In the months of January and February, and particularly on the 23rd of March in the ensuing year (1614,) the country sustained much additional damage from the snows that had fallen, and which had occasioned vast floods from the upland countries upon their going off. A great part of Marshland, from the bank called the Edge, between the towns and Emneth, to the New Podike, was overflowed with fresh water, by divers breaches, between Salter’s Lode and Downham Bridge. The country to the south of Wisbeach also suffered greatly on the occasion; as did likewise the greater part of the land within South Eaubrink in Holland, which was so overflowed and damaged, from Spalding to Tydd St. Giles, as to be almost entirely lost for that year.—From these premises it evidently appears, that the boasted fertility, and numerous advantages of Marshland and the adjacent parts have often been woefully counterbalanced by disadvantages and evils of a most serious and distressing nature; so as to leave the inhabitants but very little room to exult over their less wealthy countrymen, whose lot is fallen in the more sterile and rugged parts of the kingdom. Before we finish this Section, it may be proper to say something of the principal divisions of Marshland, and its extent, which we often find differently represented. In its fullest extent, or _within its ring_, as it is sometimes expressed, Marshland comprehends the following parishes, (with the exception of part of that of St. German’s, which lies on the eastern side of the river Ouse.)—1. Emneth. 2. Walsoken. 3. West Walton. 4. Walpole St Andrew’s. 5. Walpole St Peter’s. 6. Terrington St Clement’s. 7. Terrington St John’s. 8. Clenchwarton. 9. North Lynn. 10. West Lynn. 11. Tilney All Saints. 12. Tilney St. Lawrence. 13. Islington cum Tilney. 14. Wigenhale St. Mary’s. 15. Wigenhale St. German’s. 16. Wigenhale St. Mary Magdalen.—In another view, as a privileged district, and, particularly, as interested in the _Smeeth_, Marshland has been considered as much less extensive, comprehending only eleven parishes, or rather confined to _seven towns_, or townships: and then N. and W. Lynn, with the three Wigenhales are excluded. These townships; or the seven towns of Marshland, as they are usually called, are thus enumerated—1. Emneth. 2. Walsoken. 3. West Walton. 4. The two Walpoles, both under one. 5. The two Terringtons, both under one. 6. Clenchwarton. 7. The two Tilneys and Islington, all under one, or constituting one township.—At what time this division of the district into seven townships took place, does not appear. It was, probably, at a remote period, and before the formation of the eleven parishes, which these townships now contain. It may, perhaps not unreasonably be presumed to have originated under the East-Anglian government, at an early period of the Heptarchy:—if not, indeed, even before either the Heptarchy, or yet the East-Anglian government had ever sprung into existence.