Chapter XXXIII: Section IV

_Lynn the mother-town of the Fens—further account of its supposed founders and original inhabitants—remarkable works executed by them—great improvers of the country—the account continued to the extinction of the Roman power_.

Lynn, as has been already suggested, was, in all probability, the very first town built by the above mentioned colonists, and so the mother town of that extensive country, which they were the means of recovering, improving, and securing from the annoyance of the salt and stagnant waters. Being their original dwelling place, it may naturally be supposed, that it would continue afterward to be their principal habitation or settlement, although in the progress of their work, and as they advanced further on, other dwellings and villages would of course be constructed and inhabited. Considering these people as originally from Belgium or Batavia, than which nothing is more likely, it may from thence be inferred, that the intercourse between Lynn and the Low Countries must have been of very early origin. Some connection or traffick between these colonists and their mother country may fairly be supposed to have commenced from their very first settlement here: so that the trade and intercourse between Lynn and the Netherlands may be concluded to be now of above seventeen hundred years standing.

Those industrious colonists seem not to have, in the least, disappointed the hopes or expectations of their employers. They appear to have carried on and executed the work with great diligence, skill, and success. It is probable, as before hinted, that they began on the eastern side of Marshland, (that being nighest the habitable or inhabited part of the country, and where also their first town or settlement would naturally be erected) and from thence extended their labours to Wisbeach, and so on to the Marshes of Holland, in Lincolnshire, and other parts of the country which they were to recover and improve. The Banks which they constructed in their progress were large, high, and firm, and such as effectually secured the country from the incursion and depredation of the sea. They are still known, in most places, and even on the eastern side of the Ouse and in the vicinity of Lynn, by the name of the _Roman Banks_. Nor does it appear that they were less judicious or successful in their attempts to drain and improve the parts which they had so well and effectually rescued from the Ocean’s destructive power; for by accounts handed down from ancient writers, it would seem that the country within their banks, at least a great part of it, was soon brought to an admirable state of cultivation, improvement, and fertility, like another paradise, and remained so for many ages. {225}

Even _roads_, of considerable length and width, appear to have been made by the same people in this new recovered and marshy country, constructed of gravel of no small depth and breadth, and formed in a most masterly manner: of which that leading from _Denver_ to _Peterborough_, or rather, perhaps, to _Castor_, or _Caister_ in Northamptonshire, is a most remarkable, and very striking instance. This road, according to _Dugdale_ (as has been already observed in the _Introduction_) was composed of gravel, three feet deep, and sixty wide: at present, it is said to be covered with a moorish soil, from three to five feet thick. The constructing of such a road, and carrying it for so many miles, through a country almost totally destitute of gravel, stone, or any other materials proper for road-making, which must therefore have been procured from a vast distance, and with immense labour and difficulty, must have been a very extraordinary and stupendous achievement. In comparison with which, how puny are the efforts and performances of our modern adventurers, or commissioners of roads, in this flat country! A proof of this we have in the great Turnpike Road that leads from _St. German’s_ to _Wisbeach_, where attempts have been making now for some years to cover it with gravel, but hitherto with no very great effect. At any rate, it must appear, that those ancient Colonists, introduced by the Romans, for the purpose of recovering and improving this great fen-country, were eminently qualified for the work in which they were employed, and ought to be still held in grateful remembrance by the good people of England, especially those of Marshland and the Fens, and esteemed among their very best benefactors.—The merit of those works and improvements, however, should not be _all_ ascribed to them: the _Romans_, who introduced, employed, and maintained them, and who projected the undertaking, should be allowed some share of it. Nor are the _natives_, or Britons, who laboriously, powerfully, and effectually assisted in carrying on those works and improvements, to be entirely overlooked or forgotten on this occasion. The latter are said to have borne so large a share in those laborious undertakings, as to occasion very serious complaints and remonstrances from some of their countrymen to, and against the Romans, as having cruelly exhausted their strength, by the excessive hardships and fatigues they had been obliged to undergo in that service. Nor is this at all incredible; for the Romans are known to have been often very unfeeling, severe, and cruel task-masters to the nations they had subdued. If the country was improved it was always at the expense of the sweat and treasure, and not unfrequently of the groans and lives of its inhabitants.

The improvements begun in and about the fens, as well as in other parts of the country, were probably in some measure attended to during the whole continuance of the Roman power in this island. On the decline of that power, and especially after the departure of the Roman legions, there is reason to believe that they were neglected and relinquished. The grievous and calamitous scenes which then ensued, would leave no room or opportunity for such pursuits as could be attended to only in the happy seasons of internal tranquillity.

Although we have considered the original inhabitants of Lynn, Marshland, and the Fens, as consisting for the most part of colonists from the continent, we are probably not warranted to conclude, that they were in fact, a Roman Colony, or invested with the rights and immunities of Roman citizens. It may, however, be very reasonably supposed, that they were favoured with some particular privileges, to which, indeed, they appear to have been very justly entitled. But whatever they might be, it is not likely that they enjoyed them for any great length of time after the dissolution of the Roman government here: the country then soon fell a prey to foreign and merciless invaders, and everything was involved in universal confusion and ruin.

CHAP. II.

On the immediate consequences of the abdication of the country by the Romans, and the probable fate of Lynn.