Book 1. 



AGRICULTURE OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 



1155 



7800 NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 495,000 acres of uneven or hilly surface, in great part a sandy soil, anil 

 more a corn than a pasture county. It contains the Forest of Sherwood, the only one belonging to the 

 Crown north of the Trent. This forest was once celebrated as being the scene of the adventures of the 

 famous Robin Hood Very little wood, however, now remains. The report is one of the most defective 

 and least interesting which the board have published, and is, besides, above a fourth of a century old. 

 iLowe's Report, 1798. Marshal's Review, 1812. Smith's Geological Map, IS 



Ellin. Gaz. 1827.) 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 

 Climate, remarkably dry. . 

 Soil, chietiv sandy, great part clayey, and the remainder a 



lime and coal district. 

 Minerals. Stone, lime, coal, gypsum, and marl. 



2. Property. 

 Estates from lii.OOM. a year, downwards. 



3. Buildings. 

 Few countries contain more gentlemen's seats in proportion 



to its size. Alston Grove, a noble residence; the gardens 

 formerly in the ancient style, but lately modernised. Clum- 

 ber Park contains four thousand acres. Newstead Abbey, 

 celebrated as having been the residence of the Byron family ; 

 but now sold and divided. Thoresby park, thirteen miles 

 round. Welbeck Abbey, the scene of the horticultural im- 

 provements of Mr. Speedily. Woolaston Hall, a singular 

 mansion of the date of Queen Eli/aleth, by Thorpe, the same 

 architect who built Holland House, near London. Farm- 

 houses " not very spacious," of brick and tile, sometimes 



7801 LINCOLNSHIRE. 1,848,320 acres of uplands, vale and water formed lands. The soil in most 

 places rich, and chiefly devoted to grazing ; yielding on an average more beef and mutton per acre than 

 any county in the island. Examples of embanking, draining, and warping, are numerous along the sea- 

 coast and the Humber. {Stone's Report, 1799. Arthur Voting's, 1794. 



thatched ; now and then of stud and mud. Good farmeries, 

 and centrical on the new enclosures. 



4. Occupation. 

 Few firms exceed 500/. per annum : generally from 100/. 



to '20/. Few leases. 



5. Implements. 



Rotheram plough general ; waggons have wide frames move- 

 able for harvest use. 



6. Various. 



Enclosing going on rapidly ; in arable culture, rotations good, 

 but n.. remarkable practice mentioned ; various hop-grounds 

 and orchards, many woods and plantations ; extensive woods 

 raised from seed on the Welbeck and Clumber estates; the 

 ground is tirst cleared of surface incumbrances, then cropped 

 vi ith coin two years, and turnips one year ; the fourth year 

 acorns, at the rate of four or six bushels, ash keys four, haw- 

 thorn berries one, and Spanish chestnuts one bushel, are sown 

 broadcast on an acre, and ploughed in. The stocking and 

 lace trade, cotton and silk manufacture, pottery, and various 

 others carried on at Nottingham and other towns. 



Marshal's Review, 1812) 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 

 Climate, formerly unhealthy in the low parts, now the ague 



much less frequent N.E. winds prevail in spring ; much of 

 the rain in summer from the northern and eastern quarters. 



Surface, a great extent of low land, once marsh, and fen 

 along the coast, now rich land in consequence of the embank- 

 ments and drainage, which have been going on for nearly two 

 centuries. Adjoining the lowlands are the wolds or calcareous 

 hills, and the mainland part of the country is in general flat 

 and uninteresting. Some parts of the county, however, as 

 about Dalbv, Spilsby, Stainton, &c. are varied and wooded, 

 and command line views of the low country. 



Soil. There are large districts of clay, sand, loam, chalk, 

 peat, and considerable extent of mixed soils. 



2. Property. 



Very much divided in the isle of Axholm ; inhabitants col- 

 lected' in hamlets and villages, and almost every one is pro- 

 prietor and farmer of from one to forty acres, as m France ; 

 and, as in that countrv, every farm cultivated by the hands ot 

 the family, and the family poor as to money, but happy as to 

 their mode of existence. " The poorer farmers and other fa- 

 milies work like negroes, and do not live halt so well as the 

 inhabitants of a poor-house ; but all is made amends by pos- 

 sessin" land." Lord Carrington, Sir John Sheffield, and 



. Goulton, Esq. great proprietors in the county ; largest estate 



n 8, 7, &c. and six ot 



( where each man lives 



5. Implements. 



Plough with wheel coulter used in the fen tract as in other 

 fens ; the wheel coulter being considered as better adapted for 

 ploughing among stubble and couch-grass than the sword one. 

 Plans given of a cover of canvass and boards for ricks, and a 

 boat with a net fence round for conveying sheep ; at best, we 

 fear, but an expensive incumbrance on agriculture. 



G. Arable Land. 



Near Market Deeping the common fields in alternate ridges 

 of pasture and arable, the latter gaihered high ; three to five 

 horses used in both plough and cart teams ; wood extensively 

 cultivated by Cartwright, at Brotherstott farm, near Boston. 

 Parsley sown along with clover to prevent the rot. 



7. Various. 

 Rich grazing land the glory ot Lincolnshire. 



In some 



'_'"', i ii « l/. a 'year, "others of 14, 11, 10 

 2000/. a year. Lacely, a pretty village 



on his own." , _ , , . 



