ON THE ALLUVIUM OF THE BEDFORD LEVEL. 95 
of Ramsey in Huntingdonshire, the district less drowned. Dug. 
dale says — In length, this island doth extend almost to two 
miles, but in breadth not so much, being environed with alders, 
reeds, green canes, and bulrushes, which do beautify it exceed- 
ingly j and before it became inhabited, was full of all sorts of 
trees (especially wild ashes), the length and bigness whereof 
may be seen by the beams and rafters on the roof of the church. 
But now, through the tract of time, the woods for the most gone, 
the fertility of the turf is such, as that the land converted to 
tillage beareth corn plentifully." — Ibid, p. 364. 
If, during the turbulent and contentious times of of Saxon 
and Danish rule, little or no advance was effected in the way of 
agriculture, we may anticipate that a progressive improvement, 
and also an increasing taste for husbandry, ornamental as well 
as economical, took place after the Norman conquest, when 
William had apportioned to his followers the domains of those 
he had subdued. Accordingly, we are informed by Henry of 
Huntingdon, about the year 1154, that, " this fennie countrie 
is passing rich and plenteous, yea, and beautiful to behold, 
watered with many rivers running down to it, garnished with a 
number of meers both great and small, which abound in fish 
and fowl ; and it is firmly adorned with woods and islands." 
And William of Malmsbury, who wrote about 1200, says, that 
the fens were a very paradise, and seemed a heaven for the 
delight and beauty thereof, in the very marshes bearing goodly 
trees, which, for tallness, as also without knots, strived to reach 
up to the stars. It is a plain countrie and as level as the sea, 
which with greene grasse allureth the eye. There is not the 
least portion of the ground that lies waste and void there ; here 
you shall find the earth rising somewhere for apple-tree ; there 
you shall have a field set with vines, which either creep upon 
the ground, or mount on high upon poles to support them." 
There was evidently, in the above description, no small degree 
of romance about the said William of Malmsbury; still, taking 
