ON ALLUVIUM OT THE BEDFORD LEVEL, 
91 
Severus is said to have been the first who intersected the 
fens with causeways/' I have recorded one from Denver; 
there appears to have been no attempt at draining the fens 
extensively by the Romans ; their chief operations having been 
confined to the shutting out of the sea by raising banks. These 
works were necesarily preparatory to tillage, and from this 
period may we date the commencement of agricultural labors in 
the fens. At first their chief operations were cutting the rank 
grass, sedge, reeds, and turf. Camden says, '*^all this country 
in the winter time, and sometimes for the greater part of the 
year, is laid under water, by the rivers Ouse, Grant, Neu, 
Welland, Glene, and Witham, for want of sufficient passages. 
But when they once keep to their proper channels it so strongly 
abounds with a rich grass, and rank hay (by them called Lid), 
that when they had mown enough for their own use, in Novem- 
ber they burn up the rest, to make it come again the thicker 
Although in the south of England corn was grown by the 
natives, and was, it appears, an article of exportation at the 
time of the Roman invasion ; it is not probable, that in the state 
they found the fens, any portion of them was sufficiently cultiva- 
ted to produce the cerealece. 
As the embanking progressed during the rule of the Romans, 
so, no doubt, did cultivatio n extend, and productions increase ; 
civihzation also kept pace with the amelioration of circumstances, 
and therefore when they withdrew from this country, a return 
to the former rude state of the inhabitants, and wildness, and 
desolation of the country, by an entire relaxation of labour, and 
abandonment of agricultural pursuits, would be most improbable; 
accordingly the Saxons on their arrival in the island, found 
that the natives had made considerable progress in the knowledge 
and application of the useful arts ; indeed there is little doubt 
but that the building of the towns of Wisbeach, Spalding, 
Boston, and Lynn commenced during the period the coun- 
try was occupied by the Romans j for we learn from Caesar, 
M 2 
