The English improver improved, or, The svrvey of hvsbandry svrveyed discovering the improueableness of all lands some to be under a double and treble, others under a five or six fould, and many under a tenn fould, yea, some under a twenty fould improvement / by Walter Blith ... ; all clearely demonstrated from principles of reason, ingenuity, and late but most real experiences and held forth at an inconsiderable charge to the profits accrewing thereby, under six peeces of improvement ...

1. What Fen-drayning or the recovering of Lands from under water is, that deserves the name or merits the Title of perfect Drayning.

I say it is not onely the overly taking away the Water from off the Surface or over part of the Turf or Sword,* 1.1 for then might all bogs or quagmires be recovered, and easily would; Nor the taking off the downfalls, as our Fen men call them, that is, the waters falling from the Heavens in great Raines and showers; Nor is it the taking off all Land-falls, Land-floods, or great waters from off those Lands; No nor the do∣ing of all these in a customary and usuall way that doth or will deserve to be called a perfect Drayning.

But it is as I formerly said about recovering Boggy-Lands, a going to the bottom of the Corruption,* 1.2 and taking away the Venom that feeds the Fen or Moor, that wateriness and

coldness which gnaws out the spirit at the root.

And the taking away this is perfect Drayning; for al∣though I say the other Draynings are not the best nor perfect, yet I neither discommend the other, nor discourage from them where they are made already, or may be made he reaf∣ter, but highly commend them or any of them where other∣wise there would be none, or the Lands lye wholly drowned; yet being in all Arts, Trades, and Callings, we ought to stu∣dy cut the Mysteries thereof, and all men do or ought to ent∣deavour to raise the richest fruits, and draw forth the grea∣est plenty to the Common-Wealth they can, out of the whole Earth; so out of this small parcell we never accomplish The End untill we have brought it to it's best perfection, that is, not onely to recover it from drowning to bearing sedge or reedy flaggy grass, which is the first fruits of Draining, and from which the rude ignorant Fen-man desires no appeal, nor is it to recover it to bear morish foul strong grass in Summer, and Drowned in Winter, nor yet to lye dry both Winter and Summer upon the Surface of the Earth, and wet and Boggy at the spades or Plough-share point,* 1.3 nay though it will through a dry season or heat of Summer bear the Plough, and much of it may be converted to Tillage or Cor∣ning, but still unsound in the bottom, all this makes not (though a good) yet not perfect work, but the perfection is in the reducing it to soundness and perfectness of Mould and Earth, whether Sand, Clay, Gravell, or mixed, then re∣turns it to a perfect Soard and pure Turf, brings forth the small common Thistle, Clover, Crowflower, and Hony-sukle, then shall you reap the Quintessence of the Earth, in bree∣ding, feeding, or Corning. These Lands thus perfectly Dray∣ned, will return to be the richest of all your Lands, and the better Drayned the better Land. Where are your richest Lands of England, but your River Lands, your Marsh Lands, that all of them lye under the Levell of the Sea, and were it not inbounded by the banks, and the power of Gods word, would all return to the Sea again, but through their perfect Drayning, are most excellent sound and warm Lands, yea some of them so good, that usually the Winters profit of

their Grazing equallizeth the Summer, as witnesseth much of the Marsh-Land near London, Blackwall, &c. with many other parts? Whence is the richness of your English Holland Land but from the pure and perfect Drayning? And the out-landish Holland Lands recovered to this great height of Richness? I know all Lands are not so Fecible as others are, nor some cannot possibly be brought to that perfection as others may, I shall provoke unto the best Improvement, and where there can be a Male-Improvement offer not to the Common-Wealth a Female, and so you have as plain a description what Drayning is as I can give you: I am of a strong opinon that there is very much Fen-Land may be recovered to as great a worth and goodness in it self as any Meadow Marsh-Land in England; which leades me to the se∣cond branch of this particular, to describe the Manner and lying of the Fens, to the which I am induced too for these Reasons.

1. Because many know them not at all.

2. Because many are discouraged from the thoughts of at∣tempting the Improvement of them, that are very able there∣unto, & I am confident would have recovered them, yet part∣ly because of their ignorance of the lying of them, conceiving them to be some great Lake, Pan, or Meer, as are some in Lanca∣shire, Cheshire, or Yorkshire, that lyeth so low that hath no fall or out-let can be made to drain out the Waters of them, and partly through the scandall and offence that is taken and gi∣ven out, by rude, customary, and most an end unrightfull Commoners, against the Drayning of them; as also concei∣ving them to be nothing els but some great Bog or Quagmire lying so flat as is not Draynable.

