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Well Stream was an ancient appellation of the Wisbeach river. He
further adds, that this outfall, or arm of the sea, had Holland and a
part of the Isle on one side, and Marshland on the other; these were
defended from it by great sea-banks, which in the time of Henry VI
were ordained to be made and maintained fifty feet high. Hither of
old resorted (he says) ships and vessels of great burden. But the
sea, still forsaking the Isle, made the whole passage between
Wisbeach and the Washes high marshes and sands; and by the
decay of the river, the channel, or outfall, became so shallow and
weak, as to admit of people often going over on foot, bare legged
under the knees. He also imputes much blame to the people about
Wisbeach, in not scouring and dyking the river, as by ancient laws
and presentments they ought to have done; and not preserving and
maintaining the petty sewers and drains. In consequence of these
omissions, not only the fens were drowned, but the means were also
lost of draining 13 or 14000 acres of inland grounds, the support of
three or four towns on the North of Wisbeach.
That the bad effects of the desertion of the Ouse and Nene from
their ancient outfall at Wisbeach, soon became very grievous to that
town and the adjacent country, appears by the frequent complaints
made, and laws enacted for their relief. Some of those laws were
made in the reign of Henry VI, and measures were taken, it seems,
in consequence of them, for the relief and benefit of the sufferers.
The most important and beneficial of all those measures appears to
be that adopted toward the latter part of the 15th century under the
direction of bishop Morton. [18] “That prelate finding (says Atkins)
that beside its being a very chargeable course to his people of the
hundred of Wisbeach, once in four or five years to dyke this river,
and that notwithstanding this dyking of the river, the outfall below to
the seaward nevertheless decayed; and finding that without a great
head of fresh waters, to scour both the river and the outfall, all
would be lost, took a part of Hercules’ labour upon him, and strove
to bring in great abundance of fresh waters, by divers courses, out
of the Fens, to maintain this channel: viz. the rivers Nene and
Welland from Southea, and the river of the great cross, or
Plantwater, from the united branches of Nene and Ouse, descending
by Benwick.” But the bishop’s principal undertaking seems to have
been the cut of 14 miles, from Peterborough to Guyhorn, by which a
large portion of the Nene was brought down to Wisbeach, and
proved of up small benefit to that town and harbour, as well as to
the drainage of the country. This cut has transmitted the bishop’s
name deservedly and honourably to posterity; it being ever since
known and distinguished under the denomination of Morton’s Leam.
Happy had it been for the world, if all those of his order had
deserved so well of their neighbours and of their country. [19]
“By this doing” (says Atkins, referring to the works of bishop Morton)
“Wisbeach Fens were made good Sheep pastures, and the fall of the
water at Wisbeach became so great, that no man would adventure
under the bridge, with a boat, but by veering through, &c. But
succeeding ages (he further observes) neglecting these good
provisions, have thereby lost the benefit.” The blame of this neglect,
both Atkins and Sir Clement Edmunds seem to lay entirely on the
total want of public spirit, or the selfish and sordid disposition of the
people of Wisbeach, who strove at all events to avoid the expence,
alleging that the benefit of cleansing and dyking the outfall would
altogether accrue to the behoof of the upland country, and therefore
that they [the inhabitants of the said upland country] ought to put
their hands to the work, and contribute towards it in some
reasonable measure. The uplanders, on the other hand, produced
divers presentments, some of them as high as Henry VI, shewing,
that they ought not to be charged; at the same time expressing a
willingness to yield a reasonable aid, when the work was done, if it
proved serviceable. But those of Wisbeach required a previous
contribution, to be expended as the work should proceed. Their
selfishness and perverseness, on these occasions, carried them, it
seems, to very extravagant and ridiculous lengths, to elude the
charge: “one while saying, they cared not if Wisbeach were a dry
town; another while by thinking to keep it as a standing pool; [and
again] another while enforcing [or urging] the making of a Sluice
between the town and the sea, that the tide should not silt up the
river, saying that otherwise the charge of dyking the river would be
but cast away.—And to the charge of this Sluice they would call in
the high-country people, such as they knew would not easily be
brought to it, so that nothing might be done.” This preposterous
conduct of the Wisbeachers appears to have effectually frustrated
every reasonable and salutary proposal. Atkins, however, gives it as
his firm opinion, “that were there in the Isle of Ely again another
bishop Morton the country might well be regained by such means as
might be easily set down.” [21a] But it does not appear that another
bishop Morton has yet risen in the Isle, whatever may be said of the
regeneration, reformation, or amendment of the good people of
Wisbeach.
Nothing of any consequence appears to have been attempted since,
for the benefit of the port or navigation of Wisbeach, except
Kinderley’s Cut, made in 1721 and 1722, by order of the Board of
Adventurers, and not without the consent of the town of Wisbeach
likewise; only the adventurers [it seems] ought to have had their
consent under their hands: at least so says Mr Kinderly. This cut,
had it gone forward, would probably have been of great advantage
to the river. But by the time that it was completed, and a dam was
making across the old channel, to turn the river into the new one,
“the Wisbeach gentlemen, falsely, or by mistake, apprehending the
advantage of a wide indraught over all those spreading sands, and
complaining that this new cut was not wide enough, (though it was
wider than the river at Wisbeach by twenty feet) and that therefore
their river would immediately be choked up, and their navigation
lost. [So they now] violently opposed it, and raised the Country for
demolishing the works; and after that obtained an injunction from
the Lord Chancellor to stop all further progress.” [21b] A long
vexatious Law Suit ensued, but the Adventures could not recover the
Money they had laid out, amounting to nearly £2000, and the
gentlemen of Wisbeach gave ample proof that they still inherited, in
full measure, the genuine spirit of their ancestors, before
mentioned. Their Harbour has been for some years in a most
miserable state, and seems to stand in need of the aid of a Morton
or a Kinderly as much as ever.

