Farming of Lincolnshire. 



321 



sown with rape and corn for three years together (not beinc: 

 deluijed bv either tides or freshes), and bore plentiful crops. A 

 portion of that low swampy district, not worth 6d. an acre pre- 

 viously, was after the drainage worth 10.9. an acre. Houses were 

 erected in many parts of the level which had been drowned land, 

 and after the improvement the grounds were better worth 135. 4.d. 

 per acre than 25. an acre before. Fifty quarters of rape-seed 

 were obtained from 10 acres of the drained land in one year, 

 and sold at 305. per quarter : and these watery wastes became 

 so well dried and fitted for cultivation that the usual yield per 

 acre was 3^ quarters of wheat, 3 quarters of rye, and 8 quarters 

 of oats, and in some cases 7 quarters per acre for six years 

 together. Though this can only refer to a small area, ic 

 shows the skill of the husbandmen of that period, and also 

 the natural richness and productiveness of the soil. The 

 tribe of wandering beggars, we are told, in a great measure 

 disappeared, the hands being set to labour in vreeding corn, 

 burning earth, threshing, ditching, harvest-work, and other 

 operations in husbandry — the wages of labourers in the neigh- 

 bourhood being: doubled bv reason of this increase of employ- 

 ment. T^yo hundred families of French and Flemish Protesiant 

 refugees settled in the district, and ploughed and tilled much of 

 the Adventurers' lands until the year 1642, y/hen the tranquillity 

 of the Isle of Axholme, like the peace of the whole kingdom, 

 was broken by the outbursts of popular indignation. In this case, 

 as in the lamentable outbreaks which occurred in almost all 

 parts of the Lincolnshire and other fens, the commoners, taking 

 advantage of the disturbed condition of the realm, sought by 

 riots and tumults to regain their turbarv, pasture, and arable 

 ground, as well as the privileges of fishing, fowling, and 

 hunting, of which they had been bereft, and the result was 

 the destruction of the adventurers' works which had injured 

 instead of benefiting the comm.ons.* At the close of the 



^- The na'ure of these occurrences appears from the following statements. The 

 King, heing desirous of improving the lands which contributed to his revenue, issued a 

 commission to certain gentlemen to treat and conclude with those who claimeil common 

 of pasture, by way of composition, in land or money ; and those who would not agree 

 had an information exhibited against them in the Exchequer Chamber by the Attorney- 

 General, and were obliged to submit to his award. There were no less than 370 

 commoners in the manor of Epworth alone ; and of lo,400 acres in that manor, 6000 

 acres lying next to the towns (now called Open-field lands ") were allotted to the 

 commoners as their portion, and the remaining 7400 acres to Sir C Vermuyden and 

 his participaiits for their third part and for the King's part. This does not seem to have 

 been an equitable arrangement, but the cause of dissatisfaction was, that the whole of 

 those who had interest of common were compelled to sell their rights and agree to the 

 drainage, no matter what was their opinion as to the benefits they should derive : and it is 

 matter of fact that the number of those vrho dissented from the undertaking Avere three 



TOL, XII. Y 



