carried on till Lady Day 1653; and then the whole Level being adjudged drained, possession of the said 95,000 acres was given to them accordingly: and by virtue of an Act made in the Parliament begun the 25th of April 1660, it still continues.
There are several banks, which together are above two hundred miles in length: seventy miles whereof are generally nine feet high and sixty feet wide at the seat or bottom; the rest generally five feet high and twenty-four feet wide at the seat. Besides, they have cut one navigable river twenty one miles long and one hundred feet broad: besides divers sewers and drains, altogether above four hundred miles in length, some forty feet, some thirty, some twenty, and none under twelve feet wide. Besides, they have made divers great and navigable sasses and sluices, and bridges.
For the doing whereof, and in other expenses and buildings, and improving the said Level; the said Earl and his Participants have expended at least £500,000; and it will yearly cost great sums to maintain it.
This being the true state of the Case—as indifferent to all interests, and as an affectionate friend to the whole—I heartily wish and advise that all parties herein concerned, would so far recede from their own opinions and private interests, and—for the preservation of the whole—unanimously submit all differences to the determination of the Parliament, or to such persons as they, in their wisdom, shall think fit: whereby the whole may be preserved, and all particular interests may receive justice according to the equity of their cause.
Finis.