Section IV.

The Effects on Lynn, and on its Harbour and Navigation, of the

great accession of Fresh Waters in the reign of Henry III.
Let us now attend to the Ouse and its sister streams, in their now or
modern course, by Denver, Downham, St. German’s, and Lynn. By
the addition of so many large rivers to its former waters, Lynn might
be expected to have its Haven, by degrees, both widened and
deepened, so as to contribute materially to its future naval
consequence, and commercial importance. Previously to this great
accession of water, the bed or channel of the river, about St.
German’s, has been represented as so very narrow, that in some
places a man might throw himself over with a pikestaff; and in Lynn
Haven it is said to have been but six poles, or about an hundred feet
wide. But afterward, by the said accession of fresh waters, Lynn
Haven and channel were made in time so wide and deep as to
become famous for Navigation. [22]
Things appear to have continued pretty much in this favourable
state, till sometime after the erection of the Sluices at Denver; which
by preventing the tides from going further up into the country, as
before, proved very prejudicial to the harbour and Navigation of
Lynn; and the effects are felt, it seems, and much complained of to
this day. The free admission of the tides, and the natural course of
the freshes are said to have kept other rivers open and navigable;
and this appears to have been the case with the Ouse itself, while it
possessed those advantages, or till the adventurers erected the said
sluices across its channel, which are thought to have proved so very
prejudicial, not only to the navigation of Lynn, Cambridge, &c. but
even to the draining of the Fen districts and Marshland.
Before the erection of those sluices, the tide is said to have gone up
the rivers a very great way. Into the Ouse, and Grant, or Cam, it
went, according to Badeslade, five miles above their junction, or 48
above Lynn; into the Larke, or Mildenhall river, eight miles above its
month, or 42 above Lynn; into the lesser Ouse, or Brandon river, ten
miles above its mouth, or 36 above Lynn; into the Wessey, or Stoke
river, six miles above its mouth, or 24 above Lynn; and into the
Nene, seven miles above its mouth, or 23 above Lynn. [24a]—These
rivers are said to be then completely supplied with water from the
sea, in the driest seasons, to serve for inland navigation.—The Nene,
to Well, Marsh, and Peterborough, &c. with vessels of 15 tuns in the
driest times: the Ouse, with vessels of 40 tuns, 36 miles, at least,
from Lynn, in ordinary neap tides; and to Huntingdon, St. Neots,
Bedford, and even as far as 90 miles from Lynn, with vessels of 15
tuns. The tides then raised the waters at Salters Lode 12 feet above
low-water mark. These waters in their return scoured the channel,
and kept it clear and deep. This seems to have been the case
before the erection of the sluices; but whether it would have
continued so to this time, may, perhaps, be doubted. Badeslade and
Kinderly seem to have entertained different and opposite opinions on
the subject; as the reader may see by consulting their respective
publications.
In a course of time, Lynn Haven is said to wear from 6 or 8 to 40
poles wide; which seems not improbable, considering the situation
of it, and the accession of so many large rivers. In Badeslade’s time,
as he says, [24b] it was from 50 to 60 poles in the narrowest part; and
now it can be no less. The Lynn river, however, has been thought to
be still narrower than any other of equal size so near its outfall.
Before the erection of the said Dams, or Sluices no complaints
appear to have been made of either the haven, or yet the rivers
above wanting a competent depth of water. Barges carrying 40
chalders could then go up the Ouse 36 miles, and those that carried
from 26 to 30 chalders passed with ease to the very town of
Cambridge. Whereas, in Badeslade’s time, flat bottom lighters, with
eight or ten chalders, could hardly pass. Nor does it appear that
things have gotten to a better state since. As to the haven, or
harbour of Lynn, it was at those times wide, deep, and
commodious. In 1645 its breadth is said to have been about a
furlong. Ships then, and for some years after, rode at the south end
of the town, and the west side in two fathoms, at low water. So
they also did at the Crutch; and the largest ships could go to sea at
neap tides. Two parts of the harbour were then remarkably deep;
the one called Fieln’s Road, at the end of the west channel; and the
other Ferrier’s Road, at the end of the east channel; and both of
them three and half fathoms at low water. The tides too were then
so strong as to make it necessary to use stream cables to moor the
ships. Guybon Goddard, Esq. a former Recorder of Lynn (and
brother in law to Sir Wm. Dugdale) who died about 1677, says, that
at the World’s End in the Harbour of Lynn, there was not in any
man’s remembrance less than ten or eleven feet at low water; and
at a place called the Mayor’s Fleet 8 or 9 feet. The channel to
seaward, below the haven, he says, near half mile wide at low water,
was yet of a depth sufficient for a Ship of 12 foot water to be
brought up in any one tide without wind. [26a] Upon the whole, it
appears that the state of Lynn Harbour, and of the rivers which
discharge themselves that way, was before the erection of the
Sluices much superior to what it has been since. [26b]
As to the State of the Ouse and the other rivers up in the country
above Lynn, it seems to have been much better before the
undertaking for a general drainage and erection of the Sluices than
since that period, as appears from the views of the Sewers taken
June 25, 1605, by Sir Robert Bevill, Sir John Peyton, &c. at Salters
Lode, where the Nene falls into the Ouse. The commissioners
declared the fall from the soil of the Fens to low watermark as no
less than ten feet, beside the natural descent of the grounds from
the uplands of Huntingdonshire thither; which shews the bottom of
the Ouse to be there much deeper then than it was afterward.
Dugdale also, in his History of Embanking, says, that at Salter’s Lode
there was ten feet fall of the fens at low water mark. From these
statements it must necessarily follow, that the lands in the South
Level, though unembanked, must in general have been in a
comparatively good condition before the undertaking for a general
drainage and erection of the Sluices; for, the fall being so great, no
water could lie long upon them; and if at any time, by the descent of
the upland waters, they became overflowed, they would not long
continue in that state. At present, the case, it seems, is very
different.

