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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	king_n	part_n	3,340	5	4.2304	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30500	A briefe relation discovering plainely the true causes why the great levell of fenns in the severall counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Huntington, Northampton, and Lincolne shires, being three hundred and seven thousand acres of low-lands, have been drowned and made unfruitfull for many yeares past and as briefly how they may be drained, and preserved from inundation in the times to come : humbly presented to the honourable House of Commons assembled in Parliament / by Andrewes Burrell, gent.	Burrell, Andrewes.	1642 (1642)	Wing B5969; ESTC R2671	13,041	29

A Briefe RELATION Discovering Plainely the true Causes why the great Levell of FENNS In the severall Counties of Norfolk Suffolk Cambridge Huntington North-hampton and Lincolne Shires BEING Three hundred and seven thousand Acres of Low-Lands have been drowned and made unfruitfull for many yeares past AND As briefly how they may be drained and preserved from Inundation in the times to come Humbly presented to the Honourable House of COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT By Andrewes Burrell Gent. LONDON Printed for Francis Constable 1642. TO THE HONOVRABLE House of COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT GReat and Honourable workes ought to bee directed by great and Honourable Councells And therefore to the intent this noble Enterprise may not be undervalued as it is by some I humbly informe this Honourable Court that besides sundry attempts made by divers Noble men who desired to improve the great levell of Fenns the undertaking was so well esteemed by King JAMES that Hee really intended to take it into His owne care the diversion of His Royall intention is unknowne After him the Late Earle of Bedford and his friends adventured great summes of money to recover them But before their workes were finished they were circumvented and outed of all their intendments The last undertaking was attempted by the Kings Majesty that now is but the greatest part of His money being mis-spent and all his intended workes misled by Sir Cornelius Vermuden's mysticall designe His now Majesty hath declined His undertaking also so that it is like to returne to the now Earle of BEDFORD and his friends This Noble Enterprise being thus misguided lyeth now before your grave Wisdomes expecting direction from this Honourable Assembly and wanting a better friend to petition for them there being an Order made by the Honourable Committee for the Fens the twenty five of February last that all men whom it may concern may offer any other designe In regard a perfect designe concerneth the preservation of many mens estates which also may be ruined impaired or cast into eminent danger I am humbly bold to informe you that unlesse this Honourable Court command the now intended works to be published to the severall Counties as was once intended by the Honourable Committee so that the Countries approbation or exceptions may bee valued or at the least heard And that before the works beginne equall compositions may bee made with all those whose Lands shall bee impaired endangered or taken from them many men may bee ruined in their just Estates There are two Reasons that make me earnest in this cause The one is the former ill designing and ill mannaging of the workes wherein Wilfulnesse and Ignorance in the Kings Name over-ruled the Countries The other concernes my selfe first in taking a great part of my owne Land and some of that which I Farme from me without satisfaction composition or leave to cut it and which is much worse by bringing all the rest of my Inheritance and leas't Lands which together are not lesse than three thousand Acres into eminent danger of drowning by cutting my old firme Banck and exposing my Lands to bee defended from the common waters by a hollow counterfeit Banck made of so light a composition that it will both burne and swim And here I beseech you give mee leave to tell you that for want of Iustice in ENGLAND and Peace in IRELAND my aged Mother my selfe and foure Brethren have within a few yeares lost nine hundred and sixty pounds per annum which when time will give me leave I hope to prove before this Honourable Parliament which makes me the more earnestly implore your aide in this my great necessity To conclude if this Noble Enterprise by your Honourable paines be well designed and so prosecuted The Improvement will not only returne a sufficient satisfaction to the adventurers but the Common-wealth will sweetly rellish the great Improvement which will follow But because it is not safe to be over large in great promises I will say no more but GOD grant the Fenns may in due time be made VVinter grounds not impairing any private mans estate So Prayeth Your Honours humble Supplyant Andrewes Burrell A BRIEFE RELATION Of the true Causes why the FENNS In Norfolk Suffolk Cambridge Huntington Northampton and Lincolne Shires have beene drowned AND As briefly how they may be drained and preserved from Inundation BEfore I declare the Reasons why those Low Lands are subject to drowning I conceive it is fit to discover to them that doe not know those Countries in what condition the Fens were before they were drowned How they are seated and how they are drowned Mr. Cambden in his Brittania folio 449. referres his Readers to William of Malmesbury who reporteth the Lordship of Thorney in his time to be so fruitfull and fragrant that for delight it resembled Heaven it selfe That Lordship is indeed a large and rich piece of Land consisting of eighteen thousand Acres or thereabouts and pertaineth to the Earles of Bedford But having lost the beauty lately mentioned nay to be plaine being quite lost and perpetually drowned save onely one Hillocke where the Abbey standeth was the cause that induced the late Earle to undertake the drayning of the great Levell In which service by reason of my imployment under his Lordship in the yeare 1635. In deepning Wisbeach River I discovered a stony bottome upon which there was found lying at severall distances seven boates which for many yeares had laine buried eight foot under the bottome of the River as it was before the late Earles undertaking And it is very likely that when Thorney flourished Neene did run as deepe as that bottome After this discovery it was intended by the late Earle that the River Neene should have been enlarged and deepned from Wisbeach to Stanground by the tract of Mourton Leame as now it is from Wisbeach to Guyherne And I am very confident that if Neene were made a hundred foot broad and so deepe as it is in Wisbeach Towne from Wisbeach to Stanground Thorney Fens in a few yeares would be as fruitfull and rich as ever they were in Malmesburies time whose story is That they represented a very Paradise for that in pleasure and delight it resembled Heaven it selfe in the very Marishes bearing trees that for their straight tallnesse and the same without knots strive to touch the Stars A Plaine is there as even as the sea which with green grasse allureth the eye so smooth and levell that if any walk along the fields they shall finde nothing to stumble at there is not the least parcell of ground that lieth waste and void there Here shall you finde the Earth rising some where for Apple trees there shall you have a field set with Vines which either creep upon the ground or mount on high upon poles to support them A mutuall strife there is betweene Nature and Husbandry that what the one forgetteth the other might supply and produce What will be said of the faire and beautifull

