Drainage of Whittlesea Mere. 
135 
of its larp^est inland sheets of water, and of tlie conversion of its 
bed into the site of tlirivinj^ farms, as well as of the operations 
now bein<j carried on for the rec lamation of the peat-bog which 
surrounded the Mere, may fairly claim a place in the pages of 
the chief agricultural journal of the country. 
To those whose attention has not been directed to the subject 
of the Fens it may be as well to observe shortly, that the Great 
Level of the Fens — that is to say, the great district of low coun- 
try beginning near Ely in Cambridgeshire and extending to the 
VVitham in Lincolnshire, containing in round numbers some- 
thing like 750,000 acres, comprehends and is nearly synter- 
minous with the so-called Bedford Level, a name given to a vast 
tract of fen-country, which in the reign of Charles IL was placed 
for purposes of reclamation and drainage under the control of 
certain individuals, forming a corporate body, of which the Earl 
of Bedford was the chairman. 
At a later period this Bedford Level became subdivided into 
three smaller levels, which bear respectively the names of the 
North, Middle, and South Levels ; and it was in the Middle 
Level — we happily speak of it now in the past tense — that, in 
advertising phraseology, that well-known fresh-water lake Whit- 
tlesea Mere was situated. 
On arriving from the south by the Great Northern Railway 
at a point within five miles of Peterborough, the chimney of the 
steam-engine, which now maintains the drainage of the Mere 
and surrounding district, is plainly visible three miles off toward 
the east. The steam-engine is placed at the easternmost corner 
of the Mere, which formerly extended thence in the shape of a 
blunted crescent, the convex side being towards the north, to 
within half a mile of the spot we suppose the traveller to be 
passing. 
Of the possible readers of this paper not a few may call to 
mind excursions from Cambridge to the Mere, with either boat- 
ing or skating intentions. The occasions of the Mere being 
frozen over were always held as a jubilee by the whole country 
side. Stalls were erected, bands of music played, and the scene 
presented all the appearance of a large fair. The best skaters 
irom all parts of the Fens assembled, and putting on their " pat- 
tens," as the skates are locally named, decided the claims of 
districts or individuals to skating superiority. 
Whittlesea Mere, in its ancient state, comprised 1600 acres, 
bat at the time when the works for its draining were com- 
menced the ordinary water-acreage had diminished to little more 
than 1000 acres. Around the shores a margin of silty deposit 
had been formed, which, though often dry, was liable to 
submersion upon the slightest rise of the water in the Mere. 