Section V.

Of the Eabrink Cut, and other projects of former times—with

some slight hints on the comparative state of the Shipping—
Commercial consequence and population of Lynn at different
periods.
It seems allowed on all hands that Lynn Harbour has grown much
worse in the memory of the present inhabitants, and that it is daily
getting more and more so. To remedy this growing and alarming
evil, as well as to promote and facilitate the inland navigation and
drainage of the Fen Districts, a project was formed some few years
ago to open a straight cut from Eabrink, about three miles above the
town, into the upper part of the said harbour, with the view of
scouring, deepening, and improving the same; and an Act of
Parliament was obtained for that purpose. The work however, has
been hitherto postponed: it being, it seems, found difficult to raise a
fund adequate to the occasion. Vast benefits are said to be
confidently expected by many from the execution of this project;
while others appear much less sanguine in their expectations, and
even consider it as in no small degree dubious and problematical.
The opening a straight cut from Eabrink to Lynn Haven is not indeed,
properly speaking, a new or a late project. It was suggested and
recommended many years ago, as a part of a far more extensive
undertaking, by Mr Kinderley, who wrote a large pamphlet on the
subject, the second and last edition of which was published in 1751.
—His favourite scheme was to continue the Cut from Lynn, through
the marshes below the Wottons, Babingley and Wolverton, into what
is called the Old Road; and to bring the Wisbeach river from the
mouth of the Shiredam across Marshland into Lynn Harbour. The
Welland also or Spalding river, he proposed to conduct by another
cut to Boston, there to join the Witham, and pass along with it to
the sea by a new outlet, so that there might be but two outlets
instead of four, for all the great Fen rivers. The accomplishment of
this vast plan, as he imagined, would not fail of being productive of
many and most important benefits:—The harbours of Lynn and
Boston, of course, would become more accessible, and be otherwise
greatly improved:—The two washes would inevitably and soon be
filled up, by the abundance of silt and mud which the tides would
lodge there, and which would shortly be converted into firm and
fertile land.—Also an extensive district larger than all Marshland, and
almost as large as the whole county of Rutland, and of far greater
value, would in no very long time be gained from the sea, and
brought into a condition to be effectually secured by embankments
from any future annoyance from the briny element.—Moreover, a
good turnpike road, straight as an arrow, might and would be made
across this recovered country, all the way from Lynn to Boston, to
the no small convenience and comfort of travellers, (as the
obstructions and dangers of the Washes would no longer exist) and
to the facilitating and perpetuating a safe and easy intercourse
between the inhabitants of Lincolnshire, as well as of all the north of
England and those of Norfolk, Suffolk and the whole eastern coast of
the Kingdom. The scheme or project, however, was not adopted,
nor perhaps ever sufficiently attended to; and it may not now be
worth while to inquire into the cause of its miscarriage or rejection.
Whether this same scheme shall hereafter be ever adopted,
executed, or realized, no mortal at present is capable of divining.
Between Mr Kinderley and Mr Badeslade there seems to have
existed a considerable difference of opinion on some points. The
former ascribed the increasing foulness and decay of Lynn Harbour
to the increasing width of the channel below, the loose and light
nature of the sand there, subject to the powerful action of the tides,
continually driving up those sands and lodging them in the harbour
and river above: whereas the latter seems to ascribe it chiefly, if not
solely to the Sluices, or the obstruction which they occasioned to the
free influx and efflux of the waters. [30a] Each writer supports his
own opinion with great confidence; but the question remains
undecided. Both of them, perhaps, might be right in many or most
of their ideas and reasonings.
Very unlike most other great Sea-port towns, whose shipping and
trade have vastly increased within the last hundred years, Lynn
appears to have remained, in a great measure, stationary. As long
ago as 1654 we hear of fourscore vessels or more belonging to the
port of Lynn, (some of them drawing 13 or 14 feet water) and that
they used then to make from 15 to 18 Voyages annually to
Newcastle, for coals, Salt, &c. Also that Ship-building was at that
period very briskly carried on in the town, to keep up the stock.
Moreover the number of seamen and watermen, then employed
here, is said to amount to, at least, fifteen hundred; and the whole
number of inhabitants was probably equal to that of any subsequent
period. It seems, indeed, to be now the prevailing opinion, that the
present population of Lynn exceeds that of any former time; which
yet may be deemed somewhat doubtful, if not quite improbable;
especially as it is known to have been formerly a manufacturing
town, [30b] which is not its case at present. The point, however, may
not now be very easy to determine. But it seems very evident, that
the trade of Lynn has not increased to the degree or extent that
might have been expected, from the great opulence of its merchants
and the vast extent of its inland navigation. The real or probable
cause of this will not become here the subject of enquiry; but it may
not be unworthy of investigation.

CHAP. II.
Of Marshland and the adjoining parts, or Great Fen Country.—
View of their situation and revolutions in remote ages, or Sketch
of their ancient history.