In the management of a great estate, " I remarked a circum- 

 stance at Reevesby, the use of which I experienced in a multi- 

 tude of instances. The liberality of Sir Joseph Banks opened 

 every document for mv inspection ; and admiring the singular 

 facility with which he laid his hand on papers, whatever the 

 subject might be, I could not but remark the method that 

 proved of such sovereign efficacy lo prevent contusion. His 

 office, of two rooms, is contained in the space ot thirty feet by 

 sixteen ; there is a brick partition between, with an iron plated 

 door, so that the room in which a fire is always burning might 

 be burnt down without affecting the inner one ; where he has 

 156 drawers of the size of an ordinary conveyance, the inside 

 being thirteen inches wide, by ten broad, and five and a halt 

 deep, all numbered. Tin re is a catalogue of names and sub- 

 jects, and a list of every paper in everv drawer; so that whether 

 the enquiry concerned a man, or a drainage, or an enclosure, 

 or a farm, or a wood, the request was scarcely named before a 

 mass of information was in a moment before me. fixed tables 

 are before the windows (to the south), on which are spread 

 maps, plans, &c. commodiouslv, and those labelled are ar- 

 ranged against the wall. The first room contains desks, ta- 

 bles, and book-case, with measures, levels, &c and a wooden 

 case, which when open forms a book -case, and joining in the 

 centre' by hinges, when closed, forms a package ready for the 

 carrier's 'waggon, containing forty folio paper-cases m the form 

 of books ; a repository of such papers as are wanted equally in 

 town and country. Such an apartment, and such an appa- 

 ratus, must be of incomparable use in the management of any 

 great estate, or, indeed, of any considerable TlUsmess. At 

 Wintringham, Lord Catrington has a man employed, whose 

 only business is to be constantly walking over every part . t the 

 estate in succession, in order to see if the fences ai e in order : 

 if a post or rail is wanting, and the quick exposed, he gives 

 notice to the farmer, and attends again to see it the detect is 

 remedied." (Young's Report.) 



3. Buildings. . 

 Several good new farm-houses ; old cottages of stud and 



mud, thatched ; but new ones of brick, and tiled. 



4. Occupation. . . 



Farms on' the Wolds from 300 to 1.500 acres, on the rich 

 lands 400 and 500 acres, downwards ; many very small. 1 he 

 late Sir Joseph Banks declined throwing his farms together, 

 because he would not distress the occupiers, though he lost 

 considerably in rental by it. Farmers met with at ordinaries, 

 liberal, industrious, active, enlightened, free from all .oohsh 

 and expensive show, or pretence to emulate the gentry ; they 

 live comfortably and hospitably, as good farmers ought to 

 live; and in my opinion, are remarkably void of those rooted 

 prejudices which sometimes abound among this race of men. 

 " I met with manv who had mounted their nags, and quitted 

 their homes, purposely to examine other parts ot the kingdom ; 

 and had done it with enlarged views, and to the bene 

 their own cultivation." Leases rare. 



places wilicarrj six sheep per acre, or four bullocks to ten acres, 

 tine of the most extensive graziers was T. i ydell, c-sq., M.l . 

 at Boston. Very few orchards; some considerable young 

 'plantations on the Wolds, but not much old timber. 



8. Improvements. . 



Most extensive drainages and embankments. Deeping Fen 

 drained, which extmds eleven miles to Spalding. 10,000 acres 

 taxable, for maintaining the drains and banks, which are ma- 

 naged by a commission. Through all the fens what is called 

 thlsoak exists; viz. water, supposed to be that of the sea, rising 

 and falling in a subtratum of silt: hence low-lying land al- 

 ways charged with moisture to a certain height. Sticklebacks 

 sometime? sold at a half-penny a bushel, and used as manure. 

 In the Wolds dry straw spread on the land and burned. 



Embankments. Since 1630, 10,000 acres have been saved 

 from the sea in the parish of Long Sutton, and 7000 acres more 

 might now be taken in, by altering the channel of the river. 

 Holland Fen is a country that absolutely exists but by the seen- 

 rity of its banks; they are under commissioners, and very well 



a ".V , ,"lV,nnberstone Ihere is a large piece taken in from the sea 

 by a low bank, which is well sloped to the sea, but j» steep , to 

 the land; so that if the sea topped it, the bank must break. 

 Great acts of valuable land remain yet to be taken m from the 

 sea about North Somercots, and other places on that coast; 

 tat "to not find that any experiments fiave been made in Sir 

 Hvde Page's method of making hedges or gorse facines, and 

 Savins the sand to accumulate of itself into a bank. Mention- 

 , - ns ', Neve, he informed me, that he had observed at least 

 -."hundred times that if a gorse bush, or an y ot her im.jei imei 

 was by accident met by the sea, it was sure to form a nilkx It ot 

 sVnd " The extent of sand dry at low water on this coast is 

 very I great? the difference between high and low water mark 



"ffSSSSSS "iks which secure the marsh land 

 from the sea, the frontage towns are at the expense; but in 

 Se of such a breach as renders a new; bank necessary, the 



hav bcAe ffiiKink which had been *£**£££& 



bank, called the Old Sea dyke bank, which is unquestionably a 

 Roman work. . ...«*_ <;r t v, i nn L calltd the 



£& Cheney" If. Z^g£A*2S3X 



coming to the Roman bank sudd. > rose jx «j J 1 ^ 



SSiKftS & S^ing-tV. ,;.,":. ir» - d 



4 E 2 



