84 



Great Level. 



8. liili's Cut, near Peterborough, about 2 miles in length, and 50 feet 



in breadth. 



9. Shire-Drain, from Clow's-cross to Tyd, and thence to the sea. 



Besides these cuts and drains, they erected a great number of 

 sluices, for the purposes of holding the tides out of the rivers and 

 drains, and for keeping out the land-floods, &c. During the 

 Commonwealth the work proceeded under the conduct of Wil- 

 liam, first Duke of Bedford, son of Earl Francis, united with a 

 new company of participants and adventurers. The famous Sir 

 Cornelius Vermuyden, a Zealander, — who had been engaged in 

 draining the Low Countries, and in draining and improving 

 Hatfield Chase, in Yorkshire, — was employed by this company 

 as director of the works. He had partitioned that part of the 

 level lying principally in Cambridgeshire into three divisions, 

 called the North, Middle, and South Levels, — by which names 

 they are distinguished and known at the present day, — each of 

 these levels having its particular rivers, banks, works of drainage, 

 and outfalls to sea ; and the three taken together comprise what 

 is now called the " Bedford Level," a tract of upwards of 310,000 

 acres. A sufficient description of their situations in the Great 

 Level will be afforded by saying that the former drains by the 

 Nene, having its outlet below Wisbech ; the two latter empty 

 themselves by the Ouse, having its outfall at Lynn. The banks 

 of the Welland, breaking on the north side, overflows Deeping 

 Fen ; on the other, the North Level. The banks of the Nene 

 giving way, deluges on one side the North, on the other the 

 Middle Level ; and if the banks which confine the Ouse break 

 on one side, they lay the Middle Level under water, and on the 

 other the South Level. The exertions of this company were first 

 directed to the drainage of the North Level, i. e. the lands lying 

 between the Welland river and Morton's Leam. They defended 

 the Welland by a bank, 70 feet broad at the bottom, and 8 feet 

 in height. The waters of the Nene, descending from Northamp- 

 tonshire, were also restrained by a similar bank, extending from 

 Peterborough to Guyhirn. The natural drains were scoured out 

 and opened; and a new river, now called ''Smith's Leam,'' was 

 made as a continuation of Hill's- Cut (made by the former Earl) ; 

 thus improving the navigation from Wisbech to Peterborough. 

 The company also defended the Middle Level from the over- 

 flowing of the Northamptonshire waters (a sluice having been 

 previously erected at Standground, near Peterborough) by a large 

 bank from Standground to Guyhirn, where it unites with the 

 great Waldersea bank. The waters of the Ouse were restrained 

 by a great bank, extending from the high lands of Over, in Cam- 

 bridgeshire, to the Hermitage, near Earith, where a navigable 