Section I.
 Account of their state before and after the arrival of the Romans
—Character of that people—establishment of their power here—
improvements made by them in these parts.
As Lynn may be considered as the Capital or Metropolis of Marshland
and the Fens, it will not be improper to give here some account of
those remarkable districts from the earliest times. All this flat and
level country is thought to have been originally a vast forest, which
was afterwards in some measure cleared, and converted into good
cultivated land, fertile fields, rich pastures, and numerous habitations
of industrious men. After that however, it was, it seems, for no
short period, covered by the sea, occasioned, perhaps, by an
earthquake, or some such convulsive event, which might
considerably lower or sink the whole surface of the country, and so
make way for the violent influx of the ocean. The overflowing
waters in time gradually covering the original surface of the ground
with silt and sand to a very great depth, or rather height, would at
last recede. The present face of the country, composed of silt to a
vast depth,(and which seems no other than marine sediment)
confirms this hypothesis. Still however the parts next the sea, such
as Marshland and the low-lands on the eastern side of Lincolnshire
would remain as a great salt marsh, occasionally overflowed,
especially at spring-tides.—This seems to have been the case when
Julius Cæsar invaded this country, and when Claudius afterwards
reduced it to the state of a Roman Province.
The Romans, with all their faults, were certainly a wonderful people.
Like all other invaders and conquerors they were in general very
hard masters, and in some respects most vile oppressors and
tyrants. In other respects, however, they may be said to have been
eventually real benefactors to many, if not to most of the countries
and nations which they subdued, as they were the means of greatly
improving those countries, and of introducing among their
inhabitants the rudiments of useful knowledge, habits of industry,
and the laws of civilization.
Julius Cæsar’s invasion of Britain seems to have proved upon the
whole unsuccessful; for he withdrew to the continent, without being
able to effect its subjugation, or to retain the conquests which he is
supposed to have made; which may be thought to furnish a pretty
strong argument in favour of the independent spirit, and high
military character of the British nation at that time. Nor does it
appear that the Romans ever attempted to give our ancestors any
further disturbance afterward, till the reign of Claudius, whose
general, Aulus Plautius, a person of senatorial dignity, was the first
that established the power of that people, or gave them a firm
footing in this island. This was near a hundred years after the
retreat or departure of Julius Cæsar; and the success of Plautius is
said to have been chiefly or greatly owing to the bitter dissentions
which then raged among the British chieftains, some of whom had
invited the Romans hither, and afterward joined them against their
own country-men. Claudius himself came over sometime after, and
completed the conquest of a great part of South Britain, including, it
seems, the country of the Iceni, which comprehended the present
counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, with most, if not the whole of those
of Cambridge and Huntingdon, and probably some part of
Lincolnshire. So that the parts adjoining the Fens became subject to
the Romans among their earliest acquisitions in Britain. The
inhabitants of these parts are also said to have made the least
resistance to them, at first, of any of the British States, and
therefore to have been for sometime more highly favoured by them
than any of the rest. Claudius at his departure from this island,
which is said to have been in the year 43 of the Christian Era, left
here a considerable force under Plautius, Vespasian (afterwards
emperor) and other experienced and able Generals, who were
succeeded by others, no way their inferiors, in experience, ability, or
military fame; among whom were Ostorius Scapula, Suetonius
Paulinus, and Julius Agricola. Besides Julius Cæsar, Claudius, and
Vespasian, several others of the Roman emperors are said to have
spent some part of their time in this island; and particular Hadrian,
Severus, Constantius Chlorus, and his son Constantine the Great.
The latter is supposed to have been born here, and his mother is
said to have been a Briton. His father, as well as his predecessor
Severus, died at York, a place of no small consequence and celebrity
in those times.
After the country was reduced, and made a part or province of the
empire, the Romans soon began to view it as a very important
acquisition. Accordingly they set in good earnest about improving it;
and there are still to be seen numerous proofs and monuments of
their laborious, ingenious, and successful exertions. Among their
important improvements here were included the draining of the
Fens, and the embanking of the Marshes, to secure them against the
violence and destructive inroads of the ocean. Marshland and the
low lands of Lincolnshire, as was before observed, they found in the
miserable condition of a salt marsh, occasionally and frequently
overflowed by the tides. This country they secured by very strong
and extensive embankments, which bear their name to this day. [35a]
These improvements in the Fens and Marshes are said to have been
the works of a colony of foreigners, [35b] brought over, probably, from
Belgium, a country of a similar description, whose natives, from their
previous knowledge and habits, would be eminently fitted for such
employments. Not that those works can be supposed to have been
effected without the powerful co-operation of the native Britons,
who would sometimes loudly complain of the hardships they
endured in labours of this kind, imposed upon them by the Romans:
a plain proof that they bore their full share of them. Catus
Decianus, it seems, was the name of the Roman officer who had the
chief direction or superintendence of the improvements then
projected and carried on in the Fens. [36] He was probably the first
Roman Procurator of the province of the Iceni, and continued to be
so for many years. Some things recorded of him, during his
government here exhibit him in a very unamiable and detestable
light; and it may be presumed that he was an unfeeling and severe
task-master to the workmen whom he employed in the fens and
marshes, as well as elsewhere; so that we need not wonder that
they should sometimes loudly complain of the hardships they
underwent. The public works of which he had the direction and
superintendence seem, however, to have been carried on by him
with no small energy and effect, and to have been soon brought to a
state of considerable forwardness and perfection.
The Fens must have been in a very dismal state before the arrival of
the Romans; and their exertions, undoubtedly, wrought a mighty,
and most happy change in the face of the country. Houses, villages,
and towns would now appear in places that were before perfectly
desolate and dreary. At this period we may venture to date the
origin of Lynn; for it may be pretty safely concluded that it owes its
rise to the schemes formed by the Romans for the recovery and
improvement of these fens and marshes. It is also very probable,
not only that it was the first town built in these parts, on that
occasion, but also that it was built and inhabited by those foreign
colonists above mentioned, and derived its name from them. This
however is not the proper place for the further elucidation of this
point: our present business being with the history of the Fens.

