Farming of Cambridgeshire. 
65 
3. A Cut near Ely, now called Sandy or Sandall's Cut, 2 miles long, 
and 40 feet wide. 
4. Bevill's Leam, being a cut from Whittlesey Meer to Guyhirn, 
about 10 miles in length, and 40 feet in breadth. 
5. Morton's Leam was connected with these works, but this cut 
had been made as early as 1478, by Morton, Bishop of Ely. It was 
•40 feet wide, and 4 in depth, and extended from Peterborough to 
Guyhirn, a distance of about 12 miles. 
6. Penkirk Drain, 10 miles in length and 17 feet in breadth. 
7. New South Eau, from Crowland to Clow's Cross. 
8. Hill's Cut, near Peterborough, about 2 miles in length, and 50 
feet in breadth. 
9. Shire Drain, from Clow's Cross to Tyd, and so on to the sea. 
Besides these cuts and drains, they caused two sluices to be 
made at Tyd, upon Shire Drain, to keep out the tides ; and also 
a clow- at Clow's Cross for the fresh water ; and likewise a great 
sasse at the end of Well Creek, where it empties itself into the 
river Ouse at a place called Salter's Lode, to keep out the tides ; 
and another sluice at Earith to keep out the floods ; but above 
all (says Dugdale), that great stone sluice below Wisbeach, at the 
Horseshoe, which cost about 8000^., to hold the tides out of 
Morton's Leam. 
In 1649 the Act for draining the great level of the fens was 
passed. This vast tract of fen country extended itself into the 
counties of Northampton, Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincoln, Cambridge, 
Huntingdon, and the Isle of Ely, and consisted, as before stated, 
of 311,000 acres. 
In 1650 Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, a Zealander, was appointed 
Director of the great works of draining the fens. He com- 
menced operations by dividing the level into three parts — the 
north, the middle, and the south, by which names they are dis- 
tinguished and known at the present day. Each of these levels 
has its particular rivers, banks, works of drainage, and outfalls to 
the sea. 
These immense works were not carried on without considerable 
interruptions and temporary delays^ occasioned by failure of 
pecuniary resources and the requisite number of labourers ; and 
to surmount the latter difficulty, in 1650 arrangements were 
made by which a large number of the Scotch prisoners taken at 
the battle of Dunbar were employed in completing these stu- 
pendous works. In 1652, of the Dutch prisoners taken by Ad- 
miral Blake, 500 were also employed. And thus the result of 
war was made to contribute to the redeeming of a vast extent of 
new territory, which we now see affording employment for thou- 
sands in the peaceful occupations of rural life, thus rendering' 
that which was formerly valueless now the most valuable and 
VOL. vu. F 
