538 HISTORY OF ENGINEERING. Took I.
pound. After the work was completed, the engineer received in addition to his pav the
reward of fifty pounds.
To the nqrth, and north-east of the Wctham, lie other large fenny districts, called Wild-more Fen, West and East Fens ; these are drained by an outfall, at WainHeet Ilaven.
No general survey having been made during the middle ages, or any of the levelsproperly taken, the country comprised within this great fenny district was but veryimperfectly drained. All the sluices were much too small, and the water courses so confinedthat they could not carry away the superabundant waters to the sea. The commissionersappear generally to have been guided by the wishes of the inhabitants of the particulardistrict where any inquiry was instituted, and they were often misled by either the pre-judice or ignorance of the engineers consulted.
In the summer time there is so much deposit at the mouths of the several rivers orwashes, that the Hoods of winter cannot scour it away, though these often pour down insuch abundance that they over-ride the gates, and flow over the fens.
At the latter end of the lust century considerable attention was paid to this district, andvast sums of money expended for its improvement. Deeping Fen, which was drained bythree wind engines above Spalding, where the waters were lifted into the river Welland,has now a deep canal cut, which conveys them into the Witham, below Boston .
The fen which extends from Tattershall to Lincoln has been greatly improved byembanking and draining, under an act passed in the year 1787, and a new cut has beenmade from Bishop Bridge to the Humber, for the drainage of the Ancholme district. TheWildmore, East, and West Fens have outlets at Anton’s Gowt, and Maudfoster ; one 2£ milesabove Boston , the other a little below it; these are consequently more effectually drained ;besides which, there is a cut from Midlam Drain at Swinecoat’s inclosure, which continuesfor 11* miles, with a fall of from 3 to 4 inches per mile, and for 13 miles with little morethan ‘2 inches per mile during neap tides.
Catch-water drains have been made, which skirt the high lands near the Witham, inConingsby, and receive all the waters that can be collected ; the locks are so constructedthat the navigation is not impeded.
The Bedford Level. — Mr. Samuel Wells published in 1830, in two octavo volumes, acomplete history, accompanied by a map, of this singularly interesting district.
The great fen comprehends the low lands on each side of tire bay called the Wash, and isabout 60 miles in length, and from ‘20 to 30 in breadth.
The area of the Bedford Level contains about 530 square miles, or 340,000 English acres, and on the east are the high lands of Norfolk , Suffolk and the wolds of Lincoln,which consist of chalk: westward the high grounds are composed of sandstone and oolite,and the substratum of the level is alluvial marie or sand, formed by deposition of theupland waters, wherever met by the tide. This deposit, when its accumulation is above thelevel of.neap tides, forms a salt marsh, only overflowed by spring tides: when the surfaceis elevated, by vegetation partially intercepting the sediment of the upland streams, it thenbecomes fen, through which the rivers are constantly forming new channels.
Eleven rivers bring oft’ the waters from the high lands, and form the natural drainage ;these are the Witham, the Glen, the Welland, the None, the Cam, the Great Ouse, the Lark,the Brandon or Little Ouse, the Stoke, and the Wessey. All these are collected into fouroutfalls, viz. the Witham, the Welland, the None, and the Ouse. History tells us that theRomans commenced the drainage of this highly productive soil, and formed embankmentsstill visible at Wisbeaeh and Lynn, and in the Carr dyke, which extends from I’eterboroughto Lincoln. Around Horsey, near Stand Ground, Erith , Bodsey, and Worlich, numerouslines of forts or stations may be still traced.
In the reign of Henry VIII . an act was passed for regulating the commissioners ofsewers, but it specifies no powers for making new drains; other acts were passed in thereign of Elizabeth, in 1572, and five years later; but in the forty-third of Elizabeth, 1600,a general drainage act was passed which extended over all the marshes and drowned landsof England.
During the reign of James I. the crown lands were taxed for the purpose of drainage,and two commissioners were appointed to treat with tlie parties interested : Richard Atkinswas employed to bore the fens 11 feet deep ; and a plan of drainage was laid down, byforming a new channel for the Nene, from the town of March to Salter’s Lode. Also tocut straight the channel from Ouse to Erith , where the Ouse at low water was 10 feetbelow the soil of the fens. The first of these is now called Popliam’s Eau , and the latterthe Bedford River. Land drained under Hayward’s survey, made at that time, amountedto 307,242 acres.
Sir John Popliam, the Lord Chief Justice, and others, undertook, in 1605, to drain allthe fens between the Ouse and the Deeping, and were to retain for their trouble and outlay130,000 acres. Popham’s Eau , which was executed under Atkins’s direction upon an en-larged scale, was opened in 1606 : seven years afterwards the banks yielded to a very hightide, and considerable damage was done to them, to repair - which cost 40,000/.