Show ell t I 1 ca I 1 I 1 rc 11 cc 11 ut r t V 1 4 3 IQ windmills help drain En glands fenlands Fen lands prepared by the he national Geo geographic graphia fl society clety D 0 TUK THE seasoned traveler ft a large adoor TJ part art of england Is as an open door agencies and steamship companies have so familiarized him with the places of interest in the north and west that it seems somewhat hat of an anomaly to discover a region willett which has been almost entirely neglected yet set the country of east anglia analla Is by no means devoid of importance and contains many features which will appeal particularly to students of history indeed the fen country tins hns been described as the cradle of the english race hither marched roman legion sto the th e conquest concu est of british tribes hither retreated boadicea before the advance of Sue Sueton tonius lus hither came the danes to plunder and destroy destiny at the summit of the hill leading out of cambridge arose the norman castle which was ans seized later by rebellious barons along the still existing roman highway marched in 1381 the mob m 0 b of peasants under wat tyler tiler and in ili the disciplined troops of cromwell a truly memorable pageant of events originally tho the whole land was a forest of oak ash fir and nut trees then in the second ten century tury there was wag an earthquake and the sea submerged submerge il this forest when the romans discovered how bow fertile the land was they started to reclaim the districts drowned by river floods they built dikes and embankments and even checked the inroads of the sea after the disastrous saxon danish and norman raids much of the reclamation cla mation work perished until the th e monks took up the task then wherever a monastery rose the slow steady labor proceeded As their outfalls out falls became choked up however the natural drains decayed and the Fen landers did everything possible to prevent their repair for they believed that drainage would seriously interfere with their fishing and fowling Ver built canals Ir finally lually cromwell put down dow n all opposition by force and e enlisted the services of cornelius Ver a dutch engineer Ver cut a few main ma in watercourses water courses through tile the district with lynn as their chief outfall ind and at right angles to these ft a number of short canals water from the marshes was pumped into these cann canals s by windmills to be carried in turn to tile the rivers and finally to the sen sea so wherever one goes in one will see vast ast acres of reclaimed marsh intersected by drains and with a windmill m ill or steam pump plump every few miles but it Is not only the land drained by rivers that has been reclaimed ever eer since roman days attempts have been made to win back the salt marshes at the present time there Is a scheme on foot for draining tile the vi whole hole of t the wash find adding thereby to england thousands of acres of some the finest agricultural soil soft in the world to explore the highways and hy by ways of the one will find it convenient to traverse first the via DeV devana RIIa that roman road which runs through cambridge and on to god manchester just below huntingdon where tho the via devann devana connects with ermine street the great roman highway from london to the north one should turn into a narrow track that leads through many small villages to benrith bridge here two of channels the old bedford am and new bedford rivers flow side by side for SO 30 miles across the plain anti and the original river ouse from which tile the water for the new channels was drown drawn and which became in consequence so choked with weeds as to he be useless for navigation meanders round by way of stretham Str etham elliam ely ard ar d littlewort littleport Litt leport picking up numerous tributaries tributa ries en route finally at I 1 salters lode it unites unite with vermin dens streams to low flow in one tidal watercourse to the sea A short dIs distance beyond the bridge Is a rough liean cart track covered cohered with bunches of weeds eods nettles find rank grass high gates lend lead to private farmyards whence flogs seek to eliane chase the intruder without further fuit lier inquiry at length appears a cl cluster uter of cottages and bine for one seams em to tte te in ft of fulti far as the eye can reach stretches a multicolored panorama of wheat find and barley fields interspersed with dikes while on the horizon a app P I 1 pears ears a silver line betokening the great ouse hamlet named california yet set this deserted hamlet rejoices in the rinnie name of california standing by the post box one can gaze over this fertile country and picture the difference which drainage tins has made formerly the whole area was a vast swamp whose inhabitants were continually tortured by ague and rheumatoid arth arthritis to alleviate the pain inan they resorted to opium find other violent narcotics even today one occasionally sio nally finds an old ad fenIn fen landor niler who Is 13 addicted to the opium habit but such cases caes are exceedingly rare from california the explorer passes over a wide area of reclaimed marsh to wisbech in ili this district every village lias has its feast lay which Is belil on oil the date of the hie dedication of tile the church A procession marches anro around un a the boundaries a religious service is held belij and there Is a collection for charity some years ago singlestick a kind of dueling with wooden staves was a great attraction but nowadays tile villagers are content with wrestling alln exhibitions and all the fun of the fair notwithstanding one can still see at the fair such a contest as that provided by the men of and those of competitors stand opposite each other in lines with eyes fixed on their hopponen opponents t 8 feet at a riven given signal ench each man seizes ills his rival near the chest with both hands trying at the same time to kick him on the the art consists s in bringing ones opponent to bli knees in the shortest possible time the prize ts Is it a copper kettle A little farther on lies parson drove where there Is an interesting survival of the past in the shape of a mill grows to a height of six feet and lias has a blue green lent leaf with a yellow flower it Is glittered I 1 in the fields and crushed crus lied by machinery to produce a splendid lye firs which was used fly by ancient britons for staining their bodies blue soon the towers of crowland appear in tile the distance here at tile tha end of the seventh century came st Guth lac at that period the island was wag the most remote of the whole archi archipelago pela go and possessed by devils A legend narrates how Guth lac after being mercilessly tortured conquered the devils and compelled satan to bring the stone for the foundation of ills hla oratory in olden days the welland TV elland used to low flow through the main street of crow land and in the market place la Is a curious triangular arld bridge e over dry ground it consists of three segments of a circle which meet at a point in the hie center strange duck decoy A mile or two farther Is one of the few duck decoys left in the fen country it stands some five miles from froat tiny any habitation and Is approached by a long avenue of lime trees A patti path leads to the entrance gate which admits its to what at first looks like ilka a wood in tile con center ter Is a pond full of weeds and water wate lilles rillies with numerous nume roua promontories and rocks out of it lead eight large pipes one for each direction of the wind they are anre by nets fastened to continuous fences of stakes on the banks when a drive takes place the ticks ducks which have flown from tile the netherlands and settled on tile the pond are enticed up lip one of these thesa pipes A trained dog runs about and aides rives drives tame ducks t to 0 titi the ie trap entrance while the keepers keeper s hide d e I 1 in 11 the bushes at the far end at length scores of wild fowl follow the decoys into tile tha net and swim toward the far ond end instantly a net Is dr dropped over the opening and the tha keepers take out the birds one by oni and vv wring rang their necks As many as coc tire are sometimes disposed of in a day the season lasting from aldust to march frota here one can see far over the marshes the noble proportions of Ieter Veter burough borough cathedral near peterborough Peter borough tire lire the fensand fen lanil balb plantations which constitute a most important ind industry astry practically practically all I 1 y every farm devotes acres to the tha cultivation of |