After the above mentioned disastrous aberration of the Ouse some plans, it seems, were formed, and royal Commissions issued to bring it back again into its old deserted channel by Wisbeach, but all proved in the end ineffectual and fruitless, so that the port of Wisbeach, of course would be materially injured. “Of old time” (says Badeslade—that is, while the Ouse and the Nene discharged themselves that way) “ships of great burden resorted to Wisbeach”—but after those rivers had deserted their ancient outlet, that town soon ceased to be accessible to large vessels. The bed or channel below the town being forsaken by the said rivers, (or at most occupied only by an inconsiderable branch of the Nene, which must have been insufficient to grind or scour it to its former or usual depth,) would gradually be filled up in time with silt and sand; and which evidently has been the case. This is confirmed by a remarkable circumstance related by _Dugdale_—That in deepening the Wisbeach river in 1635, (about 300 years after the desertion of the Ouse,) “the workmen, at eight feet below the then bottom came to another bottom which was stony, and there at several distances found seven boats that had lain there overwhelmed with sand for many ages.” {16a} _Atkins_, who wrote in 1608, and dedicated his paper to _Andrews_ bishop of Ely, speaks of the Wisbeach channel as “anciently an arm of the sea;” {16b} and says that the time was when all the waters of the Ouse, even those which then passed from Littleport Chair to Lynn had their passage by _Welney_ and _Well_ to the North Seas at Wisbeach, and from thence to the Washes—and he further observes that writers have said, that King _John’s_ people perished in the _Waters of Well_. {16c} From Thorney Red Book he also shews, that _Well Stream_ was an ancient appellation of the Wisbeach river. He further adds, that this outfall, or arm of the sea, had Holland and a part of the Isle on one side, and Marshland on the other; these were defended from it by great sea-banks, which in the time of Henry VI were ordained to be made and maintained fifty feet high. Hither of old resorted (he says) ships and vessels of great burden. But the sea, still forsaking the Isle, made the whole passage between Wisbeach and the Washes high marshes and sands; and by the decay of the river, the channel, or outfall, became so shallow and weak, as to admit of people often going over on foot, bare legged under the knees. He also imputes much blame to the people about Wisbeach, in not scouring and dyking the river, as by ancient laws and presentments they ought to have done; and not preserving and maintaining the petty sewers and drains. In consequence of these omissions, not only the fens were drowned, but the means were also lost of draining 13 or 14000 acres of inland grounds, the support of three or four towns on the North of Wisbeach.