History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 188

‘peasant, countryman’ is now obsolete except in the sense ‘a peasant, rustic with lack
of refinement
implied, a country clown’; the word was also used for a Dutch colonist in South Africa
and Guiana, but Boer is the form now employed. The feminine of boor is Boorinn
(1649, once), from Du. boerin, a peasant woman.

Chapter VIII
The Work of the Low Dutch in Reclaiming and Draining Land, and its Influence
on English Vocabulary
8. 1.
THE pioneers in marsh reclamation in northern Europe were the men of Flanders and
Holland, and in Flanders there appeared, about 1150, the first polders, that is, diked
land reclaimed from the sea. The Flemings and Hollanders did not confine their
activities to their own countries; bands of peasants were setting out, by the beginning
of the 12th century, to drain the Mooren on the banks of the Elbe. It is extremely
probable that the Flemings who settled in England in such numbers undertook the
draining and clearing of the lands allotted to them, and although such drainage could
not have been on an extensive scale, it was nevertheless likely to introduce new
words.
By the 15th century the Dutch had become the leading drainage and harbour
engineers in Europe, and for the next two centuries there is record of their being called
to England for consultation and to undertake schemes of reclamation and harbour
construction. In 1410 a Hollander was employed to work on the sluice at Romney, and
Flemish masons constructed a sluice and dam at Boston in 1500. In the reign of Henry
VIII a Brabanter, Cornelius Vanderdelft, was employed to drain the Stepney Marshes
outside London. By reason of the expansion of the English fleet and merchant
shipping in the reign of Elizabeth considerable works were carried out in the harbour
at Dover; Flemish workmen were employed upon them, and the Brabant engineer
Humphrey Bradley was consulted. This man afterwards interested himself in the
drainage of the Norfolk Fens and brought forward his suggestions in a pamphlet
entitled A Discourse of H