LINCOLNSHIRE, a county (maritime), bounded on
the north by the broad sestuary of the Humber, on the
east by the German ocean, and by the wide arm of it
called the Wash, on the south by the counties of Cambridge,
Northampton, and Rutland, and on the west by
those of Leicester, Nottingham, and York; it extends
from 52° 38' to 53° 44' (N. Lat), and from 18' (E. Lon.)
to 1° 3' (W. Lon.); and contains two thousand seven
hundred and forty-eight square miles, or, one million
seven hundred and fifty-eight thousand seven hundred
and twenty acres. The population, in 1821, amounted to
283,058. This portion of the territory of the Coritani
was included, on the Roman division of Britain, in the
province called Britannia Prima; and, from the Roman
remains still existing here, it is evident that those conquerors
not only considered this district of great importance,
in the state in which they found it, but also
made some considerable efforts towards that removal
of its natural disadvantages which in latter ages have
been prosecuted with such signal success. Of the
Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia this shire formed an
important part; its northern portion, the division of
Lindsey, having been wrested from that kingdom
by Edwin of Northumbria. Christianity seems to have
been first introduced into Lincolnshire, soon after the
conversion of that sovereign, by the Romish missionary,
Paulinus. We are told by Bede, that Paulinus,
after converting the Northumbrians, came into the
northern part of the kingdom of Mercia; that he
converted Blecca, then Governor of Lincoln, and baptized
many people of this district in the river Trent,
The see of Sidnacester, which is known to have comprised
the district or province of Lindsey, (although
the site of Sidnacester itself, which appears to have
been somewhere in that district, is a subject of contro-:
versy among antiquaries,) was established in 678, and
continued until the latter part of the eleventh century,
when St. Remigius, the nineteenth bishop, transferred ,
the see to Lincoln. In 827, at Caistor in this county,
Egbert, King of Wessex, defeated Wiglaf, King of Mercia,
who fled to Croyland, where he was concealed for
three months; when, by the mediation of its abbot,
Siward, he was restored to his kingdom, on paying
homage and becoming tributary to Egbert. This part
of the English territory was particularly exposed, by its
locality, to the incursions and ravages of the Danes;
so that their sanguinary fury was wreaked upon it
with especial frequency and violence. Early in the
year 870, having landed at Humberston, in Lindscy,
they destroyed the ancient and famous monastery of
Bardney, and, after wasting all the country around it
with fire and sword, they came, about Michaelmas, into
Kesteven, which they devastated in like manner. At
that time Algar, Earl of Mercia, and his two seneschals,
or lieutenants, Wibert and Leofric, assembled all
the youth of the parts of Holland, with a body of two
hundred men belonging to Croyland abbey, and about
three hundred more from Deeping, Langtoft, and Bos-,
ton; they were also joined by Morkar, Lord of Brunne,.
with his numerous retainers, and by the sheriff of Lincoln,
with the Lincolnshire forces, five hundred in number;
and the whole being mustered together in Kesteyen, on St.
Maurice's day, gave the Pagans battle, and routed them
with great slaughter, and the death of three of their
kings, pursuhig them to their camp, where finding a
very obstinate resistance, night at length parted the
combatants, and the earl drew back his army. The
Danes were joined in the night by other princes of
their nation, who had distributed themselves over the
neighbouring country for the purpose of plunder, and
in the morning, the English, notwithstanding their
inferior forces, again engaged them, and, by keeping
themselves in a compact body, maintained the conflict
the whole day, until, deceived in the evening by a
feigned flight of the enemy, they quitted their ranks,
when the Danes, turning upon them, made dreadful
slaughter. The Christian combatants were thus nearly
annihilated, a few youths of Gedney and Sutton alone
escaping to Croyland abbey, whereupon the monks immediately
employed themselves in secreting and sending
away their relics and other things valuable; but the
barbarians, after burning the villages on their way,
soon reached the monastery, made a general massacre
of its inhabitants, and committed the whole monastic
buildings to the flames; next day they marched, with
an immense spoil of cattle, &c., to Medeshamsted, now
Peterborough. In 873 the Danes wintered at Torksey,
and were there visited by Burhred, King of Mercia, who
purchased from them a short peace. On the tranquil
settlement of these invaders in this part of England,
Lincoln and Stamford were two of the five principal
towns which they occupied, and from them they were
not expelled until the year 941, in the reign of Edmund
the Elder.
From this period until the Norman Conquest the
transactions of the episcopal church and see of Lincoln
form the principal subjects of historical narrative.
In the war between Stephen and the Empress
Matilda, Lincoln and its vicinity were the scene of some
of the most interesting events, that city having been
twice besieged by the king, who captured it on the
first occasion; but on the second, the siege being
raised by the arrival of the Earl of Gloucester and his
army, the king, after fighting with desperate valour,
was made prisoner. In 1174, the Isle of Axholme,
being at that period surrounded by water, and consequently
a position of considerable strength, Roger de
Mowbray, Constable of England, one of the adherents
of Prince Henry in his rebellion against his father,
Henry II., maintained himself there until compelled to
surrender by the Lincolnshire men, who razed his castle.