Section II.

Further strictures on the ancient state of this country, and on a

wonderful change it appears to have undergone, at a very
remote and unknown period; from De Serra’s account of a
submarine Forest on the coast of Lincolnshire.
Some very remote ages ago, the land, it seems, extended much
further out on the Lincolnshire coast than it does at present; and it
appears that whole forests once existed in places now wholly
occupied by the ocean; which must tend to corroborate what has
been already suggested, that the whole face of the fens was
originally a forest. A remarkable Paper, giving an account of a
Submarine Forest on the said coast, appeared in the Philosophical
Transactions for 1799. Part I. written by Joseph Correa De Serra
L.L.D. F.R.S. and A.S. in which the Author informs us of a report in
Lincolnshire, that a large extent of islets of moor, situated along the
coast, and visible only in the lowest ebbs of the year, was chiefly
composed of decayed trees. That report induced him to take a
journey thither for the purpose of inspecting so singular a curiosity.
Those islets, he observes, are marked in Mitchell’s Chart of that
coast by the name of Clay huts; and the Village of Huttoft, opposite
to which they principally lie, he supposes to have derived its name
from them.

“In the Month of September 1796, (says he) I went to Sutton,

on the coast of Lincolnshire, in the company of the right
honourable the President of the Royal Society, in order to
examine their nature and extent. The 19th of the month being
the day after the equinoctial full moon, when the lowest ebbs
were to be expected, we went in a boat, about half past twelve
at noon, and soon set foot on one of the largest islands then
appearing. Its exposed surface was about 30 yards long, and
25 wide when the tide was at the lowest. A great number of
smaller islets were visible around us to the eastward and
southward; and the fishermen whose authority in this point is
very competent, say that similar moors are to be found along
the whole coast from Skegness to Grimsby, particularly off
Addlethorpe and Mablethorpe. The channels dividing the islets
were, at the time we saw them, wide and of various depths; the
islets themselves ranging generally from east to west in their
largest dimensions.
“We visited them again in the ebbs of the 20th and 21st.; and
though it did not generally ebb so far as we expected, we could
notwithstanding ascertain that they consisted almost entirely of
roots, trunks, branches, and leaves of trees and shrubs,
intermixed with some leaves of aquatic plants. The remains of
some of these trees were still standing on their roots, while the
trunks of the greater part lay scattered on the ground in every
possible direction. The barks of trees and roots appeared
generally as fresh as when they were growing; in that of the
branches particularly, of which a great quantity was found, even
the thin silver membranes of outer skin were discernible. The
timber of all kinds on the contrary, was decomposed, and soft in
the greatest part of the trees: in some, however, it was firm,
especially in the roots. The people of the country have often
found among them very sound pieces of timber, fit to be
employed for several economical purposes. The sorts of wood
which are still distinguishable are, birch, fir, and oak. Other
woods evidently exist in these islets, of some of which we found
the leaves in the soil; but our present knowledge of the
comparative anatomy of timber is not so far advanced as to
afford us the means of pronouncing with confidence respecting
their species. In general the trunks, branches, and roots of the
decayed trees were considerably flattened, which is a
phenomenon observed in the Surtarbrand, or fossil wood of
Iceland, and which Scheuchzer remarked also in the fossil wood
found in the neighbourhood of the lake Thun in Switzerland.
“The soil to which the trees are fixed, and in which they grew, is
a soft greasy clay; but for many inches above the surface, the
soil is composed of rotten leaves, scarcely distinguishable to the
eye, many of which may be separated by putting the soil in
water and dexterously and patiently using the Spatula, or blunt
knife. By this method I obtained some imperfect leaves of the
Ilexaquifolium, which are now in the Herbarium of the right
honourable Sir Joseph Banks; and some other leaves, though
less perfect, seem to belong to some species of willow. In this
stratum of rotten leaves we could also distinguish some roots of
Arundo Phragmites.
“These islets, according to the most accurate information,
extend at least twelve miles in length, and about a mile in
breadth, opposite to Sutton shore. The water without them
toward the sea, generally deepens suddenly, so as to form a
steep bank. The channels between the several islets, when the
islets are dry, in the lowest ebbs of the year, are from four to
twelve feet deep: their bottoms are clay or sand, and their
direction is generally from east to west.
“A well, dug at Sutton by Joshua Searby, shews that a moor of
the same nature is found under ground in that part of the
country, at the depth of sixteen feet, consequently very nearly
on the same level with that which constitutes the islets. The
disposition of the strata was found to be nearly as follows: clay
sixteen feet; moor, similar to that of the islets, three or four
ditto; soft moor, like the scourings of a ditch bottom, mixed with
shells and silt, twenty feet; marly clay, one foot; chalky rock,
from one to two feet; clay, thirty-one yards; gravel and water;
the water has a chalybeate taste. In order to ascertain the
course of this subterraneous stratum of decayed vegetables, Sir
Joseph Banks directed a boring to be made in the fields
belonging to the royal Society in the parish of Mablethorpe.
Moor of a similar nature to that of Searby’s well, and the islets,
was found very nearly on the same level, about four feet thick,
and under a soft clay.
“The whole appearance of the rotten vegetables we observed,
perfectly resembles, according to the remark of Sir Joseph
Banks, the moor which, in Blakeney Fen, and in other parts of
the East Fen in Lincolnshire, is thrown up in the making of
banks; barks like those of the birch-tree being there also
abundantly found. The moor extends over all the Lincolnshire
fens, and has been traced as far as Peterborough, more than
sixty miles to the south of Sutton. On the north side, according
to the fishermen, the moory islets extend as far as Grimsby,
situated on the south side of the Humber: and it is a remarkable
circumstance, that in the large tracts of low land which lie on
the south banks of that river, a little above its mouth, there is a
subterraneous stratum of decayed trees and shrubs, exactly like
those we have observed at Sutton; particularly at Axolme isle, a
tract of ten miles in length by five in breadth; and at Hatfield
chace, which comprehends 180,000 acres. Dugdale had long
ago made this observation in the first of these places; and Dela
Prime in the second. The roots are there likewise standing in
the places where they grew: the trunks lie prostrate. The
woods are of the same species as at Sutton. Roots of aquatic
plants and reeds are likewise mixed with them; and they are
covered by a stratum of some yards of soil, the thickness of
which, though not ascertained with exactness by the
abovementioned observers, we may easily conceive to
correspond with what covers the stratum of decayed wood at
Sutton, by the circumstances of the roots being (according to
Mr. Richardson’s observations) only visible when the water is
low, where a channel was cut which has left them uncovered.
“Little doubt can be entertained of the moory islets of Sutton
being a part of this extensive and subterraneous stratum, which,
by some inroad of the sea, has there been stripped of its
covering of soil. The identity of the levels; that of the species of
trees; the roots of these affixed in both to the soil where they
grew; and above all, the flattened shape of the trunks,
branches, and roots, found in the islets (which can only be
accounted for by the heavy pressure of a superinduced stratum)
are sufficient reasons for this opinion.”

