ON THE ALLUVIUM OF THE BEDFORD LEVEL. 89 
date of the above-mentioned shoes with turned up toes^ which I 
met with in a work published at Lynn^ 1793, entitled ^^an 
Historical account of the Great Level &c. by the late W. Elstobb, 
Engineer/^ such as both Stowe, and Baker, mention to have 
been worn, in the time of Richard II. in 1382, " when,^^ says 
the former good old author, began the detestable use of peaked 
shoes, and boots tied to their knees with chains of silver gilt, or at 
least with silken laces: — which enormous custom continued to 
the fifth of Edward IV. in 1461, that is, very near fourscore 
years, when a proclamation was made throughout England that 
the beaks or peaks of shoes should not exceed two inches, upon 
pain of cursing by the clergy, and forfeiting twenty shillings to 
be paid, one noble to the King, another to the Cordwainers of 
London, and the third to the Chambers of London — it might 
have been one of these gigantic shoes, that was now found.''^ — 
p. 34. 
The most important of the above discoveries, as rendering 
manifest, the period at which the upper bed was formed, is the 
situation of the causeway from Denver to Peterborough ; its being 
found beneath the upper moor established the fact that the moor 
was not formed till after the Eomans had deserted the district^ 
which probably occurred about the time of their finally renoun- 
cing the sovereignty of England, in 427. It is no less worthy 
of remark, the depth beneath the present surface, at which the 
implements and other articles have been found, near Wisbeach^ 
Spalding, Boston, &c., as (taking into consideration also the 
epoch of the draining of the Level by the Bedford family) indi- 
cating the period during which from eight to sixteen feet of mud 
or silt were deposited by a process analogous to what is now 
called warping. 
In various parts of the " Great Level," remains of religious 
buildings or their sites, highly interesting to the antiquary, 
are to be met with, for instance at Ely, Crowland, Thorney, 
Bamsey, but as they are rather subjects for the historian than 
VOL. II. >0. XVI. M 
