. The earth and its inhabitants .. . intain their independence for a considerable time ; and similarly the inhabitantsof the Fen country, too, repeatedly endeavoured to throw ofi* the yoke of their • John Algernon Clarke, On the Great Level of the Fens {Jowrnal of the Agricultural Society ofEngland^ vol. viii.). THE BASIN OP THE WASH. 223 masters. They might have finally succeeded in this had their half-drownedlands been more extensive, and the facilities for communicating with the continentgreater. When the Saxons invaded England the people of the Fens fled to theislands of Ely, Rams-ey, Thor
. The earth and its inhabitants .. . intain their independence for a considerable time ; and similarly the inhabitantsof the Fen country, too, repeatedly endeavoured to throw ofi* the yoke of their • John Algernon Clarke, On the Great Level of the Fens {Jowrnal of the Agricultural Society ofEngland^ vol. viii.). THE BASIN OP THE WASH. 223 masters. They might have finally succeeded in this had their half-drownedlands been more extensive, and the facilities for communicating with the continentgreater. When the Saxons invaded England the people of the Fens fled to theislands of Ely, Rams-ey, Thorn-ey, and others, and for a considerable time theyresisted successfully. At a later date the Saxons and Angles established their Camp of Refuge in the Isle of Ely, and under the leadership of Hereward theyrepeatedly routed their Norman oppressors, until the treachery of the ecclesiasticsof Ely put an end to their resistance.* But the spirit of independence in the Fig. 110.—The Fens of Wisbeach and 1 : 182, 3 MUes. people was not wholly crushed ; it rallied many of them to Cromwells standardin 1645, and survives to the present day. The Ouse, Nen, Welland, and Witham, which traverse this lowland region,have frequently changed their channels even within historical times. They canhardly be said to take their course through valleys, but rather spread themselvesover wide flats, and before they had been confined within artificial banks theystagnated into vast marshes. The actual channels of these rivers are altogether thework of human industry. Numerous leams, or ** eaus, a French term evidentlymtroduced by the Normans,! discharge themselves direct into the sea, but theirmouths are closed by sluices, and these are kept shut as long as the tide to the innumerable drains now intersecting the plain in all directions, * Augustin Thierrj-, Histoire de la conquete de IAngleterre par lea El&tobb, Historical Account of the Great Level of th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
