738 LINCOL 
ought to operate Sufficiently.to make the practice univer- 
fal through the kingdom ; but there are alfo others that 
Ihould fpeak powerfully to the feelings even of the molt 
felfifh : wherever this fyft'em is found, pcor’s-rates are 
low; upon an average of the county, they do not amount 
to one-third of what is paid in Suffolk ; and another ob¬ 
ject yet more important, is the attachment which men 
mull; inevitably feel to their country, when they partake 
thus in the property of it.” Thefe ideas fuggeft a fyltem 
jrn'uch preferable to that well-meant, but not perhaps well- 
confidered, plan of making the earth groan under im» 
menfe poor-houfes, called Houfes of Indufiry. The poor 
will neither be improved nor be made grateful by being 
crowded together, like invalids or culprits, in large build¬ 
ings, by whatever name they may be called. Let them ap¬ 
pear as members of the community, and not as difleyered 
parts. Young's Viczo of the Agriculture of the County of Lincoln. 
• The high wind which prevailed on Saturday, Novem¬ 
ber 10, 1S10, may be regarded as the mod .awful vifitation 
with which this county has ever been afflicted. The ca¬ 
lamity produced by the gale was twofold; at fea and on 
Ihore its effects were fo extenfively fatal, that, in the eltimate 
of injury fuffered, it is impoflible to fay whether the adven¬ 
turous mariner or the peaceful hufbandman had the greater 
weight of affliction to fuftain. The centre of dillrefs feems 
to have been the town of Bofton. A tremendous gale 
from the eaft was experienced there throughout Saturday; 
it fet direftly into the mouth of the haven ; and the con- 
fequence was, that the evening tide came in with that ir- 
reiiftible force which an accumulated impetus of twelve 
hours’ continuance mull neceffarily give it. What is 
called th teagre of the tide, although expedted to be ltronger 
than ufual, aftonrfbed thofe who faw it come up the chan- 
31 el, and was the harbinger of dreadful mifchief. By fe- 
-ven o’clock the tide had rifen higher by four inches than 
on any preceding occafion upon record, and had filled 
the houfes in many ftreets to a confiderable depth with 
water. At this height it continued for about an hour, 
without perceptible change. The caufe of this was, that 
the tide had overtopped its barriers, the banks of the 
chanhel were inefficient to hold it, and, being invaded by 
the overfalling furge on the land fide, yielded to the ac¬ 
tion of the flood. Frifkney and Leverton new fea-banks 
were broken in many places; Frieflon new bank entirely 
fvvept away, and the old bank in that parifh demolifhed 
in various parts; as alfo were Bofton eaft old bank, and the 
banks at Shirbeck Quarter, Wyberton, Frampton, and 
Fofdyke. By thefe feveral breaches of banks the tide got 
vent in a new and lefs ftraitened channel, and the whole 
furrounding country was deluged by the fea. Had the 
banks been fufliciently high to have confined the tide in 
its accuftotned courfe, the town of Bofton, it is probable, 
would have been utterly ruined, for the water would have 
rifen fome feet higher in it, and have wafned down and 
deftroyed every thing. The diftrefs which this fierce and 
unlooked-for invafion of the neighbouring lands occafion- 
ed, is beyond all defcription. The flood fwept cattle and 
every thing before it in its progrefs to find a level; and 
the bluffing of the water through the apertures of the 
banks, as thofe barriers fucceflively gave way, added a 
atoife like thunder to the horrors of the night. The in¬ 
habitants of many farm-houfes were environed by the 
water before they knew of danger; and efcape was impof- 
fible, had the formation of the country permitted any ex¬ 
emption from the inundation ; owing, however, to its ten- 
variable fiatnefs, there was not, in feveral parifh.es, a foot 
of ground unflooded. The confirmation and affliclion 
produced by this event can f’carcely be imagined, and 
much lefs adequately defcribed; the whole country about 
Bofton, to the north and fouth of that town, experienced 
this overwhelming calamity; the lands on the eaftern fide 
were faved, in confequence of thofe capacious drains,. 
