LINCOLNSHIRE. 



iiy drivea the whole to water, then brings them back to 

 their habitation, helping thofe that live in the upper flories 

 to their nells, without ever mifplacing a fingle bird." The 

 geefe are ufually plucked five times in the year : at Lady- 

 day for quills and feathers, and again at Midfummer, Lam- 

 mas, Michaelmas, and Martinmas. Goflings are not fpared, 

 as early plucking tends to increafe the fucceeding feathers. 

 Mr. Young Hates, that " the feathers of a dead goofe are 

 worth fixpence, three giving a pound ; but plucking ahve 

 does not yield more than three-pence a headier <3Hn«)n. Some 

 wing them only once evei-y quarter, taking ten featliers from 

 each goofe, which fell at five (hillings a thoufand. Plucked 

 gecfe pay, in feathers, one (hilling a head in Wildmore Fen.'' 

 The common mode of plucking live geefe is confidercd a 

 barbarous cuftom ; but it has, perhaps, prevailed ever fince 

 feather beds came into general ufe. The mere plucking is 

 faid to hurt the bird but httle, as the owners are careful not 

 to pull before the feathers are ripe, that is, juft ready to fall : 

 if forced from the llcin fooner they are of inferior value. 



The general improvements that have been effefted in this 

 county within the lad twenty years, and that are now gra- 

 dually making, liave co-operated to alter the general ap- 

 pearance, the agriculture, climate, &c. fo materially, that 

 the furface has afl'umed a new afpecl, the value of land is 

 greatly increafed, the means of focial and commercial com- 

 munication have been facilitated, and the comforts of do- 

 meftic life greatly promoted. Yet there is ftill fcope for 

 material improvements : for the roads, in many parts of the 

 county, are in a very bad (late ; and the traveller has not 

 advantages adequate to the tolls levied on him. In the vi- 

 cinity of Bofton, Spalding, and Louth, the commilTioners 

 have commenced a plan for forming firm and fubftantial 

 roads. This is moflly done by laying Ihingles, brought 

 from the Norfolk coaft, in the centre of the road, and 

 mixing them with the filt of the place. 



The wolds extend from Spillby, in a Horth-wefterly di- 

 reftion, for about 40 miles to Barton, near the Humber. 

 They are, on an average, nearly eight miles in breadth, of 

 fand and fandy loam, upon flinty loam, with a fubllratum 

 of chalk. Beneath this line lies an extenfive traft of land 

 at the foot of the wolds, called the marlh, which is fecured 

 from the encroachments of the fea by embankments, and is 

 agriculturally divided into north and fouth marflics by a dif- 

 ference in the foil. 



The fens of this county form one of its mod prominent 

 features. Tliey confift of lands which, at fome diftant 

 period, have been inundated by the fea, and by human art 

 have been recovered from it. Li the fummer they exhibit 

 immenfe trafts, chiefly of grazing land, interfered by deep 

 ditches, called droves, which ferve both for fences and 

 drains. Thefe are accompanied generally by parallel banks, 

 upon which the roads pafs, and are intended to keep the 

 waters, in flood time, from overflowing the adjacent lands. 

 They not only communicate with each other, but alfo with 

 larger canals, called dykes and drains, which, in fome in- 

 ftances, are navigable for boats and barges. At the lower 

 end of thefe are fluices, guarded by gates, termed gowts. 

 During the fummer, numerous flocks and herds are feen 

 grazing over this monotonous fcene, and many of the paf- 

 tures afford a luxuriant herbage : but in the vvmter, or in 

 the autumn, if it fhould prove wet, the afpect is changed ; 

 the cattle quickly difappear, and the eye mull pafs over 

 thoufands of acres of water or ice, before it can find an 

 objeA on which to reft. Several caufes combine to produce 

 this drowning of the lands. Many of the fens lie below the 

 level of the fea ; fome are lower than the beds of the rivers ; 