The year 1216 is memorable for King John's disastrous
march into Lincolnshire; when, after losing all his baggage
in the washes, and narrowly escaping with his life,
he first rested at Swineshead abbey; whence, being
attacked by dysentery, he was removed in a litter to
Sleaford, and thence to Newark, where he died. On the
4th of June in the following year, the associated barons
under Gilbert de Gaunt, Earl of Lincoln, and the French
under the Count of Perche, were defeated at Lincoln,
by the Earl of Pembroke, regent for the young king,
Henry III., when the French commander and most of
his men were slain, and the principal barons and four
hundred knights made prisoners. At a later period
of the same reign, the Isle of Axholme afforded a retreat
to many of the disaffected nobles, after the battle
of Evesham. In 1536, at Barlings, commenced an insurrection
of the Lincolnshire men, in consequence of
the suppression of some religious houses: the insurgents
were headed by Dr. Mackerel, abbot of Barlings, under
the assumed name of Captain Cobler; but, on receiving
the king's promise of pardon, they dispersed, and Mackerel
was taken and hanged at Tyburn.
This county was the theatre of some considerable military
transactions in the last general civil war. In the year
1643, by an ordinance of both houses, it was added to
the Eastern Association. On March 22nd of the same
year, Grantham and its garrison were captured for the
king, by Col. Charles Cavendish; and shortly afterwards,
near that town, twenty-four troops of royalist cavalry
were defeated by Oliver Cromwell, at the head of his
own regiment. On May 11th, at Ancaster, the parliamentarians,
under the younger Hotham, were defeated
by Col. Cavendish. On the 30th of July, Gainsborough
was taken by the parliament's forces, under Lord
Willoughby of Parham, and its governor, the Earl of
Kingston, made prisoner, who, in his passage down the
Humber to Hull, was, in a mistake, shot by the royalists:
soon afterwards, near Gainsborough, the royalists were
defeated by Cromwell, and their commander, General
Cavendish, slain; and on October 11th of the same
year, at Horncastle, Lord Widrington, at the head of a
detachment of the Marquis of Newcastle's army, was
defeated, five hundred royalists slain, and eight hundred
taken prisoners, by the Earl of Manchester, who, on
May 6th, 1644, stormed Lincoln, and captured its governor,
Col. Francis Fane, with about eight hundred men.
This county is included in the diocese of Lincoln,
and province of Canterbury, and forms the two archdeaconries
of Lincoln and Stow; the former, comprising
the deaneries of Aswardhurn cum Lafford, Aveland,
Beltisloe, Bolingbroke, Candleshoe, Calceworth, Gartree,
Grantham, Graffo, Grimsby, Hill, Holland, Horncastle,
Lincoln, Longobovey, Lovedon, Louth-Eske,
Ness, Stamford, Walshcroft, Wraggoe, and Yarborough ,
and the latter, the deanries of Aslacoe, Corringham,
Lawress, and Manley. The number of parishes is six
hundred and nine, of which, three hundred and five
are rectories, two hundred and forty-four vicarages, and
the remainder perpetual curacies. Lincolnshire consists
of three grand divisions; namely, Lindsey, which is
much the largest, including nearly one-half of the county,
and extending from the German ocean to the borders
of Nottinghamshire, and from the river Witham to the
Humber; Kesteven, which forms the south-western
portion of the county; and Holland, the south-eastern.
The division of Lindsey comprises, exclusively of the
city of Lincoln, the hundreds, or wapentakes of Aslacoe
(East and West), Bradley-Haverstoe, Calceworth (Marsh
and Wold divisions), Candleshoe (Marsh and Wold divisions),
Corringham, Gartree (North and South), Hill,
Lawress, Louth-Eske (Marsh and Wold divisions), Ludborough,
Manley (East, North, and West), Walshcroft.
(North and South), Well, Wraggoe (East and West),
and Yarborough (East, North, and South); and the
sokes of Bolingbroke (East and West), and Horncastle;
that of Kesteven, exclusively of the town and soke of
Grantham, and the town of Stamford, comprises the wapentakes
of Aswardhurn, Aveland, Beltisloe, Boothby-
Graffo (High and Low), Flaxwell, Langoe (First and Second
divisions), Loveden, Ness, and Winnibriggs and
Threo; and that of Holland, exclusively of the town of
Boston, the wapentakes of Elloe, Kirton, and Skirbeck.
The county contains the city of Lincoln; the borough
and market-towns of Boston, Grantham, Grimsby, and
Stamford; and the market-towns of Alford, Barton
upon Humber, Bolingbroke, Bourne, Caistor, Donington,
Epworth, Falkingham, Gainsborough, Glandford-
Bridge, Holbeach, Horncastle, Kirton, Louth, Market-
Deeping, Market-Rasen, Sleaford, Spalding, Spilsby,
Long Sutton, Swineshead, Tattershall, Wainfleet, and
Wragby. Two knights are returned for the shire, two
citizens for the city of Lincoln, and two burgesses for
each of the boroughs. Lincolnshire is within the Midland
circuit; the assizes are held at Lincoln, where is
the county gaol: quarter sessions are held at Boston, for
the parts of Holland; at Bourne and Falkingham, for
the parts of Kesteven; and at Kirton, Louth, and Spilsby,
for the parts of Lindsey; there are one hundred
and ten acting magistrates. The houses of correction
are at Bourne and Falkingham, for the parts of
Kesteven; at Kirton, Louth, and Spilsby, for the
parts of Lindsey; at Spalding, for the parts of Holland,
with the exception of the wapentakes of Kirton
and Skirbeck, the house of correction for which is
at Skirbeck. The rates raised in the county, for the
year ending March 25th, 1827, amounted to £214,750,
the expenditure to £214,368. 7., of which £ 167,987 12.
was applied to the relief of the poor.