3. Because my self was once before I knew them in some measure thus deceived, but especially because the report of the Country people was as one man, that the undertakers Dray∣ning had no whit at all advantaged them, but that their Fen Lawes and Commission of sewers, and the works they made through that authority, and by the directions and meanes they used, had brought the Fens into as good a posture as all he undertakers works, (the which my self was hardly

drawn to believe) endeavouring hereby to suggest the impos∣sibility of ever accomplishing a perfect Drayning, so that many not knowing that the fall is considerable in it self, and very great into the Sea by reason of the Ebbing of the Wa∣ter, will thereby give opportunity unto a most compleat Dray∣ning of them.

And lastly, that by this information I may quicken all In∣genuous Spirits to the helping on the work so advantagi∣ous to the Common good, and yet so fecible, I therefore de∣scribe the Fens of England to lie in some proportionable man∣ner to those great Rivers and gallant Meadows adjoyning to them in many eve•• and less descending Countries, onely with these two observations.

1. That these Fens are nearer the Sea, the Center of the waters, and so we must conceive the fall or descent to be the lesser; for as our lesser Brooks run quicker than our great Streams, and the bigger the stream and nearer the Sea any great River runneth, the slower by far the water descendeth, and flatter the Land lyeth, so the Fens being a far vaster and greater compass lye more flatter, and the Rivers run the slower.

2. Because these Fen-Lands being far greater, and many times more broader than our greatest Meadowes, therefore be∣ing covered with water, and lying more levell, will not Drain so fast, and so can not hold comparison in each parti∣cular, yet a more suitable Modell to describe them by, to those that know them not, I cannot Frame.

So that the Fen-Lands so called are as I may say, great Meadows covered over with water in the time of a great Land-flood; for as upon great raines the Rivers or Water-courses in the uplands are not able to contain the Floods,* 1.4 neither are the Fen Rivers Sewers or water-courses able to take away those Floods that come out of the higher Coun∣tries, or uplands aforesaid. And as the small brooks first o∣verflow, because of the disproportion betwixt those narrow watercourses, and the floods that run in them, and are unflow∣ed again, when or before the great Rivers begin to rise, and the Flood of the great Rivers continue longer than the lesser,

so the Fen Rivers or Water-courses being much lesser, pro∣portionable to their great Floods than the little brooks are, they can not contain their own water Floods, with the Rivers and Floods of the upland Countries too; but are for∣ced over the banks into that great Flat or Levell of Fen-land and Meadow on both sides their Water-courses, and being there dispersed many miles into a great breadth and length, & being ever and anon relieved with fresh Land-Floods, most part of Winter long continue, neither having a great fall nor large ••••omthy Water-courses into the Sea, nor other artifi∣ciall Receptacles to receive them, cannot so truly nor sud∣denly run off again, but had they Water-courses proportio∣nable either in Number or Greatness, to other great Mea∣dows, they would most of them drain themselves, and return to as perfect Meadow and Pasture as any in England, for al∣most all Land-floods and Rivers that lye on the same side of the Country the Fens lye on, from the highest part of the up-lands, run into and through the Fens to the Sea, as their constant course, & if the Spring be kindly and moderatly dry, the Fen-water runneth and dryeth away apace, and many times in February or the entrance of March, especially when the winds sit fair, that is, to drive the waters Sea-ward, they are grazeable with great cattell, and many times with Sheep too, and some part of them are all Winter dry and never drowned, and many of those keep as much stock of cattell, especially of sheep, all Winter, as ever I saw any Common or pasture with∣out hay. And to conclude this description whereby you may not onely frame out a Model of the Fens, but discover the Fe∣cibility, if not the only way of Drayning them, which ushe∣reth in my second particular, which is,

Notes

• * 1.1

  What Fen-Drayning is not.
• * 1.2

  What perfect Drayning is in∣deed.
• * 1.3

  How to know when Land is firmly Drayned.
• * 1.4

  The just Form or Modell of the Fen-lands.