 6 inches per mile at low-water neap- 

 tide, nearly double that of the main drains. Thus the running 

 waters are furnished with the descent needful for their speedy 

 delivery, and the sluggish fen waters have the sole advantage of 

 whatever little fall they can obtain, whilst both meet on the same 

 level where the land rises, toward the common outlet. The pre- 

 sent Maud-foster sluice has three openings of 15 feet each, giving 

 a total water-way of 45 feet ; but the former gout was only 13 feet 

 in the clear. The district drainage of West and Wildmore Fens 

 may be described as thoroughly complete ; the large drains (How- 

 bridge, Newham, Medlam, &c., drains) being cleansed and 



