BEDFORD LEVEL, an extensive tract of flat land on the c. coast of England, embrac ing nearly all the marshy district called the Fens. It extends inland around the Wash into the 5 counties of Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge, Lincoln, Norfolk, and Suffolk, and has an area of about 450,000 acres. Its inland boundary forms a horseshoe of high lands, and reaches the towns of Brandon, Milton-8 in. n.n.e. of Cambridge— Earith, Peterborough, and Bolingbroke. It is divided into three parts—the n. level, between the rivers Welland and Nene; the middle, between the Nene and the old Bed ford river; and the s., extending to Stoke. Feltwell, and 31ildenhall. It is intersected by many artificial channels, as well as by the lower parts of the rivers None, Cam, Ouse (Great and Little), Welland, Glen, Lark, and Stoke. It receives the waters of the whole or parts of 0 counties. This district seems to have been a great forest at the time of the Romans, who cut the forest down; formed great embankments, to exclude the tide; and rendered the tract for a time a fertile inhabited region. The emperor Severus, in the 3d c., made roads through it, one of which is now covered with 2 to 5 ft. of water. In the 13th c., violent incursions of the sea stopped the outflow of the rivers; and it became a morass. The practicability of draining this extensive region seems to have been thought of as early as 1436, and many partial attempts were made after this. The first effectual effort was in 1634, when Francis, earl of Bedford, after whom the district was thence forth called, obtained, along with 13 others, a charter to drain the level, on condition of receiving 05,000 acres of the reclaimed land. The work was partially-accomplished in 3
years, at the expense of £100,000; but was pronounced by thegovernment to be inade quate. Charles I. tried to get the work, with a greatly increased premium, into his own hands; but the civil war stopped further progress. In 1649, parliament confirmed Wit ham, earl of Bedford, in the rights granted to his father; and after a fresh outlay of £300,000, the contract was fulfilled. In 1688, a corporation was formed for the mauage meat of the level. The middle level has always been the most difficult to manage. bt. Germaiu's sluice, at the confluence of the great drain in this district with the Ouse, was considered perfectly secure. But in May, 1862, this sluice gave way under the pressure of a strong tide, and the western bank of the middle level drain burst, speedily flooding about 6000 acres of fertile land. This led to the construction of a permanent coffer-damn of pile work, to shut off the tidal waters; and for the drainage of the middle level, Slater's-Lode sluice, the old outlet to the Ouse, was taken advantage of; and siphon pipes were laid over the coffer-dam, the flood-waters let off by them and by drains; the siphons acting as a permanent sluice.