2

in July, 1630, writing to Sir Harry Vane, recommending him to join Sir Cornelius and himself in the enterprise. Before the end of the year we find Vermuyden entering into a contract with the Crown for the purchase of Malvern Chase, in the county of Worcester, for the sum of 50007., which he forthwith proceeded to reclaim and enclose. Shortly after he took a grant of 4000 acres of waste land on Sedgemoor, with the same object, for which he paid 12,000l. Then in 1631 we find him, in conjunction with Sir Robert Heath, taking a lease for thirty years of the Dovegang lead-mine, near Wirksworth, reckoned the best in the county of Derby. But from this point he seems to have become involved in a series of lawsuits, from which he never altogether shook himself free. Legal troubles accumulated about him with reference to the Hatfield estates, and he appears for some time to have suffered imprisonment. He was also harassed by the disappointed Dutch capitalists at the Hague and Amsterdam, who had suffered heavy losses by their investment at Hatfield, and took legal proceedings against him. He had no sooner, however, emerged from confinement than we find him fully occupied with his new and grand project for the drainage of the Great Level of the Fens.

1 'State Papers,' vol. clxxi. 30. 2 State Papers,' vol. clxxiv. 1. 3 Feb. 25th, 1634. Petition of Sir Cornelius Vermuyden to the King, for reparation for his imprisonment and

unjust prosecution, and for compensation for 2167. 8s., which he overpaid. -State Papers,' Chas. I., No. 242, May 1634; Report on the Petition, Ibid., No. 769.

CHAPTER IV.

DRAINAGE OF THE GREAT LEVEL-SIR CORNELIUS VERMUYDEN.

THE Outfalls of the numerous rivers flowing through the Fen Level having been neglected, and the old drains suffered to be silted up, the waters were rapidly regaining their old dominion. Districts which had been partially reclaimed were again becoming drowned, and the waters even threatened with ruin the older settled farms and villages situated upon the islands of the Fens. The Commissioners of Sewers at Huntingdon attempted to raise funds for the purposes of drainage by levying a tax of six shillings an acre upon all marsh and fen lands, but not a shilling of the tax was collected. This measure having failed, the Commissioners of Sewers of Norfolk, at a session held at King's Lynn, in 1629, determined to call to their aid Sir Cornelius Vermuyden. At an interview, to which he was invited, he offered to find the requisite funds to undertake the drainage of the Level, and to carry out the works after the plans submitted by him, on condition that 95,000 acres of the reclaimed lands were granted to him as a recompense. A contract was entered into on those terms; but so great an outcry was immediately raised against such a contract being made with a foreigner that it was abrogated before many months had passed.

Then it was that Francis, Earl of Bedford, the owner of many of the old church-lands in the Fens, was induced to take the place of Vermuyden, and become chief undertaker in the drainage of the extensive tract of fen country now so well known as the Great Bedford Level. Several others of the large adjoining landowners

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entered into the project with the Earl, contributing sums towards the work, in return for which a proportionate acreage of the reclaimed lands was to be allotted them. The new undertakers, however, could not dispense with the services of Vermuyden. He had, after long study of the district, prepared elaborate plans for its drainage, and, besides, had at his command an organized staff of labourers, mostly Flemings, who were well accustomed to this kind of work. Westerdyke, also a Dutchman, prepared and submitted plans, but Vermuyden's were preferred, and he accordingly proceeded with the enterprise.

The difficulties encountered in carrying on the works were very great, arising principally from the want of funds. The Earl of Bedford became seriously crippled in his resources; he raised money upon his other valuable landed property until he could raise no more, and many of the smaller undertakers were completely ruined. Vermuyden, with much determination, took measures to provide the requisite means to pay the workmen and prosecute the drainage to completion ; until the undertakers became so largely his debtors that they were under the necessity of conveying to him many thousand acres of the reclaimed lands, even before the works were completed, as security for the large sums which he had advanced.

The most important of the new works executed at this stage were as follows:-Bedford River (now known as Old Bedford River), extending from Erith on the Ouse to Salter's Lode on the same river: this cut was 70 feet wide and 21 miles long, and its object was to relieve and take off the high floods of the Ouse.' Bevill's Leam was another extensive cut, extending from Whittlesea Mere

1 We insert the annexed map at this place, although it includes the drainage-works subsequently constructed, in order that the reader may be enabled more readily to follow the history of

the various cuts and drains executed in the Fen country from about the middle of the sixteenth century down to about the year 1830.

to Guyhirne, 40 feet wide and 10 miles long; Sam's Cut, from Feltwell to the Ouse, 20 feet wide and 6 miles long; Sandy's Cut, near Ely, 40 feet wide and 2 miles long; Peakirk Drain, 17 feet wide and 10 miles long; with other drains, such as Mildenhall, New South Eau, and Shire Drain. Sluices were also erected at Tydd upon Shire Drain, at Salter's Lode, and at the Horseshoe below Wisbeach, together with a clow,' at Clow's Cross, to keep out the tides; while a strong fresh-water sluice was also provided at the upper end of the Bedford River.

These works were not permitted to proceed without great opposition on the part of the Fen-men, who frequently assembled to fill up the Cuts which the labourers had dug, and to pull down the banks which they had constructed. They also abused and maltreated the foreigners when the opportunity offered, and sometimes mobbed them while employed upon the drains, so that in several places they had to work under a guard of armed men. Difficult though it was to deal with the unreclaimed bogs, the unreclaimed men were still more impracticable. Although their condition was very miserable, they nevertheless enjoyed a sort of wild liberty amidst the watery wastes, which they were not disposed readily to give up. Though they might alternately shiver and burn with ague, and become prematurely bowed and twisted with rheumatism, still the Fens were their "native land," such as it was, and their only source of subsistence, precarious though it might be. The Fens were their commons, on which their geese grazed. They furnished them with food, though the finding thereof was full of adventure and hazard. What cared the Fen-men for the drowning of the land? Did not the water bring them fish, and the fish attract wild-fowl, which they could snare and shoot? Thus the proposal to drain the Fens and to convert them into

A clow is a sluice regulated by being lifted or dropped perpendicu

larly, like a portcullis. The other sluices open and shut like gates.