Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
and military officers who had served in the New Model Army during the Civil War. The two
coats of arms shown are those of the regicide William Goffe and Sir Walter St John, son-in-
law of Cromwell's Lord Chief Justice. The decoration thus gave this map a political com-
plexion.
This sheet demonstrates how the draining of the Fens physically changed the face of the
landscape and the flow of water across it, in accord with the mathematical principles dear to
Jonas Moore, the scheme's surveyor and mapmaker. Straight lines provided direct means for
water to run, replacing meandering channels. From the top edge where lay The Wash, Down-
ham Eau was cut straight, alongside the winding 'Old Ouse'. Below a complex junction of
waterways at Denver lie the parallel Old and New Bedford Rivers, with raised banks to con-
tain floodwaters between them. To left the 'Marshland Cutt' drove straight across the land.
Below it is the 'new-bottomed' Popham's Eau. New sluices, channels and embankments are
evident all over this map. The works also changed ownership; this sheet shows some of the
new 'lots' given to investors, created from newly-drained lands, among existing fields and
commons.
This expensive map would have adorned the walls of the rich and investors in the scheme
- precisely the people who needed to prove their loyalty to the King when the monarchy was
restored in 1660, two years after the map's publication. A map boldly displaying coats of
arms of known Parliamentarians would hardly help their cause. Presumably all copies were
destroyed except this one, sent to the Duchy of Lancaster, the area's major landowner.
The coats of arms were erased from the printing plates, just as the Commonwealth period
was superseded by the Restoration, and the drainage scheme itself had limited long-term suc-
cess. Yet the quality of the map launched the career of Jonas Moore, who became Surveyor
General of the Royal Ordnance, a leading light of the Royal Society, friend of Sir Christopher
Wren, and a founder of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. The map itself was a landmark
in large-scale surveys, reprinted with little change for another 150 years - minus those con-
tentious coats of arms.
