Axholme

Axholme, ISLE OF, a low level tract of North-west Lincolnshire, cut off by the Trent from the rest of the county. Measuring 18 by 5 miles, it was anciently a forest, but afterwards became a marsh, which was drained into the Trent in 1625 and succeeding years by Cornelius Vermuyden, a Dutchman, at a cost of £56,000. The reclaimed land became very fertile under Dutch and French Protestant settlers, but, after much litigation, it was in 1691 divided, the original inhabitants receiving 10,532 acres, and the settlers only 2868. In the Saturday Review for August 1, 1885, is a long and interesting account of the Isle of Axholme—the Mowbrays, its ancient lords; the wizard-hermit of Lindholme; and Epworth, the home of the Wesleys.