The discriminative features of Lincolnshire are
strongly marked by nature: these consist of the lowland
tracts, comprising about seven hundred and seL
venty-six thousand nine hundred and sixty acres; the
heaths, extending to a great distance both north and
south of Lincoln, the breadth of which, however, is not
very great, and containing one hundred and eighteen
thousand four hundred acres j and the Wolds in the
north - eastern part of the county, which extend in
length from Spilsby to the immediate vicinity of the
Humber, and include about two hundred and thirty-four
thousand eight hundred and eighty acres. Contiguous
to the sea, in the southern part, spreads an immense
extent of low land, much of which was once marsh land,
but is now become, by means of the exertions made during
a period of almost two hundred years, one of the
richest tracts in the kingdom; it is a region of fertility,
without beauty, in a climate which is not salubrious to
the human constitution. Advancing northward, along the
sea-shore, this tract becomes narrower, but is, however,
continued to the Humber, on the margin of which it contracts
to a mere stripe of marsh land, separated by the
cliffs, which rise near the mouth of the Trent, from a
nearly similar tract occupying all that part of the
county lying on the left side of that great river. The
heaths to the north and south of Lincoln, and the
Wolds, are calcareous ranges of hills, commanding many
fine views over the lower tracts. The remaining large
portion of the county has no distinguishing feature, nor
is it, on the whole, remarkable for superior fertility; yet
from different situations in it are obtained beautiful and
extensive views over the richer adjoining districts, more
especially about Belton, and the cliff towns to the south
of Lincoln, from the Cliff road to the north of that city,
and in the vicinities of Gainsborough, Knaith, and Burton.
The whole line of the Humber is included in
the view from the higher Wolds, the surface of which is
very uneven, in the neighbourhood of Louth, and more
especially at Tathwell: there are also some very beautiful
scenes in the neighbourhood of Thurgandy and Stainton.
The climate has been greatly improved in salubrity
by the drainage of the vast tracts of marshes; as a
proof of which, upon the completion of the great Witham
drainage, agues have been much less prevalent than
before. The ague was formerly a common malady upon
the margins of the Trent and Humber, but it disappeared
in a great measure at the time of the draining of
Wallin fen in Yorkshire. Along the whole coast the
land is greatly exposed to the keen north-east winds;
and in the months of March, April, and May, equally
ungenial easterly winds are severely felt in the neighbourhood
of Barton; this latter district also, at the time
of the equinoxes, experiences extremely violent westerly
winds, in consequence of which, the trunks of the trees
are usually inclined towards the sea. The soils, besides
other varieties in different situations and under various
circumstances, include clay, sand, loam, chalk, and peat,
which are all found in extensive districts; nearly all the
variations extend in length from north to south. The
heath, a high tract of land now enclosed, and from
which the streams flow both eastward towards the ocean,
and westward towards, the Trent, has a soil of a good
sandy loam, intermixed with a very small portion of clay;
it is excellent turnip and barley land, and rests on a bed
of limestone, its usual depth being from nine to eighteen
inches. This high ground declines suddenly towards the
west,- the soil, on the declivity and for some distance into
the lower tract, continuing much the same j at the first
line of villages, which extends in the same direction as
the soil, from north to south, it is a rich loam, affording
good pasturage. Beyond this is a tract of strong clay,
which is harsh, stubborn, and unprofitable, very difficult
to convert into good permanent grass; and next to this
lies the immediate line of the Trent, which, like the
borders of most rivers that pass through a flat country,
has a soil of very rich warp loam of various descriptions.
Returning to the heath hill, eastward of it, the country
slopes gradually into a vale of soils too various for description,
but not generally good. Half-way across this,
towards the Wolds, is a narrow tract of good rising
ground, extending in an irregular line, on which the
villages are built; the whole district between the heath
and the Wolds forming first the narrow ridge on which
the villages are built, then the Ancholme flat, beyond
which comes the ridge of pasture land; and lastly a
bad flat moor, which is immediately succeeded by the
Wolds. Between Gainsborough and Newark in Nottinghamshire,
for the distance of twenty-five miles along
the western border of this county, the whole is sand, with a
flat marshy tract next the river Trent, which, however,
is sometimes extremely narrow: eastward of this sand,
which is good and in tillage, is a tract of cold wet
clay, that becomes rich and makes excellent bean land,
in the vicinity of Claypole, though much of it is subject
to floods. A considerable tract about Grimsthorpe,
Tromestead, Edenham, Swayfield, Bytham, Witham, &c.,
consists of sand, creech, and clay, the first being of
a whitish, or light red, colour; the creech loam, the best
arable land of the three 5 and the clay for the most
part wet and poor. At Scott-Willoughby, Osbournby,
and the neighbourhood of Falkingham, are three soils,
viz., strong clay on a bottom resembling mortar, a wet
creech loam, and rich hazel loam; from Belton to Normanton
extends a remarkably rich tract of reddishcoloured
land. The soil of the Isle of Axholme, lying to
the west of the Trent, is among the finest in England,
and comprises black sandy loams, warp land, brown
sands, and rich soapy and tenacious loam; the understratum,
in many places, is an imperfect plaster stone.
