These fens were drained and enclosed pursuant to an Act of Parliament
which was obtained for that purpose in the year 1766. Three principal
drains were then cut, fourteen feet wide, and about four miles long,
into which the water was conducted from every part of the Carr,
southward, to the little river Torne at Rossington Bridge, whence it
flows into the Trent. Before these drainings the ground was liable to
frequent inundations; and about the centre there was a decoy for wild
ducks: there is still a deep water there of considerable extent, in
which very large pike and eels are found. The soil, which was so boggy
at first that horses were lost when attempting to drink at the drains,
has been brought into good cultivation (as all such ground may be) to
the great improvement of the district; for till this improvement was
effected intermittent fevers and sore throats were prevalent there,
and they have ceased from the time that the land was drained. The most
unhealthy season now is the Spring, when cold winds from the North and
North East, usually prevail during some six weeks; at other times
Doncaster is considered to be a healthy place. It has been observed
that when endemic diseases arrive there, they uniformly come from the
south; and that the state of the weather may be foretold from a
knowledge of what it has been at a given time in London, making an
allowance of about three days, for the chance of winds. Here, as in
all places which lie upon a great and frequented road, the
transmission of diseases has been greatly facilitated by the increase
of travelling.
But before we leave Potteric Carr, let us try reader, whether we
cannot improve it in another way, that is in the dissenting and, so
called, evangelical sense of the word, in which sense the battle of
Trafalgar was improved, in a sermon by the Reverend John Evans. Gentle
Reader, let you and I in like manner endeavour to improve this
enclosure of the Carr.
Four thousand acres of bog whereof that Carr consisted, and upon which
common sand, coal ashes, and the scrapings of a limestone road were
found the best manure, produce now good crops of grain and excellent
pasturage.
There are said to be in England and Wales at this time 3,984,000 acres
of uncultivated but cultivable ground; 5,950,000 in Scotland;
4,900,000 in Ireland; 166,000 in the smaller British Islands. Crags,
woods, and barren land are not included in this statement. Here are
15,000,000 acres, the worst of which is as good as the morass which
has been reclaimed near Doncaster, and the far greater part very
materially better.
I address myself now to any one of my readers who pays poor rates; but
more especially to him who has any part in the disposal of those
rates; and most especially to a clergyman, a magistrate, and a member
of Parliament.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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