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whatever rank or condition. The writer speaks of a couple of clerks of his own who leave notes on each other's desks, directed to Degory Goosequill Esq. and Nehemiah Dashwell Esq. But although he asserts that this humour has gone so far, that Englishmen may be termed" Populus Armigerorum," I think it cannot be doubted that the abuse is now much more prevalent than formerly. Of this we may be convinced on looking over any list of subscribers to a charitable institution, or of the members of any public establishment, in which nothing is more rare than to find a name undecorated by the above three letters. The excess, indeed, to which this petty vanity is carried, is likely to prove its own remedy, since it will soon be a more obvious mark of distinction to write plain Mr. than Esquire. To be continued,

For the Athenæum.

VIEW OF THE ELY FENS.

F the majority of our summer tourists were asked what were their one part of the kingdom rather than another,

only reason they could honestly give would be, that other people did so. Curiosity and the desire of change lead them annually to spend a certain portion of their time and money in travelling; but the direction of these propensities is left entirely to the capricious Goddess of Fashion, and they would follow her as cheerfully to the moors of Cornwall or the wolds of Yorkshire, as to the lakes of Westmorland or the mountains of Wales. There is, however, a numerous tribe whose acquired taste for that undefinable thing the picturesque, limits their rambles to the spots where that is to be found; and in their lists of places to be seen, they comprehend only those to which it is worth while to carry a portfolio. Others, again, with tastes more expanded, but still exclusive, can take delight in nothing but the sublime and beautiful of nature, and look with coldness on the creations of human art, or the ordinary variations of rural scenery.

But surely an enlarged and liberal curiosity would scorn to be confined to any particular set of objects, and would wish to extend its researches to every thing that the creator has made, and that man has occupied. Independently of the purpose of storing the mind with useful knowledge, even amusement, the great aim of persons of leisure, requires a large range for the pursuit of that novelly which is essential to its gratification; for nothing is more certain than that a single set of objects, however splendid, will pall and become insipid by repetition. Perhaps, of all tastes, that for the mere picturesque soonest becomes tiresome; for when the most striking scenes of this class have been surveyed, nothing is left but inferior ones of the same kind, and disappointment and disgust succeed to rapture. I have not unfre.`quently

quently known it happen to travellers, in whom natural feeling was not stifled by pedantry and affectation, that, tired with wandering through a wild and romantic country, they have experienced undisguised pleasure on emerging into a tame tract of cultivation, filled with the smiling works of man." Such a tract, but with many circumstances of singularity that render it a novel spectacle to most British tourists, I now proceed to sketch.

The ISLE of ELY, comprehending the northern part of Cambridgeshire, is a considerable portion of that extensive tract of fen or low country, which stretches from the east of Huntingdonshire to the west of Norfolk, and northwards through the south-eastern division of Lincolnshire. The Cambridgeshire fens, strictly speaking, are not confined to the Isle of Ely, but spread with the beds of the Ousė and Cam to a small distance from Cambridge. The Isle, however, is emphatically the fenny part, and is chiefly separated from the rest of the county by the old channel of the Ouse, which river flows from the Huntingdonshire to the Norfolk border, and washes the city of Ely in its course.

