22 
Tninli Drainofje. 
except in defiance of the common law," and the commoners were 
unable from their poverty to pay the expense of reclamation. 
The statute therefore enacts that the lords and owners of all 
inundated wastes and commons, and " the most of the com- 
moners," might contract or bargain for part of such commons 
with persons who would undertake to drain them. Like many 
other well-intentioned regulations this act became the basis not 
simply of the improvements wished for, but also of jobbing 
schemes, which, particularly in the Great Level of the Fens, 
excited the opposition of the local population, and led to many 
prohmged failures in draining enterprise. The early part of 
King James the First's reign was rife with drainage projects ; 
" Undertakers" soon becoming numerous and fashionable. It 
was not uncommon for some of the larger landlords in any dis- 
trict, by using their influence with courtiers, to get themselves 
made commissioners, forming certain commons or parishes into 
a "level," or district, so limited as to include their own deluged 
estates, with other lands that suffered but little from overflow, 
and then, bargaining with themselves for the drainage, to become 
both "judges and parties and in the end to obtain slices of 
their neighbour's grounds for a merely nominal amelioration. And 
on a larger scale too, as our Fen history tells us, a company of 
adventurers, by another form of device, could obtain possession 
of a tliird part or more of the estates, covering any extent, even 
hundreds of thousands of acres, of the Fen land. The company 
promising to drain tlie country got the Commissioners of Sewers 
to tax the lands without the consent of the proprietors ; these 
moneys not being paid up, the Commissioners were entitled to 
seize and bargain the lands away for the promised drainage, and 
the undertakers, after improving the surface drainage just enough 
to obtain the adjudicature of the portion of land agreed upon 
" to them and their heirs for ever," frequently forgot to repair 
and maintain the works in proper order. The attempted drainage 
of tlie low lands lying about the junction of the Trent and Ouse 
with the Humber, in the reign of Charles L, is an example of 
another mode of grasping at the country people's property. The 
King, desirous of improving lands tliat contributed to his revenue, 
issued a commission to certain gentlemen to treat and conclude 
with those who claimed common of pasture by way of composi- 
tion in land or money, and those who would not agree had an 
information exhibited against them in the Exchequer Chamber 
by the Attorney-General, and were obliged to submit to his 
award. Out of 13,400 acres in one manor, the drainers and the 
King required no less than 7400 acres, leaving only 6000 acres 
for the 370 commoners, and the number of those who dissented 
from such an undertaking were three times as many as those 