In that corner of the county included between the
Trent and the Humber are sand, cold clay, and various
loams; the substratum of the whole being limestone
at different depths. Barton Field, a tract containing
six thousand acres, is a good dry turnip loam, upon
chalk at various depths, fit for all ordinary crops. The
soil of the great tract of the Wolds is a sandy loam on
a chalk understratum, the quality of which greatly
varies, from a poor sand to rich, deep, and fertile loams,
that produce excellent crops of barley and wheat, and
some even of beans. Between the eastern boundary of
the Wolds and the sea is a tract divided into the Marsh
and the Middle Marsh j the former consisting of a rich
salt marsh, the soil of which is a fertile adhesive marine
clay, and a very rich loam, wliile the latter is a line of
strong land, the soil much resembling that of the marsh
called "the Clays," extending from Beelsby towards
Grimsby, and consisting of a strong brown loam much
superior to real clay. To the west of Caistor is a barren
moor, for some miles in extent, which consists of a
peaty sand on a poor reddish sand-stone. The soil of
the wapentake of Skirbeck is very various: in that part
near Boston, and some others, the surface is a rich loam
resting upon a bed of clay, underneath which is foun.d
generally, at a certain level, the silt, which is a porous
sea-sand, deposited many ages ago, and, when a surface
soil, becomes hardened by the rain, but is uot fertile;
near the sea is a thin surface of this resting upon clay;
and near the fens a very stiff blue clay, the grass upon
which is almost always mown: the richest pastures are
upon a black mould or mass of vegetable particles. A
large tract of sandy soil prevails from Spilsby to Revesby,
and wholly, or partly, includes a great number of parishes.
The fen lands consist of a heavy deep sandy
loam, which makes very rich breeding pastures for
sheep, but not feeding pastures; some also consist of a
rich, soapy, blue clay; and others of black peat, which
is formed of decayed vegetable substances, and, when
drained, are considered to be the best for the purposes of
tillage. The whole of the south-eastern portion of the
county, extending along the coast from near Wisbeach,
northward, to Frieston beyond Boston, is of peat of
great depth and extreme richness; the understratum at
Boston, when reached in boring, was found to consist of
blue marl, the colour of Westmorland slate, and one
hundred and fifty yards deep, with intervals' of only'a
few inches. There is a fen below Bourne and Morton,
which joins the great tract to the Isle of Ely, and to
Boston.
The extreme flatness of the Lincolnshire coast, together
with the slight fall and consequent sluggishness
of the lower part of the course of the rivers, which
terminate in sestuaries at its two extremities, have
occasioned the formation, in remote ages, of a very
large tract of marshes, occupying the whole eastern
side of the present county, and forming upwards of
a third of its superficies. The extent of these fens,
and the practicability of reclaiming some portion of
them from their natural state of unproductiveness and
insalubrity, seem to have attracted the attention of the
Roman possessors of Britain, to whom is attributed the
construction of the large drain called the Car-Dyke,
signifying the fen dike, which extends from the river
Witham, near Lincoln, to the river Welland, on the
southern side of the county, the object and the use of
which have been to receive the waters from the high
grounds, which intersect that part of the county, running
on the western side of the dyke, and so prevent them
from inundating the low grounds immediately contiguous
to it, on the east. The Old Sea Bank, as it is commonly
called, which, though now running parallel with
the shore, at a considerable distance from the sea,
has anciently protected the district of South Holland
from inundation, is also considered to be a Roman
work. Of the tracts thus brought into cultivation,
Deeping fen, on the banks of the Welland, appears to
have received the earliest attention; for, at the beginning
of Edward the Confessor's reign, a road was made
across it, by Egebric, Bishop of Durham; and in the
reign of William the Conqueror, Richard de Rulos, that
monarch's chamberlain, enclosed this part of the fen
country, from the chapel of St. Guthlake (now Market-
Deeping) to the Car-Dyke, and beyond to Cleilake, near
Cranmore, excluding the river Welland by a strong and
extensive bank of earth. As property became subdivided,
greater attention was paid to the improvement
of the soil; and various presentments were made, and
grants obtained, for scouring the rivers, and draining off
the superfluous waters. The great trench, called the
Foss-Dyke, extending about seven miles from the great
marsh near Lincoln, to the river Trent, in the vicinity
of Torksey, was made, or materially altered, by Henry I.,
in 1121, as a general drain for the adjacent level, and
also for the purpose of bringing up vessels from the
Trent to Lincoln. The cleansing of the channel of tfoa
Ancholme, with the like double object, first took place
about the ISth of Edward I., and in succeeding reigns
various statutes were enacted, for the more effectual
drainage of this part of the county. The Isle of Axholme
was formerly one continued fen, owing to the
silt, or sea-sand, washed up the channel of the Trent by
the tides in the Humber, which, obstructing the waters
of the Don and the Idle, forced them back over the circumjacent
lands, so that their central parts, being the
highest, formed a real island, the district still retaining
the name of one, though no longer insular. About,
the reign of Edward I., however, the draining of this
tract appears to have commenced; and subsequently
various commissions were granted for rendering it more
effectual.
