Highways and Byways in Cambridge and Ely Part 32

At the draining of the Fens, in the seventeenth century, Thorney was a.s.signed to the Earls (now Dukes) of Bedford, who, during the nineteenth century alone, have expended on their Thorney estates nearly 2,000,000. Yet the Thorney property does not even pay its way.

The n.o.ble owners have, however, their reward in the genuine success which has crowned the experiment from a philanthropic point of view.

Thanks to their efforts, Thorney is again, as in the old days of the Benedictines, a smiling, well-wooded oasis amid the dreary Fenland; where the welfare of the tenantry is, as of old, the chief object of the landlord, and where, in consequence, pauperism, drunkenness, and crime are alike practically unknown. The remains of the Abbey Church are still used for parochial wors.h.i.+p, but only 117 of its original 290 feet of length have survived Henry the Eighth's demolitions.

CHAPTER XIX

Draining of Fens.--Monastic Works, Morton's Leam.--Diversion of Ouse.--Local Government, Jurats, Discontent.--Jacobean polemics.--First Drainage Company.--Rising of Fen-men.--Second Company, Huguenot Labourers.--Third Company, Earl of Bedford, Vermuyden.--Old River.--Cromwell.--Fourth Company, Prisoner Slaves, New River, Denver Sluice.--Later Developments.

The thought of the Fenland Abbeys leads on to the fascinating story of the draining of the fens. For the monks were the first to reclaim from the mora.s.s such little patches of ground as each Abbey could bank in, and to discover how very fertile such reclaimed soil is. Their early chronicles speak with rapture of the hay that could be mown three times a year, and the amazing fecundity of the corn-land. Thus it was their interest constantly to be enclosing fresh acres. They discovered, too, that by judiciously letting in the flood water on to a field they could get a fresh deposit of silt, and gradually raise the level of the soil. And the first attempt at drainage work on a large scale was also due to a monk, Bishop Morton, Abbot of Ely, who in 1480 cut the twelve mile long "Leam," or channel, which still bears his name, to divert the River Nene from its long meandering course through Whittlesea Mere and Outwell, and to bring it straight to Wisbech.

Thus it came about that the reclamation of the fens went hand in hand with the prosperity of the Abbeys around them. When these were prosperous, the whole district prospered; when misfortune befell them, the fens likewise suffered; and it often took many years for the marks of the ruin to be effaced. After the wholesale destruction wrought by the great Danish raid of 870, centuries did not suffice for this. The story we have just told of the sack of Crowland clearly shows that the place was then accessible by land. But in the hundred and fifty years of desolation that followed, such works as the brethren had effected fell into decay, and the land once more became waterlogged.

Even when William of Malmesbury wrote, in the twelfth century, he tells us that Crowland could still only be reached by boat. And the yet more wholesale destruction wrought by Henry the Eighth was followed by a like period of reversion to waste.

The zeal, however, of these early civilisers was not always according to knowledge; and at quite an early date a grievous mistake was made, which caused endless difficulties ever after, and still affects the whole drainage system of the district. This was the cutting, at some date between 1215 and 1270, of a leam, not two miles long, from the Great Ouse at Littleport to the Little Ouse,[241] thereby diverting the waters of the former into the channel of the latter, and bringing their united volume into the sea at Lynn. Before that date the Great Ouse ran from Littleport to Outwell, where it was met by the Nene, and by a branch of the Little Ouse. The joint river was called the Well Stream, and poured into the sea at Wisbech.

[Footnote 241: The Little Ouse drains the south-western districts of Norfolk.]

That this had been the age-long course of the Fenland waters is shown by the existence of a huge Roman sea wall running round the old coast line from Lynn to Wisbech, and from Wisbech to Sutton in Lincolns.h.i.+re.

This wall traces for us the outline of a great tidal estuary running up to Wisbech, which continued an estuary even to the eighteenth century. But the diversion of the greater part of its river water to Lynn proved fatal to it. Such stream as was left, scarcely more than that of the Nene, could not, at the ebb, scour out the channel through the sands which the flood-tide continually tended to silt up. Wisbech became more and more shut off from the sea, and is now ten miles away from it. And further, the inability to escape quickly enough through these choking sands drove the river water at Wisbech back upon itself and forced it to "drown" the neighbouring fens; while at Lynn the same disastrous effect was produced by the new volume of water being too great for the narrow bed of the Little Ouse and flooding over the banks all round. The Marshland, as the Norfolk district protected by the Roman wall was called, suffered especially from this result of interfering with Nature.