Hobhole, and Maud Fofter, (heretofore condemned as 
ufelefs,) having received the weight of waters. The num¬ 
ber of fneep drowned in the diftfeffed tract of country 
N S H I R E. 
between Wainfleet and Sutterton (to which latter town 
the inundation extended fouthwardly) is computed at 
15,000; befides horfes and other cattle. Implements of 
every defcription were fwept in a general wreck ; flacks 
of corn and hay to a great amount were carried like litter 
over the country ; and the hopes of the hufbandman blaft- 
ed, not merely for the prefent, but, on account of the 
ponds, wells, and ditches, being, without exception, filled 
with fait water, for a confiderable time in the future. 
At Fofdyke the tide came upon the lands fo fuddenly, that 
a fervant maid of Mr. Birkett, of that place, was fur- 
rounded by the fea, whilft milking the cows, in a pafture 
not far from the houfe, and perifhed before affiltance could 
be given. Another perfon of that parish, an elderly wo¬ 
man, was in the courfe of the night waffled out of an up¬ 
per window of her cottage, and drowned. At Fiflitoft, a 
Mr. Jeflop loft his life in endeavouring to refcue fome of 
his father's (heep. His death was not lefs extraordinary 
than that of the other two perfons above-mentioned. 
About feven o’clock in the evening, his father, looking 
out into the ftorm, miftook the approaching deluge from 
the fea for a fall of fnow on the paftures., and exclaimed 
to his fon, that care fflould be taken of the ffleep. The 
latter immediately went forth ; and, before lie had reco 
vered from his altonifhment at the coming waters, fell a 
facrifice to them, by getting out of his depth. Plomer’s 
hotel, at Friefton fflore, was for a long time expected to be 
completely wafhed away : the great bow-window was forced 
from the building by the water, and carried to the diftance 
of feveral fields. Small tenements, and barns and ffleds, 
fhared a common deftructions in feveral pariffles. Not lefs 
than 20,000 acres of the richelt land in England were 
flooded. The water ran over the London road in feveral 
places within feven miles of Bofton; it was in fome fitua- 
tions a foot deep on the road. The performance of di¬ 
vine fervice, on the Sunday, in the parifh-church of Bof¬ 
ton, was prevented, by the tide on the preceding evening 
having completely flooded the extenfive area appropriated 
to public worfhip. The water from the river, entering 
chiefly at the weftern door, and partly at the fouthern, 
covered the whole floor of the church, as-far as the fteps 
into the chancel; and, in the northern aifle, to a conii- 
derable depth : the height of the water againft the weftern 
end of the fteeple, was two feet eight inches and a half. 
That beautiful fabric, the fteeple however, fuftained 
no injury; of the church, part of the florid parapet 
on the external roof, between the body of the building 
and the chancel, was blown down ; but the injury is not 
extenfive. In October 1793, the tide at Bofton flowed 
remarkably high ; on the 30th of September, 1807, it flowed 
feven inches higher than at that time; and at the time 
we are fpeaking of it attained a height exceeding by four 
inches and a half the tide of 1807. A barge drifted over 
the bank near the Scalp, and appeared in the midft of the 
paftures, with the flteep grazing round her. Three vef- 
fels of burden were driven up the Wafhway by the tide, 
nearly as far as Fofdyke Inn. A large hay-ftack, on the 
farm of Mr. Day, of Friefton, (near the fliore-houfes,) was 
moved entire by the tide, from one end of a pafture to 
the other, (a diftance of three or four hundred yards,) 
and there flood eredl and perfedt! At Wifbech the gale 
was feverely felt; the tide rofe to an unufual height, and 
flowed with fuch rapidity, that feveral craft loaded with 
grain broke from their moorings, and funk. The banks 
in feveral places were overflowed, and the lands near the 
town inundated. Several of the inhabitants fuftained a 
ferious lofs; as the warehoufes and other buildings, near 
the river, were filled with fait water. There were nearly 
three hundred trees blown down by the fide of the road 
between Leicefler and Stamford; and feveral hundred 
trees in Burgheley, Grimfthorpe, Exton, and Walcot, 
parks. The lofl'es at fea were truly dreadful all along the 
coafl; the number of veflels wrecked between the Humber 
and Bofton Deeps only, being no l^fs than forty. Monthly 
Mag, for Dec. iSio. 
LINCOLN VIL'LE. 
