HISTORY OF DECOYS. | ||
| But even worse fortune befell the worthy Knight in 1642, at Hatfield Chase. There, previously to his draining operations, the country was full of wandering beggars, but, afterwards, from the demand for agricultural labour, wages were doubled. Nevertheless, after Vermuyden and his partners had entered upon possession of what belonged to them by agreement, and had built a town called Sandtoft, 'with a church therein ; placing a minister there ; whereunto resorted above two hundred families of French and Walloon Protestants (fled out of their native country for fear of the Inquisition, only to enjoy the free exercise of their religion here),' the inhabitants, claiming common right, and under pretence of raising an army for the protection of the King, 'broke down the fences and inclosures of four thousand acres, destroyed all the corn growing, and demolished the houses built thereon.' After this they broke other banks, watching the breaches with muskets in their hands, to prevent their being repaired, and forcing the inhabitants 'to swim away like ducks.'* This lawless destruction continued till seventyfour thousand acres of land were under water. Fuller** thus refers to the discontent of the Fen people: 'Tell them of the great benefit to the publick, because where a Pike or Duck fed formerly, now a Bullock or Sheep is fattened ; they will be ready to return that if they be taken in taking that Bullock or Sheep, the rich owner indicteth them for felons whereas that Pike or Duck were their own goods, only for their pains of catching them. So impossible is it that the best project, though perfectly performed, should please all interests and affections.' In fact, they would exclaim with Hudibras: | ||
| * ,This incident suggested to Harriet Martineau the subject of the charming little story, the first of the ' Playfellow' series, entitled the 'Settlers at Home.' Long after the Fens were drained, the 'Redfurns' were still represented by the hardy race of men who took up their abode on some lonely marsh on the shores of the Wash, often in a hut-boat lying high and dry in some creek, and gained a precarious living by their nets and guns ; or by the men who squatted down in the midst of the 'Broads,' as graphically described by the Rev. Richard Lubbock in the oft-quoted passage (pp. 129, 130, second edition) of the 'Fauna of Norfolk.' These are even now represented by the shore-gunners of the Wash, and the eelsetters and fishermen of the Norfolk Broads." **"Worthies of England," 4to Edit. (1811) vol. i. p. 152. |
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