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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	affirm_v	certain_a	great_a	188	4	2.0716	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36235	The designe for the perfect draining of the great level of the fens, called Bedford level, lying in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Huntingtonshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire and the isle of Ely as it was delivered to the honourable corporation for the draining of the said great level the 4th of June, 1664 : as also several objections answered since the delivery of the said designe now in agitation : and as for the new works intended in this designe appears in the annexed map : and the charge of the whole calculated / by Collonel William Dodson.	Dodson, William.	1665 (1665)	Wing D1801; ESTC R12203	36,672	50

you if you have Northernly windes you will have such foul waters from the Sea that quickly will lodge up your Out-fall at Wisbidge and Lyn by reason your Rivers in those places are wider then they ought to be which may be helped by this my Design so that the Flux and Re-flux of the Sea doth not grinde but feed The River Owse which hath its Out-fall at Lynne is for some miles at Sea below that Town much obstructed by several shelves of sands which are moveable as the winde and sea forces them and yet the winter Chennels are kept by the winter Floods but in Summer our want of Freshes or Floods make us not able to maintain our winter Chennel and so we lose it till our first Floods in November or thereabouts can gain their own Chennel again in the mean time all our Banks and Works are in great danger and the poor Countrey-man in hazzard of utter ruine and the Navigation of Lynne very uncertain and dangerous the same hazzards in all respects are in the River of Wisbidge through the Washes to the Sea And now to prevent these dangers and to make our Fens and Level secure without trusting to the hazzard of our Out-falls without us or the breaking or the sinking of the Banks within us the taking away all those great charges of maintaining and repairing all those Banks made to hold up our In-land Floods at such a vast height as to rid the Spring tides as I have said before I dare be bold to say that twenty years hence for want of Earth at a reasonable distance the Banks will cost more in one year then now they do in four I wish the Charge of those Fen Lands may not exceed the Profit as some of them have already done and much good Land without the Level in likelihood to come into the same condition if not prevented When I was DIRECTOR I would have cut through Murrow-gate to the Horseshooe at Wisbidge which would have cost less then the widening of that River and there to have fallen into Wisbidge River close to the Apron of that gallant Sleuce then standing and so far I had as I did then believe obtained the Adventurers to consent unto and they at a general meeting at Wisbidge 1649. did make a personal view of the place and found what I affirmed to be truth and this River I would have compleated by reason of the great benefit it would have been to all the North-side of Wisbidge and other parts adjacent to drain them and a certain Slaker in all Floods to ease Morton's Leam and all the Banks upon it upon all occasions Then take the River Owse and all the Branches which fall into it before it come to Downham-Bridge and likewise cast your eye upon the River called Morton's Leam as it runs at the Horseshooe below Wisbidge to meet there with my new River that is to be made through Murrow-gate and this is the first part of my Design to bring all our Floods and Freshes to run quick below Downham and Wisbidge In the next place to give more particular satisfaction I question not but all rational men will grant and allow that if by this Design those two considerable Rivers of great Owse and Morton's Leam can be be brought to run all the year and every hour of the year in two great Rivers at Downham-Bridge and Wisbidge-Bridge notwithstanding the Spring Tides or the Ebb Tides they must needs confess that they then believe they shall be perfectly drained yet they cannot believe this can be done but that the Tide must be stopped and it is true and good reason for it which as I said before flowes into us every twelve hours into the midst of our Fens and flowes no less then three hours and an half or four and then four hours to ebb back again so shall we have not above four hours in twelve for our Freshes to run out of the Level But it is intended and will be made good by this my Design the Freshes shall run quick all the year and every hour of the year at Downham-Bridge and Wisbidge if they may have leave by a Sleuce below them some miles distant and though I name this last yet it is the first thing to be perfected that is by a substantial large Sleuce made at German-bridge or Magdelen in Norfolk and near unto it one Soss to maintain Navigation from Lynne to Cambridge Wisbidge and to all other places formerly used into the adjacent Contreys And this being once substantially performed the whole work of Draining is in a manner perfected And as for the River of Wisbidge and the Slaker through Murrow-gate I carry them joyntly in a River through Marsland from the Horseshooe to the great Sleuce at German-Bridge or near Magdelen by sufficient Banks of good sollid Earth then have I sufficient water way for all those Freshes to the Sea which will force good Navigation and maintain the Chennel Winter and Summer to the great benefit of all those Sea men which use that Port of Lynne and all the Rivers in and out of the Level will be much bettered and improved As for the sleighting any Banks upon Bedford River or Morton's Leam or to make new ones except a small one at Guy-heirne it is no part of my Design but I do wish those Banks which are upon Bedford River and Morton's Leam had not been placed at so great a distance one from another And as for the Sosses at Stanground Erith Well and others they are of singular good use yet I do affirm there will be a necessity of having a Soss and Sleuce near Ditton otherwise the Navigation to Cambridge is lost by reason the waters will be so low both Winter and Summer in the River Owse that the Rivelets of Millnall Brand and Stoke must be either held up or bottomed The like it will be with Morton's Leam from Guy-heirne to Peterborough otherwise it will not be alwayes navigable either Winter or Summer unless we keep the waters in the new River through Marsland and in Wisbidge Town at a great height alwayes This Sluce and that at Murrow Plash commands the River through Wisbidge and that through Murrow-gate with your new River through Marsland by the help of the great Sluce and Soss at German that if need should require would lay the very soles dry insomuch that at all times you drain the North-side of Wisbidge and parts adjacent the Smee and the great Common in Marsland neither will there be any need of raising the Bank from Guy-heirne to Bevis-hall for the security of the North-side of Wisbidge whereof many complaints have been made for here that great River will run low in a great flood with great swiftness One other small work I would do which is a Cut from the River Owse near Ely to the Chair at Little-port which will