In the beginning of the reign of Charles I., that
important work was commenced, which embraced not
only the marshes of Axholme, but all the adjacent
fens, called Dikesmersh and Hatfield Chase, in the
county of York. These belonging chiefly to the crown,
Charles II., under the Great Seal of England, contracted
with Cornelius Vermuyden, Esq., of the city of London,
by articles dated the 24th of May, in the second year of
his reign, that the latter should, at his own charge, drain
the lands specified, in consideration of which, he and
Ms heirs for ever, should hold of the king one-third of
the surrounding grounds; on the completion of the
work, a corporation was to be formed of such persons
as Vermuyden, or his heirs, should nominate, to make
acts and ordinances for their preservation. This great
work was accordingly begun, and proceeded so successfully,
that, at an expense of about £55,825, it was finished,
within five years; the waters, which had usually
overflowed the whole level, having been conveyed into
the river Trent, through Snow sewer and Althorpe river,
by a sluice, which excluded the flow of the tide, and discharged
the drained water at every ebb. It is traditionally
affirmed, that large vessels could formerly sail
up the river Witham, from Boston to Lincoln, which report
seems to be corroborated by the fragments of vessels
that have frequently been found near its channel: at
present, however, this river is navigable only for barges,
audits current is so slow, that it does not clear away
the accumulating mud. The first notice of the inundations
and other inconveniences arising from the obstruction
of its waters, appears in the sixth year of
Edward III., when commissioners were appointed for
surveying it, between Lincoln and Beckiiigham; other
parts of the river were in like manner surveyed in subsequent
reigns, and various regulations made for keeping
its waters within due bounds, and conducting the land
floods speedily to the sea. In the reign of Henry VII.,
however, more effectual measures for the same purpose
were found necessary, the most important of which was
the construction of Boston sluice, to execute which a
Flemish engineer, named Hake, was brought over and
employed; for defraying the expense, a rate was levied
upon the lands lying in the contiguous wapentakes. To
the north-east of the Witham, extending from that river
nearly to Wainfleet, a distance of about twenty miles,
lie large fenny tracts, called Wildmore fen, West fen,
and East fen. Upon a writ of Ad quod damnum, issued
in the 41st of Elizabeth, concerning the draining
of these, it appears, that in East fen five thousand acres
were under water, half of which was then considered
drainable; and that the commons and severalties on
the borders of the same fen contained about three thousand
four hundred acres, the whole of which was surrounded;
and in the sixth of Charles I., at a session of
sewers, held at Boston, it was decreed that the outfall
at Wainfleet haven should be deepened and enlarged, and
all other necessary works done for draining the said
lands: each person receiving benefit was to pay ten
shillings to the undertakers. Down to the latter part of
the last century however, notwithstanding the repeated
exertions made in this branch of agricultural improvement,
the success had scarcely been answerable to the
amount of labour and expense employed; but since then,
other undertakings of the same kind have been carried
on with increased skill and spirit, and with far greater
success. Deeping fen, which extends for nearly the
whole of the eleven miles between Market-Deeping and
Spalding, was drained towards the close of the last century;
it comprises about fifteen thousand acres, twothirds
of which are taxable under commissioners. Alnwick
fen, containing one thousand and ninety-seven
acres; and Holland fen, twenty-two thousand acres,
have also been drained -. the very existence of the latter
tract, as firm land, depends upon, the security of its
banks. In that long reach of fen extending from Lincoln
to Tattershall a vast improvement has been made,
by embanking and draining, the first  act for which
purpose was obtained in 1787, or 1788, and between
twenty and thirty square miles of country have been endosed
and cultivated in consequence.
In the northern part of the county, the important
drainage of the Ancholme Level was completed, in
the latter part of the last century, by carrying the
drain in a straight line through the low lands, of
which those taxed to the drainage amount to seventeen
thousand one hundred and ninety-seven acres,
and are now chiefly pasture and meadow. The
drainage of the Isle of Axholme, too, is one of very
great importance. Since the year 1630, ten thousand
acres have been secured from the sea, by means of embankment,
in the parish of Long Sutton; and a new
tract has been taken in, according to act of parliament,
at Winteringham. At Humberston is a large piece of
land fenced in from the sea by means of a low bank;
and great tracts of valuable land yet remain to be secured
from the sea, about North Somercoates, and other
places on that part of the coast: the distance between
high water mark and low water mark is there as much as
two miles. In the reparation of the banks that secure
the marsh land from the sea, the towns next the coast,
called Frontage towns, defray the expense; but in case
of such a breach as renders a new bank necessary, the
expense is assessed, according to the highest tides ever
known, by level, over all the country below such level of
high water, under the direction of the commissioners of
sewers; the distance from the sea subject to taxation
for drainage will, therefore, vary according to the level
of the country. An act of parliament was obtained, in
1792, for embanking and draining certain salt marshes
and low lands in Spalding, Moulton, Whaplode, Holbeach,
and Gedney, containing in all five thousand three hundred
and thirty-nine acres. South Holland, grossly estimated
at one hundred thousand acres, has long been
an object of embankment; of the banks that have beeri
formed upon this tract, at various periods, the Old Seadyke
bank is unquestionably Roman; the New Seadyke
bank, which is two miles nearer to the sea than
the old one, still remains, but it is unknown when, or
by whom, it was made. In taking the levels for making
the new drain, it was found that the surface, on advancing
to the Roman bank from the land, suddenly rose six
feet, and continued on that level towards the sea, such
being the depth of warp, or silt, deposited by the sea,
since that bank had been made. In 1792, the act Was
obtained for the formation of the new embankment, a
work of profit to the public, as well as to the proprietors.
