"Civil War in the Fens "
ANYTHING less picturesque, at first sight, can hardly be imagined than the Ouse Drainage Bill, recently introduced in Parliament by Mr. Guinness.- Yet to those of us who love to explore the backwaters of the past it is curious to discover history repeating itself in this particular debate. Indeed, it is startling to find a Minister of the Crown, in the Year of Grace 1927, predicting " Civil War in the Fens " should this scheme miscarry, since this was actually the state of affairs three hundred years ago.
The troubles under the Stuarts arose in the great enclave of 70,000 acres encompassed by the rivers Don, Went, --Blackwater and Idle, known as Hatfield Chase, a true paradise of sport with its swanneries, streams swimming with fish, and stags by the thousand roaming its brakes. So few and scattered were the inhabitants that in that churchgoing age three churches sufficed to minister to the fenmen, while gentry were even fewer than churches, and were too often noted as " sons of misrule and violence." True, there was a prison for poachers at Thorne Peel, but usually they must have gone free, since tradition has it that venison was then as abundant as mutton " in the poor man's kitchen."
Much as a game sanctuary appealed to that mighty huntsman, James I., his perennial need of money led him in 1623 to appoint a Commission to inquire into the Chase and the feasibility of drainage, and under his son the work of reclamation was initiated. The great engineers of that age were to be found mostly in Holland —so laboriously recovered from the sea waves—and conspicuous among these experts was a certain Cornelius Vermuyden, a typical captain of industry, resourceful, energetic, and unscrupulous. By May, 1626, he succeeded in passing a contract with Charles for the drainage of the entire district, his payment to consist in the allot- ment of one-third of Hatfield Chase, the remaining land to be equally divided between the Sovereign and the tenants.
Vermuyden was a quick worker, for by 1627 he was able to invite a Commission to survey and divide the holdings. But if the Commissioners found new dykes and " rhines," they found also widespread discontent, for the inhabitants protested that the waters had merely been conveyed from the new to the old lands. Nor did the Commissioners' policy of assigning the worst and lowest portions to the fenmen improve matters. Indeed, from remonstrance the latter passed to action, and Vermuyden and his Flemings were soon faced by an ugly situation.
Not only were all poachers and small tenants arrayed against them, but the principal Justice of the Peace, one Squire Partington and his sons, aided and abetted the rioters. Vermuyden's embankments and tools were destroyed, his workmen wounded and killed. He realized he must pacify the natives by compensation or otherwise, and obtain fuller powers from the Privy Council. He did both. He was knighted, bought the royal rights for £17,000 down and an annual rent of £195, plus one red rose, his enemy Squire Partington was bound over—an anomalous position for a magistrate—to keep the peace, and he set to work anew. But by 1630 the dykes again played false, and, on being petitioned, the Privy Council intervened, ordering Vermuyden, on one hand, to carry out repairs, and the inhabitants, on the other hand, to levy rates for the purpose, exhorting all concerned to a " general oblivion of grievances."
Vermuyden's interpretation of this well-meant homily was to bolt back to the Chase, and to fling many petitioners into prison, threatening to hang others, adding that if he could only stay there he would erect a gallows for their benefit. The Privy Council somewhat mildly qualified these proceedings as " injudicious," but dis- patched a fresh Commission with Wentworth, the future Strafford, then President of the North, to grapple with the situation. The award reflects Wentworth's governing. principles, his respect for ancient traditions and customs, his support of social and material improvements, his determination to champion the " poor, mean man." The fenmen were preserved in all reasonable rights, and Vermuyden had no cause to complain of what was an essentially fair verdict. Justice, however, was not to Vcrrnuy-den's taste. Angered by the judgment, he conveyed his property to trustees and his person—very prudently—out of the Lord President's jurisdiction. • Down crashed the dykes, with tragic results, and a year passed before Vermuyden could be coerced into obedience.
Judging from a contemporary letter, Wentworth did not exaggerate when describing the situation as " extreme inconvenient," since the writer of the epistle in which this phrase occurs saw from an upper chamber, where he was marooned by floods, " mothers, Pyrrha-like, trudging middle deep in water with their infants hanging on their breasts and the fathers Deucalion-like upon their shoulders to seek higher ground for their succour. The holy Prophet heard a voice of great mourning and lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted. But I both see and hear these miserable mothers weeping for their children and would not be comforted, because they are as being an eyesore and grief unto them, and I deem the cause of this sorrow the greater. Beati enim cunt moilui in Domino. Thus have strangers prevailed to destroy our inheritance."
Three years later, however, Vermuyden and his friends were induced to restore their inheritance to the fenmen. The original shareholders, poor people, hopeless of success, parted with their shares at nominal prices to a new set of proprietors, who having bought cheaply could afford to complete the work. And under the direction of Commissioners of Sewers the dykes were kept in order, and peace once more descended on Hatfield Chase.
WINIFRED BURGITCLERE.
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