Nor did it prove possible to undo the mischief. When once a short cut has been made for a great river, it is no easy matter to turn the stream back into its old tortuous course; and, when once an estuary has got thoroughly silted up, it is yet more difficult to restore it to its old condition. Throughout the Middle Ages constant complaints were made, and occasional attempts; but these were always brought to nought by some conflicting interest or other which got the ear of the Government. The fen problem was early recognised as a matter of national concern, and, from the time of Edward the First onwards, the Crown tried to grapple with it, but by hopelessly futile methods.

To begin with, the system of Local Government already established for the regulation of Romney Marsh in Kent was extended to the Fenland.

The Sheriff was bound to summon twenty-four "jurats" from the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, to deal with each difficulty as it arose. But a plan which worked well enough for a district only some ten miles by fifteen, and with no river to speak of, was wholly inadequate to deal with the huge area and mighty forces of the Fenland, even when this was divided (as it still is for drainage purposes) into three "Levels," "North," "Middle," and "South." The jurats hated their invidious office, and were themselves hated by the inhabitants; each man always declaring that they had saddled him with repairs which ought to have been laid upon some neighbour, and each man ready to see his own land "drown" rather than put in a single spadeful of work which, in his view, should have been someone else's job.

Besides, the drain or the dam or the embankment which was good for one set of interests was bad for another. We have seen how Cambridge complained of the erection of Denver Sluice; and like grievances fill page after page of the Plantagenet Rolls. The men of Lynn complain that whereas they were of old able to sail straight to Peterborough, only thirty miles, they now have to go round by Littleport, over fifty miles, owing to the erection of a dam by the jurats. And, again, that a new cut has so diverted the waters that they can no longer take "navigable" (_i.e._ sea-going) vessels to Yaxley and Holme in Huntingdons.h.i.+re, "whereby our trade is greatly decayed." Loud and incessant are the cries from all quarters (except Lynn alone) to "bring back the waters into their natural outfall" at Wisbech. But this, as we have said, had become beyond the power of man; and, despite the well-meant efforts of the unhappy jurats, and of such philanthropists as Bishop Morton, things kept getting worse decade by decade; till the suppression of the Abbeys completed the ruin, and the fens became the dismal tangle of decayed waterways, small and great, new and old, artificial and natural, usable and unusable, the unravelling of which occupied the next three centuries.

Feeble efforts were locally made here and there to control the waters; but, as the historian Carter puts it, the next wet and windy winter "down comes the bailiff of Bedford (for so the country people call the overflowing of the river Ouse), attended, like a person of quality, with many servants (the accession of tributary brooks), and breaks down all their paper banks as not waterproof, reducing all to their former condition." He goes on to give a vivid description of the puzzle-headed conservatism with which the reformers had to contend:

"This accident put the wits of that and succeeding ages upon the dispute of the feasibility of the design; and let us sum up the arguments for and against this great undertaking.

"Argument 1. Some objected that G.o.d said to the water, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further.' It is therefore a trespa.s.s on the Divine prerogative, for man to presume to give other bounds to the water than what G.o.d hath appointed.

"Answer 1. The argument holdeth in application to the Ocean, which is a wild horse, only to be broke, backed, and bridled by Him who is the Maker thereof; but it is a false and lazy principle if applied to fresh waters, from which human industry may and hath rescued many considerable parcels of ground.

"Argument 2. Many have attempted but not effected it. None ever wrestled with it, but it gave them a foil, if not a fall, to the bruising, if not breaking, of their backs. Many have burnt their fingers in these waters, and instead of draining the Fens have emptied their own pockets.

"Answer 2. Many men's undertaking thereof implies the possibility of the project; for it is not likely so many wise men should seek for what is not to be found; the failing is not in the improbability of the design, but in the undertakers either wanting heads or hearts to pursue, or pay the people employed therein.

"Argument 4. An alderman of Cambridge affirmed the Fens to be like a crust of bread swimming in a dish of water. So that under eight or ten feet earth it is nothing but mere water. Impossible therefore the draining thereof, if surrounded by that liquid element both above and below.

"Answer 4. Interest betrayed his judgment to an evident error, and his brains seemed rather to swim than the floating earth; for such as have sounded the depth of that ground find it to be Terra Firma, and no doubt so solid to the centre as any other earth in England.

"Argument 5. The river Grant or Cam (call it what you will), running by Cambridge, will have its stream dried up by the draining of the Fens. Now, as Cambridge is concerned in its river, so that whole County, yea, this whole Kingdom, is concerned in Cambridge. No reason, therefore, that private men's particular profit should be preferred before an universal good, or good of an University.

