The History of Wisbech and the Fens Author:Neil Walker General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1849 Original Publisher: R. Walker Subjects: Fens (England) Wisbech (England) Cambridgeshire (England) Isle of Ely (England) Wisbech (Cambridgeshire) Fens, The (England) History / Europe / Great Britain Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the origin... more »al. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF THE DRAINAGE. )HE Charta of King Wolfere to the Abbey of Peterborough, which bears date 664, makes the first mention of the Fens. In setting out the bounds of the property with which he endowed the abbey, Wolfere says: " Directly through the main Fen to Esendic, and from Esendic to the place which they call Fethermute ; thence to Cuggedic, ten miles distant; thence to Raggewilc, five miles, to the principal stream which goeth to Elme and Wisebeche ; thence for the space of three miles up the said principal stream to Trocken- holt; thence winding through the immense fen to Dereford, in length twenty miles; and from thence to Gatecross, by a beautiful water named Bardanea, six miles to Paccaladc. Then through the middle of many stagnant waters and immense marshes to Huntingdonshire."1 There are no signs of drainage or cultivation in the language of this bequest; which, so far as we can interpret its dead names, appears to embrace much of the Fens now included in the North and Middle Levels. If we had no other inference, we might suppose that such an extensive tract, in the single gift of a king, could not be in a cultivated state ; as the cultivated or cultivable parts of the country were too valuable to be given up in such wholesale proportions, when kings were numerous and their territories small. The possessions of monasteries at (I) Monuticon Anglicanum, p. 64. such early ...« less