The face of the country is one vast plain, stretching beyond the reach of sight; interrupted on the southern side by one or two ridges of comparatively high land, but in all its northern portion presenting only some small elevations, which just lift the villages seated upon them above the general level. This whole tract is naturally a marsh, subject to be laid under water in rainy seasons by the rivers which creep through it to the sea, and rendered habitable and cultivable only by means of immense labour expended in cutting drains across it in various directions. Into these the water is raised by means of windmills, which pump it up from the ditches that every where intersect the low grounds, and it is kept in by high banks which confine it on a level higher than that of the adjacent country. The most considerable of these works consists of the Old and New Bedford Rivers, so called from the noble family of Bedford, who have also given the name of the Bedford Level to the whole tract which they were so instrumental in im proving. These rivers, which completely cut across the Isle of Ely, make a communication from the Ouse at Earith within the Huntingdonshire border, to the same river at Denver-sluice near Downham in Norfolk. They run almost perfectly straight and parallel in the direction of N. N. E. for about 21 miles, leaving between them a space from two to six furlongs in breadth, called the Wash, which is always under water in winter, but in the summer is used as meadow and pasture. The Old Bedford river is now scarcely employed for the purpose of navigation; but the New, or Hundred-foot drain, is the main channel for vessels passing from the upper to the lower parts of the Ouse, and has superseded the passage along the natural river, which makes a large bend to the eastward of it. This artificial river receives the spring-tides as far as its origin at Earith, whence may be estimated the small elevation of the inland country above the surface of the sea. The Nen, which crosses the north-western part of the Isle, is in like manner led through an embanked channel. It communicates

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municates by a navigable branch with the Bedford river, and thus a system of navigation is formed equally complete with that of drainage.. The fen banks afford a good horse-track, and a view is presented from them which, though at length tiresome from its uniformity, is not without its attractions. The water lies in a long reach before you, stretching beyond the sight, bordered at intervals with ozier beds, (here called holts) and crowned with scattered houses and pumping-mills. Gangs of lighters, tracked by horses, and sometimes aided by sails, enliven the stream. The elevation of the banks gives the traveller a very extensive prospect over the country, in which the drier spots are marked by village steeples and groups of trees, whilst in many parts the eye wanders over a range of level green, varied only by herds of cattle, haystacks, and some detached farm buildings. Pollard willows sometimes border the ditches that form the separation of lands, and relieve the general nakedness. The surface has all the varieties of rushy moor, grassy meadow, and cultivated field. The corn in the lower tracts, consists almost entirely of oats; while in the elevated parts all the species of grain are successfully grown. A common erop is coleseed, which is raised both for the winter-feeding of sheep; and for the seed, whence oil is extracted. Mustard, flax, and hemp, are also among the articles of culture. In general, the drainage of the Ely fens is so complete that it enables the land to produce whatever is most suitable to its soil; and much of it is exuberantly rich.

Among the objects presented by nature, the botanist will find a large variety of aquatic plants in great luxuriance; and the ornithologist will be entertained with a number of birds, not, indeed, equal to that of some of the unreclaimed fens of Lincolnshire, but sufficient to excite his attention. The heron is frequent by the sides of the drains or in the watery plashes, and by his tall stature and wide spread of wings, makes a principal figure among the feathered tribe. These places are also the resort of various kinds of gulls, with the tern, or sea-swallow. The pewit or lapwing fills the moors with its clamour. Stares or starlings abound throughout the fens, and often collect in such flocks as to form black clouds hovering over the ground, and amusing the spectator by their continual change of form and appearance. The common birds of prey are kites and buzzards. In winter a great variety of the duck kind, and other water-fowl, come up the washes, and offer a valuable capture to the fowler. Of the fish, pikes and eels are the most abundant; and in the spring season smelts run up the Bedford river in great shoals.

It has been remarked, that where the energies of man are excited by circumstances of hardship and necessity, they generally proceed so far as to render his situation more abundant in conveniences than where indolence is favoured by the bounty of nature. This is the case with Holland, compared to the rest of Europe; and it appears to be that of the fens of Ely, compared to some of the more desirable counties of England. The villages in this tract are for the most part well built, and have an air of comfort not usual in the common agricultural districts. That of Earith is even provided with a flagged foot-pavement

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for its whole length, a valuable accommodation in a low site which cannot fail of being very wet and miry in the winter. The pale brick and tile manufactured in these parts give a very neat appearance to the houses, and the reed thatch of the barns and cottages is extraordinarily warm and durable. Many of the churches are handsome, and have tall steeples visible at a great distance the landmarks of this naked tract. The cathedral of Ely, one of the largest and most remarkable edifices of the kind, is a conspicuous object to a wide circumjacent country.

