iio 



The Marsh District. 



the sea broke in, tbrougli the violence of a north-east wind, meet- 

 ing with a spring-tide, and overflowed all Marshland, with the 

 town of Wisbech both on the north and south sides, and almost 

 all the whole hundred round about;" the loss of property amount- 

 ing to 37,0007. So wide was the devastation of the waves, that, 

 besides thousands of cattle and sheep swept away by the rage of 

 the sea, vast quantities of grass, hay, and corn lost, and hundreds 

 of dwelling-houses " utterly destroyed," numbers of people were 

 drowned in their beds. At Terrington, " a frontier town," where 

 the breach was made, " in this distress the people fled to the 

 church for refuge, some to haystacks, some to the baulks in 

 the houses till they were near famished, poor women leaving their 

 children swimming in their beds, till good people adventuring 

 their lives, went up to the breast in the waters to fetch them out 

 at the windows : and had not the mayor and aldermen of King's 

 Lynn compassionately sent beer and victual thither by boat, many 

 had perished ; which boats came the direct way over the soil from 

 Lynn to Terrington." There is now little danger of such an 

 irruption, as the barriers have been extended further seaward, 

 and stronger banks constructed round the more recent inclosures. 



Previously to the formation of the Eau Brink Cut, it was ex- 

 ceedingly badly drained. A great number of acres in each parish 

 used frequently to be flooded, so much so indeed, that it was a 

 hazardous speculation to sow the low lands v/ith v/heat, although 

 there was generally some artificial means of drainage, by small 

 windmills, &c. From the beneficial effects of the Cut, the same 

 lands are now as well drained as can be desired ; and of course 

 are very materially improved in fertility. The great leading 

 drain into which most of the waters run, is the Marshland Great 

 Sewer, or " Chancellor's Lode," lying south of the Old Marshland, 

 which conveys the waters into the New Marshland drain and 

 sluice, to the Ouse. The other chief leading drain is that 

 which conveys the waters to the West Lynn Gool, and by that 

 into the Lynn channel. The soil on the old lands varies very 

 much : some being a rich deep loam, some a very strong tenacious 

 clay, and some again a nice mixed soil. That part of this dis- 

 trict lying immediately between Lynn and Long Sutton is chiefly 

 under arable culture, and is a stiff clayey loam, producing large 

 crops of wheat and beans. The more common course of manage- 

 ment in this marsh is,— -1st, a bare fallow, sometimes coleseed or 

 turnips ; 2nd, wheat ; 3rd, beans, or clover ; followed by 4th, 

 wheat. If the fallow be a turnip crop, the land is sown to 2nd, 

 oats, and then 3rd, wheat ; 4th, beans, and 5th, wheat. In each 

 parish there is a little fine old pasture-land, although a great deal 

 has of late years been corh'erted into arable. Further back from 

 the sea there are large tracts of good grazing ground, the soil 



