_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.”