John came to the help of the fen-men, and drew up the
so-called 'Pretended Ordinance' of 1649, which was a compromise
between Vermuyden and the adventurers, so able and useful that
Charles II.'s Government were content to call it 'pretended' and let
it stand, because it was actually draining the fens; and how Sir
Cornelius Vermuyden, after doing mighty works, and taking mighty
moneys, died a beggar, writing petitions which never got answered;
how William, Earl of Bedford, added, in 1649, to his father's 'old
Bedford River' that noble parallel river, the Hundred foot, both
rising high above the land between dykes and 'washes,' i.e. waste
spaces right and left, to allow for flood water; how the Great
Bedford Rivers silted up the mouth of the Ouse, and backed the floods
up the Cam; how Denver sluice was built to keep them back; and so
forth,--all is written, or rather only half or quarter written, in
the histories of the fens.
Another matter equally, or even more important, is but half written--
indeed, only hinted at--the mixed population of the fens.
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