In 1794, an act was passed for improving the
outfall of the river Welland, and for better draining the
low grounds, and discharging their waters into the sea,
which object was to be effected by cutting an immense
canal, from the reservoir below Spalding, capable of conducting
the whole waters of the river Welland into the
Witham, below Boston. About the year 1799, it was
estimated that the total amount of land in Lincolnshire,
which, at various periods, had been made available
by drainage, was not less than one hundred and fifty
thousand acres. Since that calculation was made, acts
of parliament, for the better drainage of East, West, and
Wildmore fens, amounting to upwards of thirty thou-
sand acres, were passed in the 41st and 43rd years of
the reign of George III.: the expenses amounted to
about £400,000, and the value of the land recovered to
about £2,000,000; the drainage was complete, and the
land under cultivation, so early as the year 1808. In
the fens of Lincolnshire, the soak is often spoken of;
by which expression is meant the subterraneous water
found at various depths, usually at only a very few feet
below the surface: this rises and sinks according to
the season, and is supposed, from its saline quality, to
be the sea-water filtered through a stratum of silt,
which, more especially in Holland fen, seems to be very
general, and at no great depth from the surface. It has
also been remarked of this district, that, although retaining
its ancient name of fen, it is now, on the whole,
more in danger of suffering from want of water in summer,
than from a superabundance of it in winter; for,
in case of drought, the great drains become very shallow,
and the water retained in the earth passes off, in a
great measure, through the filtering stratum of silt, so
that it is necessary to dig deep, in that season, to obtain
water for the cattle.
On the arable lands no particular rotation of crops is
observed, as they vary still more than the soils; in the
fens, however, they always commence the course with
paring and burning. Rape is very extensively cultivated
in almost every part of the county, more especially in the
fens and low lands; its chief application is for feeding
sheep. The woad grown is upon the deep rich loams,
and frequently in the saline maritime levels; grass land,
upon the soil of which this plant is found to flourish best,
is very commonly broken up for its cultivation: the crop
is regularly gathered twice, and in favourable seasons
a third is wholly or partially collected; this third cjrop is
of an inferior kind; when properly prepared, it is shipped
chiefly into Yorkshire and Lancashire. The artificial
grasses mostly cultivated are, red clover and white, trefoil,
lucerne and sainfoin, with various kinds of hay-seeds.
Many onions are cultivated in the Isle of Axholme. The
rich grazing lands of Lincolnshire are its distinguishing
feature, in an agricultural point of view: they are to
be found on a rich loamy clay, sometimes very stiff, but
of uncommon fertility. The quantity is extremely great,
the finest being in the vicinities of Boston, Algarkirk,
Fosdyke, Sutterton, Kirton, Frampton, Wyberton, and
Skirbeck; and these during the summer will feed a
bullock and a half, besides four sheep, per acre, and two
sheep per acre during the winter. The marsh pastures,
which lie between the Wolds and the sea, are for the
most part of excellent quality; the best are used for
feeding, those of inferior quality for breeding and keeping
stock in common order. Hanworth, to the north of
Lincoln, is principally grass land; and there is a fine
tract of second-rate pasture land, lying in the vale, between
the heath and the Wolds. The marsh grass lands,
on the Trent produce from a ton to a ton and a half of
hay per acre; on the hilly Wolds are some valuable pastures.
About two-thirds of the wapentake of Skirbeck
is under grass, part of which is mown; the best pasture
is chiefly stocked with shearling wethers, bought in the
spring, which, having yielded two fleeces, are sold the
next year; and with cattle, during the summer, which are
sold in the autumn; the second best is grazed by young
beasts and sheep, and a few breeding sheep; the worst is
chiefly mown. The marshes near the sea-shore, from
Wrangle northward to Sutton, are separated from the
higher part of the county by the fens, and the parishes
situated on the clays. From Tealby, on the edge of the
Wolds, to Wragby, is a constant succession of grass
lands, with hardly any tillage; and from Semperingham
down to Deeping is a line of rich grazing land, two or
three miles broad. One of the most powerful of manures
known in this county is the fish called Stickleback;
it is extremely abundant in the east and west
fens, and also comes from the sea into Boston haven.
Lime, and white, blue, and red marl are also used; and
to these may be added a singular practice which subsists
on the Wolds, of manuring by spreading dry straw
on the laiid and then burning it there. The water of
the tides that run up the Trent, Ouse, Don, and other
rivers that fall into the Humber, is muddy to an excess;
and the peculiar custom of warping, which is very
extensively followed, is by letting in the tide over the
level lands on their banks, at high water, to deposit
the muddy particles it contains, provincially called warp,
and then permitting the water to run off again as the
tide falls, for which purpose canals are made, joining
the river, and having sluices at their mouths, which may
be opened or shut at pleasure. Around the fields to be
warped, to prevent the water flowing over contiguous
lands, are raised banks of from three or four, to six or
seven feet high, according to circumstances: one-eighth
of an inch, on an average, is deposited by each tide that
is let in upon the land.
The live stock of this county are very numerous:
the two principal breeds of cattle are the Lincolnshire
short-horned, and the Leicestershire long-horned
the former of which seems to be most generally preferred.
