Great Level. 



87- 



of Charles I. It is probable that the undertakers and the king, 

 to whom a share was allotted, had taken to themselves a larger 

 portion of tl>e fen than the country thought just and reasonable ; 

 for in the time of the great rebellion, a large mob, under pre- 

 tence of playing at football, levelled the whole of the inclosures, 

 burnt the corn and houses, destroyed the cattle, and killed many 

 of those who occupied the land. They proceeded to destroy the 

 works of drainage, so that the country was again inundated as it 

 had formerly been. After the Restoration, however, the adven- 

 turers repaired their works, resumed their lots of property, and 

 began again to cultivate them. 



Between the fens once called " Lindsey Level" and Wildmore 

 Fen, extending towards Boston and Swineshead, is Holland 

 Fen," a district containing 22,000 acres. This was called " the 

 Eight-hundred Fen ;" "but anciently," says Dugdale, Haut- 

 Huntre Fen." The drainage was undertaken by King Charles I., 

 a tax of 20s. per acre being laid upon 16,000 acres, to be levied 

 upon the inhabitants of Braytoft, Swineshead, Wigtoft, Soutterby, 

 Alderchurch, Fosse-Dike, Kirton, Frampton, Wiverton, Hole, 

 Dockdike, and Boston, claiming common therein. But this tax 

 not being paid, the king was declared sole undertaker, having 

 for his recompense 8000 acres ; and though several great drains 

 were cut, the fen still remained an uncultivated waste. 



It will be seen that the whole of the Fens were thus intersected 

 with drains for carrying off the waters, and that by far the greatest 

 progress had been made in the drainage of that part of the fens 

 called 'nhe Bedford Level." In the reign of Charles II. the 

 " Bedford Level Corporation " was founded by statute, for the 

 continuance and preservation of the works of drainage in this 

 great district, and consists of one governor (the Duke of Bedford), 

 six bailiffs, and twenty conservators annually chosen, who have 

 ever since conducted the affairs of the Level. No attention was 

 paid by the corporation to the improvement of the great outfalls 

 to sea, which still remained choked by the deposits of silt and 

 sand, so that the drainage was as yet very imperfect. In fact, the 

 Level became so inundated by the choking up of the internal 

 drains, the defective state of the rivers themselves, and the neglect 

 of the outfalls, that an artificial system of interior drainage was 

 found necessary. This was done by means of wind-engines, 

 which raised the water from the interior drains to the level of the 

 main rivers. Early in the reign of George 1. an act was passed 

 for draining a private district within the Bedford Level, called 

 " Haddenham Level," being the ^first private district in the Bed- 

 ford Level drained by mills, a plan which has since been brought 

 into the most extensive operation. Numerous districts followed 

 the example ; each being embanked all around to exclude neigh- 



