Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Wisbech
“Before this area of fenland was reclaimed in the 17th century the region was about as inhospitable and as unsuitable for agriculture as you could find in England. Yet the rich soil beneath the watery fens provided a great boost to the fruit and flower growing industries, and Wisbech grew in size and importance.
“In the medieval period Wisbech was an active river port, only 4 miles from the sea, but the passage of time has extended the coastline so that Wisbech now rests 11 miles from open water….” http://www.britainexpress.com/counties/cambridgeshire/az/wisbech.htm
The area is rich in loam, also in rumours of King John’s lost riches, when he failed to heed the gaggle of bungling yokels and their warnings and proceeded to cross the ever moving tidal basin. King John became goggle eyed having never read the Moses story properly.
Such a guggle guggle. [non sic]
For a detailed history of Wisbech see…
Wisbech…for a history of the Fens…
http://home.freeuk.com/fenhistory/history.html
Pronounced WIZ-beech.
William Godwin (1756-1836) was “[b]orn at Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, Godwin’s family on both sides were middle-class people, and it was probably only as a joke that he, a stern political reformer and philosophical radical, attempted to trace his pedigree to a time before the Norman Conquest to the great earl, Godwine.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Godwin