Likewise of
the fourth, of Whitehart or Blackmoor in Dorsetshire. The fifth, of
Ringdale or Renidale, corruptly called Kingtaile, that lieth (as mine
author saith) upon the edge of Essex and Cambridgeshire, and also the
Marshwood Vale: but, forsomuch as I know not well their several
limits, I give over to go any further in their description. In like
sort it should not be amiss to speak of our fens, although our
country be not so full of this kind of soil as the parts beyond the
seas (to wit, Narbonne, etc.), and thereto of other pleasant bottoms,
the which are not only endued with excellent rivers and great store
of corn and fine fodder for neat and horses in time of the year
(whereby they are exceeding beneficial unto their owners), but also
of no small compass and quantity in ground. For some of our fens are
well known to be either of ten, twelve, sixteen, twenty, or thirty
miles in length, that of the Girwies yet passing all the rest, which
is full sixty (as I have often read). Wherein also Ely, the famous
isle, standeth, which is seven miles every way, and whereunto there
is no access but by three causies, whose inhabitants in like sort by
an old privilege may take wood, sedge turf, etc.
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