Drainage of Wliittlesca Mei-c. 
137 
district around it a general improvement of tlic wliolo Level, by 
reiiderins^ the rivers therein more capable of recei viiiji^ and carry- 
uvr the upland waters from the Mere and its neijjhbourhood. 
After some delay a general measure was agreed upon, and 
resulted in the Middle Level Act of 1844 ; under the large 
powers of which Act, enabling lands in the Level to be taxed for 
purposes of drainage, a sum of 200,000/. was raised to carry out 
the contemplated works ; and under a subsequent Act a further 
sum of 230,000/. has been expended. 
It will be unnecessary to describe these works further than to 
say that the principal feature was that the point of discharge 
for the waters of the Middle Level was brought some 6 miles 
farther down the river Ouse than heretofore, and that a cor- 
responding fall of 6 feet was obtained. This was obtained hy 
means of a noble cut 11 miles long, 40 feet wide at bottom, with 
an average width of 70 feet at top, and terminating with appro- 
priate sluices, so constructed as to allow advantage to be taken 
of the still further increase of fall, which it was with just fore- 
sight considered would be gained on the completion of even a 
part of the works contemplated by the promotion of the Norfolk 
Estuary scheme. 
These great works of improvement, however, had not as direct 
a bearing as could have been desired on the draining of the 
Mere and the adjacent land, for which, notwithstanding the 
largely-increased lall that was obtained, a natural drainage was 
not and cannot under any probable circumstances be obtained. 
Unluckily the interests of navigation had to be considered in 
determining the question of the height at which the water, bv 
means of the outfall sluice, should be maintained throughout the 
country, and the height so determined on in the Act, as t"he level 
of the water in summer, is such as to necessitate the lifting up 
to this navigation-level, by means of machinery, the drainage- 
waters of the Mere and low lands adjoining. During winter the 
Act forbids the water to be held up at all in case of flood, and 
lull advantage is taken at the sluices of each low tide. 
Preparations were immediately made for discharging the water 
of the Mere and the surrounding district into the rivers destined 
to carry them to the outfall in the Ouse, whenever the works in 
the Level should be reported as sufficiently advanced ; and in the 
summer of 1851 the great Marshland Cut and other principal 
drains had been so far constructed or enlarged that the moment 
for emptying the Lake, as it was often called, had arrived ; and 
accordingly a point nearest to one of the exterior rivers having 
been chosen, the bank was cut through, and the long pent-up 
waters allowed free passage to the sea. 
This may appear to be at variance with what has been said 
above — that no natural drainage was afforded to Whittlesea Mere 
