CHAPTER VIII.

NAVIGATION AND DRAINAGE.

SSENTIALLY connected with the Navigation and Drainage of this country as is the Corporation of Godmanchester, but vague notions are entertained with

respect to the origin and extent of its powers, and

how beneficially they might be exercised: we shall therefore enter somewhat comprehensively into the consideration of them, in order to lay the subject fairly before those, without whose co-operation they cannot be made effectively available to these important objects.

The navigation from the North Sea by the port of Lynn to the towns of Bedford, Biggleswade, and Shefford, in Bedfordshire, is by the river Ouse, which, in its course, forms the north and west boundaries of Godmanchester, and by its immediate proximity to the town, gives to the inhabitants all

the advantages with which it is fraught. It is a noble river, in many places rivalling the Humber and the Severn in beauty; has numerous springs and rivulets tributary to its waters, which are farther supplied by the drainage it facilitates to the extensive tract of inland country through which it runs. It rises at a place called Ousewell,a near Brackley, in Northamptonshire, from whence, after a circuit of 160 miles, it passes through the port of Lynn into the German Ocean. At a short distance from its origin, it is joined by a small stream from Towcester, whence, taking an easterly course, somewhat inclined northward, through Buckinghamshire, it enters Bedfordshire between Brayfield and Turry, and descending by many windings towards the south, unites at Newport Pagnell with a second stream, with which it flows in conjunction to the town of Bedford, where it becomes navigable. At a short distance from Bedford it is joined by the Hyee from Woburn, and at Tempsford Bridge by the river Ivel, navigable from Biggleswade and Shefford, and enters Huntingdonshire at the market town of Saint Neots, proceeding through a diversified and beautiful valley to the towns of Godmanchester and Huntingdon.

It then passes the villages of Hartford, Houghton, and Hemingford, and flowing onwards through the populous and opulent town of Saint Ives, enters

a Wells on the Bedford Level.

Cambridgeshire at Haddenham, near Earith. Here its antient course is in a great degree arrested by the Hermitage Sluice, and a new character given to it, by the artificial rivers and other works which from time to time have been formed for the drainage and improvement of that extensive and important tract of fen land, called the Great Bedford Level." At Haddenham the river Ouse formerly divided into two branches, one falling by Earith, where it now again divides, and for the most part proceeds through the cut made by the Adventurers, called the "hundred feet," running in a straight line from

b The History of the Great Level of the Fens, called the Bedford Level, with the Constitution and Laws of the Bedford Level Corporation," has recently been published by Samuel Wells, Esq. Register of the Corporation, in 2 vols. royal 8vo. The first contains a comprehensive account of the origin and progress of the drainage of that extensive district by the early Adventurers, and the completion of their object by the Honourable the Corporation of the Bedford Level; the rivers, canals, sluices, and other public works, forming a practical dissertation on their importance and government. The 2d. vol. consists of " a collection of the Laws which form the constitution of the Bedford Level Corporation," with curious antient documents of high literary interest and great local importance, constituting together a valuable compendium of information, filling up a chasm in the Topographical History of our Country, and which will remain an honourable memorial of the Author's devotedness to the interests and services of that numerous, intelligent, and wealthy body of proprietors, of whom he is so efficient an officer. Mr. Wells has also published a well-executed Map, taken from actual survey, illustrative of his History, and the present state of the Fens.