customed to earn their living by fishing and fowling, and to the illicit prac. tices incident to the neighbourhood of a great chase, so agreeable to the natural propensities of such a population, could hardly be expected to view his improvements with much favour or complacency. When the civil war broke out, nothing else could be expected than that they should side with that party who sought redress of grievances, and opposed what they considered as the encroachments of the Crown. The expedient which they made use of, by flooding the whole Level, in order to get rid of the new settlers, however cruel to those individuals, was nothing more than what the most civilized nations have frequently had recourse to against their enemies, and which the Dutch themselves had recently practiced during their war of independence. The burning Reading's house was certainly a terrible example of what the Americans term lynch law, attended by circumstances of the most horrible nature; but we must recollect that he was their inveterate enemy, he was in possession of what they considered their inalienable right, -that he had assumed the character of a mercenary soldier, who, for a fixed salary, undertook to subdue them, and by his own statement had fought with them thirty-one pitched battles, in which several persons had been killed and many wounded,—and that he himself was satisfied with the compensation of six hundred pounds.

The Isle Commons remained in this wretched state until the year 1776, when the eminent Mr. Smeaton presented a report, wherein he directed that the old river Torn should be widened and deepened, and improvements were likewise advised to be made in other drains. These measures being carried into effect, the evils complained of were considerably diminished. The Participants wished to make the land-owners on the Isle Commons contribute towards these expences; but they effectually resisted the attempt, on the very just ground that, "according to the tenure of their very great estate, the Participants were bound to make, and for ever maintain, an effectual drainage of the said Isle and Level"." From this period no measures of importance were undertaken, until the year 1795, when an act of Parliament was obtained for inclosing the Isle Commons. Several new drains were then cut,

*See Appendix.

cut, which, though they have prevented any large tract of land from being continually overflowed with water, did not produce such an effectual drainage as the purposes of agriculture require. The great error in this act was limiting the engineers to drain into the river Trent; and Mr. Stone is of opinion "that upwards of fifty thousand acres in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire, which are now flooded, will ever continue to be overflown, until the present plan of draining into the Trent shall be given up. And he further thinks that an effectual drainage might have been accomplished by means of a new river, cut in a parallel direction with the course of the Trent, so that a sufficient and certain outfall might be obtained below Adlingfleet; and that the contributions of the Isle Commoners, to the general expence of such an undertaking, would not have amounted to above a moiety of what they have already incurred in an ineffectual attempt*.”

This plan seems to have met with general approbation; for in the year 1812, Mr. Thackray was employed to take levels, and in 1813, Mr. Rennie presented his report on the more effectual drainage of these Levels, in which he recommends "that the high land waters should be confined in separate outfalls from the low land waters, to effect which he describes at length where fresh drains should be made, and which of the old ones should be improved. But he gives it as his opinion, that to procure a perfect drainage, a new outfall ought to be made at Waterton, about five miles below Keadby, where in the ordinary state of low water, there is a fall of nearly two feet more than at Keadby, the present outfall; but in freshes, about three feet and a half. In fact the river at Waterton is so wide that the freshes do not produce half the effect as at Keadby."

"There are upwards of five thousand acres of low lands," says Mr. Rennie, "lying near Thorne, which would then have an opportunity of an excellent drainage into this new drain. The lands in Crowle, Eastoft, part of Luddington, Garthorpe, would be greatly improved by this new cut, and relieved of the expence of keeping their present outfalls in repairs. The warping of the lands would not be prevented by this drain, as its depth under the soil will

* See Beauties of England and Wales, Vol. 9. p. 579.

will be sufficient to allow of temporary troughs being laid over it. The line of the drain would not be injurious to the lands through which it was to pass, because the most of it, while within the inclosed lands, runs along the line of the old drains; very few fields will be cut asunder, more than what is now done, and there will be convenient roads and bridges, &c. &c. In Crowle Commons no inconvenience can possibly arise, as in the division of the Commons the Commissioners will allot the lands to suit the drain. Upon the whole it appears to me, that while this drain will be of the most essential advantage to the Participants and Freeholders of Hatfield Chase, and to the Proprietors of the Commons and low lands adjoining, it cannot prove injurious to any land through which it will pass to Waterton."

No steps seem to have been taken in consequence of this report, until the year 1828, when this great desideratum of a more perfect drainage of the whole Level, by means of a new outfall either below Waterton or Adlingfleet, was again taken into consideration; and a Committee having been appointed to investigate the subject, their report was received at a general meeting of the Participants. The report was, in substance, as follows: "the Committee perfectly agree with Mr. Rennie and Mr. Smeaton, that, by the present outfalls at Althorpe and Keadby, a good drainage can never be effected. They state that the natural outfall of the Level is evidently at Adlingfleet, where the united waters of the Idle, the Torn, and the Don emptied themselves before they were turned off, the one at Idle Stop and the others near Wroot and Thorne, by Vermuyden. They recommend that a new drain of sufficient dimensions should be cut from Dirkness Bridges to Ousefleet, two miles west of Adlingfleet. At Dirkness Bridges it would receive all the waters of the present drains of the Participants, and relieve them from the expence of maintaining them between that place and the Trent. It was then to be continued along the course of the present Idle Drains, to the extremity of the Level at Idle Stop. This new drain was intended to combine the three-fold advantages of draining, warping, and navigation. For the purposes of draining, it would give to the Isle of Axholme, a better outfall by eight feet, and during floods, when most wanted, of ten feet, than the pre

