98 LINCOLN HEATH AND WOLD 



were told that thus they would travel through the 

 tropics in better condition than similar sheep which 

 had been shorn. 



On Lincoln Heath, as it was light land compara- 

 tively recently enclosed, we were back in the region 

 of large farms, and, with the plentiful building stone, 

 it was noteworthy how the farm buildings at once 

 became large and well built, the first good ones, 

 indeed, that we had seen. The cottages by the 

 roadside were also roomy and well built. Labour, 

 we were told, was good and plentiful. Rents varied 

 with the quality of the land. The very light soils 

 near Sleaford did not command more than los. an 

 acre ; farther north the average land was worth about 

 a pound an acre ; and towards Lincoln, where the 

 soil becomes deeper and more loamy, from 253. to 305. 

 was paid. At these prices the farms are all let, and 

 there was considerable demand for any that might 

 come into the market. 



Remarkable as is the contrast between the Fenland 

 and the Heath, these are by no means the only forms 

 of farming that the great agricultural county of 

 Lincoln has to show. The long ridge of the Heath 

 runs the whole length of the county, with the Ermine 

 Street upon it striking an almost exact north and 

 south line, but it is breached at one point where the 

 Witham makes its way through to the sea, forming 

 a gap on the edge of which is set the city of Lincoln. 



From Lincoln we struck eastward into a com- 

 paratively low-lying and poorly-farmed country, with 

 gravel on the heights and a good deal of clay ex- 

 posed in the hollows, where the glacial drifts have 

 been cut down to the underlying oolitic clays, and 

 then we began to rise a little until we were once 

 more confronted by the escarpment of the chalk. 