I do verily believe that there is one hundred times more money expended in this Province in Rivers Sluces Sosses and Bridges then can be needful in this Great Level of the Fens The Provinces of South and North Holland Freizland and Gronning admit of no Tides or Rivers from the Sea to run into them onely South Holland admits of the river Maze to run to meet the river Rhyne yet this Holland runs her water into the river Maze by substantial Sluces and Navigable Sosses as I have seen at Mazelandt Ulerdine Skeydam Delfts-haven and at Roterdam all these play into the river Maze which runs by the Brill to Dort On the North-side of this Province is Harlem Mare by Sluces and Sosses at Amsterdam there are many at Myden Nardam all these run into the Zuyder Sea and yet those Sluces and those upon the river Maze have not one quarter of the ebb to run at North Holland upon the Zuyder Sea hath its Sluces to run at Sardam Monkenden Horn Ancusen and Middle-bleak and they have not above a quarter Ebb to run at though they force their waters into those leading Rivers by costly Mills and in this North Holland much of their richest Grounds where they make their best Cheese lie under the low water mark at Sea at least six or seven foot as the Bempster the Skermer and the Wart c. they are all Drained by a multitude of Mills each Mill costs near six hundred pounds Sterling In the Skermer I have seen four Mills one standing four foot higher then the other and they have worked one to another till they have brought the water sixteen foot high to run into the Drains which leads to the Sea Freizland and Gronning from Campen in Gilderland to Dam in Gronning is all drained by Sosses and Sluces to Sea-ward the length of those three Provinces is no less then an hundred and twenty miles along the Sea Coast and yet they have no Rivers run into them from the Sea I did observe in all those parts of the Netherlands where I have been they do not admit the Sea to flow into any of their Provinces but keep it out by their Sluces and Sosses so far as Art and Cost will promise them security These Works of theirs will confirm all rational persons that if they have but one quarter of the Ebb to run at and lie dry what can be said against a Sluce and Navigable Soss at German-bridge upon old Owse and new Nean which hath half the Ebb but in a Flood more because the Freshes do rise one foot within the Sluce for two foot the Tide riseth against the Sluce without to Sea-ward I hope the experience we all have of Holland the North-side of Wisbidge with that of Marsland all of them lie below the Fens of the Great Level five or six foot yet drain themselves into great Owse and the Sea Neither are the benefits inconsiderable which Holland the North-side of Wisbidge and Marsland will receive by this Design As for Hollaud all that Bank called South Ea Bank from Dowesdale to Clowes-Cross being eight miles which was believed formerly to have been a thousand pounds per annum charge will be secured The North-side of Wisbidge will by this means save the repairing of that Bank from Clowes-Cross to Guyheirn and part of the Bank upon Wisbidge River which formerly cost much money but the greater benefit this North-side of Wisbidge will receive is the perfect Draining of all that flat and low Countrey for which they of the North-side of Wisbidge and Tid St. Mary's in the County of Lincoln did contract for the giving a great proportion of Land for the Draining thereof Now as for Marsland their benefit will be the greatest for this work being done they save the charge of repairing all those Banks from Germans-bride upwards on both sides of the River Owse to Saltors Load which is eight miles and all those Banks called new and old Po Dike which by their confession cost them yearly 1600l And withal they recover hereby the great Common belonging to the seven Towns in Marsland and the Common also called the Smee for which a great quantity of Land was offered to those which should undertake the Draining of it as I have been informed And another considerable benefit is they will constantly have fresh water out of the River from Wisbidge to German-bridge and the Bank lying upon the West of Marsland upon the Washes near fifteen miles in length it costs much money and many times in danger of breaking is hereby secured the Washes or salt Marshes being gained from the Sea which will be effected in a short time If this Work be performed it is at the pleasure of the Corporation to Drain the great Common in Marsland belonging to the seven Towns containing five thousand Acres with the Common called the Smee containing about fifteen hundred Acres likewise the Draining of the North-side of VVisbidge containing twelve thousand Acres also all those Grounds in Holland belonging to Gedney Drove Chapple Holbidge Fleet St. James Tid St. Mary's which is reported to me to contain eight thousand Acres of Drowned Land And if the Corporation please they may Drain all that part of the Queens Mannor in Croyland called Posant which will be rich Ground if once Drained and contains in it seven thousand Acres six whereof belongs to the Queen William Dodson FINIS Answers to the several Objections against this my Designe since the Delivery of it to the Honourable Corporation FIrst it is objected that the place that I intend to set the great Sluce upon which is near Magdalen is a Quick-sand To this I answer that the place I have designed to set the great Sluce upon is no Quick-sand but a firm and sollid Clay as the place where Magdalen Bridge stands or the Sluce at Saltors Load or Well-Creek and this is at an easie charge made appear to them that doubt by sinking the place twelve foot where they will finde what I have asserted in my Design to be truth Secondly It is objected that the River is deep there and that it is not possible to set a Sluce in the River It was never intended to set this Sluce and Soss in the River for that were great folly to undertake but this Sluce is set near the River of Owse and so cut into the River and although the River were as deep again as it is it is all one for I set not the sole of the Sluce two foot below the Channel as it is pretended but I set it two foot below the sole of the River or low water mark and therefore the depth of the River is no prejudice to me by being so deep but contrary a great advantage and of much benefit to carry away the Freshes Thirdly It is objected that if a Sluce should be set there that