"Answer 5. It is granted the water by Cambridge kindles and keeps in the fire therein; no hope of sufficient fuel on reasonable rates, except care be taken for preserving the River navigable; which may be done and the Fens drained nevertheless. To take away the thief is no wasting or weakening of the wick of the candle.

a.s.surances may be given that no damage shall rebound to the stream of Grant by stopping other superfluous waters.

"Argument 6. The Fens preserved in their present property afford great plenty and variety of fish and fowl, which have therein their seminaries and nurseries; the which will be destroyed on the draining thereof, so that none will be had but at excessive prices.

"Answer 6. A large first makes recompense for the shorter second course of any man's table. And who will not prefer a tame sheep before a wild duck? a good fat ox before a well-grown eel?

"Argument 7. The Fens afford plenty of sedge, turf, and reed; the want whereof will be found if their nature be altered.

"Answer 7. These commodities are inconsiderable to balance the profit of good gra.s.s and grain, which those grounds, if drained, will produce. He cannot complain of wrong, who hath a suit of buckram taken from him, and one of velvet given instead thereof.

Besides, provision may be made that a sufficiency of such ware-trash may still be preserved.

"Argument 8. Many thousands of poor people are maintained by fis.h.i.+ng and fowling in the Fens, which will all be at a loss for a livelihood if their farms be burnt; that is, if the Fens be drained.

"Answer 8. It is confessed that many who love idleness live (and only live) by that employment. But such, if the Fens were drained, would quit their idleness, and betake themselves to more lucrative manufactures.

"Argument 9. Grant that the Fens be drained with great difficulty, they will quickly revert to their old condition, like to the Pontine Marshes in Italy.

"Answer 9. If a patient, perfectly cured, will be careless of his healthe, none will pity his relapse. Moderate cost, with constant care, will easily preserve what is drained; the Low Countries affording many proofs thereof.

"Argument 10. Grant them drained and so continuing; as now the great fishes prey upon the less, so then wealthy men would devour the poorer sort of people; injurious partage would follow upon the inclosures, and rich men (to make room for themselves) would jostle the poor people out of their Commons.

"Answer 10. Oppression is not essential either to draining or enclosing, though too often a concomitant of both. Order may be taken by Commissioners of quality, impowered for that purpose, that such a proportion of Commons may be allotted to the poor that all private persons may be pleased and advance accrue hereby to the Commonwealth."

The outcome of these vigorous polemics was that King James the First threw himself whole-heartedly into the idea of a general drainage scheme; and under his auspices a Company of "Adventurers" or "Undertakers" was formed to carry out the business. This, however, was regarded by the Fen-men as an unmitigated piece of tyranny; the Opposition in Parliament made violent protests; "Libellers" wrote inflammatory broadsides inciting the Fen-men to rise;[242] and the Fen-men, who wanted little inciting, did rise in no small numbers.

Nocturnal raids destroyed every work begun by the Company's labourers; the labourers themselves were intimidated; and before long progress became impossible. The Company became bankrupt, and the thousands of reclaimed acres which were to have been divided amongst the "Adventurers" never actualised.

[Footnote 242: A specimen of one of the "libels" is given by Dugdale:

"Come brethren of the water, and let us all a.s.semble To treat upon this matter, which makes us quake and tremble; For we shall rue, if it be true the Fens be undertaken, And where we feed in rush and reed, _they_ feed both beet and bacon.

"Away with boats and rudders, away with boots and scatches [skates], No need of one nor t'other; men now make better matches.

Stilt-makers all and tanners complain of this disaster; For they would make each muddy lake for Ess.e.x calves a pasture.

"Wherefore let us intreat our ancient Winter Nurses To show their power so great, and help to drain _their purses_, And send us good old Captain Flood to lead us out to battle, Then Twopenny Jack, with scales on back, shall drive out all their cattle."

["Jack" here simply means a pike, the average price of which at this time would seem to have been twopence. The "Winter Nurses" are the rivers feeding the Fen.]]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE OLD FENLAND

(Northern District)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE OLD FENLAND

(Southern District)]

The Crown, however, did not lose sight of the scheme. A special Commission of enquiry was formed, which sent in a most pessimistic Report, representing Wisbech as demanding that the "upland men" should contribute to the scouring of the outfall there, inasmuch as it drained their lands, to which the upland men retorted that Wisbech might mind its own business and bear its own burdens. "Hence the country about Crowland and Thorney, formerly good ground, hath become mere Lerna,[243]--which doth not only cause overflowing in the upland country, to their infinite loss, but the Islanders themselves are in like danger, as for their cattle and their own safety; out of fear whereof they oftentimes, upon the swelling of the waters, ring their bells backward, as in other places when the town is on fire."

[Footnote 243: The Lernaean swamp was the legendary home of the famous Hydra overcome by Hercules.]