Section III.

Further observations from the same Paper—Epoch of the

destruction of the said Forest—Agency by which it was effected,
&c.—Similar appearances eastward along the Norfolk coast.

“Such a wide-spread assemblage of vegetable ruins, lying

almost in the same level, and that level generally under the
common mark of low water, must naturally strike the observer,
and give birth to the following questions: 1. What is the epoch
of this destruction? 2. By what agency was it effected?
“In answer to these questions I will venture to submit the
following reflections: The fossil remains of vegetables hitherto
dug up in so many parts of the globe, are, on a close inspection,
found to belong to two different states of our planet. The parts
of vegetables and their impressions, found in mountains, of a
colaceous and schistous, or even sometimes of a calcareous
nature, are chiefly of plants now existing between the tropics,
which would neither have grown in the latitudes in which they
are dug up, nor have been carried and deposited there by any
of the acting forces under the present constitution of nature.
The formation indeed of the very mountains in which they are
buried, and the nature and position of the materials which
compose them, are such as we cannot account for by any
actions and re-actions which in the actual state of things take
place on the surface of the earth. We must necessarily recur to
that period in the history of our planet, when the surface of the
ocean was at least so much above its present level as to cover
even the summits of those secondary mountains which contain
the remains of tropical plants. The changes which these
vegetables have suffered in their substance is almost total; they
commonly retain only the external configuration of what they
were. Such is the state in which they are found in England by
Lhwyd; in France by Jussicu; and in the Netherlands by Burtin;
not to mention instances in more distant countries. Some of the
impressions or remains of plants found in soils of this nature
which were, by the more ancient and enlightened oryctologists,
supposed to belong to plants actually growing in temperate and
cold climates, seem, on accurate investigation, to have been
part of exotic vegetables. In fact, whether we suppose them to
have grown near the spot where they are found, or to have
been carried thither from different parts by the force of an
impelling flood, it is equally difficult to conceive how organized
beings, which, in order to live, require such a vast difference in
temperature and seasons, could live on the same spot, or how
their remains could (from climates so widely distant) be brought
together in the place by one common dislocating cause. To this
ancient order of fossil vegetables belong whatever retains a
vegetable shape found in or near coalmines, and (to judge from
the places where they have been found) the greater part of the
agatized woods. But from the species and state of the trees
which are the subject of this memoir, and from the situation and
nature of the soil in which they are found, it seems very clear
that they do not belong to the primeval order of vegetable
ruins.
“The second order of fossil vegetables comprehend those which
are found in the strata of clay or sand; materials which are the
result of slow depositions of the sea and of rivers, agents still at
work under the present constitution of our planet. These
vegetable remains are found in such flat countries as may be
considered to be a new formation. The vegetable organization
still subsists, at least in part; and their vegetable substance has
suffered a change only in colour, smell, or consistence;
alterations which are produced by the development of their oily
and bitumenous parts, or by their natural progress towards
rottenness. Such are the fossil vegetables found in Cornwall by
Borlase; in Essex, by Derham; in Yorkshire by Dela Prime and
Richardson; and in foreign countries by other naturalists. These
vegetables are found at different depths; some of them much
below the present level of the sea, but in clayey and sandy
strata (evidently belonging to modern formation); and have, no
doubt, been carried from their original place and deposited
there by the force of great rivers or currents, as it has been
observed with respect to the Mississippi. In many instances,
however, these trees and shrubs are found standing on their
roots, and generally in low or marshy places above, or very little
below the level of the sea.
“To this last description of fossil vegetables the decayed trees
here described certainly belong. They have not been
transported by currents or rivers; but though standing in their
native soil, we cannot suppose the level in which they are found
to be the same as that in which they grew. It would be
impossible for any of these trees or shrubs to vegetate so near
the sea, and below the common level of its water. The waves
would cover such tracts of land, and hinder any vegetation. We
cannot conceive that the surface of the ocean has ever been
any lower than it is now; on the contrary we are led, by
numberless phenomena to believe that the level of the water in
our globe is now below what it was in former periods. We must
therefore conclude, that the forest here described grew in a
level high enough to permit its vegetation; and that the force
