Book 1. 



AGRICULTURE OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 



1155 



generally from 100/. 



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

 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 Kobin 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. 

 (Lowe's Report, 1798. Marshal's Review, 1812. Smith's Geological Map, 1821. Edm. Gaz. ISUl.) 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. thatched ; nov/ and then of stud and mud. Good farmeries, 



" '^ and centrical on the new enclosures. 



4. Occnpatiun. 

 Few farms exceed 300/. per 



to 'Ml. Few leases. 



5. hnplements. 



Rotheram plough general ; waggons 1 ave wide frames move- 

 able for liarvest uae. 



(). Various. 



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

 but nu remarkable practice mentioned ; various hop-gromidi 

 and orchards, many woods and plantations ; extensive woods 

 raised from seed on the Welbeck and Clumber estates ; the 

 groimd is first cleared of surface incumbrances, then cropped 

 with corn 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 sl:k manufacture, pottery, and various 

 others carried on at Nottingham and other towns. 



Clitnate, remarkably dry. 



Hoil, chiefly sandy, great part clayey, and the remainder a 

 lime and coal district. 

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



2. Property. 



Estates from 12,000/. 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. Thoresliy peirk, thirteen miles 

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

 provements of Mr. Sjieechly. Woolaston Hall, a singular 

 mansion of the date of Queen Elizabetli, by 'J'horpe, the same 

 architect who built Holland House, near London. Farm- 

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



7801. LINCOLNSHIRE. 1,843,320 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 Young's, 1794. Marshal's Review, 1812.) 



1. Geographical State and Circu7n stances. 

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



much less firequent. N.E. winds prevail in sprmg ; 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 coEUit, now rich land in consequence of the embank- 

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

 centuries. Adjoining the lowlands are the w olds or calcareous 

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

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

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

 and command Hne 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 in France ; 

 and, as in that country, every farm cultivated by the hands of 

 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 half so well as the 

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

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

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

 25,000/. a year, others of 14, 11, 10, 8, 7, &c. and six of 

 2000/. a year. Lacely, a pretty irillage, " where each man lives 

 on his own." 



In the managetnent of a great ettate, " 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 my inspection ; and admiring the singular 

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

 subject might be, 1 could not but remark the method that 

 proved of such sovereign efficacy to prevent confusion. His 

 office, of two rooms, is contained in the space of 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 affeciing the inner one ; where he has 

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

 being thurteen inches wide, by ten broad, and five and a half 

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

 jects, and a list of every paper in eveiy 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. commodiously, 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 oiien 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 in the form 

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

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

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

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

 Wintringham, Lord Carrington has a man employed, whase 

 only business is to be constantly walking over every part of the 

 estate in succession, in order to see if the fences are in order : 

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

 notice to the fanner, and attends again to see if the defect 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 AVolds from 300 to loOO acres, on the rich 

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

 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 wiih at ordinaries, 

 liberal, industrious, active, enlightened, free from all foolish 

 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, purj>osely to examine other parts of the kingdom ; 

 and had done it with enlarged 



their own cultivation." 



lews, and to the benefit of 

 Leases rare. 



4 E 



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 ana couch-grass than the sword one. 

 Flans 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. 



b". Arable Land. 



Near Market Deeping the common fields in alternate ridges 

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

 horses used in both plough and cart te,.ms ; wood extensively 

 cultivated by Cartwright, at Brotherstoft farm, near Boston. 

 Parsley sown along with clover to prevent the rot. 



7. Various. 



" Rich grazing land the glory of Lincolnshire." In some 

 places w i ' 1 carry six sheep per acre, or four bullocks to ten acres. 

 One of the most extensive graziers was T. Fydell, Esq., M.F. 

 at Boston. Very few orchards; some considerable young 

 plantations on the Wolds, but not much old tunber. 



8. Improv('7nents. 



Most extensive drainages and embankments. Deeping Fen 

 drained, which extends 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 

 the soak exists ; viz. water, supposea 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 

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

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



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

 from the sea in the parish of Long Sutton, and 7000 acres i^iore 

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

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

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

 attended to. . ^ i. 



At Humberstone there is a large piece taken m from the sea 

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

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

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

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

 but " I do not find that any experiments have been made in Sir 

 Hyde Page's method of making hedges or gorse facmes, and 

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

 ing this to Neve, he informed me, that he had observed at least 

 a hundred times, that if a f,'orse bush, or any other impediment, 

 was by accident met by the sea, it was sure to form a hdlock of 

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

 very great ; Uie difference between high and low water mark 

 extending even to two miles. . , , 



In the reparation of the banks which secure tlie marsh land 

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

 case of such a breach as renders a new bank necess;iry, 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 drainage will, thereiore, vary 



according to the level of the country. . , . ,, 



South Holland, grossly estimated at 100,000 acres, withm the 

 Old Si-a-dske bank, has long been an object of embankment. 

 Ravenbank, the origin of which is quite unknown, appears to 

 have been the thirdliank which had been formal for securmg 

 a small part of this tract from the sea, leading from Coubit to 

 Tidd St! Mary's. About six miles nearer to the sea is another 

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



*^ A v "ry'curious circumstance is, that a fifth bank, calkd the 

 New S.a-dvke bank, two mi'es nearer than the Roman one, re- 

 mains, but" it is utterly unknown when or by whom it was 

 made. The new bank mentioned above takes m about two 

 mUes more in breadth. In staking the levels for making the 

 new drain, it was found that the surface of the country, on 

 coming to the Roman bank, suddenly rose six teet, being six 

 f et higher on the sea-side than on the land-side, and tlien con- 

 tinues on that higher level, l>eing the depth of warp, or si.t, 

 deposite<l by the sea since since that bank was made. 



The first navigable canal that was made in Englmid is, in 

 all probabilitv, that whichwas made from Lincoln to 1 orksev : 

 ft is Evidently a part of the Cardike,an immense Roman work, 

 which served to prevent the living waters from running down 

 u).on the fens, aiid, skirUng the whole of them, fro.n l*eterbo- 



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