_Miscellaneous Observations on the present appearance_, _produce_, _and
state of the Fens_.
The elevated spots on which the towns and villages are built in many
parts of the fens, appear like islands rising in the midst of low and
level marshes; and the churches being generally erected on the highest
parts, may be distinguished at the distance of several miles. The
cottages in many places are nothing more than mud-walls, covered with
thatch or reed. The application of the land is various. The crops of
oats are particularly exuberant, the produce being frequently from
forty-five to sixty bushels an acre; great quantities of wheat and
coleseed are also grown, and generally with a proportional increase.
Many thousand acres are also appropriated to pasture.
In the neighbourhood of Elm, Upwell, Outwell, &c. considerable quantities
of hemp and flax are grown; but the culture of these articles, as a
preparation for wheat, does not receive that attention which their
importance demands. Some very fine butter is made in the dairy farms in
this district; and the vicinity of Cottenham is famous for a peculiar
kind of new cheese of a singularly delicious flavour; which is partly
ascribed to the mode observed in the management of the dairies, and
partly to the nature of the herbage on the commons. Many parts are
remarkably favourable for the growth of corn; but the situation of some
of them renders them so extremely liable to be overflowed, that their
luxuriant produce is too frequently destroyed by the floods. {74} It is
generally said, however, that if the occupiers have one good year in
every two or three, they will make a very tolerable shift to live. The
sheep in some parts are said to be very subject to the rot, which has
been attributed to the neglected state of the fens in those places,
occasioning the ground to produce rank and unwholesome herbage.
The grounds are perhaps no where richer or more fertile, in any part of
this low country, than about Wisbeach and Long Sutton. The pastures
there are exceedingly fine and luxuriant. The crops of corn also are in
general abundant, but much more subject to blights than in the hilly
parts, and the grain is said to be lighter; and much inferior in quality
to that of the high country.
Towards March and Chatteris, the land, though apparently very good, is
said to be apt to produce such an increasing quantity of thick moss, as
renders it in a few years unfit for pasturage; to remedy which, the
farmer has the surface pared off and burnt, preparatory to its being
ploughed up; by which means the moss is effectually destroyed, and a good
manure provided for the ensuing crops, which are for the most part very
plentiful. After a while it is again converted into grass land, and so
continued till the moss gathers and appears as before, when the former
process is again resorted to, as the only remedy.
One very great inconvenience, which the inhabitants of this low country
labour under, is the want of good water, especially in dry summers, owing
to the scarcity of springs. Rain-water is the only water they can have
for domestic uses, almost throughout the year: to preserve which they
have troughs and spouts constructed and fixed under the eves of the
houses, by which it is conveyed into cisterns and reservoirs for the use
of their families. Even such populous towns as Boston and Wisbeach have
no better means of supplying themselves with good water; which in most
parts of Britain would be deemed an intolerable grievance. To Lynn,
however, the above case does not apply. The country on its eastern side
abounds with good springs, from which the town is plentifully supplied
with excellent water, as not to be exceeded in that respect, perhaps, by
any place in the kingdom.
In Marshland and other parts of the country, it is with no small
difficulty that water can be procured for the cattle in very dry seasons.
Instances not few, are said to have been known at such times, of their
being driven daily some miles to water, as none could be procured at a
nearer distance. Such is the spongy quality of the soil in these parts,
that pits dug to preserve the rain water would not retain it unless they
were previously bottomed with clay, by which the water is prevented from
sinking into the earth. Such pits are dug almost in every field; and for
all the care and expence bestowed upon them, they are often found empty
and useless long before the end of a very dry summer. Thus it appears,
that this country, so fertile and desirable in some respects, has its
advantages greatly counter-balanced by some very serious inconveniences,
from which the more hilly and sterile districts of the kingdom are
happily exempted. On the whole, when the advantages and disadvantages of
this low fertile country are fairly compared with those of the more
barren and mountainous regions, it will probably be found that the
favours of providence are much more equally distributed than we are
sometimes apt to imagine.
Here it may be further observed, that the system of agriculture, and even
the implements of husbandry are different in marshland and the fens from
those of the higher parts of Norfolk; which is probably to be ascribed to
the soil, or quality of the land being very different in the one from
what it is in the other. In the former it is for the most part strong
and heavy, but weak and light in the latter, so as not to require more
than two horses to draw the plough, and which are uniformly managed
without a driver.