104 



Norfolk Fens. 



The origin of ^'^ paring and burning" in the Bedford Level was 

 in this district, about the middle of the 17th century. The 

 paring-plough, used in the neighbourhood of Thorney and Whit- 

 tlesey, was called " the French-plough," and was probably intro- 

 duced by a colony of French Protestant refugees, who settled at 

 Thorney about the year 1650. These French families had been 

 driven into Holland, and thence came to Thorney ; brought most 

 likely by the report of the Dutch engineers, who at that time 

 were employed in the drainage of the Fens ; and there is little 

 doubt but that these emigrants introduced the practice of paring 

 and burning in this part of the kingdom, as we know, by the work 

 of De Serres, that it was common in France fifty years before that 

 period. This practice was universal previously to the improved 

 drainage; the usual system being to pare and burn for coleseed, 

 take two crops — one of oats, the other of wheat; and then lay 

 down grass- seeds for three, or perhaps more years. The soil, 

 with the exception of some high lands of clay and gravel round 

 Thorney, and alluvial soil in Portsand, <Scc., is joeat or vegetable 

 mould, averaging not more than 12 to 18 inches in depth. Clay- 

 ing is now universal, and much the same mode of management 

 and cropping is adopted here as in the other districts ; the general 

 system now prevalent being a 5 or 6 course shift, viz. — 1st, 

 fallow for coleseed, or turnips ; 2nd, oats ; 3rd, wheat ; 4th, seeds ; 

 and 5th^ wheat ; and next time, fallow for — 1st, coleseed; 2nd, 

 oats ; 3rd, seeds; 4th, wheat; 5th, beans ; and 6th, wheat. The 

 "third district," or Thorney Lordship, — containing 17,588 acres, 

 the property of the Duke of Bedford, — is noted for its good ma- 

 nagement and neat farm-steads ; upon this estate, and other parts 

 of the Level, very much upon the fen as well as highlands, a wide 

 extent of underdraining has been done with a very good effect — 

 improving the condition of the soil, and saving much annual ex- 

 pense in surface-draining. Much of the old pasture land, which 

 was good and valuable under the old system of drainage, has been 

 converted into arable, having been rendered too dry for pasturage, 

 and much more valuable and most productive iov corn. The North 

 Level may be regarded as possessing altogether a more complete 

 and improved drainage and agriculture than any other district of 

 the Fens. 



Norfolk Fens. 



Downham Fen. — South of Marshland is a triangular por- 

 tion of fen land lying in Norfolk, divided into Bardolph and 

 Downham Fens. The latter, which contains about 1600 acres, 

 is drained under the authority of an Act passed in 1802; two 

 windmills (or one " double-lift," — that is, one mill working 

 behind another, to raise the water successively to the required 