buildings c. This great Levell of Low-Lands whereof Thorney is a part is almost compassed about with high Lands and lyeth betwixt the high Lands and the Sea The superficies thereof being generally as high as the superficies of the Sea in ordinary Tides commonly called Neape Tides But foure or five foot lower than the superficies of the Sea when the Sea is at the highest which is in the Spring Tides whereof some doe very much exceed others being ruled by the windes Such Tides doe happen twenty or thirty dayes in the course of a yeare some yeares more than the most and some yeares lesse than the least as the stormy windes doe force the Spring Tides into the Bay which is betwixt Burnham in Norfolk and Winthorp in Lincolnshire whereby it is apparant that the Rivers which are in the Fens cannot empty themselves into the Sea but at such times as the Sea floods are returned out of the Rivers to the place from whence they came By reason whereof the Fens are often drowned two three or foure foot deepe according as the floods are greater or lesse Betwixt the Fens and the Sea there is much good Land that is improved and defended by substantiall Bankes made of Clay and Silt which doe preserve them from being drowned by the Sea on the one side and the high land waters on the other The common Fens being at the least five foot higher than some of those lands so that the Sea commeth not neare the Fens by six miles or thereabouts The fresh water Rivers which doe passe through this Levell are principally Owse and Neene the rest are but branches that doe fall into Owse at their severall distances The neerest way that any part of the River Owse doth run from the high land to the Sea is thirty six miles but the greatest part of it runneth fifty six miles or thereabouts The River Neene runneth through this Levell before it falleth into the Sea twenty miles or thereabouts So much for the scituation and condition of the Fens The reasons why the Fens are drowned are principally six FIrst because the superficies of the Fens lyeth lower than the superficies of the Sea when the Spring Tides are at the highest Secondly because the high land floods must of necessity passe through that great Levell of low Lands having very little descent to enforce a streame from the high Lands to the Sea but at such times as the Sea floods by retiring themselves doe leave the Rivers empty which many times is not above eight houres in twenty foure A third reason is the Rivers through which the high Land waters should passe are not large enough to convey them to the Sea nor are they armed with sufficient banks to keepe the Sea and Land floods from dilating themselves over the face of the whole Levell and it is a hard question whether the Sea or the Land floods are the most potent enemies to the Fenns but this is most certaine that when the Sea floods and the Land floods meet as they often times doe halfe way betwixt the high Lands and the Sea in that very place like two powerfull enimies joyning in one they doe over-run the Levell and drowne it from one end unto the other A fourth reason why the Fenns are drowned is occasioned by the Sea floods the violence whereof maketh so loud a noise at the first comming into the River Owse that it is oft times heard by those that are two miles from it and after the eager is past for the space of foure houres there followeth a mighty flood streame that runneth into the Country neere forty miles which waters returning more slowly must of necessity have more time to empty themselves then was spent in receiving them for those waters which the Sea forces into the Rivers must all returne before the high Country waters can possibly be admitted to passe The disadvantage is very plaine the high Land waters comming from betwixt the hills are continually running into the Fens and the Sea floods are continually interrupting and repelling them where they should passe out of the Fens into the Sea and will not suffer them to run above foure houres in twelve which is one chiefe cause why the Fens neare Ely are so often drowned A fifth reason is the ill disposition of the Sea in those parts which being troubled by stormy windes doe carry such abundance of Silt or Sand into the Rivers in the Sommer season that for want of a fresh water streame to wash them back into the Sea the Rivers are choked and lost which Silt or Sands soon after the Spring Tides are past doe lie dry and presently gaine a firmenesse so that men and horses travell upon them and in the beginning of Winter they doe much hinder the streame of the high land waters as they passe to the Sea untill by many land floods they are removed and washed into the Sea from whence they came but it is so long before that can be effected in regard the high Land floods compared with the Sea floods are very weake that when it is done it is too late for the Country being seldome wrought before the end of Winter The dryer the Sommer is the more the Rivers are filled and choked with Silt and Sand against Winter and it is commonly seen that after much drought there falleth much Raine which oftentimes occasioneth the greatest Inundations The sixt and last reason why the Fens are often drowned is because there is no Land Eayes to receive the surplussage of the waters which proceed from Raine and Snow falling upon the high Lands adjacent to the Fens and to carry them into those Rivers or Draines which are next unto them Now I have briefly showne the true causes why and how the great Levell of Fens are drowned I will particularly declare what works must be made to draine and preserve those low Lands from Inundation so that the greatest part of them may be made Culturable grounds TO remove the first and second causes of Inundation there must be a descent gained from the high Lands to the Sea which is a work of a double consequence and indeed it is one of the greatest works which is to be effected The waters in the Fens may be fitly compared to the beame of a paire of Skales when it hangeth Levell which being raised at one end doth at the same instant settle as much at the other Such a contrivement must be made of the fal that is to be gained betwixt the high Lands and the Sea the one halfe must be gained by raising the waters next the high Lands by Banks of a convenient heigth and by setling of the waters in that part of the Rivers that is next unto the Sea which latter work must be wrougt by mending and enlarging of the old Rivers and Draines where they are crooked and where they are too narrow or too shallow and by placing of Sluces to repell the Sea floods