66 
Farming of Cambridgeshire. 
productive land in the United Kingdom. And to prove of how 
little value it was at this period, we find that in 1651 the Earl of 
Arundel sold his lands in the fens, consisting of 5900 acres, to 
William Stephens, Esq., of the Middle Temple, for the sum of 
3s. 9(/. per acre, the total purchase being for i032L 16s. This 
was no bad investment, for the land now lets, I suppose, at about 
7000/. per annum. On the 25th of March, 1653, the adjudica- 
tion of lands to the adventurers took place, on which occasion a 
general thanksgiving was offered in the Cathedral Church at Ely, 
in humble gratitude to heaven for the completion of these works. 
Soon after the year 1726 a plan of private drainage by legis- 
lative enactment was commenced, and an Act passed " for the 
effectual draining and preserving of Haddenham Level in the Isle 
of Ely." From this period may be dated the plan of draining 
by mills. The windmills, however, erected in this district have 
been pulled down, and a powerful steam-engine erected, which 
most effectually drains the fine fen lands of that parish. 
After the general erection of windmills, the plan soon adopted 
was what is called double lifts — that is, first one large mill is 
erected near the main river, and then a smaller one at some dis- 
tance behind : the one mill by first raising the water from the 
mill drain a certain height, and in certain quantities, lessens what 
is called the head of water to be thrown by the first mill, and 
greatly facilitates its operation. 
The artificial system of drainage, under the authority of local 
district acts, by the means of water-engines, may be thus ex- 
plained: — Certain proprietors of any given quantity of land agree 
to apply to Parliament for a local act. The boundary is set forth, 
and sub-division dikes are made, for draining the estate of each 
owner. These division-ditches empty themselves into a main 
drain, cut at the general expense of the owners (commonly called 
the mill-drain), and run through the whole district, which is em- 
banked all around by a mound of earth, raised to a height pro- 
portioned to the quantity required to be excluded. The mill- 
drain terminates at one end, near a river, upon the banks of which 
the water-mill is erected ; and thus by means of a circular wheel 
the water which has found its way into the mill-drain is thrown 
from thence into the river, from whence it passes to the outfall, 
and onwards to the sea. The number of mills in each district 
depends upon the extent, and the head or quantity of water re- 
quired to be discharged. 
The steam-engines now erected in the fen district of this 
county are ten in number ; besides some private ones. 
1st. In the district of Littleport and Downham we have two very 
powerful steam-engines, one standing on the banks of the New Bedford 
