Bream, Tench, Roach, Perch, and the minute yet multitudinous Stickle-back were plentifully supplied by almost every considerable drain, particularly the last, which were propagated in such vast quantities that they were used by the farmer for manuring purposes.

*

The atmosphere of the fens next claims our attention, this was generally humid and dull; but, like other parts of our Island, liable to the most constant changes. Thick fogs in the early part of Winter sometimes continued for days together, just dissipating at noon for a few hours, and then coming on again towards the close of evening, with a most chilling and drenching density, which the eye sought in vain to penetrate. This air to one accustomed to a more elevated region, must have been oppressively heavy; but the most striking and important peculiarity of the atmosphere, was its injurious nature after the heats of summer, when the retiring waters became clogged with weeds, and impure with stagnation. The atmosphere lying, as it then usually did, in sullen lifelessness, accumulated and hoarded the poisonous effluvia of the marshes in its bosom, and caused a healthless langor in the inhabitants, which frequently terminated in death. During the heavy dews of October and November a mournful dignity of solitude overspread all,―stern and unenlivened, even to severity. Never was desertion more forcibly felt, every thing was one continued scene of gloom and silence. As the year however drew towards its close

* We are aware that this part of our subject, treating of the Plants, Insects, &c. might be considerably enlarged; but the limits of this portion of our work will not admit of fuller explanation.

and the frost set in, the wild became more animated. Every cottage sent forth its skaters, and none were more swift and masterly at this exercise than the fenmen,— a preeminence they retain to the present day, rivaling the Hollanders in the rapidity and dexterity of their movements. This was a short carnival of gaiety for the inhabitants. Hilarity and holiday gladdened every countenance, and in some measure atoned for the former unsocial dreariness of scene. The pastime however

was but of short duration, for suddenly the storm came on, raging with its wintry violence,

Till boundless snows the withered heath deform,
And the dim sun scarce wanders through the storm.

The whole country soon became one boundless track, presenting a prospect of matchless sublimity,-white and glittering,-seeming to stretch out to the limit of the universe, and uncontrasted with any dark object in all its extent of brightness.

The breaking up of the ice and the melting of the snow was always a subject of alarm to the inhabitants in consequence of those fearful deluges, of which we have before spoken; while the winds as they broke over this vast plain, having nothing to impede the progress of their fury, were piercingly keen and violent. The cottager, as he sat cowering over his little fire, at this season of the year, has often heard the elements awake with all their desolating strength, howling uninterruptedly along the outstretched plain, mingled with shrill cries of the fen-birds as they battled with the blast. At such an unearthly moment what must have been his fear! Often has the impetuous storm swept

the frail hut away, and cast the treasures of his industry upon the waters.

a wreck

But if such was the scene of danger and desolation, that was in former times, perpetually presented to the eye; it is a desolation that has vanished, and it now becomes our more pleasing duty to exhibit this country in its present state of security and cultivation;—the clouded picture which has been moving before us has now to be embellished with the colors of refinement, and the charms of a more humanized society.

The improvements of modern years have been no where more apparent, than in the many plantations which have been reared in our neighbourhood. These have greatly enriched the appearance of the country, as every one must suppose who is acquainted with the spirit and luxury that trees infuse over a landscape, no fictitious or artificial beauty can atone for their absence. We have seen that many years have not elapsed since scarcely a feature of animated existence softened the rigidity of the waste. Now however this stern prospect has passed away, and a cheerfulness, if not a beauty of scenery, has supplied its place; but perhaps the principal cause of the improvement in the aspect of the Fens, is the advancement that has been made in the art of drainage by which all the stagnant waters now find a ready passage to the sea.

Many are apt to conceive the Fens as only calculated for the residence of the lowest ranks of husbandmen, whose tastes and feelings are supposed to be as rough as their unpolished minds. Such a picture, though applicable enough to the country we have just delineated, has little unison with its present appearance,-the sweep

of surface, the solitude of objects, and the silence of desertion, has each been soothed into features more congenial to our ideas of companionable beauty. The more secluded parts have certainly few recommendations for residence, and are but little improved upon their ancient dreariness; but even here cultivation has done much, and scarcely a rood of land is left to waste or indolence.*

Instead of the miserable straw-roofed cabin of the ancient fenman, which had all the squallid nakedness of that described by Crabbe;

A Room, which one rude beam divides,

And naked rafters form the sloping sides;

Where the vile bands that bind the thatch are seen,

And lath and mud are all that lie between;

Save one dull pane, that, coarsely patched, gives way,
To the rude tempest, yet excludes the day.

Instead of such a painfully wretched hut, every peasant has now his comfortable little pastoral cottage, adorned with its honeysuckle, its jasmine, its roses, or its scrupulously trained vine; and is rarely without its fresh plot of garden ground. Here also is now to be found the spacious farm-house with its flower-garden, its orchard, and cool shade of trees, while the more stately edifices of the opulent are frequently embedded in

* That eloquent divine, the Rev. Robt. Hall, who was a warm lover of nature, invariably expressed his disrelish of Cambridgeshire scenery. 'I always say of my Cambridge friends' said he' when I witness their contentedness in such a country, "Herein is the faith and patience of the saints." In another place, speaking of the scanty and stinted vegetation of the flats, he calls it 'Nature putting forth flags of distress.'

foliage; and, though it may seem ungenial to the soil, yet fruits and flowers of the choicest kind are frequently cultivated with much success. The Fig-tree and Pomegranate, the Clematis, Japonica, PassionFlower, and

The spiry Myrtle with unwithering leaf,

that choice little emblem of constancy, thrive in the open air, while many exotics adorn the green-house and conservatory, where the disciples of Flora and the learned in plants may enjoy the delights of an unrestrained botanical research. The church, that was once open and unprotected, is now surrounded by trees of the most luxuriant growth, and the traveller frequently knows his approach to it only by the sweet-toned bell echoing over the landscape.

The Heron, the Wild Swan, aud Cormorant have taken their flight to some more cheerless and uncultivated region, and their places are supplied by the more melodious birds.-The Cuckoo, the Thrush, the Blackbird chant their various song; the Lark hovers in the cloud, and it has been asserted that the Nightingale has occasionally been heard.* The occupation of the fowler has almost entirely ceased, and the gun of the sportsman resounds in our fields. The shy and sensitive

* We confess ourselves attached to birds, and have watched for hours though unsuccessfully, "beneath the joyous moon" for his truly melancholy note, and we regret that we do not possess that happy turn of a romantic mind, which can render the pleasures of imagination equal to reality, or summon things hoped for into being with a wish.