(whatever it was) which destroyed it, lowered the level of the
ground where it stood.
“There is a force of subsidence (particularly in soft ground)
which being a natural consequence of gravity, slowly, though
imperceptibly operating, has its action sometimes quickened
and rendered sudden by extraneous causes; for instance, by
earthquakes. The slow effects of this force of subsidence have
been accurately remarked in many places: examples also of its
sudden action are recorded in almost every history of great
earthquakes.—In England, Borlase has given in the Philosophical
Transactions a curious observation of a subsidence of at least
sixteen feet in the ground between Sampson and Trecaw islands
in Scilly. The soft and low grounds between the towns of
Thorne and Gowle in Yorkshire, a space of many miles, has so
much subsided in latter times, that some old men of Thorne
affirmed, “that whereas they could before see little of the
Steeples (of Gowle) they now see the church yard wall.” The
instances of similar subsidence which might be mentioned, are
innumerable.
“The force of subsidence, suddenly acting by means of some
earthquake, seems to me the most probable cause to which the
usual submarine situation of the forest we are speaking of may
be ascribed. It affords a simple easy explanation of the matter;
its probability is supported by numberless instances of similar
events; and it is not liable to the strong objections which exist
against the hypothesis of the ultimate depression and elevation
of the level of the ocean; an opinion which, to be credible,
requires the support of a great number of proofs less equivocal
than those which have hitherto been urged in its favour, even by
the genius of Lavoisier.
“The stratum of soil, sixteen feet thick, placed above the
decayed trees, seems to remove the epoch of their sinking and
destruction far beyond the reach of any historical knowledge.
In Cæsar’s time the level of the north sea appears to have been
the same as in our days. He mentions the separation of the
Wahal branch of the Rhine, and its junction with the Meuse;
noticing the then existing distance from that junction to the sea,
which agrees according to D’Anville’s inquiries, with the actual
distance. Some of the Roman roads, constructed according to
the order of Augustus, under Agrippa’s administration, leading
to the maritime towns of Belgium, still exist, and reach the
present shore. The description which Roman authors have
given of the coast, ports, and mouths of rivers, on both sides of
the North sea, agree in general with their present state; except
in places ravaged by the inroads of this sea, more apt from its
force to destroy the surrounding countries than to increase
them.
“An exact resemblance exists between maritime Flanders and
the opposite coast of England, both in point of elevation above
the sea, and of the internal structure and arrangement of the
soils. On both sides strata of clay, silt, and sand, (often mixed
with decayed vegetables) are found near the surface; and in
both, these superior materials cover a very deep stratum of
blueish or dark coloured clay, unmixed with extraneous bodies.
On both sides they are the lowermost part of the soil, existing
between two ridges of high lands, on their respective sides of
the same narrow sea. These two countries are certainly coeval;
and whatever proves that maritime Flanders has been for many
ages out of the sea, must, in my opinion, prove also that the
forest we are speaking of was long before that time destroyed
and buried under a stratum of soil. Now it seems proved from
historical records, carefully collected by several learned
 members of the Brussels Academy, that no material change has
happened in the lowermost part of maritime Flanders during the
period of the last two thousand years.
“I am therefore inclined to suppose the original catastrophe
which buried this forest to be of very ancient date; but I suspect
the inroad of the sea which uncovered the decayed trees of the
islands of Sutton, to be comparatively recent. The state of the
leaves and of the timber, and also the tradition of the
neighbouring people concur to strengthen this suspicion.”

The reader, it is hoped, will excuse, and even approve the length of
this curious extract, as it seems so well calculated to account for and
elucidate divers striking phenomena in the natural history of the
Fens.
Here it may not be improper further to observe, that the forest
above described seems to have extended from the coast of
Lincolnshire a considerable way along the Norfolk coast; as there is
on the shore, near Thornham in that county, at low water, the
appearance of a large forest having been, at some period, interred
and swallowed up by the waves. Stools of numerous large timber
trees, and many trunks, are to be seen, but so rotten, that they may
be penetrated by a spade. These lie in a black mass of vegetable
fibres, consisting of decayed branches, leaves, rushes, flags, &c.
The extent of this once sylvan tract [on the Norfolk coast] must have
been great, from what is discoverable; and at high water, now
covered by the tides, is in one spot from five to six-hundred acres.
No hint of the manner, or the time, in which this submersion
happened, can be traced. Nothing like a bog is near, and the whole
beach besides is composed of a fine ooze, or marine clay. [49]

Section IV.

