94 
THE GEQLOGIST. 
services rendered to agriculture by these focuses of industry, as 
exemplified within the orbit of each religious establishment, 
must not be measured by their limited extent ; for, although the 
collective magnitude of cultivated ground makes but a small por- 
tion of the whole level, still, the examples they presented, and 
the instruction they aiSforded, would, but for events which un- 
happily soon after this period took place, have extended the 
blessings of civilization and plenty to every portion of that wide 
district. Scarcely had the contentions between the Saxons and 
the natives subsided, and agriculture in the fens had again been 
steadily pursued, when the irruption of the Danes into Mercia 
and East Anglia, in the year 870, not only suspended all agra- 
rian pursuits, but carrying devastation in their course, churches 
and monasteries were deserted, and nearly levelled with the 
ground, and the country around them desolated by fire and 
sword. It was in this incursion of the Northmen, that " the 
first Christian church at Ely, Croyland, and other abbeys were 
pillaged and destroyed by fire, and the abbots and monks mas- 
sacred. You may judge of the humidity of the fens about Ely 
at this period, from the following quotations. " In the year 870, 
the Danes (then Pagans), led by Inguar and Ubba, made in- 
cursion into the realm, and destroyed it (the religious house at 
Ely) ; for such was the depth of the waters, which, compassing 
this isle, extend to the sea, that they had an easy access into it 
by shipping.^^ — Dugdale, edit. 1772, p. 181. Agaio, " Canute 
the Great (who reigned over England from 1016 to 1036), a 
prince of great wisdom, valour and piety, being desirous, toge- 
ther with Queen Emma, his wife, and the nobles of this realm, 
to keep the Feast of the Purification of our Lady, here at Ely, 
with great solemnity, as the custom then was, the abbots of Ely, 
in their turn, performing the service of the King^s court, as they 
had used to do, there being no other access to it (considering 
the breadth and depth of the fen), but by shipping, he set sail 
thitherward.'' Jbid, p. 184. And also, speaking of the island 
