Farming of Lincolnshire. 



313 



breaches were occasioned. In the town of Boston whole streets 

 were inundated ; and the whole extent of country from Wainfleet 

 to Spalding shared in the disaster. Great numbers of sheep and 

 cattle were drowned, corn and hay stacks swept away, and pro- 

 perty to an immense amount destroyed. Subsequently to this 

 the banks were strengthened and heightened, and made adequate 

 to protect the country from tides of extraordinary swell ; and 

 though local inroads have occasionally happened since that time, 

 there is scarcely a doubt but that in their present state they wall 

 generally be found sufficient for any emergency. The late 

 extraordinary tides have thoroughly and satisfactorily tested 

 them ; the partial floodings of late having either been in the 

 towns, or occasioned by the tides preventing the egress of drain- 

 water ; — in no case by a breach of the banks. 



The different districts and systems of drainage in the great 

 South-eastern alluvial tract having now passed under review, the 

 next division of the county coming under notice is the breadth of 

 low land called the North Marshes^ stretching from Wainfleet to 

 the Humber. The area of these marshes is large; but as the 

 mode of drainage contains few peculiarities, a hasty sketch wdll 

 suffice for the present purpose. The principal part of the waters 

 from the great watershed of the Wolds and from the Clays re- 

 clining on their slope, descend upon the marshes, being the 

 floods and springs from about 250,000 acres,— nearly three times 

 the area of the marshes themselves. The waters have shaped 

 out channels for themselves, being in some places embanked and 

 guided by human art, and form the main drains for the low lands 

 under the names of ''doughs," '• eaus," " fleets," and *'grifts." 

 These issue through gouts in the sea-banks, which are closed at 

 high tide. In some cases two or more of these straggling water- 

 courses have been drawn to one outfall, in order to preserve, by 

 means of their combined volume and velocity, a clearer and 

 deeper channel through the wide flats and sands on this low 

 shore. At Saltfleet, four of these drains, including one of the 

 largest in this district, are discharged in one stream ; and at 

 Trusthorpe, Anderby, and Hogsthorpe, the same arrangement 

 is observable. The drainage is a natural one, and usually con- 

 sidered as very excellent for a marsh district, having been greatly 

 improved in almost every locality within the last ten or twenty 

 years. Exceptions, however,, must be made to this statement : 

 the lands between Grimsby and Barton are not w^ell-drained, the 

 drainage of Barrow and the neighbouring parishes being very 

 defective. As is the case in many marsh districts, this disadvan- 

 tage arises from a neglect of the minor drains ; and it is believed 

 that in a country where each farmer is depending upon the effi- 

 cient state of his neighbour's ditches for the drainage of his land. 