The inhabitants of the fens are chiefly engaged in farming, and many of the farmers are opulent. They feed numbers of cattle, and the sheep of the upland districts are frequently sent hither in the winter to fatten on the coleseed. The brewing trade is considerable in several of the towns and villages; for the people are a thirsty tribe, and avail themselves of the excuse of a moist air and bad water, to counteract the former and correct the latter, by potations of as much strong beer as they can procure. In particular, those labourers who are employed in the important task of keeping the banks in repair (provincially termed bankers) are as mighty to drink as to work. The natives in general are a stout broad-set race, many of them with black hair and dark complexions. The population is scanty in proportion to the space of ground, and much of the harvest-work is done by Irish labourers. Few gentlemen of large estates reside in the fens, as the country is unfit for sporting, and certainly does not abound in rural beauty. The magistrates are principally the clergy, several of whom enjoy ample livings. The markets of the district are Cambridge, Ely, and Wisbeach.

Although trees are now scarce in the fens, and almost. confined to willows and other aquatics, yet the bodies of oaks of large dimensions still frequently dug up in the lowest and wettest tracts prove that the country at some remote period was well wooded, and probably in great part a forest. As it is certain that before the drainage, a century and a half ago, it was much more a morass than at present, conjecture is puzzled to determine at what remote era the soil could be capable of bearing timber-trees, where even now no one would think of planting them. Some of the trunks dug up are still serviceable wood. In the same parts very black turf or peat is cut, which is the common fuel. The oziers are an article of profit to the planters from their sale to the basket-makers. The peeling of them, after steeping in pits, is one of the occupations of the poor.

Such are the most prominent features of a portion of this island, which, from its strongly-marked character and peculiar circumstances, is well worthy of being visited by all who travel for knowledge or amusement, though a long residence or a repetition of visits is more than can be claimed for it, except from those who are particularly interested in the objects it presents. To the sentimental surveyor it will afford a pleasure of a higher class than that which is merely taken in by the eye--the gratifying reflection, that the powers bestowed upon

man

man are adequate to procure him a comfortable existence even where nature appears to have multiplied her difficulties and discourage

ments.

A.

L

For the Athenæum.

THE CONTRAST; OR PEACE AND WAR.

OVELY art thou, O PEACE! and lovely are thy children, and lovely are the prints of thy footsteps in the green valleys.

Blue wreaths of smoke ascend through the trees, and betray the half-hid cottage: the eye contemplates well thatched ricks, and barns bursting with plenty; the peasant laughs at the approach of winter.

White houses peep through the trees; cattle stand cooling in the pool; the casement of the farm-house is covered with jasmine and honey suckle the stately green-house exhales the perfume of summer climates.

Children climb the green mound of the rampart, and ivy holds together the half demolished buttress.

The village bells ring, the bashful bride advances; her eyes are cast down at the gaze of the admiring crowd, but conscious beauty dwells there, and love, smiling through her fears.

The old men sit at their doors; the gossip leans over her counter; the children shout and frolick in the streets.

The house-wife's stores of bleached linen, whiter than snow, are laid up with fragrant herbs; they are the pride of the matron, the toil of many a winter's night.

The wares of the merchant are spread abroad in the shops, or stored in the high-piled warehouses; the labour of each profits all: the inhabitant of the north drinks the fragrant herb of China; the peasant's child wears the webs of Hindostan.

The lame, the blind, and the aged, repose in hospitals; the rich, softened by prosperity, pity the poor-the poor, disciplined into order, respect the rich.

Justice is dispensed to all. Law sits steady on her throne, and the sword is her servant.

WAR.

They have rushed through like a hurricane, like an army of locusts they have devoured the earth, the war has fallen like a water-spout and deluged the land with blood.

The smoke rises not through the trees, for the honours of the grove are fallen; and the hearth of the cottager is cold; but it rises from villages burned with fire, and smouldering ruins, spread over the now naked plain.

The

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