Page:The Victoria History of the County of Lincoln Volume 2.pdf/435



INCOLNSHIRE, with an area of 1,696,832 acres, is the next county in size to Yorkshire, and perhaps the most important and richest agricultural county in England. Bounded on the north by the Humber, which divides it from the county of broad acres; on the west partly by the Trent (a small portion, the Isle of Axholme, lies on the west of the river), beyond which are the counties of Nottingham and Leicester; the southern boundaries are formed by the counties of Rutland, Northampton, Cambridge, and Norfolk, while the North Sea eats upon its eastern shores. The population, except for a slight mixture of Danish blood, is purely English, and the occupation almost wholly agriculture and the manufacture of agricultural machinery with a world-wide reputation. Lincolnshire was first colonized by the Iberians, and afterwards by the Welsh, who were eventually driven out by a Belgian tribe. When the Romans landed the chief tribe was that of the Coritani, a branch of the Iceni, and these were put down by the Romans in the year 70. The good work the Romans did lives after them, for they raised banks to keep out the incursions of the sea, and cut dykes (such as Fossdyke, Carrdyke, &c.), and made roads of which the Ermine Street, Fosse Way, and Salt Way are such lasting examples. They also built many towns. The county is watered by the Witham, the Ancholme, the Trent, the Welland, and other feeders, and half of it is wolds and uplands, the other half being plain, almost level with spring-tide height. In the west are some hills lying along the side of the Trent, but generally the land is low. The shores also are low and sandy, and there is not a great deal of shipping and trading, as might be expected. But instead of this the county is noted for its grazing and rich pasture lands, and for the high state of cultivation of the arable land.

Much of the land has been extensively drained, and some parts of it laid under warp, both with the best possible results. There were at one time vast tracts of moorland and rabbit warren, but these have all been broken up, the Wolds brought under tillage, and the country devoted to the growing of corn and turnips. Much of the soil is diluvial and alluvial.

There are numerous fairs in all parts of the county, the principal being Lincoln Fair for horses, cattle, and sheep, the last whole week in April; Horncastle, for horses, beginning on the second Monday in August and lasting a week; Partney on 1 and 25 August; and Caistor on the Friday and Saturday before Palm Sunday, and the first Friday and Saturday after 11 October.

The soil varies considerably in different parts of the county, and with it the crops, though generally speaking Lincolnshire was largely a corn and turnip growing county. Now there are enormous quantities of potatoes grown on the Trent side and in South Lincolnshire, supplying the bulk of the English-grown potatoes for the London market. In the Isle of Axholme the