ON THE ALLUVIUM OF THE BEDFORD LEVEL. 101 
ford, the just reward of his various and unceasing labours to ad- 
vance the useful and ornamental arts of peace and ameliorate 
the condition of his country; but from none of these labours 
will he derive more lasting fame, and a higher title to the gra- 
titude of posterity, than from the great improvements in the 
agriculture of England which have followed from the example 
he has set ; and from the completion he effected, of that great 
and difficult operation, the perfect drainage of the fens con- 
nected with the Bedford Levels. In this drainage he has finished 
a work fraught not only with private emolument to himself and 
the other proprietors of the vast tracts of valuable land recovered 
from a state of unwholesome and unprofitable swamps, but preg- 
nant also with national advantage, by augmenting the productive 
powers of the soil of England; and glorious as forming the con- 
summation of a work of ages, which began with the Roman con- 
querors of Britain, and continued at various intervals by the suc- 
cessive possessors of the country, has received its full accomplish- 
ment under the auspices of the noble family of Russell/^ The 
following note is also appended to the euloge, and as it contri- 
butes information, which exhibits the amount of advantage 
already reaped within the Level by its drainage and cultivation, 
I insert here without further preface. " We may form some 
estimate of the public as well as private benefits resulting from 
operations of this kind, from a case of a tract of fen in the Isle 
of Ely, called Padsols, of which in the year 1800, 800 acres were 
sold for 800 shillings ; in 1816, part of this fen was let for 2s. 6d. 
an acre; in 1832 when the drainage was nearly completed, it 
was let for 10s. and is now let for 40s. an acre. The rent of 
this whole district has increased sevenfold since 1830. 
I have now confirmed my early prediction, that of the three 
labourers in the Great Level, the geologist, the antiquary and the 
agriculturist, the last only, Midas-like, would turn his toils to 
gold. But the advantages arising from the drainage and tillage 
of the soil are not confined to the mere production of the neces- 
