part of the tithes to the Minister who officiated in them. Two of these Chapels still remain, Butterwick and Amcotts. That at West Ferry and Eastoft has long since disappeared; but they had no part assigned of the tithes of the parish in which they were situated. West Butterwick and Amcotts had a trifling endowment in land. The revenue of West Ferry, from the same source, was far more considerable, which probably caused it to be seized upon; with the other Free Chapels and Chantries, in the reign of Edward the Sixth. When King Henry the Eighth pillaged the Archbishoprick of York, he compelled that Prelate to give up some of his land, and to take Impropriations in lieu, amongst which were the Rectories of Owston and Haxey. The sale of Belton to the Corporation of Lincoln has already been mentioned. Epworth, Wroot, and Althorpe came to the Crown ratione attincturæ ; so also did the Rectories of Luddington and Croule, which, together with the right of presentation to the Vicarages, were disposed of, soon after the general confiscation of ecclesiastical property.

The sale of the monastical part of this property, together with the lands of Hospitals, Chantries, and Free Chapels—the subdivision, from the same cause, of the large marriage portions, given in land to his daughters by the Lord Paramount-has given a remarkable feature to the possession of property in the Isle of Axholme, in the very large number of small freeholders which it contains; for the more antient freeholders, previous to these transactions, as far as I have been able to trace them,—the Gibsons, the Slingsbys, the Collinsons, the Maws, the Vavasours, the E

vers,

vers,

the Torrs, the Tankersleys, the Barnards, and the Halifaxes, were holders of considerable property. The present condition of the small freeholders has been thought by some calculated to throw light on a question which has excited much interest of late, concerning the relative comfort and advantages between small and large holdings. I shall not enter into any formal discussion of this question, in all its bearings; but merely observe, that these small freeholders are generally very badly of: for their inheritances have become so incumbered with mortgages, that the interest is a very high rent, an inconvenience necessarily attending the descent of land not entailed in the same family, from the provision which has to be made, at different times, for the younger children. I am certain no one works harder or fares worse than a small farmer who sits at a high rent; but a small freeholder *, under the pressure of a heavy mortgage, is still worse of. The worst landlord must give way to the circumstances of his tenant; but a mortgagee is a perfect land shark, his heart is as hard as that of a political economist-like Shylock, he stands upon his bond. Talk to him of the depreciation of land, or the produce of land, and the consequent necessity of taking a lower rate of interest, he "cannot find it in the bond." But, perhaps, some one will say, "let him be paid off;" money, like other marketable commodities, finds its level, and if one will not take a less rate of interest,

* I have known a small freeholder, who was working under the high pressure of a stiff mortgage,mow his own meadow, and have nothing but a sup of water to quench his thirst, when the farmers' labourers had four shillings per acre for the same work, and as much ale as they could drink,

terest, another lender will. Very true. But then the expence of changing the security is often so very considerable that it far outweighs the reduction of interest. This the poor mortgagor must submit to, besides an additional burden in the shape of principal, or to liquidate these additional charges, which will be equal at least to the payment of ten per cent. for two years. But too often he has to submit to this inconvenience even without a reduction of interest, from the money lent being called in, untilthe last feather breaking the camel's back—the mortgage is foreclosed, and the estate passes out of his hands forever.

But, even if this were not the case, ten, or fifteen, or even twenty acres of land will scarcely support a family who till the ground themselves; for no man can farm at all without a pair of horses, and on such small holdings there would not be employment for them, they would consume far more than they earned. The smallest of the small freeholders are best off, who depend not on a few acres of land for their subsistence; but possessing an acre, or half an acre of land, are day labourers, and cultivate their little plot of corn, or onions, or potatoes, during extra hours, or when they may be without employment; or those who follow some trade or handicraft, such as a shopkeeper, a miller, a joiner, or a shoemaker; and some of these freeholders, who are now in the best circumstances, are the sons of persons who accumulated their property in this way. Had the Isle of Axholme continued the sole property of one Lord Paramount, especially if that Lord had been such a person as the present Duke of Northumberland, the pre

sent

sent Earl Yarborough, or Earl Beauchamp, or that most excellent member of the landed aristocracy, Sir Robert Sheffield; what a different state would it now be in! Such a presiding and powerful influence would have controuled the outrages of Vermuyden, and have effectually protected the commoners against those harpies of the law, who, under the name of the Isle Solicitors, fully explained to the antient freeholders, alas! to their cost and to their ruin, Æsop's fable of the monkey and the two cats. The same influence would have avoided the great error of leaving the fields open in Epworth, Haxey, Owston, and Belton, at the inclosure of 1795; and would, most probably, have carried into execution the splendid improvements projected in 1828, by which the low grounds on the west side would have been effectually drained, and 20,000 acres of land improved by the process of warping. But supposing the Isle were now the sole property of one Lord Paramount, the question would be, what division of holdings would be most advantageous to landlord and tenant? I should answer, that, as no man can farm without a pair of horses and a servant boy, he should have as much land as would keep himself and his team fully employed; and that, therefore, no holding ought to be less than from five and forty to fifty acres of land; and that the larger farms ought to be arranged according to the capital of those by whom they are to be occupied. A Lord Paramount, who wished for the welfare of all who lived upon his fee, would take care of his Bordarii and Cottarelli, and thus preserve the smallest freeholders, or rather copyholders, by allowing

d

allowing them to occupy, at a nominal rent, from a rood to three roods or an acre of land, on condition of their being labourers of good character to the larger tenants.

Under such a state of things, I have no hesitation in asserting that the Isle of Axholme would be by far the finest part of Lincolnshire. Admirably situated on the banks of a tiding river, navigable at all times for vessels of very considerable burden, and which affords every facility for the exportation of agricultural produce to the most populous cities of the empire, and for the importation of manures,—its fertile fields might be pushed to a much higher state of cultivation, and the crops more than doubled.

With regard to the Embellishments of this Work, I have gone to the utmost extent that the funds placed at my disposal would allow; and have given the most interesting views which the country afforded, none of which have ever been engraved before. The View of the Spring Tide flowing with an @gre, at Ferry, will, I hope, meet with the approbation of the Subscribers. Lithography was adopted, in this instance, as the species of engraving best adapted to represent the effect of that curious phenomenon. No work of antiquity, now in existence, which is worth a representation, has been omitted. I have given three Maps. The first is an accurate survey of the country in its present state; the second represents it in its natural state, before any efforts had been made to drain the Level of Hatfield Chase, or to speak more correctly, in its inundated state; for in ages more remote than those of

which