In the vicinity of Falkingham is found a dun-
coloured breed, said to have been originally brought
from the Isle of Alderney: there are also a few cattle
of the several breeds of Devon, Teeswater, Holderness,
Durham, and Alderney, and crosses between the longhorned
and the short-horned breeds, between that of
Devonshire and that of Lincolnshire, and between the
Lincoln and the long-horned Craven. There are no
dairies except for private use and the supply of the
neighbouring markets with butter, the chief objects of
the agriculturists being breeding and feeding. About
Normanby, Burton, &c., great numbers of cattle are
bred: but few are fed here, as they are generally sold
to the graziers in the marshes. Oxen are very frequently
worked, more especially on the Wolds, and in the tract of
country extending from Barton, by Grimsby, to Louth;
The two principal breeds of sheep are, the native Lincoln
and the Leicester, the latter of which has become very
general: it is computed that there are usually not less
than two million four hundred thousand sheep in the
county. The hogs common in Holland fen, about Boston,
and its vicinity, are of inferior mongrel sorts, whichj
however, have been latterly improved. Many thousand
acres are occupied as rabbit-warrens in different parts
of the county, the rabbits being of the silver and com-,
mon grey kinds, with some black and some white ones;
Great quantities of geese are still kept in the low fenny
tracts, though not to the same extent as formerly:
A considerable number of horses is bred in this county:
in Holland fen the number of breeding mares is very
great; and about Normanby, Burton, &c., are bred,
from mares universally black, many saddle and coach
horses, some of which are sold at Howden in Yorkshire,
and the rest at the celebrated Horncastle fair.
Numerous cart-horses are bred in the marshes about
Saltfleet. On the Wolds some of the finest blood
horses in the kingdom are bred, and greater attention
is paid to them here even than in Yorkshire, or Durham.
A society, called the Lincolnshire Agricultural
Society, was established at Falkingham, in 1796, being
the earliest of the kind in the county.
Very little of any kind of manufacture is carried
on: about Normanby and Burton, however, a good deal
of flax is spun and woven into linen; the woollen
manufacture is conducted on a very small scale at
Boston. At the port of Gainsborough, besides the shipbuilding,
which is an important branch of business, a
considerable quantity of rope and coarse hemp sacking
is made. In Holland fen the women spin flax, and
about Falkingham they spin flax and hemp.
The principal rivers are the Trent, the Welland,
the Witham, and the Ancholme. The Trent first
touches Lincolnshire at North Clifford, from which
place to Stockwith, a few miles below Gainsborough,
it forms its western boundary, separating it from the
county of Nottingham; at this latter point it begins to
form the eastern border of the Isle of Axholme, which
it separates from the rest of the county, until it has
received the waters of the Don, opposite Aldborougb,
soon after which it joins with the Ouse to form the
great asstuary of the Humber. It is navigable as high as
Gainsborough for merchant vessels of considerable burden,
and for barges in all the rest of its course on the
border of this county. The Welland first reaches the
county near Stamford; forming its southern boundary,
and separating it from Northamptonshire, it flows by that
town to Market-Deeping, where it enters the fens, and
between that place and Crowland wholly enters Lincolnshire,
and divides into two branches, one of which proceeds
south by east to Wisbeach, apparently in the natural
course of the stream, while the other continues its
sluggish course through an artificial channel to Spalding,
below which town, having been enlarged by the waters,
of the Glen, it empties itself into Foss-dyke wash, to the
south of Boston. The Witham, the whole course of
which river is in this county, rises near South Witham,
about ten miles north of Stamford, whence it proceeds
due north to Grantham, below which, having run some
distance in a westerly direction, it again assumes a
northerly course, through a wide sandy valley, to Lincoln:
hence it flows in an easterly direction to Grubhill,
where it turns to the south-east, and passing near
Tattershall, proceeds to Boston, below which town it
falls into the ocean at Boston Deeps; from Boston upwards
towards Lincoln much of the present channel of
this river is artificial, having been made for the purpose
of improving the navigation, and better draining the
contiguous fens. The Ancholme is a small river, which
rising in the Wolds near Market-Rasen, takes a northerly
course, by Glandford-Bridge, to the Humber, from
which it has been rendered navigable as high as Bishop-
Bridge. The large bay, or aestuary, called the Wash, into
which the rivers passing through the immense tracts of
fen land in the south-eastern portion of the county are
disembogued, is for the most part extremely shallow,
and full of shifting sands.
An artificial navigation has been cut along the
course of the Witham, from Boston to Lincoln, whence
it is continued by the Foss-dyke canal to the Trent:
the act for the formation of this navigation was obtained
in 1788, in which year also it was completed,
to the great benefit of Lincoln, and of the whole
country through which it passes. A canal from the
river Witham, at Sleaford, to Boston, was completed in
1796. The Grantham canal extends from that town,
through the north-easternmost part of Leicestershire,
to the Trent, near Holm-Pierrepoint: it was completed
in 1796, is thirty-three miles in length, and cost
£ 100,000: it passes near some fine beds of plaster;
and lime, in large quantities, is brought along it from
Crich in Derbyshire. The Ancholme cut, which drains
the Ancholme level, is navigable from Bishop-Bridge to
the Humber, at Ferraby sluice. A navigable canal has
also been formed, extending from Horncastle to the
river Witham, at Dog-dyke, near Tattershall, and another
from Louth to the sea, at Tetney.
The great road from London to Edinburgh, after
crossing the south-western corner of this county, for
the space of about two miles, at Stamford, re-enters it
about ten miles beyond that town, and, passing through
Grantham, finally quits it for Nottinghamshire at Shire
Bridge, about four miles south of Newark. The great
road from London to Hull enters at Market-Deeping,
and runs the whole length of the county, passing through
Bourne, Falkingham, Sleaford, Lincoln, and Glandford-
Bridge, to Barton, where is the great ferry' across the
Humber to Hull: the road from London to Grimsby
branches off from the Hull and Lincoln road just within
the northern verge of Northamptonshire, arid, entering
this county at St. James', Deeping, passes through
Spalding, Boston, Spilsby, and Louth.
