GIO 
VI. 
THE EEHS AND EEN-EOLK. 
Ey Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S. 
Read 26th February, 1884. 
There is probably 110 portion of Great Britain, of like extent, 
possessed of more varied and interesting associations than 
the great plain forming parts of the counties of Lincolnshire, 
Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and 
Norfolk, and known as “Fen-land.” Throughout its length and 
breadth, for more than a thousand years a ceaseless conflict has 
been waged between the natives of the plain and their insidious 
enemy, the devastating flood. In times of yore, the old sea-rovers, 
ascending in their barges its numerous navigable rivers, pene- 
trated, on their marauding expeditions, far into the Fen country, 
plundering the inhabitants and spreading destruction around. Its 
monastic establishments were long celebrated equally for their 
wealth as for the architectural beauty of their houses ; and it 
Avas here that Norman William encountered the final and most 
determined opposition to his imperious Avill. The past Fauna 
and Flora of this unique district were of surprising richness; its 
present fertility is unmatched ; and its inhabitants Avere, until 
quite recently, sid generis. 
A glance at the map of this great “Level” — extending from 
south to north a length of seventy-three miles, and in breadth 
seventy-six miles, Avith an area of one thousand three hundred 
and six square miles — Avill indicate hoAv severe and protracted 
has been the struggle to render habitable this large tract of noAV 
fertile country. Its surface, unbroken by any considerable elevation, 
is intersected by numerous rivers; and the curious picture it 
presents upon the Ordnance Map, shoAvs the extent of the scars 
and scratches inflicted upon its surface in the form of drains, 
large and small, Avith the object of leading aAvay its too-abundant 
Avaters. This happy consummation Avas not arrived at Avithout 
