all interests and affections.” In fact, tliey would exclaim with 
Hudibras : 
“ The law condemns the man or woman 
Who steals the goose from off the common, 
But lets the greater felon loose. 
Who steals the common from the goose ! ” 
Dugdale very ingeniously argues, with regard to the dreaded 
scarcity of fowl, that when the country is drained there will be 
an increase in the number of “ rivers, chanels, and meres,” which 
form the principal resorts of the fowl, and their numbers will 
probably be augmented in consequence ; also, that the fish and 
fowl will be more easily taken within the restricted bounds than 
in the more open water; added to which, the decoys planted on 
the drained lands would capture a much larger number of fowl 
than could be secured by any other means formerly used. We 
fear that all these arguments would be insufficient to convince 
the hardy Fen-men, who lived by their nets and guns, that the 
latter state of things was preferable to the former. 
The chief feature in the animal life found in the Fens in days 
gone by must have been the great abundance of birds and fishes. 
When William the Conqueror lay with an army before the Isle of 
Ely, vainly attempting to force the remnant of the English who 
had taken refuge in this their last stronghold to surrendeij it is 
said, that, but one only of his soldiers succeeded in entering the isle 
alive. This man, Beda by name, was taken prisoner by Hereward s 
men, and after being treated with kindness was allowed to return 
to the King’s camp. The account he gives to William of what he 
witnessed in the Isle of Ely, of the strength of its position, com- 
passed about with huge waters and fens, as it were with a strong 
wall,” of the multitude of wild animals both in the woods and 
near the Fens; as also of fish found in the waters, and fowl which 
"^are bred there, or visit the Fens, especially in the winter season, 
must have given the King but slight hopes of reducing the brave 
defenders of this natural stronghold by starvation.* Dugdale, 
also, quoting the register of Eamsey Abbey, after expatiating upon 
its strong insular position, and the beauty of its surroundings, says 
its waters, especially Pamsey Mere, abound with Eels and “ Pikes 
of an extraordinary bigness,” “and although both fishers and 
fowlers cease neither day nor night to haunt it, yet is there always 
* ‘Liber Eliensis’ (ed. Stewart), pp. 231, 2.32. 
