017 
P-'iy the tax levied for Ills remuneration, whereupon the King 
assigned him certain lands by way of recompense, which, let us 
hope,^ he got. But even worse fortune befell the worthy Knight 
in 1G42, at Hatfield Chase. There, previously to his draining 
operations, the country was full of wandering beggars, but, after- 
wards, from the demand for agricultural labour, wages were doubled. 
Nevertheless, after Vermuyden and his partners had entered upon 
possession of what belonged to them by agreement, and had built 
a town called Sandtoft, “with a church therein j placing a minister 
there; whereunto resorted above two hundred families of French 
and Walloon 1 rotestants (fled out of their native country for fear 
of tho^ Inquisition, only to enjoy the free o.xerciso of their religion 
hero), the inhabitants, claiming common right, and under pre- 
tence of raising an army for the protection of the King, “ broke 
down the fences and inclosuros of four thousand acres, destroyed 
all the corn growing, and demolished the houses built thereon.’’ 
After this they broke other banks, watching the breaches with 
muskets in their hands, to prevent their being repaired, and forcing 
the inhabitants “to swim away like ducks.”* This lawless 
destruction continued till seventy-four thousand acres of land 
were under water. Fuller + thus refers to the discontent of the 
'on people: “Tell them of the groat benefit to the publick, 
because where a Bike or Duck fed formerly, now a Bullock or 
Sheep IS fattened ; they will bo ready to return that if they bo 
taken in taking that Bullock or Sheep, the rich owner indicteth 
them for felons; whereas that Pike or Duck were their own 
goods, only for their pains of catching them. So impossible is it 
that the best project, though perfectly performed, should please 
* This incident suggested to Harriet .Martineaii tlie subject of the 
charming little story, the first of the “Playfellow” series, entitled the 
bettlers at Home. Long after the Fens were drained, the “Redfums” 
were still represented by the hardy race of men who took up their abode on 
some lonely marsh on the shores of the ^Vl^sh, often in a hut-boat lying high 
and dry in some creek, and gained a precarious living by their nets and 
guns ; or by the men who squatted down in the midst of the “ Broads ” 
as graphically described by the Rev. Richard Lubbock in the oft-nuoted 
passage (p. 129-30 second edition) of the ‘ Fauna of Norfolk.’ These are 
even now represented by the shore gunners of the Wash, and the eel-setters 
and fishermen of the Norfolk Broads, 
t Op. cit. vol. i. p. 152. 
'■01- in. .n 
T T 