Some further geological observations relating to the Fens,

extracted from Dugdale’s Letters to Sir Thomas Browne.
The fullest and most circumstantial account we have of these Fens is
contained in Sir William Dugdale’s History of Embanking, the
substance of which will be found in the following pages. He has also
treated upon the same subject in his correspondence with his friend
Sir Thomas Browne, published in the posthumous works of the
latter; some extracts from which, being much to the purpose, shall
be here submitted to the reader’s perusal.
In Letter IV, he says to his friend, “I shall here acquaint you with my
conceit touching the spacious tract, in form of a sinus, or bay, which
we call the great level of the fens; extending from Lynn beyond
Waynfleet in Lincolnshire in length; and in breadth into some parts
of the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Huntingdon,
Northampton, and Lincoln: intreating your opinion therein. That it
was at first firm land I am induced to believe, when I consider the
multitude of trees (fir, oak, and other kinds) found in those drains
and diggings which have of late years been made there.” After
mentioning some instances, he adds—“Mr Goddard, Recorder of
Lynn, assures me that lately in Marshland, about a mile from
Magdalen Bridge, about seventeen feet deep (upon occasion of
letting down a sluice) were found below the silt (for of that sort is all
Marshland and Holland) in very firm earth, furze bushes, as they
grew, not rotted; and nut trees, with nuts, not perished; neither of
which kind of bushes or trees are now growing upon that silty soil of
Marshland, though it be fruitful and rich for other vegetables.”—
Afterward he adds, “I shall tell you how I conclude it became a fen
by the stagnation of the fresh waters; which is thus—The sea having
its passage upon the ebbs and flows thereof along the coast of
Norfolk to the coast of Lincolnshire, did in time, by reason of its
muddiness, leave a shelf of silt betwixt those two points of land, viz.
Rising in Norfolk, and the country about Spilsby in Lincolnshire,
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 otherwise
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 silted 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 fertilised 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, [53a] 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 religious. 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 paradise. 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.” [53b]
In the 20th. of Elizabeth, the state of the country was taken into
consideration: [54] 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 Greylag Goose, the origin of the tame, breeds here, and is
resident the whole year. A few others of the duck kind breed
here. Lapwings, Red-breasted 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 Woodcock, and is a welcome guest to the farmer, by
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 considerable for its
commerce with Norway, as early as the year 1284.
“The opposite shore is that of Lincolnshire. Its great
commercial town Boston stands on the Witham, a few miles
from the head of the bay. Spring tides rise at the Key fourteen-
feet, and convey there vessels of above a hundred tons; but
greater ships lie at the scap, the opening of the Estuary.—The
sluggish rivers of these tame tracts want force to form a depth
of Water.
“Lincolnshire and part of six other counties are the pais bas, the
Low countries [or Netherlands] of Britain. This very extensive
tract, from the scap to the northern head land, opposite to Hull,
presents to the Sea a bowlike and almost unindented front; and
so low as to be visible from sea only at a small distance, and
churches instead of hills are the only land-marks to seamen,
among which the beautiful Steeple of Boston is particularly
distinguished. The whole Coast is pointed with Salt-marshes or
sand hills, and secured by artificial banks. Old Hollingshed gives
a long list of ports on this now inhospitable coast. Waynfleet,
once a noted haven, is at present a mere creek. Skegness,
once a large walled town with a good harbour, is now an
inconsiderable place, a mile from the sea: and the port of
Grimsby, which in the time of Edward III. furnished him with
eleven ships, is now totally choked with sand.
“All these coasts of Lincolnshire are flat, and have been gained
from the sea. Barton and Barrow have not at present the least
appearance of ports; and yet by Hollingshed were styled good
ones. Similar accidents have befallen the low tract of
Holderness, which faces the congruent shores. Hedon, a few
miles below Hull, several hundred years ago a port of great
commerce, is now a mile and half from the water, and has long
given way to the fortune of the latter (a creation of Edward I in
1296) on account of the excellency of its port. But in return the
sea has made ample reprisals on the lands of this Hundred.
The site, and even the very names of several places, once
towns of note upon the Humber, are now only recorded in
history; and Ravenspur was at one time the rival of Hull, and a
port so very considerable in 1332, that Edward Baliol and the
confederated English barons sailed from hence with a great fleet
to invade Scotland: Henry IV, in 1399 made choice of this port
to land at, to effect the deposal of Richard II; yet the whole of it
has been long since devoured by the merciless ocean; extensive
sands, dry at low water, are to be seen in their stead: except
Sunk Island, which till about 1666 appeared among them like an
elevated shoal, at which period it was regained, by
embankments from the sea, and now forms a considerable
estate, probably restored to its pristine condition.”
 Section VI.

Further account of the Fens, from the Beauties of England, and

other sources.

“That this vast level was at first a firm dry land, and not
annoyed with any extraordinary inundation by the sea, or
stagnation of fresh waters, is evident from the quantity of trees
that have been found buried in different parts of the fens, and
also from a variety of other circumstances.
“Dugdale, in his History of Embanking, observes that in making
several-channels for draining in the isle of Axholm, great
numbers of oak, fir, and other trees were found in the moor.
The fir trees lay at the depth of between four and five feet, but
the oaks were but little more than three feet beneath the soil.
They were discovered lying near their roots, which “still stand as
they grew,” that is, in firm earth below the moor, and the
bodies, for the most part, northwest from the roots, not cut
down with axes, but burnt asunder, somewhat near the ground,
as the ends of them, being coaled, do manifest. The oaks were
lying in multitudes, and of an extraordinary size, being five
yards in compass, and sixteen yards long; and some smaller of
a greater length, with a good quantity of acorns and small nuts
near them.” Similar discoveries have been made in the fen near
Thorney; in digging the channel north of Lynn, called Downham
Eau; and in many other places.”

Mr Richard Atkins, a gentleman of considerable research, and a

commissioner of sewers in the reign of James I. was of opinion that
the Fens were formerly meadow land, fruitful, healthy, and lucrative
to the inhabitants, from affording relief to the people of the
highlands in times of drought. Peterborough, he observes, was of
old called Meadhamstead, on account of the meadows there, though
most of the present fens belong to that district. Likewise Ely, or
Peterborough Great Fen was once a forest.
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