Process of Warping. 
399 
more of a practical than of a theoretical nature, of the system 
of warping, and I am tempted to do so solely from the circum- 
stance, that I am desirous, by a description of the improvement, 
of giving due credit and respect to one to whom the country was 
so much indebted for his enlightened views on the subject, and 
also for carrying out those improvements which have made rich, 
and brought into cultivation, a large tract of land which was ori- 
ginally of a totally uncultivable nature. 
There are considerable tracts of land on both sides of the rivers 
Ouse and Trent (forming at their junction the estuary called the 
Humber), and the tributaries the Air and Dutch river, all tide 
rivers, which from their low level would be subject to be flooded 
by these rivers at high-water, were they not contained within their 
present beds by banks. Science seems more particularly to 
have had an advantage over literature in the present instance, for 
while the banks, works of great labour and skill, remain, history 
seems particularly dark on the subject of by whom, and when 
they were made ; they must have been made at the same period, 
and must have been the work of great labour, being of immense 
size and strength, many thousand acres of fine alluvial soil having 
been preserved from the action of the tide. 
Considerable improvements were made in later days, during 
the reign of Charles the First, by a company of Dutchmen under 
Sir Cornelius Vermuyden (and a few Frenchmen), calling them- 
selves " Participants," who contracted with the Crown to drain 
certain lands south of Thorne and in the parishes of Epworth, 
Crowle, &c., containing about 75,000 acres, receiving for their 
labour and expense one-third of the land so drained, the Crown 
reserving for itself one-third, the remaining third being divided 
amongst the commoners of the district. They amongst their nu- 
merous works widened the river Dunn, and turned its course by 
cutting a new river, called at present the Dutch river, flowing into 
the river Ouse at Goole. The Dutch seem, by numerous law- 
suits, and by a marked dislike of the inhabitants to those innovators, 
to have been finally driven out of the country, and their property 
to have been taken from them (although there are many bearing 
Dutch names living in the neighbourhood to this day). The 
lands, however, originally allotted to the Participants, pay certain 
rates to maintain the banks and works, and to keep the drainage 
in proper order : this, however, only refers to the Dutch river, 
showing its origin, and to lands far removed from the district 
where the improvements I am desirous of describing have been, 
and are still being, carried on. 
About two miles from the banks of the river Ouse there is a 
peat-moss containing about 10,000 acres, called Thorne Waste ; 
this peat-moss is, I fancy, of the same construction as the gene- 
