14 MERDHIN. CHAPTER I. A LORD DANE ON A VISIT. THERE is reason to believe that, a thousand years ago, one of the prettiest rural districts in England was that which has since been called, with a mixture of compassion and contempt, the Fens. For a considerable extent south and southwest of the Wash, wide rivers flowed between wooded islands, on whose rising grounds were erected the buildings suited to the character of the age and the locality; - here a monastery surrounded by orchards and vineyards; there the dwellings of the superintendents of the fisheries, -and elsewhere the lodges of the foresters in the service of king or abbot. Where dreary and sickly swamps afterwards extended from east to west, noble woods marked the undulations of the |