The Roman stations within the county were, Ad
Abum, supposed to have been at Wiuterton; Aquis, at
Aukborough; Bannovallium, at Horncastle, or Ludford;
Causennce, at Ancaster, or Great Ponton; Crococolana,
at Brough; Lindum, at Lincoln; and Fainona, at
Wainfleet. The principal ancient roads are as follows;
the British Ermin-street, afterwards adopted by the
Romans, first enters the county to the west of Stamford;
then running by Great Casterton, in Rutlandshire,
it proceeds by Ancaster and Lincoln to near the banks
of the Humber. A branch of this road diverges from
it about five miles north of Lincoln, and crosses the
Trent, near Littleborough, proceeding in a north-westerly
direction to Doncaster. Another branch left the Erminstreet,
about six miles north of Stamford, and ran by
Stainby, Denton, and Bottesford, towards Ad Pontem,
in its way to Southwell and Bawtry. The Fosse-way,
beginning on the coast, not far from Ludborough, is
visible from Ludford to Lincoln, and forward to Brough,
and beyond that place in its course towards Newark.
The British road, called the Salt-way, branched from
the Ermin-street, near Ponton, and ran by Denton into
Leicestershire. There are remains of other British
trackways, particularly of one running from Horncastle
towards Caistor and the Humber. The Car-Dyke,
already mentioned, and believed to have been of Roman
construction, extends from the river Welland, on the
southern side of the county, to the river Witham, near
Lincoln, being sixty feet wide, with a broad flat bank
on each side. It has also been mentioned that the
innermost of the great embankments of South Holland,
called the Old Sea Bank, was also constructed by the
Romans. Remains of Roman buildings, and various
miscellaneous relics of that people, have been found on
the sites of the different stations above-mentioned.
Some of minor importance have also been discovered
at Scampton, Torksey, Stow, Gainsborough, Caistor,
Well, Gedney Hill, Whaplode, Pinchbeck, Sleaford, Little
Ponton, and Denton.
The ecclesiastical edifices in the division of Lindsey,
excepting the cathedral of Lincoln, are inferior to those
in the other parts of the county; they are of various
periods, from the reign of Edward III., down to that of
Henry VII. The division of Kesteven abounds with
churches, both magnificent in plan and rich in decoration;
the greater portion of them having lofty central
spires. Those of Sleaford, Leasingham, Heckington,
Threckingham, Horbling, and Grantham, with St.
Mary's, St. John's, and All Saints', in Stamford, are particularly
deserving of notice, as excellent specimens of
ancient English architecture; and, from their height,
form prominent objects from various distant points in
the county. The date of the churches in this division,
excepting those of Semperingham, and St. Leonard
(Stamford), is in few instances earlier than the thirteenth
century; and scarcely any of them having been
rebuilt, few will be found of a more recent date than
the reign of Henry VII. It is principally, however,
in the division of Holland that Lincolnshire exhibits
superior excellence in ecclesiastical architecture: among
the numerous fine edifices of this kind which adorn this
naturally unpicturesque district, may be specified the
churches of Boston, Gosberton, Pinchbeck, Holbeach,
Gedney, Spalding, Long Sutton, and Crowland; of
these, the five first afford excellent specimens of the
architecture of the fourteenth century. This division
has few churches of a later date than the reign of Edward
III.: the stone of which they are built is invariably
found to be of an excellent and durable quality:
some of them are cruciform; many have spires like
those in Kesteven; and the rest have an embattled
tower at the west end. At the period when most of
them were erected, the parts of Holland being one extensive
fen, it was necessary to make artificial foundations,-
which was done so skilfully that few of the
churches have swerved from their perpendicular. Specimens
of Anglo-Saxon, or early Norman, architecture
are to be found in parts of the churches of Stow, Clee,
Crowle, Washingborough, Fiskerton, St. Peter at Gowts
(Lincoln), and a few others. The religious houses were
particularly numerous, amounting to no fewer than one
hundred and eight, in which number are included five
Alien priories, five houses of the Knights Templars, five
colleges, and fourteen hospitals: the principal remains
of monastic buildings are those of the abbeys of Bardney,
Barlings, Crowland, and Swineshead, of Semperingham
priory, and of Thornton college. The most remarkable
ancient castellated buildings which remain,
either wholly or in part, are the castles of Tattershall,
Torksey, Lincoln, and Falkinghamj there are similar
remains at Horncastle, Caistor, Somerton, Stamford,
Scrivelsby, Bolingbroke, Pinchbeck, and Pilham; to
which may be added Moor, Kyme, and Hussey towers;
of the castles of Bourne and Sleaford only the earthworks
now exist. There are ancient encampments near
Brocklesby, Hibalston, Broughton, Roxby, Winterton
Cliffs, Aukborough, Yarborough, South Ormsby,Burwell,
Stamford, Gainsborough, Winteringham, Humington,
Ingoldsby, Castle-Carlton, Burgh, Brough, and Barrow.
In the low districts of this county the water is almost
every where brackish. In the parishes of Tetney, Fulstow,
and that vicinity, are some blow-wells, being flowing
pits of clear water, about thirty feet in depth, the
discharge of which is very powerful; there is one of
these wells at Bourne, the water of which turns a mill
;at'a very short distance from its source; at Louth is
a 'spring which always runs in summer but never in
winter. The division of Lindsey gives the title of earl
to the family of Bertie; and the division of Holland
that of baron to the family of Fox.