 and all are beneath the high-water mark of their refpeftive 

 Vol. XXL 



drains. The fubdratum of the fens is flit, or fes-fand, 

 which i« a well-known conductor of water. Through this, 

 when the drains are full, the fea-water filters ; and, unable 

 to pafs by the drains, rifes on the fnrface, and is known by 

 the name of foak. Dugdale was of opinion, that there was 

 a time when thefe parts were not inundated. In his hiftory 

 of embanking, he obfcrves, that the ifle of Axholrae, 

 though for many ages it hath been a fenny traft, was not 

 anciently fo, but was originally a luoarly country, not an- 

 noyed with thefe inundations, as is evident from the great 

 numbers of trees which had been found in the moor. The 

 fame author, fpeaking of the great level, gives his opinion 

 that it was formerly firm and dry land, neittier annoyed with 

 ftagnation of frefli waters, nor inuni^.ations from the fea; 

 and this he fuppofes was the cafe of the fens in Lincolnfliirc, 

 and the adjoining counties : for it is an ellablilhed faft, that 

 large timber trees will not thrive in watery lands, and 

 fuch have been found lying in the earth abundantly in this 

 country. 



The principal rivers which either rife in the county, pafs 

 through it, or are connefted with it, are the Trent, the 

 Ancholme, the Witham, the Welland, and the Glen. 

 The Trent, though not properly a river of this county, 

 forms the boundary of it on the north-weftern fide, from ths 

 village of North Clifford to that of Stockworth ; whence it 

 conliitutes the eallern boundary of the ifle of Axholme: it 

 thence flows to Aldborough, and having received the Dun 

 and the Oufe, mingles its waters with the Humber. From 

 Gainfborough, where it is crofTed by a jiandfome bridge, it 

 is navigable for coals, corn, and various articles of com- 

 merce. The Ancholme is a fmall river, rifing in the wolds, 

 near Market-Raifin, whence it is navigable to the Humber, 

 into which it falls fome miles below the junction of the 

 Trent. The Welland has its fource near SibertoflF, in 

 Northampton rtiire; and being increafed by numerous ftreams, 

 partes Market-Deeping ; where, enternig the fens, it leas'es 

 a portion of its waters and fludge, which it had accumulated 

 in its previous paflage through the rich lands of Northamp- 

 tonfliire, Leiceflerfliire, and Rutlandfliire. It afterward.^ 

 meets the contributor}' Glen, and empties itfelf into F0I3- 

 dyke-Wafli, eaft of Bofton. The Witham, which is co.-n- 

 pletely a river of this county, derives its origin near Soulh- 

 Witham ; and thence flows almoft due north, through the 

 park of Eafton, and to Great Ponton. It proceeds through 

 a wide valley to Lincoln ; continuing its courle to Bofton, 

 it unites its waters with the fea at a place called Bofton- 

 Deeps. Much of the prefcnt bed of tlie river, from Bofton 

 upwards, is a new cut, made for the purpofe of widening 

 the channel, rendering it more commodious for navigation, 

 and better adapted to receive and carry off the water of the 

 contiguous fens. Thefe rivers, with thofe of the Grant, 

 Oufe, and Nene, in tke adjacent counties, from the obftruc- 

 tions they meet m delivering their waters to the ocean, form 

 one great caufe of inundating fo large a portion of valuable 

 land. In viewing the various inlets of the fea, it is fur- 

 prifing to obferve the immenfe quantity of fand and fludge 

 which is continually depofiting on the fliore. This is owing 

 to the nature of the tides, which, from the form of the 

 channel, flow with more violence than they ebb. Hence 

 the mouths of the rivers are choaked up, and the defcending 

 waters are thrown back on the low-lands. The great bay, 

 or eftuary, into which the diff"erent rivers, parting through 

 the fens, are emptied, is very (hallow, and full of ihifting 

 fands and filt. 



That this diftrift was thus flooded at a very remote period, 

 is evid'nt from the plans of enibankitig and draining which 

 the Romans adopted, in order to countcrad the mifchievoui 



M efferts 



