“After the Romans deserted our island, another change took place. Neglect of their labours succeeded: the drains were no longer kept open, and the whole became fen and shallow lake, resembling the present east fen; the haunt of myriads of water fowl, or the retreat of banditti. Ely and many little tracts, which had the advantage of elevation, were at that period literally islands. Several of these in early times, became the retreat of the religious. Ely, Thorney, Ramsey, Spiney and others rose into celebrated Abbeys, and by the industry of their inhabitants first began to restore the works of the Romans. The country above Thorney, is represented by an old historian [_William of Malmsbury_] as a paradise. Constant visitations, founded on wholesome laws, preserved this vast recovered country; but on the rapid and rapacious dissolution, the removal of several of the inhabitants, and the neglect of the laws of _sewers_, the drains were filled, the cultivated lands overflowed, and the country, again reduced to a useless morass.” {53b} In the 20th. of Elizabeth, the state of the country was taken into consideration: {54} no great matters were done till the time of Francis, and William his son, earls of Bedford, who attempted this Herculean work, and reclaimed this vast tract of more than 300,000 acres; and the last received, under the sanction of Parliament, the just reward of 90,000 acres. I speak not of the reliques of ancient banks, which I have seen in Holland in Lincolnshire, now remote from the sea, nor yet the Roman timuli, the coins and other evidences of the residence of that nation in these parts: it is to be hoped that will be undertaken by the pen of some native, who will perform it from actual survey.