439 
profpe&t of the contiguous country. A 
fter!i common, covered with heath and 
furze, intervenes for about four miles, 
out of which turf is dug for fuel. After 
paffing over the common, the profpeét 
expands; the afpeét, however, of the 
country, compared with the charming 
Jand{capes I had lately furveyed, did not 
affe€t me with any particular pleafure. 
Rifing grounds appear at a diftance, as 
does Lincoln cathedral, which is built 
in~a lofty fituation; road pretty good, 
made with fandy gravel. 
Approaching Lincoln, I was not a little 
furprifed to obferve the great number 
of {mall ruinous churches of that city, 
encompaffed by trees and orchards. 
There are now fourteen churches in 
Lincoln, and formerly there were forty- 
five. The city, at prefent, principally 
confifts of one long fireet, ocsupied by 
about sooo inhabitants. The appear- 
ance of ruins is vifible, on fome fides of 
the city, to a confiderable diftance, which 
corroborates the tradition of its having 
been formerly a place of much greater 
extent. LINCOLN is not remarkable for 
its trade or manufactures, having but 
little of either; a circumftance which 
occafions its population to decreafe, rather 
than increafe. The high part of the 
main ftreet is very narrow, and fo fteep 
that carriages afcend and defcend with 
difficulty. The buildings are, in gene- 
ral, pretty good, made with brick, and 
- covered with flat tiles. The cathedral 
isa magnificent Gothic pile; I afcended 
the high fteeple and had an agreeable 
profpect; the city, and every thing-in 
the ftreets, reminded me of a Lilliputian 
{fcene. The rivers, roads, &c. of the ad- 
jacent country, were difplayed before me 
as onamap. Great Tom, the large bell 
well known by that name, hangs in a 
Jeffer ftéeple, which it fufficiently occu- 
pies; a perfon rents the privilege of 
jhowing it to travellers, &c. which he 
dioes at one fhilling each, and earns a 
Jivelihood thereby. A canal comes up 
to this city, which communicates with all 
the. principal ones in the county. In 
zhis neighbourhood, I obferved fome 
tracts of common field. 
May 30, I went from LINCOLN to 
LoutuH, in Lincolnfhire, 27 miles.— 
The furface of this diftri€ét is uneven, 
though not hilly; the foil various, but 
contains, for the moft part, a great pro- 
portion of fandy gravel, in fome parts of 
which clay predominates. Here I ob- 
ferved, particularly towards Louth, a 
5 
Tour of England.—Lincolu, Louth. 
[ June, 
{pecies of foil and ftone quite new to me, 
viz. chalk and flint; the chalk, which 
has the appearance of burnt lime, lies 
about fix or eight inches below the fur- 
face; it feparates eafily, and 1s “always 
mixed, more or lefs, with flinty gravel. 
I did not obferve any fuperior excellence 
in this kind of foil; on the ‘contrary, 
where the bed of chalk lies near the fur- 
face, it is rather an enemy than friend to 
vegetation. It is often dug out to make 
roads with, for want of better materials, 
but being foft, is foon cut through. It 
is alfo burned for lime; its powers, how- 
ever, upon land, are confiderably inferior 
to our Cumberland lime. I was rather 
furprifed at the praétice of burning it 
with furze, inftead of coals; this is 
chiefly owing to the dearnefs of the lat- 
ter article, and becaufe the foft nature 
of the ftone admits of being fufficiently 
burned with the former. 
This is, generally, an open country, 
with a few fcattered pieces of wood- 
land; in fome parts it appears bare and 
expofed; the farms are large, and popu- 
lation is fmall; a great proportion of 
land is laid out in pafture for fheep, 
which are of the large fort. I obferved 
- three feats near the road, the principal 
of which belongs to Henwedge, 
efq.; farm-houfes and cottages mofily 
thatched, the latter generally have mud 
or clay walls, without gables. ‘Tolerable 
crops of every kind of grain are raifed in 
this difiri&t. I paffed a long firing of 
ftout horfes under the direétion of two 
men leifurely dragging a clumfy plough 
through the foil; the appearance of this 
unneceffary colleétion at firft excited my 
aftonifhment. The road is not a direc 
one, and I experienced fome difficulty in 
finding it: in the winter it muft be ex- 
tremely bad, as feveral parts of it are en- 
tirely unformed, unlefs by the tracks 
of cart-wheels. 
LoutH isa {mall market town, con- 
taining about 4000 inhabitants; it has 
no manufacture cf confequence; the 
buildings are of brick and tile, a few ex- 
cepted, which are of clay, and the fireets 
are generally fpacious and clean. The 
{pire of the church is curioufly conftruét- 
ed in an oétagonal form, and is ninety- 
fix yards high. A few years ago, a 
failor undertook to climb to the top of it 
on the ouifide, fupporting himfelf by 
means of {mall ftones regularly projeéting 
out of the angles; one of the {tones giv- 
ing way, he was near falling, but fortun- 

ately recovered himfelf, After dancing 
round 
