which shelf increasing in height and length so much, as that the ordinary tides did not overflow it, was by that check of those fluxes, in time, so much augmented in breadth, that the Romans finding it considerable for the fertility of the soil, made the first Sea-banks for its preservation from the Spring-tides, which might other wise overflow it. And now, Sir, by this settling of the silt, the soil of Marshland and Holland had its first beginning. By the like excess of silt brought into the mouths of these rivers, which had their outfalls at Lynn, Wisbeach, and Boston, where the fresh water is so stopped, as that the ordinary land floods, being not of force enough to grind it out (as the term is) all the level behind became overflowed; and as an ordinary pond gathereth mud, so did this do more, which in time hath increased to such thickness, that since the Po-dike was made to keep up the fresh water from drowning Marshland on the other side, and South Eau-Bank for the preservation of Holland from the like inundation, the level of the Fenn is become four feet higher than the level of Marshland, as Mr Vermuiden assured me upon a view and observation thereof."-Afterward he observes, That the time when the passage of Wisbeach was so siltted up, as that the outfall of the great river Ouse, which was there, became altered, and was diverted to Lynn, was in Henry the third's reign, as my testimonies (says he) from records manifest, "

In his 5th Letter he says to his friend "Since I wrote to you for your opinion touching the various course

of the sea, I met with some notable instances of that kind in a late author, viz, Olivarius Uredius, in his History of Flanders; which he manifesteth to be occasioned from Earthquakes."-And this appears to have become afterward our author's own settled opinion, as to the ancient influx of the sea over this great level country.

SECTION V. A concise view of the ancient and modern history of the Fen Country, from Pennant's Preface to his third volume of Arctic Zoology.

Among the modern authors who have treated of these Fens, no one, perhaps, ranks higher than Pennant, Of this singular tract of country he gives the following

account.

"The great Level, which comprehends Holland in this county, [Lincolnshire] with part of Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk, a tract of sixty computed miles in length, and forty in breadth, had been originally a wooded country. Whole forests of firs and oaks have been found in digging, far beneath the moor on the solid ground; oaks fifteen feet in girth, and ten yards long, mostly burnt at the bottoms, the ancient method of falling them: multitudes of others entirely rooted up, as appears, by the force of the sea bursting in and overwhelming this whole tract, and covering it with silt, or mud which it carried with it from time to time."

In process of time, this tract underwent another revolution. The silt or mud gained so considerably as to leave vast spaces dry, and other parts so shallow, as to encourage the Romans to gain these fertilized countries from the sea. Those sensible and indefatigable people first taught us the art of embanking, and recovered the valuable lands we now possess. It was the complaint of Galgacus, that they exhausted the strength of the Britons, in sylvis et paludibus emuniendis,* in clearing woods and draining marshes."

"After the Romans deserted our island, another change took place. Neglect of their labours succeeded: the drains were no longer kept open, and the whole became fen and shallow lake, resembling the present east fen; the haunt of myriads of water fowl, or the retreat of banditti. Ely and many little tracts, which had the advantage of elevation, were at that period literally islands. Several of these in early times, became the retreat of the religous. Ely, Thorney, Ramsey, Spiney and others rose into celebrated Abbeys, and by the industry of their inhabitants first began to restore the works of the Romans. The country above Thorney, is represented by an old historian [William of Malmsbury] as a paradice. Constant visitations, founded on wholesome laws, preserved this vast recovered country; but on the rapid and rapacious dissolution, the removal of several of the inhabitants, and the neglect of the laws of sewers, the drains were filled, the cultivated lands overflowed, and the country, again reduced to a useless morass." +

Vita Agricola.† Compare Dugdale's maps of this tract in its morassy and improved states p. 375, 416.

In the 20th. of Elizabeth, the state of the country was taken into consideration: no great matters were done till the time of Francis, and William his son, earls of Bedford, who attempted this Herculean work, and reclaimed this vast tract of more than 300,000 acres ; and the last received, under the sanction of Parliament, the just reward of 90,000 acres. I speak not of the reliques of ancient banks, which I have seen in Holland in Lincolnshire, now remote from the sea, nor yet the Roman timuli, the coins and other evidences of the residence of that nation in these parts: it is to be hoped that will be undertaken by the pen of some native, who will perform it from actual survey.

"The vast fenny tracts of these countries were in old times the haunts of multitudes of water fowl, but the happy change, by attention to draining, has substituted in their place thousands of sheep; or, instead of reeds, made those tracts laugh with corn. The Crane, which once abounded in these parts, has even deserted our island. The common wild duck still breeds in multitudes in the unreclaimed parts; and thousands are sent annually to the London markets, from the numerous Decoys. The Grey lag Goose, the origin of the tame, breeds here, and is resident the whole year. A few others of the duck kind breed here. Lapwings, Redbreasted Godwits, and Whimbrels are found here during summer; but with their young in autumn disperse about the island. The Short-eared Owl migrates here with the Foodcock, and is a welcome guest to the farmer, by

History of Diabanking.

clearing the fields of mice. Knots swarm on the coast in winter are taken in numbers in nets: yet none are seen during summer. The most distant north is probably the retreat of the multitude of water-fowl of each order which stock our shores, driven southward by the extreme cold: most of them regularly, others whose nature enables them to brave the usual winters of the frigid zone, are with us only accidental guests, and in seasons when the frost rages in their native land with unusual severity."

"In the latitude of Boston, or about latitude 53, the following remark may be made on the vegetable creation: a line may be drawn to the opposite part of the kingdom, which will comprehend the greatest part of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, the moorlands of Staffordshire, all Cheshire, Flintshire, Denbighshire, Caernarvonshire, and Anglesey. Beyond this line, nature hath allotted to the northern parts of these kingdoms certain plants which are rarely or never found to transgress that line to the south."-In another place he says,

"From Hulm, the northern promontory of Norfolk, the sea advances deeply westward, and forms the great bay called The Washes, filled with vast sand banks, the summits of which are dry at low water; but the intervening channels are the means of prodigious commerce to Lynn, seated on the Ouse, which is circulated into the very inland parts of our Island, through the various rivers which fall into its long course. Lynn is mentioned in the Domesday book, but became considera