In Elizabeth’s time, however, things were gotten to such a pass as not to admit of being any longer overlooked or neglected. The reign of that queen (as Mr _Gough_ observes in his edition of _Camden_) “may be properly fixed on as the period when the Great Level began to become immediately a public care.” In her 20th. year a commission was granted to Sir Thomas Cecil, Sir William Fitz-Williams, and others, to drain the fens about _Clow’s Cross_; but the inutility of such a partial design appears to have been early foreseen, as there is no account of the plan ever being acted upon. In her 43rd year, an act of parliament was passed on a general plan, which not only included the draining of the great level, but likewise all the marshes and drowned lands in the kingdom. This scheme, for which resources equal to the extent of the undertaking are said to have been provided, was frustrated by the queen’s death. “In the beginning of the reign of James I, Sir _John Popham_, the Lord Chief Justice, procured an act for draining the fens in the Isle of Ely, and the lands in the adjacent counties. The work was commenced with great spirit, but was soon retarded by the death of Popham, and afterwards entirely dropt, through the opposition of some land-owners, who conceived themselves injured. “The persons who next attempted to proceed with this important undertaking, were the _Earl of Arundel_, _Sir William Ayloff_, _bart._ and _Anthony Thomas_, _Esq._ but their proposals not being agreeable to those who acted as commissioners on behalf of the proprietors, and much time being lost by the meetings held to determine the contested points, the _king_ himself resolved to become an adventurer, and actually undertook the herculean labour of draining the fens, on condition of his receiving 120,000 acres, as a remuneration, when the work was completed. This agreement was carried into a law, and there the design terminated; for the political embarrassments, which attended the remainder of the reign of the fickle James, prevented a single step being taken to carry it into execution.”