XIV 

 THE ISLE OF AXHOLME 



FROM the Lincoln Wolds we set our faces westwards 

 and crossed in rapid succession the whole series of 

 the secondary rocks from the Chalk downwards, until 

 at Gainsborough we reached the New Red Sandstone, 

 and with it the valley of the Trent. Here the tidal 

 river has formed a wide alluvial flat, out of which rises 

 a ridge of low sandstone hills, constituting the Isle 

 of Axholme, now an island no longer in the geo- 

 graphical sense, though the reclamation of the " moors " 

 by which it is surrounded is a matter of comparatively 

 recent history. 



The Isle of Axholme has its niche in history, for its 

 most considerable village is Epworth, where John 

 Wesley's father held the rectory, and where his gifted 

 family received their strange upbringing. But vivid 

 as are these associations, it was another reason which 

 drew us to the Isle of Axholme. From a distance we 

 could see that the hillside, crowned with the church 

 and windmill of Haxey, had the look of a patchwork 

 quilt, so covered was it with a strange reticulation of 

 crops in narrow strips, as though laid out in experi- 

 mental plots. The road led into this much-divided 

 land, and then we found we had struck upon a little 

 bit of country that has been left as a kind of outlier 

 in time, to report to the twentieth century on the 



