'
In like humour, William of Malmesbury, writing in the first half of
the twelfth century, speaks of Thorney Abbey and isle. 'It
represents,' he says, 'a very Paradise, for that in pleasure and
delight it resembles heaven itself. These marshes abound in trees,
whose length without a knot doth emulate the stars. The plain there
is as level as the sea, which with green grass allures the eye, and
so smooth that there is nought to hinder him who runs through it.
Neither is therein any waste place for in some parts are apple trees,
in other vines, which are either spread on the ground or raised on
poles. A mutual strife is there between nature and art; so that what
one produces not, the other supplies. What shall I say of those fair
buildings, which 'tis so wonderful to see the ground among those fens
upbear?'
But the most detailed picture of a fen-isle is that in the second
part of the Book of Ely; wherein a single knight of all the French
army forces his way into the isle of St. Etheldreda, and, hospitably
entertained there by Hereward and his English, is sent back safe to
William the Conqueror, to tell him of the strength of Ely isle.
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