Farming of Cambridgeshire. 
63 
which was stony, with seven boats lyino; in it covered with silt. 
And at Whittelsea, in dig:ging through the moor at eight feet deep, 
a perfect soil was found, with swarths of grass lying on it as they 
were first mown. 
Henry of Huntingdon, in the reign of Stephen, 1 135, described 
this fen country as pleasant and agreeable to the eye, and watered 
by many rivers which ran through it, diversified by many large 
and small lakes, and adorned by many woods and islands. And 
William of Malmesbury, in the time of Henry H., 1 154, in writing 
of the lands round Thorney, says, " It is a very paradise in pleasure 
and delight ; it resembles heaven itself, the very marshes abound- 
ing in trees, whose height without knots do emulate the stars. 
The plain there is as level as the sea, which, with the flourishing 
of the grass, allureth the eye." 
It appears that all sorts of trees are found buried in the uplands, 
but mostly oaks ; in the lower fen-lands they are all firs. The 
horns of red-deer, acorns, and nuts are found in various parts of 
the fen. The inundation of the fens or level district arises from 
various causes. First, the waters flowmg from the uplands through 
the various rivers, which, from the want of being properly scoured 
out, were constantly overflowing their banks ; and in addition, the 
rain poured its waters upon the smooth and porous portion. 
This, in addition to the already overburthened accumulations from 
the uplands, laid this district under water ; which, however, would 
not happen unless inwinter, or at least, seldom in summer. But 
the greatest addition was the daily flux of the tides driving from 
the German Ocean through the harbours of Lynn, Wisbeach, 
and Boston, into the defenceless and over-burthened level. These 
waters would naturally overflow to a considerable distance the 
surface of a flat country, and we may also suppose an accumula- 
tion of sand and silt at the mouths of the rivers, the constant re- 
currence of the tides preventing the regular discharge of the floods 
collected from the upland and downfal waters. Thus, the waters 
of the ocean, mingled with those of the heavens and the springs of 
the earth, passed over the whole of what was then, in its most 
extended sense, the great level of the fens, consisting of about 
300,000 acres. 
Soon the attention of the enterprising was drawn to this im- 
mense tract of rich land ; but to undertake to drain such a vast 
extent of country must at these early periods have been a work 
of formidable magnitude. Yet even then public-spirited and 
enterprising men were found, with genius to plan and perseve- 
rance to carry into effect works so extensive, being indeed no less 
than cutting one entire new river, in the first instance, 25 miles 
long and 100 feet wide. 
In 1005 a Bill was introduced into the House of Commons 
