The history and antiquities of Boston, and the villages of Skirbeck, Fishtoft, Freiston, Butterwick, Benington, Leverton, Leake, and Wrangle; comprising the hundred of Skirbeck, in the county of Lincoln. Including also a history of the East, West, and Wildmore fens, and copious notices of the Holland or Haut-Huntre fen ... sketches of the geology, natural history, botany, and agriculture of the district; a very extensive collection of archaisms and provincial words, local dialect, phrases, proverbs, omens, superstitions, etc. By Pishey Thompson. Illustrated with one hundred engravings.

GEOLOGY OF THE DISTRICT, 661
FIFTH State. That which the country has generally assumed by embankment,
drainage, and inclosure.
We are gratified in finding that so accurate and competent an observer as
Mr. ELSTOBB in great measure corroborates the theory we have been endeavouring
to establish. He says,-'
"' It appears to be an established fact that the old surface of the country, contiguous to the
rivers leading up to Boston and Spalding, was fromn 10 to 16 and 18 feet lower than the
present, and about Boston in particular. And when the surface was so low, the soil was so
good and sound, that it either produced, or supported, in some particular places at least;
and those not far distant from the verges of the rivers, wood and timber trees which cannot
grow upon salt marshes."
"As the surface of the land anciently was as low as the present bottoms of the rivers,
and the high-water mark may be supposed much the same as formerly, it is evident that
whilst the lands bordering on the river, laid defenceless and unbanked, every ordinary
spring-tide would rise 10, 16, or 18 feet above them, and having nothing to obstruct their
progress, they would spread over a large tract of land as far as each tide could reach during
the flowing of the tide; and upon the ebb, the water would return again to the sea. But
the land thus constantly covered and uncovered by the salt water, must have been at that
time entirely in the nature of a salt marsh, and absolutely unfit for either producing or
supporting any sort of wood or timber trees. It therefore necessarily follows that these
timber trees which grew upon the land, when its surface laid so low, must have been
planted and grown up after the country had been inhabited, improved, and cultivated; that
is, after it had been recovered from the sea, and the tides were prevented from covering it.
Consequently its surface must have been so much lower than it now is at the time of its
embankment, and so continue after it was inhabited, cultivated, and in some parts planted,
and until the trees grew up and came to maturity.2
" And it is probable that this country, being part of the marshes gained from the sea by
the Romans, was very early recovered, perhaps before, or very shortly after, they had completed the conquest of the island, when they began to want employment for the soldiers.3
And as the Romans continued in the island perhaps two centuries after the entire conquest
thereof; in such a space of time these marshes might be improved into a fine country,
become good pasturage, and support and nourish large trees. But after the Romans left
the island, the Britons and Saxons being engaged in almost continual quarrels and wars, it
is likely that the banks would fall into decay through neglect, and by some sudden and
violent breach thereof, a great part of the country became again inundated, and the great
depth of the ground with which the articles found were covered, indicates that the country
must have long laid desolate.
" But when the Heptarchy was settled, and the Mercian kingdom established in this part
of the country, it is likely they would then begin to think of improvements.4 That this
country lay long inundated, is manifest by the great accretion of the soil, which has so
much heightened the surface, and left such great quantities of silt, almost everywhere
under the present vegetable soil.5
"Thus the country about Boston and Spalding, after it had been first embanked, and
become inhabited, and in some parts planted, was by some sudden and great breach of the
sea-banks, inundated, depopulated, and lost, and continued for some time an immense basin
to receive the tide waters. The rivers would, during this period, be robbed of a great part
of the ebb which used to flow through them, in the time in which the banks were preserved
good; and consequently the channels and outfalls losing such a great quantity of returning
water, would much more quickly choke up and decay; especially if it be considered, that
by such a breach of banks, the land-floods in their course towards the outfall should be
diverted and prevented from reaching it, by meeting with the chasm of the bank through
which they would flow, and mixing with the water before received into it from the sea,
I History of the Bedford Level (1793), p. 35. 3 Ibid. pp. 37, 36 and 39.
2 That the original embankment of these 4 That these improvements must have commenced
marshes or flats bordering upon the coast or bay, a considerable time previous to the Normnan Conand the outfalls and lower parts of the rivers, was quest, is evident from the fact that between 1100
a wtork of the Romans, is evident firom the consider- and 1135 a great part of Holland was planted with
ation that the original inhabitants were not equal trees, and was shortly afterwards established as a
to the construction of such a work, having little forest by Henry II.
or nothing of science among them."-ELSTOBB, j ELSTOBB, P. 41, &C.
p. 249.