430 eeport — 1879. 



Barnsley and Pontefract. Now this region is alive with busy collieries, iron works 

 and quarry workings — is covered with cultivation and intersected by canals and 

 railways. Within historical times it was a vast forest, with patches of cultivation 

 at long intervals, and dominated by the mighty barons, the Furnivals and Warrens, 

 in the feudal castles of Sheffield and Conisborough. There are still patches of the 

 primaeval forests, or at least tracts which have never been under cultivation. The parks 

 of Wentworth and Wortley and Thrybergh have probably never known the plough, 

 and in the smaller area of Aldwark there have been Clarels, Fitzwilliams, and 

 Foljambes for at least six centuries. One would expect to find plants, the survivors 

 of an old forest or marsh flora, in these patches, which are unknown or uncommon 

 elsewhere ; and this appears to be the case. We are told, for instance, that at 

 Aldwark the rare Stdlaria glauca grows, and that the Carex elongata has been 

 found there, though not recently. It is probable that many points of geographical 

 interest would be deduced by an intelligent observer who makes a careful comparison 

 of the descriptions of the country in past times with its actual condition. 



But the most remarkable effects of man's agency are to be observed in the levels 

 upon which the Don enters after leaving the town of Doncaster. 



The vast expanse of levels comprised in Hatfield Chase, Thorne Waste, and 

 Goole Moors covers several square miles. Hatfield Chase alone has an area of 

 70,000 acres, and was a wild country consisting of forest and moor, intersected by 

 watercourses and dotted with large pools and swamps. The waters of the Don 

 spread over this expanse, the overflow finding its way to the Trent at Adlingfleet. 

 The Idle, now part of the Trent system, also emptied its waters into the great 

 levels. There were large meres or lakes yielding much fish and frequented by all 

 kinds of water-fowl, and boats were the means of communication between Thorne 

 and Hatfield. There were a few islands rising above the level, such as Lindholme, 

 in Hatfield Turf Moor, which could only be reached in seasons of extreme drought. 

 The Earls Warren of Conisborough Castle had a timber-house at Hatfield, whither 

 they went to hunt the deer in a well-stocked park. Here the second son of 

 Edward HI., named William of Hatfield, was born, and Henry, the eldest son 

 of Richard Duke of York, in 1441. William of Worcester also mentions another 

 event relating to the Duke of York and the Duchess Cicely as happening at Hatfield, 

 which I need not further particularise. The births of these Plantagenets at 

 Hatfield are only interesting to the geographer because they indicate the nature of 

 the surrounding country, which would afford attractions to that sport-loving race : 

 a wild district abounding in game. 



One of these royal hunts took place in 1609, when Henry, Prince of Wales, 

 embarked at Tudworth, accompanied by a hundred boats. Deer, to the number of 

 five hundred, were frighted out of the woods and closes, and all took to the water, 

 being driven into Thorne Mere, where the fattest were killed. 



This was the last royal hunt in the Hatfield swamps ; for in 1626 the famous 

 undertaking was inaugurated which has effected so marvellous a change in this 

 part of the Don basin. In that year Cornelius Vermuyden, of Tholen in Zealand, 

 with the aid of Dutch capital and Dutch labour, undertook to drain the levels. 

 The south channel of the Don, by which it discharged its waters into the Trent, 

 was to be stopped, and all the waters were forced into the north channel to flow 

 into the Aire. The river Idle, which spread its waters over the level, was to be 

 stopped also, and earned by a new channel into the Trent ; and deep drains were 

 to be cut to the Trent from the great ponds and swamps round Thorne and Hatfield. 

 The Dutch labourers, who understood the work thoroughly, made rapid progress ; 

 but there was one great mistake in the original design. It was soon found that 

 the north channel could not carry off all the Don water to the Aire, and there was 

 great loss from floodings of the adjacent lands. It then became necessary to make 

 the existing straight cut from the Don to the Ouse at Goole, which is known as the 

 Dutch river, and this added so largely to the cost that it prevented the undertaking 

 from being commercially successful to the first adventurers. Many Dutch famflies, 

 however, settled on the reclaimed lands ; and one of their descendants, Abraham 

 de la Pryrne, wrote a history of the undertaking. 



The change has been wonderful, and it now seems almost incredible that boats 