sent

sent one. The whole of the low Level, comprising Thorne Waste, the cultivated grounds on the north side of Keadby Canal, Hatfield Waste, the lands towards Austerfield and Finningley, Blaxton, Cantley, and Armthorpe, and to Doncaster Carr, which are now either waste or very imperfectly drained, would at once be relieved,-fifteen thousand acres might be warped ; and for the purposes of navigation, the drain might be so made as, at the same time, to be used for navigation, in the same manner as the Dutch River, the bottom of the drain being cut so much below low water, as to leave a suffi, cient depth for navigation when the tide is out. It was proposed to raise the requisite funds without reference to the land-owners in the Levels, by means of a company formed in the same manner as a company for navigation, to act upon the basis laid down in the act of Parliament, procured by Mr. Creyke and Admiral Sotheron, to lay the lands under contribution as the benefit of drainage or warping, or as one or both had reached them. It was hoped that such an important work as the complete drainage of more than one hundred thousand acres, the warping of fifteen thousand, which would alone add twenty thousand pounds a year to their value, and procuring a navigation to the whole, would command the patronage and assistance of the noblemen and gentlemen who are themselves owners within the district."

Such, however, was not the case. A sufficient number of consents in order to get an act of Parliament could not be obtained. The estimated expence, three hundred and fifty thousand pounds, seemed to the land-owners overwhelming, and the projectors, unlike Vermuyden, "resting on the royal favour, and his inexhaustible treasures," durst not proceed without one. Besides the consideration of the expence, those who had estates in Marshland were particulary adverse to it, on the ground that, being well drained themselves, they did not wish to have their estates divided by the new drain, in its progress from Dirkness Bridges to Ousefleet. They had another very serious objection: they were apprehensive that, as the whole of marshland was alluvial soil, laid up by the river Trent and Ouse, if such a large cut as a drain with one hundred feet bottom was made, and the works at the outfall, especially during their

their erection, were to go away, or as the engineers term it blow up, during the time of floods, meeting strong spring tides, the consequences might be very serious; no one could tell how far the damage might extend, or where it might end: the Humber might resume its ancient demesne, and a considerable part of marshland be washed away; just as we see beds of warp which have accumulated at the drain heads, are cleared out by admitting a tide at flood and discharging it through the doors during the ebb. And when we consider what dreadful inundations * this country has been subject to, from the occurrence

of

* De la Prymne has left us in his MSS. the following account of these inundations. "Towards the end of the year 1687 there happened a great inundation in the Levels, by means of the much rains that fell, and the high tides which increased the waters so that they broke the banks, and drowned the country for a many miles round. My father, and in general every one that dwelt there, lost very considerably in their winter corn, besides the great expence they were put to by boating their cattle to the hills and firm lands, with the trouble of keeping them there two or three months. I have been several times upon those banks, which are about three yards in height, when the water has been full to the very tops, and nothing appeared on that side but a terrible tempestuous sea. The water remains about half a week, and sometimes a week, at its full height, whose motions some hundreds of people are watching day and night; but if it chance to be so strong as to drive away, as it often does, any quantity of any of the banks, then it drowns all before it, and makes a noise by its fall which is heard many miles before they see the water; and in the place where it precipitates itself down, makes a huge pond or pit, sometimes one hundred yards about, and a vast depth, so that in that place, it being impossible for the bank to be built again, they always build it half round, many of which pits and banks may be seen beyond Thorne.

"On the 17th of December, 1697, we had a very great snow, which was, on the level ground, about two feet and a half thick, after a pretty hard frost, which froze over again for several days. On the 20th, it thawed exceedingly fast, upon which there came down so great a flood that the like was never known. About forty-one years since, there was the greatest flood that was then ever remembered, but that was much less than this: for this came roaring all of a sudden, about eleven o'clock at night, on to Bramwith, Fishlake, Thorne, and other towns, upon which the people rung all their bells backward, as they commonly do in the case of a great fire; but though this frightened all to the banks, and bid them all look about them, yet nevertheless the loss was very great. The people of Sykehouse and Fishlake they had banks to save them, yet it overtopt all, drowned the beasts in their folds, and destroyed their sheep. Several men lost their lives, their houses in Sykehouse, and many in Fishlake, being drowned up to the very eves, so that they reckon no less than three thousand pound damage was done by the same in the parish of Fishlake. It came with such force against all the banks about Thorne, which keep the waters off the Levels, that every body gave them over, there being no hopes to save them, and ran over them all along, and the ground being so hard, they could not strike down stakes upon the top of their banks to hinder the water from running over.

At